My Vow To My Liege: ChenFeng Route, Good and Bad Endings

Masterlist and Guide

I did not enjoy this!

FuChai spends a huge chunk of it intensely miserable because of Chenfeng's actions, and while it's not entirely his fault it's still not very fun or shippy. And even once things improve and they get together I felt like the basic problems of their relationship weren't really fixed: he wants to keep her protected and cosseted from the world, and she treats him like a beloved pet. Of all the love interests, he is the only one I felt got really uncomfortable about the gender and power aspects of her being King. And also the one where I felt most uncomfortable about the power she has over him! I should not end a romance thinking they can both do better!

I was worried he was going to get rapey, but he doesn't, in fact the route is weirdly sexless for a yandere repressed overprotective older brother type character (though he does get shirtless a lot). But the game repeatedly pokes at a different rape trauma Fuchai has so it was still kinda triggering!

Blech. Oh well, I enjoyed the other routes, and this certainly wasn't the worst thing I've ever played. Mostly I'm annoyed because I think ChenFeng had the potential to be a much more enjoyable love interest.

Content notes: suicide, violence, incest, rape (not from LI)
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Review: My Vow To My Liege

I really enjoyed the Chinese fantasy m/f romance visual novel My Vow To My Liege, historical RPF set in the 5th Century BC Kingdom of Ng/Wu about various real and mythical people. The protagonist is King Fuchai, a woman cross-dressing for Reasons (to do with Evil Dragons)

It's well made, with good art, UI, music, and (Mandarin) voice acting. The writing is pretty good, too, a little repetitive in parts and with some pacing issues but made with a lot of heart. The English translation was done by one of the writers and is a little clunky and in need of proof-reading but has some moments of real poetry. And the game is LONG, you get a ridiculous amount of story for the low price.

Content notes for the game: suicide, violence, incest (not a love interest), rape (not from a love interest), age gap ships, slavery, fatphobia, hurtful gender reveal, master-slave relationship, major character death, violence between love interests

Here's the masterlist of my reaction posts and a character guide.

More thoughts, no spoilers:
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