La Fabrique des Princes

by No Game Without Stakes

2024
Twine

Go to the game's main page

Review

Ready, Set, Debate!, March 11, 2024
Related reviews: French, Concours FI

La Fabrique des Princes is a philosophical satirical story made in Twine, inspired by Machiavelli’s The Prince. Here, you play a Prince on its last of Prince-in-training. But before you can set your behind on a thrown and rule the lands, you must prove you are worthy enough of the title, by winning a debate. Unless, you choose another path…

Though you could march right down the corridor and be done with the debate, the game nudges you to get ready for the fight, with the right costume and tools in your arsenal, which you can buy with coins, which you can earn by testing your knowledge of The Prince. (It felt good to get all the answers right, not going to lie…) But there are also other actions you can take, like listening to some tales, or exploring the surroundings of the building.

The debate is essentially a one-punch fight, a fairly arduous one, where chance matters quite a bit. I wasn’t sure whether you were actually supposed to win the fight (I kept reloading my save, and trying again without success), but there is. You need to have juuuuust the right tool and be incredibly lucky. Though, having found the other ending, I’ve been wondering if you were meant to win the fight, after all. As, instead of following the path predestined to you as a Prince, you choose your own, one where your name may not be remembered.

Aside from the passages with the timed text (which weren’t as fast as they maybe should have), it was a pretty interesting experience!

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment