At this point, I had met a cute Southern Empress. Making matters worse, enemies were closing in on the Western Empire from all sides, capturing or killing any potential lords I could meet and smooch. Even my protagonist would sometimes show up with a googly eye. Other times, characters will stare at me with dead eyes, or they’ll begin to drift to the side. Wading into the dating game is particularly tricky thanks to sometimes unreadable UI elements that cause me to fail conversations. No one wants to hear how a guy would rather make his mom happy than take a chance by marrying you and pledging his sword to your cause.
It all culminated with one lord, Nemos, saying that he couldn’t get with me because his family wouldn’t approve. I don’t know what happened, but no one in the Western Empire wanted to marry me. If the dice fail you, or you pick the wrong approach to woo a lord, then he will decline you and you’ll have to start again with another prospect.
First, you approach a lord (or lady, if you have the right mod installed) and say something along the lines of “M’lord, I notice you haven’t taken a wife!” Then, you have to pass several conversation checks spread across two instances. It’s also something that a player can achieve in two or three conversations. In Bannerlord, marriage is an important tool to build relationships, sire heirs, and build a political legacy. With a home and a lord, my next step became acquiring a husband. My first character had a specific goal in mind, and the game allowed me to pursue that. but I still become invested in my hero’s story.
It’s impossible to do both of these genres a full amount of justice, and Mount & Blade tends to lean towards the former over the latter. It’s also a character-based RPG, where players have to interact with their allies and enemies, and make choices. Mount & Blade 2 is an immensely complex strategy game, much like the Civilization or Crusader Kings franchises, where players have to worry about their alliances, map placements, territories, and upgrades. The belief seemed like a noble enough mission statement. I pledged myself to the Western Empire, under the command of a man who believes that a monarch must experience war in order to effectively rule. My character started as the daughter of a village guard, but is now a prestigious mercenary captain with a renowned army. No one will marry me, and frankly? I think that’s very rude. There’s just one problem I’ve encountered. However, literally none of this matters to me, because I have my own, important mission: I gotta get back at my ex-boyfriend by marrying a hotter, more prestigious lord. The world is plunged into war, and the player eventually loses critical agency. At a certain point, a “conspiracy” meter begins to fill, and there’s no real way to stop it. The game is early access enough that the main quest isn’t finished. When I introduced myself to a marauding empress, she gave me a florid introduction, then told me that this was placeholder text for a famous player, and should be removed. Much like its predecessor, it’s wildly ambitious - what if you had the agency of a Dragon Age character, but in world of political plotting, medieval battles, and castle sieges? - yet hopelessly janky. Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is a hot mess of a game, but I still love it dearly.