My Lovely Empress

[h1]I really like the idea of this game, but was disappointed with its execution [/h1] [b]My Lovely Empress[/b] is an empire management game, and this is my very first empire management game. [b]My lovely Empress[/b] is part of the [b]My Lovely[/b] series and is the third game. I have played the first one, [b]My Lovely Daughter[/b], but I haven’t played [b]My Lovely Wife[/b]. I didn’t like [b]My Lovely Daughter[/b], in my opinion, but [b]My Lovely Empress[/b] offered a very interesting gameplay idea that I hoped to of liked. [h1]Pros and Cons[/h1] [b]Pros[/b] [list] [*]Multiple endings for you to achieve [*]The 2D art style has improved [/list] [b]Cons[/b] [list] [*]The story lacks depth and character development [*]Gameplay is limited, you can’t go to war with other factions, etc [*]Grinding becomes extremely tedious in the early game and increases from there [/list] [h1]Story[/h1] Thirty years ago, the [b]Great Emperor Khan[/b] was in the middle of the [b]Reunification Wars[/b], and he emerged victorious thanks to the help of these spirits called [b]Yaoguai[/b]. Thanks to all of this, he ruled the largest nation in [b]Ashuwa[/b], the [b]Crimson Empire[/b]. However, victory was cut short because the [b]Yaoguai[/b] betrayed him and murdered him in cold blood. The [b]Yaoguai[/b] disappeared soon after without a trace. [b]Empress Dowager Wang[/b] became the ruler soon after and a single mother to [b]Hong[/b], whom she used for guidance. Years later, [b]Hong[/b] met [b]Xiang[/b] and the two fell in love, and as such, [b]Hong[/b] was in charge of the empire with his mother's help. Although peace would not last as [b]Hong’s[/b] mother soon grew ill and passed away, with his wife [b]Xiang[/b] soon going after. [b]Emperor Hong[/b] became depressed as he had no idea how to run the kingdom without his mother or wife. Until [b]Grand Duke Chen[/b] came up with an idea, why not use the [b]Yaoguai[/b] to help run the kingdom and to revive his wife, [b]Empress Xiang[/b]? Because if evil spirits ended a king once, why not do it all over again with the son of said king? surely nothing will go wrong. The story for [b]My Lovely Empress[/b] starts very strong, but loses its touch very quickly, and the story just dies down. The major issue with it is the fact that, since this is an empire management sim, you would probably expect the story to revolve around your kingdom and other factions. And this is true to a degree, but the thing is, you can’t do things like go to war with other factions or anything. Rather, your relationship with the other factions is equivalent to how well you treat your people (this is tied to gameplay somewhat, which I will explain later). None of the characters stood out to me, except for [b]Chen’s[/b] grunting noises when speaking, that’s all I remember, and [b]Maia[/b]. [b]Maia[/b] is probably my favorite [b]Yaoguai[/b] design, and personality-wise, all she wants to do is sleep. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3526688516 [h1]Gameplay[/h1] [b]My Lovely Empress[/b] is, at its core, an empire management sim. You will be maintaining trust with your people, [b]Yaoguai[/b], and other factions. You have four types of people that you need to maintain trust with: [b]commoners, traders, nobles[/b], and your [b]soldiers[/b]. Certain factions will favor you more if you pay attention to certain people, and your relationships with their faction leader can improve. At the same time, you will be presented with a series of problems that you have to deal with, and you are given a few options. Depending on what you choose, that will increase the trust of those people whom you are trying to help. You can send your [b]Yaoguai[/b] to help out with the people to investigate certain situations, and they will come back to you with results. There are also [b]State of Affairs[/b], these are passive effects that can help or hinder you, they will only last a certain number of cycles. But it can affect certain groups of people’s trust, population, or even the tribute they owe you. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3526689019 If your trust level is good for a specific group of people, their trust level will go down a lot less or not go down at all. Seasons are divided up into cycles; this is essentially how much time you have. If problems go unresolved, your people won’t be happy, and if the situation worsens, they will become upset. At the end of each cycle, you are given materials and money; you will need materials, so you can summon [b]Yaoguai[/b] and upgrade them. And with that comes [b]My Lovely Empress[/b]' two biggest flaws, the limited gameplay and the grinding. Gameplay is limited because as I mentioned before, you can’t go to war with other factions, and the game will try to steer you in a certain direction that it wants you to go. While there are at least four endings to the game, the game wants you to have good relations with your people and other factions because if you don’t get those, it’s game over. There are multiple endings for you to achieve, and the ending you get will depend on the choices you make. So while the story isn’t great, you do have the option to choose how it all ends. After a certain point in time, [b]Xiang’s[/b] solo will start to fade, and you will need human essence. You can get this in two ways: by sacrificing your people or your [b]Yaoguai[/b]. When choosing people, your [b]Yaoguai[/b] can summon disasters that will give you essence. [b]Soldiers[/b] will give more essence than any of the other types of people. [b]Yaoguai[/b] will at least give 1000, but they will die permanently if you do this, something that the game won’t tell you. I also find this weird, as in the first game, this was never the case. I recommend you never do this, as there isn’t any way to get them back, and the game is going to force you to sacrifice your people anyway, so that’s fun. You are also going to need a lot of materials to upgrade, said [b]Yaoguai[/b], and that requires you either getting it from your people, or by spending money on the materials at shops. Each faction has a shop with unique materials that your shop can’t get. You will also need them to upgrade your [b]Yaoguai[/b]. When they are upgraded, their stats increase, and so will their energy, which can make them do more tasks. And you need to upgrade them as there are going to be tasks that cost more than 35 energy. The Yaoguai also have other needs as well, and that just means more grinding that has to be done. [h1]Graphics and Performance[/h1] [b]My Lovely Empress[/b] has a very beautiful 2D art style, and it has been improved significantly. This is also the first game to be in 3D some of the models look fine, but they look like they are from a mobile game, and I wonder if they intend to do that. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while playing, and the game ran fine. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3526691224 [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] I had some hopes that [b]My Lovely Empress[/b] would improve on some things that I had with [b]My Lovely Daughter[/b]. However, two issues that I had with the first game are still here, that being a story with an interesting premise and slow and tedious gameplay that requires you to grind. If you can find this game on sale, maybe it would be worth it. But I can’t really find a reason to play this game unless you are really curious. [quote]Looking for more reviews like this one? Then follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45514478-Skyknighter's-Sleepless-Nights/] Skyknighter's Sleepless Nights [/url][/quote]

