Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2021
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
Developer Sever, Schisma Games
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is a text-based 2021 role-playing video game developed by Sever and published by 101XP. Players make choices in a branching storyline. The sequel, The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian, released on the 20th of July 2026. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
328 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 7, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
74
Fresh
192 positive · 67 negative
95% range 68–79%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 192 | 67 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
69 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
11,578 of 13,211 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 328 · most liked firstI spent the entirety of my early life becoming the best warrior possible, having reached the cap of 20 valor quite quickly, made choices according to it. Then the game proceeded to kill me in stat checks where valor mattered. I cannot recommend a game where the choices I make are not taken into account, even trampled on.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A great narrative-driven game with good writing, soundtrack, and art style. Also interesting world-building. Despite an overall good impression, I have to state that it is not a "choose your own adventure" type of game, but rather "calculate your adventure". Despite seemingly branching paths, the game is still heavily decided by the numbers you get during your playthrough. I suggest playing once for yourself to get into the game's world and mechanics, and then use guides to read through a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really want to love this game, i will give it a thumbs up because the story and soundtrack are really great, but i couldn't finish the game. I ragequit and restarted the playthrough 4 times in the past 2 days. The game is divised in 4 parts, and no matter how I approached my choices, i got stunlocked at the end of chapter 3 with decisions limited to only 1 as either i didnt have enough remaining "willpower" (energy-like mechanism besides the other countless stats you need to level) or was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am an FPS Shooter / War Action gamer my whole life. I saw this was 100% off and gave it a shot. I AM FLOORED. I am a reader and enjoy literature but this is next level. I had no idea I would fall in love with this genre of gaming and it has changed my life. I'm not even being facetious, genuine aw at this marvel of a concept. BRAVO. You made me a fan and opened my eyes to a radically different gaming experience for me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Last day to get The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante for free on Steam buff.ly/BPzEw2N Deck verified
unlabelledView post →This game feels like a purely stat-driven system disguised as an interactive narrative. Your choices don’t meaningfully shape the story , only the underlying stats do. As a result, you can act in completely contradictory ways without consequences, almost like having split personalities, because consistency in role-playing is not actually required or rewarded. At the same time, calling it a “pure stat game” isn’t entirely accurate either. Many of your choices don’t meaningfully affect how…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Writing this review for all the newcomers to the series. I HIGHLY recommend this game, and I also recommend everyone to avoid spoilers, since one major strenghts of Sir Brante is its writing. But here's sort of short summary(no spoilers) of why you should play this game. Basically imagine if visual novels genre had a baby with RPG genre, and ya get Sir Brante! The gameplay is you trying to help Brante survive, by making important choices in his life, shaping him as a person(as in, is he more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Of all game genres, interactive novels are the most important to me. They’re basically the only games I still have the energy for when I’m sick. They distract just enough from pain and fever, run on a cheap laptop you can drag into bed, and can be played one-finger-style while lying down. Possibly the greatest invention for chronic illness on earth (after NSAIDs). In that sense, “The Life and Suffering…” works pretty well. For the first three or four hours you’re fully immersed in a bleak…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is well thought out for the most part and the story is intriguing. BUT it is also very misleading, it encourages you early on to min-max into specific paths (perception/valor) to achieve events. Yet doing so CAN and WILL doom your run if you solely stick to specific talents instead of equally distributing everything, which is counter-intuitive and frustrating. Such an example goes like this. You max out valor (x) stat, or you please you uncle/father to the maximum , then you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game but as soon as the choice for a true death appeared i took it just to be done with it and closed the game. PROS: 1. The setting is great, I found it refreshing and the dark fantasy theme strikes that sweet spot. 2. The story itsels is interesting, the characters and lore are compelling enough. 