Gayme of the Week: Yes, Your Grace
As I’ve talked about before, being a dad is super hard. I wouldn’t really classify myself as a dad in real life, more like that drunken, gay aunt that sits at the bar during parties and cradles her seventh rum and coke in the space of an hour. But in Yes, Your Grace, the choice-driven adventure game from developer Brave at Night, being a dad really is one of the main features of the game.
You play as King Eryk of Davern, who has three daughters, a loving wife and — at least at the start of the game — is well-loved among his subjects. Everything seems to be going fairly well, up until Eryk and Davern are threatened by an invasion from Radovia. That’s when it starts to get serious and leaves you with an ultimatum: you need troops, gold, and resources to push the invaders back, but to do so, you may end up having to make some difficult decisions.
One of these decisions is sadly taken out of your hands. Your eldest daughter, Lorsulia, is forced into an arranged marriage. It’s one of the only choices you’re unable to stop, and it feels like being kicked in the gut knowing that it’s something neither you or Lorsulia wants.
“But Aimee,” I hear you cry, “how can this heteronormative nonsense even be considered Gayme of the Week?” Well, one of the best things about Yes, Your Grace is that there are choices, ones that often ask you the question of ‘will you be a good King or a good father?’ As I’ve stated before, I’ve never been a King or a father, but as a woman who feels protective of other women — fictional or otherwise — you probably already know what answer I chose.
Princess Asalia, the middle daughter of Eryk’s family, is a young girl who doesn’t want anything to do with royalty, politics, or the wars that come with it. She’s abrasive, rough and would do anything to have a sword fight with someone. At first, if you’re a good dad that is, she has you to help practice with her. Eventually, however, she ropes in someone else — a friend named Maya.
Maya teaches Asalia the ropes of combat while you juggle being a King and having a terrible son-in-law (seriously, the worst), and as the game goes on, the two grow closer. It’s only later on in-game that you discover Asalia’s feelings for Maya aren’t just platonic and that, with or without your blessing, she plans to run away with the other girl. Considering they are both younger than 13, hesitation is probably a good thing. Yet as I sat there, pondering over my decision, I weighed up the facts.
War was approaching Davern. Eryk and his family could die tomorrow. Even if they didn’t die, Asalia doesn’t want to live the life of a noble and get married to some stuffy old dude that’s three times her age. Also, would be pretty cool to tell everyone in the court trying to get my underage daughter to marry some old guy that she’s too busy being a butch lesbian in the countryside, now get the bloody hell out of my castle. If I survive the war, that is.
With those benefits, it seemed obvious that being my lesbian daughter’s hype man was the only real route to go with. So off she went, hand-in-hand with her sword girlfriend. I do love a happy ending and let’s be honest, there’s not as many as I’d like in Yes, Your Grace.
It’s a cracking game though, so don’t hesitate: give it a buy.
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