我想作者本来是买了本爆款小说改的游戏，然后觉得不对啊怎么结局那么美好。 “不如加点石吧！不够的话让石成为大结局吧！” 喂石剧情当大结局真该死啊。一天的好心情都没了。

Def the worst of the trilogy, the alchemy system is gone in place of tedious grinding, there are also no endings in which you marry one of the demons, I don't hate the 3D models but I do consider it a downgrade from the drawn 2D sprites of the previous two games, i still enjoyed myself and it is a good game, but it is lacking alot of the charm from Daughter and Wife.

[h1]3作目にして色々とクオリティがアップ だが、問題点もクオリティアップ[/h1] 一週目クリアして、二週目の途中です。 [h1]過去作との違い[/h1] 舞台がこれまで西洋だったのが今回は東洋 また一周クリアする時間が前作までは5時間程度で終わったが 今作は10時間かかった。 一番大きいのは召喚した者を殺すと同じ者を再召喚出来ない点。 [h1]長所[/h1] ・グラフィックが美しい 初作は単色、二作目はオールカラー。 そして、今作は3D化。 そして、中国っぽい雰囲気がプレイヤーを魅了します。 ・攻略対象が妖怪だけではない 近隣諸国は全部で4つありますが指導者がいずれも美女です。 彼女達ともエンディングがあります。 私は、すず女王様(原文：Queen Suzu)がお気に入りです。 ・全体的にボリュームアップ 冒頭で触れたようにクリアにかかる時間が倍増していると同時に 音楽の数もこれまでは10曲程度でしたが、今作は約25曲と倍以上となっています。 ・妖怪も個性豊か これは初作から継続されていた長所です。 現時点では決め切れていませんが、最初に召喚する九尾の狐の娘が可愛いです。 妖怪の数は全部で10種類とこれまでよりかは抑えめです。 ・妖怪を殺す時の演出が良い 自ら召喚した者を殺すのはシリーズ恒例であり、最も人を選ぶ要素であります。 過去作にもありますが、今回は何とも皮肉を込めた文章もあり 殺した後に何とも言えない気分にさせます。 [h1]短所[/h1] ・日本語未対応 日本人にとって最大の問題点です。 XUnity Auto Translatorで自動翻訳していますが、若干時間がかかるのと 少しわかりにくい日本語になります。 過去二作は、ローカライズの質が高かったので残念と言う他ないです。 ・数値を上げるのに時間がかかる ドラクエに例えるなら、クリアできるレベルが14前後とすれば 近隣諸国の指導者とのエンディングを迎えようとしたら 材料を含めて膨大なお金がかかります。 レベル30～40くらい金稼ぎが要求されます。 そもそも妖怪の覚醒にも指導者とのエンディングほどでないにしても 金がかかりますし、ここまでハードルを高くする必要がないと思います。 何が言いたいかと言うと作業を強いられるという事です。 [h1]総評[/h1] Switchにも移植されていますが、そちらも日本語未対応です。 予算の都合もあるのかも知れませんが、アクションならまだしも アドベンチャーゲームでこれはダメでしょう。 発売からわずか一年半で70%オフになっているから、 売り上げが芳しくなかったかも知れません。 シリーズ未経験者は過去作を遊んでから本作を購入を検討してみては 如何でしょうか。 過去作をプレイ済みで本作も遊んでみたい人には 欠点を許容出来るなら購入をオススメします。