3. I liked the UI and easy to navigate. CONS: 1. The main point of the entire game is that you get the CHOOSE how Sir Brante live went. You are told at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game quickly became dull, it just plays itself for two reasons: 1) Stats dictate everything because they grey out decisions (at the point you can only pick one out of five, nice choice game lmao). Because of this, I already picked a ton of decisions I didn't want to take, it locked me in a specific route I didn't really like and that route quickly became worse and worser so I just lost interest in that specific playthrough, I might start all over again. 2) You make very few choices,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's a lot to love about this game - the setting is creative (an infrequently used French Revolution-era with a weird cosmology), the writing is good (with some glaring spelling mistakes), and maybe its best characteristic is having a sense of tension that's hard to escape from. This is a dark universe, and it doesn't like you, and the characters are flawed and you shouldn't like many of them. But I have to recommend against investing time in this game since it suffers from a flaw (an…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a crazy good and unique experience, the kind of game you can't wait to see what happens next. Pro tip: enable ironman mode and hide consequences, best choice ever.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante – Choices Matter. Your Happiness Doesn't. This game asked me to shape one man's entire life. So naturally, I spent hours carefully building relationships, principles, skills and political beliefs... ...only for one missing stat to tell me I apparently don't have the emotional capacity to open a door. The Good: Fantastic worldbuilding with an absolutely miserable caste system. Choices actually come back to haunt you YEARS later. Characters remember how…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I guess i got mislead by the game promise and tags. It presents itself as an RPG with choices that matter but plays out more like a roguelike where you have to choose a series of options independently from the roleplaying aspect if you want to progress the story. Like many other reviews explain, you get involved in the story and its really good atmosphere, writing and so on, just for the game to prevent you from making meaningful decisions where it matters because you lack 1 point of stat. This…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →> Am born, commoner baby, noble dad > Question my lot in life, get beaten, die, revive, hate nobles > Beat up a boy, he becomes my heterosexual life partner > Watch pretty girl: die horribly, get sold into slavery, and turn her away when she begs for my help (stat check) > Ignore every woman going forward, as I dedicate my entire life to swordsmanship, ignoring all other responsibilities > Become a judge, rule in favor of the commoners every time because I hate nobles > Am coerced into an…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a no-brainer at the current giveaway -- it's an interesting game with more interlocking systems and hard choices than are typical in, say, Choice of Games titles (some of which I've quite liked). The world it presents is an interesting one, well-designed to make the "moral" layer of choices not as easy as good vs. evil or order vs. chaos. The characters, like the factions and their philosophies, are ambivalent and ambiguous, and what passes for likability is often a selfish disregard…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is free to grab on Steam. I've heard many great things about this text heavy RPG & it's even Steam deck verified. store.steampowered.com/app/1272160/...
unlabelledView post →The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is one of those rare games that doesn’t just entertain you it moves you, makes you reflect, and lets you fully experience another person’s life. It’s a powerful interactive drama that lingers in your mind long after you’re done playing. From the very first moments, the game pulls you in with its dark, rich, and carefully crafted atmosphere. The world is cruel, unfair, and unforgiving and that is exactly what makes it so compelling. You’re not just reading a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante drowns you in a world it never actually makes you care about. I put in around 13 hours, and while the core concept is initially appealing, it quickly collapses into a slog of text and decisions that aren't very interesting. You’re not role-playing a life; you’re trying not to lose lives while the game lectures you. The sheer amount of political chatter would be forgivable if it felt meaningful, but most of it plays like background noise you can’t really…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you enjoy poorly written text repeating the same phrases and concepts to you dozens of times for several hours like the authors think you have dementia, this is a game for you.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can not recommend this game as it does not have basic qol features as skipping text you have seen already and quick save/load. Any curiosity you will have will punish you with 90% same text you have read already. I have spent at least 2 out of 8 hours played just redoing choices to get what i need for few decisions.