Ambition: A Minuet in Power

A disppointment that lacks bug fixes and a proper journal to keep track of various facts and stats, leading to confusion and missed opportunities. Should have been fixed by now, but alas.

the most entertaining visual novel I've ever read its more like Long Live the Queen but you don't die every 5 minutes You choose how you spend your days and which factions to support Crown, Church, Military, Bourgeoisie and Revolutionaries I unfortuntely must admit my bad decision making led me to the Guillotine A cruel fate for a humble Gossip Merchant

Why can't I date the maid?

Really fun to play. How to know if you need to play it? Ask yourself - do you want to: Be click-baited by your fiance to move to Paris just to be left fending for yourself because he is fighting for THE CAUSE? Question your sexuality? Sell others private information so you can buy a dress to attend their party to gain more information? Question other's sexuality? Cause the downfall of France? Own a house and move to Rome? Gift wine and give uneducated advice to further the downfall of France? The only answer is YES

Ambition: A Minuet in Power is a visual novel set in revolutionary France. You play as Yvette Decaux, a young woman from the country who has just moved to Paris to live with her fiancé. When she arrives, she finds that her fiancé has disappeared and she has been thrust into a world of political intrigue and scheming. The choices you make will determine Yvette's survival and the outcome of the revolution. The gameplay consists mostly of navigating conversations at various events. You'll attend parties to try to collect gossip, and between parties you'll explore Paris, sell collected gossip, and try to keep your credibility high and your peril low. You'll also use your influence and relationships to change the course of events in the revolution. There are 5 main factions in the game, each with a romanceable character associated with them. Your relationships with these characters, use of gossip, and decisions at critical moments can change the influence and affiliations of these factions and the overall outcome of the revolution. The game isn't difficult per se, but earning enough money to pay your servants and keep your wardrobe up to date while managing your social calendar can be challenging. Be prepared to not get to everything in one playthrough. However, the parties get pretty repetitive even by the end of one playthrough, as many of the conversations are just flavor text and follow the same format over and over. Everything you do is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, although what you see happen and how it affects the game is determined by the balance of power in the game at that moment. The characters, events, and fashions are often at least partially based on real history, although the game takes plenty of creative liberties. In my playthroughs, it seemed to take more concerted effort on my part to get the revolution to win than to get the crown to take back power. There are a number of different major and minor subplots to follow across different stages of the game. Some of these are timed or can be failed if you don't get the right information, and it took me a couple of tries to see some of them play out successfully. Armand's subplot was one of the more intricate ones and probably my favorite. I felt pretty indifferent to the romances. The characters all had somewhat interesting personalities and I didn't dislike any of them, but they felt somewhat uneven: not all of them had the same amount of content, and some were more difficult to encounter or make progress with. The relationships always have romantic overtones, even if you try to reject them or choose less romance-leaning options. If you don't want to romance a character in a particular playthrough, you're best off avoiding interacting with them at all. Starting in the second stage of the game, they'll invite you on rendezvous, only some of which you need to attend to progress their story. Attending a bunch of unnecessary ones just fills up your schedule and makes you more tired, but declining them lowers your relationship. The game has a couple of bugs here and there with the events. I had one event get stuck, where it continued to show up on my map as a selectable event, but it just skipped the day when I tried to click on it a second time. In one playthrough, I got invited to a ton of parties for a particular faction and went through all the possible conversations, so my last couple of parties with them were just one conversation repeated multiple times. There are also some events that seem to be able to show up out of order. They'll contain one of the major characters of the game even if you haven't actually met them yet, and then you'll get the event where you meet the character later on. Overall, I enjoyed the game. The gameplay was unique, and I enjoyed the style and the historical references. The side characters and subplots were fun to explore, although the romances didn't stand out to me. I enjoyed replaying the game to get multiple endings, although repeating certain parts of the gameplay got a little tedious. 7/10

Honestly we need more games with these kinds of elements. The dress up is fun, I like that our actions change history, though I wish I could manage to save Alex.

5 words: Honorade Gazel is a FREAK

Surprisingly full of correct historical tidbits. The multiple endings give it significant replay value for a visual novel style game done in this style.

One of the few games I've 100%ed. Love the historical aspect and being able to pursue 2-3 love interests in a single run. The gameplay mechanics are nice and simple, but you can do 3+ runs and still find new stuff! Only problem I had was the accept invite button for lovers not working half the time starting in chapter 2...which was rough. Overall nice game to spend some time on, but would definitely wait until it's on sale (bought 75% off).

This game is a treasure. I backed it, many years ago and have enjoyed playing it since it released. It's brimming with romantic tension and intrigue that is all too rare in cozy games. It is difficult, but I think that really builds the sense of accomplishment when you get a good ending and manage to escape your fate. 9.5/10