Interesting premise but became repetitive *very* fast, with events repeating themselves within an hour of starting and having no actual long-term impacts or consequences.

My Lovely Empress is a game where you manage your resources/approval as the emperor of the Crimson Empire, all while trying to resurrect your dead wife using a bunch of demon ladies who you can upgrade over the course of the game. [h2] Favourites [/h2] [list] [*][b] The art style [/b] is very distinct and enjoyable to look at. I love the clothing designs and the variety of visuals used in the game, from the scroll-like storytelling segments to the semi-animated cutscenes. [*][b] The premise [/b] is really interesting, and puts an intriguing spin on a fairly common set of game mechanics. [*][b] The endings [/b] are varied and, to me, quite unpredictable. [/list] [h2] What could be better [/h2] [list] [*][b] The music [/b] gets very repetitive very quickly - the game would really benefit from more tracks. The existing soundtrack isn't bad whatsoever, but when listening to it on loop for hours, it does get a bit tedious. [*][b] The game does have a bit of a learning curve. [/b] Some strategy/resource management veterans might find it really easy, but I found it a bit tough to not lock myself in a death spiral (e.g. by not upgrading my Yaoguai early enough). [*][b] It does get a bit overwhelming. [/b] As usual, the game starts out simple and then builds up, but I feel at times there just is not enough time to fully explore all its aspects. I barely had time to awaken my Yaoguai before I was getting to the ending - I mostly missed out on completing their quests (which I assume is tied to their bond with you, which builds up slowly over time), or on marrying any of the other leaders. This is of course solved by the game's multiple endings, which encourage replayability, but it does feel a bit overwhelming at times when you're looking at all the things you have yet to do. [/list] Overall, however, I wholeheartedly recommend this game, even if you want to just play it to the end once and not go full completionist. It was really fun, and with an interesting story to explore, too.

I wish I could come in here and say this is a beautiful evotlution of the My Lovely series. but the fact of the matter is you have to redo the tutorial chapters repeatedly in the Year of Our GabeN 2025 and that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ unacceptable. The only way to avoid this is to maintain a main save that has gotten past them in all three slots (just to be safe) and then put yourself through the game, until something goes wrong or the RNG kneecaps you (which is the other big complaint here -- this game is way too RNG dependent.) Game is otherwise mostly fun, but the RNG dependence is awful and I haven't been able to Awaken a single Yaogaui across any of my runs because of the insane cost, not have I been able to maintain anything like a treasury. So, honestly, for all the changes that add new types of gameplay to the My Lovely series, this is the weakest game they've put out yet.

Third title in “my lovely” series and so far last one. Serious step-up in terms of presentation compared to previous two and i’d say a much more significant change in gameplay unlike it was between “daughter and wife”. So graphically there is very evident change in how game looks - lots of stuff went 3d, style became even more polished and lost practically all roughness and everything has colour now. There are also lots of animations for characters you see on screen, well not like some AAA rpg cutscene movements set, but still a huge step up after first two games. Audio seemed a bit more prominent here too, since setting is ancient China, music fits it and is kinda memorable, though do not expect large variety of tracks. Gameplay is still 50\50 management sim and visual novel. However there are more things to do now in management part, since you’re governing an empire. Got to resolve country issues, search dungeons in foreign lands, deal with foreign countries stuff etc. And ofc as with other two you have option to get “helpers”. There are still multiple endings, however this time to get all of them you’d have to play game quite a bit more then before. Plot starts same as always - you’re losing precious person and as before you happen upon knowledge of how to get them back with dubious means. Story itself though is a bit more structured with more events and relevant npcs. It’s also a bit less predictable with some surprises sprinkled scarcely. Multitude of endings is also here and as always feature good, bad and bad good endings.