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got the game while it was on a 100% discount and I can only recommend trying it if you see it for free. The main issue to me is that the game deliberately undermines its own strongest premise for the sake of making an unspoken "profound point" through its mechanics. To explain, early on you are sold on the idea that stats are highly important in this game. Personal traits, family reputation and later on even professional stats and even stats relating to revolution. The reality is that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The choices you make don't seem to matter. The stat checking makes sure of that. You could make consistent logical decisions that should in theory lead you down a certain path but they do not matter. You must play it a very specific way in order to get different paths which in turn makes the story sometimes come across as disjointed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I picked this game up for free and thought I would play it for 5 minutes and uninstall. Three hours later I found myself still playing, neglecting real life responsibilities. It's a wonderful game that keeps you immersed, the art style is amazing. Definitely would have paid to play this gem. Just absolutely astonishing. It reminds me of Sunless Skies. Props to the developers and anyone who worked on it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having played this game, I am now eternally plagued by steam recommending me various hentai visual novel garbage. Heavy is the burden imposed upon your average "choices matter" enjoyer... Anyway, the game is really good with establishing an interesting narrative and lore that gets you immediately hooked. It presents you with an arrangement of storylines to pursue, always keeping you on your toes with choices that challenge your views and morals. You really have to carefully plan out your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story itself is good, but i dont like being held hostage by the stat system. I get you're supposed to get the endings you want via trial and error, and prior run knowledge but i personally dont vibe with that.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What's the point of "making your own journey" if in the end you most likely get the wrong outcome despite picking the most logical options to achieve your goal? I chose the path of a priest, maxed out my Theology stat, yet somehow ended up with the massacre ending, where my protagonist became the "Butcher of A... (forgot the city's name)" And all because my Oratory skill wasn't high enough. Bruh... it's not a game about Sir Brante's life, but about managing his stats
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A narrative role-playing adventure game The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is currently free on Steam! Add it to your account until July, 23, 17:00 UTC to keep it forever store.steampowered.com/app/1272160/...
unlabelledView post →This is one truly amazing game. There are many words of praise I could shine on it, but allow me to be brief. The story is absurdly excellent. The world-building is astonishing and I am lost for words for just how creatively brilliant this game is. So many concepts are developed to their fullest extent, while others remain purposefully obscure – leaving you with more questions than answers. This aspect is only supported by the replayability of the game with all its branching paths,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We recorded the Life and Suffering of Sir Brante WOFF! episode today. The first draft of the notes was 11,000 words long. I managed to get it down to 9,000. Perhaps the longest outline we’ve had for a single episode of a show (the only one that comes close is Pentiment).
unlabelledView post →Not bad, but a bit bland. There are many choices, but there’s a certain threshold you have to meet, so if you want a specific outcome, your options end up being quite limited. Maybe free will is like that. You feel free to choose, but not to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, only a few options remain. 나쁘지는 않은데 조금 밋밋하다. 선택지는 많아 보이지만, 요구 조건을 충족해야 하는 어떤 기준치가 있어서 결국 원하는 결과를 얻으려고 하면 선택의 폭이 꽤 제한된다. 어쩌면 자유의지라는 것도 그런 것인지 모른다. 우리는 항상 선택할 자유가 있는 것처럼 느끼지만, 완전 ㅈ되지 않으려면 결국 몇 가지 선택지만 남게 된다
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Choises DO matter, if you can only CHOOSE of course. I litreally cannot choose anything i want because you dont meet specific talens or perks.Whats the point of story games if i cant even choose how i desire.I am bored of choosing option ONLY game allows me to. So frusturating.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the premise was cool and i liked a good chunk of the story but the latter half of the game wore me down and now i dont really feel like getting a better ending than the one i got 3/5 of the game is spent building up stats, and then the last 2 chapters are more about applying those stats to the important decisions, but the game doesn't really offer any foresight into what may happen in the future, so i set a goal for myself at the beginning of the chapter and aim to complete it, in which i find…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The idea behind the game is interesting, but the execution falls short. A game that lasts for hours can end because of a series of automatic events that completely wipe out all the choices made up to that point
