In the dark kingdom simulation My Lovely Empress, you rule an empire with the help of summoned demon women

Every proud manager should ask himself: What should I do with all this stupid, tiring stuff? civilization Do I build it? Do I let it spin forever, a shiny machine of prosperity bathed in an eternal twilight, or, as the case may be, do I unleash an army of lustful hellwomen to collect soul energy for the resurrection of my tragically murdered lover? If you chose option B, you should probably play My Lovely Empress, a luxurious empire management sim with a sinister twist from Indonesian team GameChanger Studio. You can find a trailer below.

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Summary: You are Emperor Hong of the Crimson Empire. You are a very sad banana who has recently lost your mother, your previous ruler, and your beloved Empress. The Crimson Empire itself is a picturesque swamp of squabbling nobles, teenage peasants, and uncollected taxes. Your viziers are grumbling and neighboring rival rulers are weighing their chances, but all you want to do is sulk in your sanctuary.

You don't seem to have access to any professional grief counselors, or even a CBT-trained vampire, but you do have the ability to summon the Yaoguai, or demons of the north, who come in the form of seductive, sinister beast women, all with upgradeable stats and attributes.

They will assist you in your imperial duties, such as going on diplomatic missions or terrorizing the minor populace with curses. You can also sacrifice them for unspecified favors, preferably after you develop your relationship with them to increase ectoplasmic yield. Ultimately, you must decide whether or not to allow them to harvest your citizens in a Mephistophelian bargain for the return of your lost spouse.

Overall, the game seems to be a mix of dating sim, visual novel, and King Of Dragon Pass style, with a selection of gorgeous, painted regional maps that occasionally branch off into story missions. It forms a trilogy of My Lovely games, the others being My Lovely Wife and My Lovely Daughter, each of which tells the story of a grieving man summoning thirsty diablettes to scare or sacrifice. I guess Crazy Widows is GameChanger's house style.

According to its Steam page, the game is heavily inspired by East and Southeast Asian mythology. It certainly looks like a feast, with visuals that remind me a bit of Darkest Dungeon and Hades. The creepy ghost ladies are all rated for pre-teens, but this probably isn't SFW: expect “Infrequent Violence, General Mature Content, and Sexual Content.”

It comes out August 21. Has anyone here played any of the other My Lovelies? How beautiful are they, exactly, on a scale from “not lame” to “gorgeous”? I enjoy this calculatedly tasteless spin on the building genre, which tends to lean toward Anodyne.

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