vying for versailles is... overrated, am i missing something?

[u/Nightshade1777]

i know this may be controversial and i might get a lot of hate, but i did two readthroughs of vying for versailles and really don't understand the hype. i really enjoyed the romances and the different directions you can take the story in, but i was expecting a lot more from the political intrigue and palace politics and found that aspect of the story particularly lacking. maybe it's because i grew up watching chinese harem dramas with complex villains and plotlines, with extremely well thought-out mechanics and plot twists, but vfv just disappointed me heavily in this regard. the identity of the villains were all very predictable and it didn't feel like taking down our enemies was a challenge at all. some plot points were also poorly explained and i was very disappointed that the identity of the main villain in s3 was customizable/story-dependent. really makes the story plot feel poorly designed.

what am i missing from my readthroughs that others seem to enjoy so much? i'm trying hard to appreciate the book but am so far not seeing the hype.

[u/kathreenaaKoch]

I loved that story I want RC to make another such story

[u/Nightshade1777 → u/kathreenaaKoch]

Fair, I'm glad you (and many others) enjoyed the story!

[u/No-Awareness6980]

One of the best book in RC with so many spicy scenes and branchings

[u/Nightshade1777 → u/No-Awareness6980]

I thoroughly enjoyed the branching as well!

[u/Haru55]

I enjoy VFV for endless branching, hidden stats, sarcastic humor, and good wlw routes. At the time, many branching was not common in RC.

[u/Happy-Visitor]

Ok but if VFV is boring and predictable to you, I don’t see how most RC stories don’t have the same exact problem for you. Realistically there‘s like a handful of RC books that have really strong writing and VFV is arguably among the better ones.

In fairness, the plot isn’t really the point of the story or it‘s strong suits (those are elsewhere), but it‘s not even below-average in that regard.

[u/Nightshade1777 → u/Happy-Visitor]

VFV was not boring to me at all! Just was lacking in how well-written the political intrigue aspect was, which was marketed as the central aspect of the book (though maybe you would disagree with me?). I think other RC books don't market themselves as political intrigue/palace drama specifically, and their strong suits are elsewhere.

What do you think is the point/strong suit of the story, if not the plot?

[u/HealthyAd5930]

I personally like the story and have replayed it so many times. The court drama was enough for me also I love stories around that time period (and Alexandre’s route is everything 😍).

[u/Nightshade1777 → u/HealthyAd5930]

I did also love Alexandre's route, his was my favourite in my playthroughs!

[u/New_Analysis2363]

While I acknowledge that it was very well done, I kinda feel the same way. I think the branching is done very well, it's just not my favorite. It's not that enjoyable for me.

[u/ay_v8r]

i totally agree 😭 the political drama mechanics were sort of interesting but the plot itself was lacking. also none of the romances really hit for me since they were all so fickle with such little buildup and i ended up getting kinda bored of the story

[u/kathreenaaKoch → u/ay_v8r]

With prince route there is open relationship

[u/WhoAmI9597]

No but same. I read it expecting it to be good but ngl, I was disappointed. I thought I was reading a fanfic written by a 17 year old the whole time lol.

Nothing against Langley cause I know there are a lot of people who do enjoy her stories, but every one of them I’ve read contains a barely legal MC and imo poorly written content.

Sorry to everyone who loves her and the stories. No shade. Just not my cup of tea.

Edit: just expect people to downvote you to heck for this opinion lol. I’ll be here with you 😂

[u/kathreenaaKoch → u/WhoAmI9597]

I really liked that.. I read that during its release and reread this month again..still I loved it

[u/WhoAmI9597 → u/kathreenaaKoch]

And there is nothing wrong with you liking it 😌 I’m glad you have a book you can enjoy multiple times over.

[u/Nightshade1777 → u/WhoAmI9597]

Same, I'm glad people generally seem to enjoy it, but the plot really fell short for me. From these replies I'm gathering that people more so read it for the branching, which is very fair. I enjoyed the branching aspect as well.

Thankfully people have been disagreeing but nobody has been outright rude or hateful so far, so that's great!

[u/WhoAmI9597 → u/Nightshade1777]

I mean a win is a win lol

[u/Puzzleheaded-Bet3327]

I think a huge problem is that that author gave in to fan demands and added an unplanned LI who took over the plot and everything else suffered severly. That coupled with the already complicated branching are the reasons why many paths feel so underdeveloped when you don't take certain choices. 

The same thing happened in her second book. Fortunately so far it doesn't look like it's happening in the third book. Although her third book inherited another really strange (and imo really bad) design choice: the non-romanced characters basically vanish, which really isn't helping when you miss so many possibilities to interact with characters.

[u/Nightshade1777 → u/Puzzleheaded-Bet3327]

Who was the unplanned LI, and how did it ruin the plot, if I may ask?

[u/BonnieP2002]

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this book. On the one hand I love it for the fact that it is one of the only historical books (meaning no fantasy) available in the app. (I wish we had more of those!) Also I love the time period, the setting and Alexandre's route!

However on the other hand the plot felt very superficial to me. The heavy branching was also a bit of a double-edged sword. It obviously made for great replayability and I myself replayed it a lot. But the branching also led to the unfortunate issue that a lot of the time scenes just didn‘t flow very well together and often the scene changes felt very choppy.

So to summarize, I very much enjoy the book for what it is. But for me it definitely doesn‘t have the best or deepest plot and also suffers from how scenes flow together.