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I had heard complaints about this title from others that, upon playing, I easily brushed off, the reason I have to downvote this title is because after getting a fair ways into a run (The peacetime section), the more I realized that there were combination effects that proved to be narratively contradictory. "I'll challenge them to a duel" after I had abolished the dueling system. "You must recant all your rulings across your history as a judge" as I just became a judge and had one single…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My understanding of the premise going in was that I would have a lot of agency in the story by developing my character through my choices. What I found was an experience with tons of exposition and a massive amount of choices where most of them were meaningless. The majority of the choices that were not were instead locked as I did not play one of the optimal paths dictated by the game designers. The early chapters were not that hampered by this and I had a good time, but by the time I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is an amazing narrative-driven RPG. Arguably, it may be one of my favourites. When I first picked it up, I didn’t know what to expect, maybe just a short, simple story that would be enjoyable, but maybe not have so much depth. However, I was blown away by how wrong I really was. The story is genuinely very well written and it’s hard not to get invested. Every option has an effect whether it be in that chapter, or twenty years down in Sir Brante’s life -…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →poorly made and the ending felt so rushed. The choices are terrible and you really need to minmax and sometimes go out of what your character would actually do. As a novel it's terrible to read and very repetitive and the story never sets off. I had to start skimming because I got really tired after chapter four. Terrible game. the 10 hours that I wasted were not worth it even if the game was free.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I originally pirated this game and played through it multiple times then went back and bought a copy. It's that good. If you're searching for a game with choices and consequences, but don't have 100 hours to dump into an RPG then this game is for you. It cuts out all the fluff and filler you've played dozens of times, getting right to the stuff that matters. It's not joking when it describes itself as a narrative-driven hardcore RPG. That's exactly what it is.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Received the game for free back then but haven't touched the game since. - While I haven't had the chance to finish my first playthrough, I am already loving the game. Yes it is a narrative-based / visual novel type genre where you actually do nothing but read the whole story via written text hence the visual-novel genre, it somehow captivated my interest in a way that you decide which path would you lead starting from your childhood up to your own death *least that's what the game says*. As…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sir Brante offers a unique view into a world where death is not always the end. The story is exquisite and even the smallest choices matter. Will you defy your lot and become a noble to appease your Grandfather? Will you dedicate your life to serving others like your father? Will you devote your life to the Twins and become the Priestly sort as your mother wants? Will you throw it all away and strike your own path? Each choice offers a unique path and insight into a masterfully crafted…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I adore this game. It has a surprising depth to its world story and the world's theology that I was very fascinated with. There is a lot of nuance to explore, and I have only touched one of the many paths this game can take you. First off, I want to mention I first played the game with hidden consequences (you won't know what stats your choices change) and it made my first play through feel like a real story. However, it can end up locking you out of important choices for outcomes you want to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has too many restrictions on choices later in the story, and it takes hours upon hours to figure out where you went wrong. Since you have to restart the whole chapter, you end up stuck in repetition after repetition. I’ll have to go through a hell of misery just to complete the game 100%, and I’m not even sure if it will be worth it! While I understand why choices have restrictions (the story needs to make sense), it would have been better not to show me those options at all — that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Many CYOA games suffer from having some set of outcomes that are optimal. There is a clear set of choices where the good people live, the bad people suffer, and you end up on top. Not so with The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante. This is a game of priorities, not optimality, and if you fail to prioritise you will lose everything. This will feel harsh and unfair, but, importantly, it will not feel like the authors are punishing you for bad reasons, it will feel like the world of The Life and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm playing the Life and Suffering of Sir Brante for work right now and really loving it. It's wild how much stats and resources improve a visual novel formula (see also Disco Elysium, Citizen Sleeper). The feeling of real life is higher when you can't just do whatever you want.
