Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution infuses turn-based strategy with visual novel decisions

Tinker with the timeline in this alt-history game

Studio Imugi

Before Jong-woo Kim made video games, he was a history student – and as he told me during our meeting at Gamescom 2024, he thought it was finally time to “use his degree.” 

Kim is the creative director at the Canada-based Studio Imugi as well as one of its co-founders alongside Martin Brouard, who serves as executive producer and is present for this chat, too. It is an exciting day for the duo, because we sit down together on the evening before the reveal of Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution. 

Appropriately, Kim is wearing a bicorn for the presentation that fits him annoyingly well – why did we ever give up on those? Anyway: Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution is a turn-based game with a strategic and tactical layer set in an alternate timeline of our own world – a timeline which saw an earlier industrial revolution due to the phlogiston theory proving to be correct. Things like battle mechs have become widespread due to this, among other consequences.

You fight turn-based battles and manage the day-to-day politics of revolutionary France – not as Napoleon Bonaparte, but as César or Céline Bonaparte. You’re being put into the same spot as Napoleon during the revolution, but you are not bound by his actions and beliefs. This version of the revolution is yours to write.

“Revolutions are super fascinating to me,” Kim explains, “maybe because of how much change is taking place in a short amount of time. The French Revolution was almost a prototype for the different revolutions that followed.”

Naturally, Napoleon is one of the go-to figures when it comes to this period, but he “has a complicated and wide legacy that’s difficult to navigate today,” as Kim puts it. 

Instead, the game gives the player a chance to step into the Little Colonel’s boots – same spot, same time, same opportunities. “We let them choose how they wish to change the outcome of the revolution,” Kim describes. “What would that look like?”

Your first big decision comes on Bastille Day. Do you side with the royalists and put down the riots in Paris, or do you join the people’s cries for change and help them storm the Bastille? From here, the game takes you through every day of the revolution, including historical events like the king’s flight attempt from Paris.

Though Napoleon is replaced by our player character in this timeline, every other major figure is where they’re supposed to be: There’s the infamous politician Robbespierre, war hero Lafayette, Bonaparte’s trusty sidekick Murat, and so on. All of them can be interacted with in parliament as well as through events, exploring their personalities and viewpoints of the current events.

All of these conversations take place on the strategic layer of the game, which shows France and its surrounding regions divided into provinces. The French Revolution, of course, isn’t just pitting the people against the nobles – among the revolutionaries, there are extremists like the Jacobins who have a very different agenda from the Moderates. Players will have to take sides eventually.

There's a lot of Total War and Europa Universalis in Bonaparte as well. / Studio Imugi

Studio Imugi did extensive research into every character, keeping things as authentic as possible – after reading out some vulgar dialog from a Jacobin leader, Kim says: “This vulgar language is actually accurate to the way he wrote in his journals at the time.” And that’s one of the reasons why the French Revolution is such a great setting for a game like this – we have lots of sources on many of these people, much from their own hand.

Engaging with these people isn’t just fun and educational – it’ll help you navigate the politics of the day. At the national assembly, everyone can submit plans for reform and vote on them and this will allow you to fundamentally alter the game’s mechanics. Actions like persuasion and old-fashioned bribery will help you get your will fulfilled in this arena.

Bartering for votes is all part of democracy. / Studio Imugi

Kim gets the assembly to approve a measure allowing the government to confiscate property. This opens up a new building tab in the cities on the map, which show what kinds of buildings there are and who they belong to – and thanks to the government’s new power, your faction is now able to simply seize private property for its own benefits or even distribute it to other groups, buying their loyalty and goodwill. One can imagine that this will in turn be reflected by political support at the assembly. Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution is a full political simulation on top of a strategy game, but it almost feels like a visual novel as well thanks to its branching story.

Outside of outright military action, you can use the power of propaganda to convince provinces to flip to your faction as well.

Sometimes, of course, things come down to powder and steel. Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution’s turn-based combat is relatively simple on the surface (and certainly in terms of visuals), but appears to offer a good amount of depth with morale and positioning being a major factor.

Combat is grid- and turn-based with mechs acting as the stars of the show. / Studio Imugi

Based on your decisions, the outcome of the revolution can vastly differ from history. “We aren’t trying to depict everything as accurately as possible,” Kim says. “What we’re trying to do is to depict the dynamics and present players with meaningful choices.” 

The watchword for Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution is “alternative history with authenticity.”

Brouard says the game is deliberately catering to the niche of strategy gamers who enjoy such alt-history takes. “Trying to make a game for everyone is always making terrible games,” he lays out his philosophy.

Despite leading a small team and self-publishing Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution, Brouard has some big dreams. “I want it to become a franchise,” he declares. “There’s so much stuff we could do around Bonaparte, because we’re focusing on the ten years of the revolutionary decade – but if you talk about Napoleon, that was just the very beginning of his career.”

I know I’d play the hell out of a game like this set in the final years of the Roman Republic, for example – which goes back to Kim’s point about revolutionary eras being such a great setting.

Keep an eye out for the first playable demo of Bonaparte – A Mechanized Revolution at Steam Next Fest in October 2024 – this one deserves to be on your radar.