朕想拯救天下苍生 别逼朕和隔壁女王联姻 朕和皇后是纯爱！ 我看着妖怪也是颇有姿色 什么？ 你说你是我妈？

My Lovely Empress is a striking and emotionally heavy strategy experience that distinguishes itself by anchoring its management systems to a deeply personal narrative of grief, obsession, and power. Developed by GameChanger Studio in collaboration with Neon Doctrine and published by Neon Doctrine, the game places the player in the role of Emperor Hong, a ruler whose political responsibilities are inseparable from his desperate desire to restore his deceased wife. Rather than presenting empire management as a neutral exercise in optimization, the game frames every decision as part of a moral struggle, asking how far a ruler should go when love and loss eclipse reason. The narrative foundation is unusually strong for a management-focused title. Emperor Hong’s world is already scarred by tragedy, and the loss of Empress Xiang becomes the emotional catalyst for the entire experience. Her fading soul is not just a story element but a constant mechanical pressure that drives the player’s actions. Time passes in seasonal cycles, and with each one, the empire’s stability, resources, and spiritual balance are reassessed. The looming threat of losing Xiang forever pushes players toward increasingly extreme measures, turning what might otherwise be routine administrative decisions into emotionally charged gambles. At the core of gameplay is the careful balancing of factions within the Crimson Empire. Nobles, scholars, military leaders, merchants, and commoners all have distinct needs and expectations, and neglecting any one group can destabilize the entire realm. Policies, appointments, and decrees may solve one problem while creating another, forcing players to think in terms of trade-offs rather than ideal solutions. The game excels at making power feel fragile; even when the empire is prosperous on paper, discontent can quietly grow beneath the surface, threatening rebellion or collapse. The most distinctive system comes in the form of the Yaoguai, mythical creatures drawn from East and Southeast Asian folklore. These beings can be summoned to serve the empire, each offering unique abilities that influence production, diplomacy, military strength, or spiritual energy. They are not simple tools, however, but characters with their own presence and narrative flavor. Players can choose to nurture these creatures, relying on their abilities over time, or sacrifice them in moments of crisis to harvest soul energy needed to preserve Xiang’s existence. This mechanic introduces a constant moral tension, as short-term salvation often comes at the cost of long-term stability or ethical compromise. Resource management extends beyond gold and food into more abstract concepts such as faith, loyalty, and soul essence. These interconnected systems ensure that success is never achieved by focusing on a single metric. An economically strong empire may falter spiritually, while an empire sustained by dark rituals risks alienating its people and advisors. The game’s design encourages players to reflect on the consequences of their actions, reinforcing the idea that ruling through fear, manipulation, or sacrifice carries a heavy price. Visually, My Lovely Empress adopts a refined art style inspired by traditional Asian aesthetics, blending painterly character portraits with stylized environments and ceremonial imagery. The Yaoguai designs are particularly memorable, each reflecting mythological roots while fitting naturally into the game’s somber tone. The interface, while dense, supports the thematic weight of the experience, presenting information in a way that feels ritualistic rather than purely mechanical. Complementing the visuals is a moody, atmospheric soundtrack that underscores moments of quiet administration as well as dramatic turning points, subtly reinforcing the emotional stakes of each decision. The game’s difficulty curve can be demanding, especially for players new to deep management simulations. Systems interlock tightly, and early mistakes can cascade into severe consequences several seasons later. However, this unforgiving structure aligns with the narrative themes, emphasizing the burden of leadership and the irreversible nature of certain choices. Multiple endings reward experimentation and reflection, offering outcomes that range from tragic obsession to hard-earned acceptance, depending on how the player navigates the balance between love, power, and responsibility. Ultimately, My Lovely Empress is not a game about building the largest or most efficient empire, but about exploring the cost of ruling while consumed by grief. Its fusion of strategic depth, mythological storytelling, and emotional consequence creates an experience that feels both intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant. For players who appreciate management games with strong narrative identity and are willing to wrestle with morally ambiguous systems, it offers a haunting and memorable journey that lingers long after the final season passes. Rating: 8/10