unlabelledView post →I got this game when it was free to keep as part of a promotion for its sequel, and I have to say: give it a chance if you enjoy games where your choices truly matter. It may have only a few visuals on screen, but they're more than enough to fuel your imagination and draw you into the world of the great Arkanian Empire.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Frustrating. While the story and concept is really cool, the consequences of actions and how they effect your personality are to far off. No spoilers here but Actions i would take kept creating negative effects when they should have done the opposite. Decisions that should bolster your stats hurt your stats instead. Every decision stopped feeling like ones i would actually take because my stats were so low that i was unable to choose different answers.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of people who wouldn't know the difference between an if/else statement with embeded elseifs from a case statement in the reviews. They cry 'AI' any chance they get. Ignore them, there is nothing "AI" about this game. I'm only half an hour in and really enjoying it. If you enjoy a slower paced game where what you do makes a difference and appreciate the theme then you'll probably enjoy this one.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →📖"The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante"📖 is Free on #Steam for a limited time! Link:⬇️ store.steampowered.com/app/1272160/... 🗓️Free to keep FOREVER when you get it before 23 Jul @ 7:00pm. 🗓️ 🏖Steam Random Keys➡️ www.g2a.com/n/randomkey471 #Steam #FreeGame #SteamGame
unlabelledView post →TLDR: I got beaten to death by my grandpa. I love choice games. And choices do you have. On one hand, the game is 'difficult' in that you can't half-ass everything. Nothing is ideal. Something has to give, for you to gain something. No perfect runs where you get the girl, save everyone, and is hailed as a hero, and you're good at talking and scheming and fighting. On the other hand, I like that the game can have different situations and endings depending on your actions. The world building…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got this game for free as part of the Prince Jerian promotion. If I were summarize the reason I gave it thumbs dumb with one word it would be "disappointment". The first three chapters were really fun as you get to know the characters and worldbuilding. Starting with the 4th chapter things started to change. The game feels poorly balanced and many choices can require multiple stats/relations. In the 5th chapter you can barely do anything as most decisions requires 3+ stats/relations/destinies.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyed the game and it's excellent writing up until chapter IV (of V). The game works by having choices influence stats which later can unlock new paths and choice options. By default you can see which stats will be modified so you can progress towards certain endings. In theory, Chapter IV is supposed to be culmination of your past choices. In practice, a lot of logical choices are locked behind arbitrary stat checks. I was often forced into choices that made no sense for my character…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hope you feel better Pat! Finally did a playthrough of The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante where I finished the game haha. Have had a good time playing it Also watched The Devils Advocate and The Devil Wears Prada 2, both ended up been really good films with strong acting throughout.
unlabelledView post →Great storytelling and plot. Though I hate that there are only like 2 paths that will lead you till the end, not much freedom with the choices
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like I'm constantly teased along by possibilities only to find I can't make the choices I want at critical moments, due to completely unrelated prior events. Ended up feeling like a waste of time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was a wonderful, choices-based... I don't wanna call it a visual novel rpg? But that's what comes to mind. Going through Brante's life(s) and making choices, changing paths, changing relationships, was such a fun time. There were plenty of twists and turns I didn't expect, and I stand by what I did in my first run, and am eager to see other outcomes. The game's worldbuilding is fantastic and very interesting, as are the characters and their motivations. A fantastic time if you enjoy…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not a fan. The story is kind of weak and there are typo's. The game has been out for 5 years or so and the people who made the game never went back & corrected their spelling or grammar. It's not a good look for, what is basically, a chose your own adventure book to have obvious spelling mistakes. As a book it's not very interesting. It's functional but not griping. I find the world building kind of lame & ham fisted: the nobles are blue? Subtle....real subtle. I wish interactive…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm just starting out, and I already feel that every choice is going to cost me dearly no matter what I choose. A true Warhammer 40k experience. Administer in short doses so you don't drown your keyboard in tears. (Addition at 19 hours): I'm tired, boss. It's less about the plot and more about replaying the same parts over and over so you finally can choose the option you want. That usually requires replaying nearly the whole game several times. All of that to fix one choice. There will be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I developed such a hate-love for the game I don't know where to start. This game takes you on a rollercoaster of feelings. I found myself staring at choices, wondering what I should do, only to question my choice for long afterward. I cared for the people along my way. I wanted to save everyone. Yet Brante lives in a world that lives by rules that have nothing to do with compassion but with keeping structure and authority. Yes, the game is hard. Yes, you are constantly locked out of decisions…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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