At its core, the game demands that you manage the myriad issues within your empire. Solving these “Decisions” requires action points, and ignoring them can lead to penalties like debuffs, population declines in specific factions or loss of Trust among said groups. [...]

The real challenge lies in the ambiguity of some Decisions. You’re only given general information about which factions are affected and how your choices will impact Gold, buffs, and debuffs. The Yaoguai come into play here, offering assistance based on their Attributes. Each Yaoguai is tied to a specific Attribute and faction. [...] The Yaoguai’s insights are limited to their primary faction, making strategic use of them crucial. On the topic of Yaoguai, there are ten available for summoning, requiring Ritual Essence and materials obtained either through trade or exploration.

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One of the most enjoyable aspects of the game is the character development that occurs as you strengthen the Bond between Emperor Hong and the Yaoguai. Once you reach certain Bond thresholds, the game rewards you with cutscenes where Hong interacts with the Yaoguai, revealing more about their lore and personalities—showing they might be more human than you’d initially think.

Yaoguai play a vital role in addressing Problems within the empire. These are tasks you assign to them that typically earn Gold and Trust without negative repercussions, although they do consume significant amounts of Stamina. If a Yaoguai’s Stamina runs low, you can send them for meditation, which costs Gold depending on your investment level.

Investment is a key feature for optimising empire management. It allows you to enhance Meditation effectiveness, expand your empire’s capacity, or increase rewards. However, you need Gold for these upgrades, which you can only acquire by solving Decisions, addressing Problems, or receiving tributes from factions at the end of each Cycle. The amount of tribute depends on Trust and Population, making it essential to keep factions satisfied. But with a finite number of action points in each Session, prioritisation becomes key. Decisions and Problems are marked with a bar indicating the number of turns remaining before they incur penalties, so strategic planning is essential. Each Session refreshes only one action point, limiting how quickly you can address issues.

Additionally, the game operates in Cycles (seven Sessions per Cycle) and three Cycles are equivalent to a season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Some features and areas, like sending a Yaoguai to explore certain locations, are season-dependent. For example, the Lake in the Mizujima Kingdom is restricted to Spring and Summer, adding another layer of strategy to your management decisions.

The storyline progresses through Chapters, independent of the Cycles, but is interwoven with storyline-related Problems. But at this point in the review, I’m sure you’ve already forgotten about the fact that Hong’s goal is to resurrect his late wife. To achieve this, he must gather Human Essence to boost his wife’s Soul Vitality to 1,000. This process involves creating disasters that sacrifice the Crimson Empire’s denizens. If the Empress’ Soul Vitality drops to zero, your run ends, forcing you to either restart or continue from a previous save. [...]

One of the game’s biggest selling points is its hybrid nature, combining management sim and dating sim elements. The dating sim aspect emerges through interactions with other kingdoms. After the death of Hong’s wife, his advisors suggest rebuilding relations with neighbouring kingdoms through marriage. To do this, you must visit those kingdoms and interact with their rulers, which may trigger Ruler-Related Problems that need to be solved before further interactions. And my goodness, these lovely ladies are majestically beautifully designed, with my favourite being Governor Farah of the Persepolis Territory. Each successful interaction earns 5 Relation Points, and you need 100 points to propose. However, proposing requires a Dowry, which takes time to gather all the necessary materials.