Chinese empire management simulation
Call Me Emperor is a mixture of roleplaying game and management simulation set in a fictional ancient Chinese empire. Through a combination of text-based choices and combat, you have to try and grow your empire, defeat enemies, and make allies.
You are the Emperor
As with similar titles like Game of Sultans and Legend of Empress, you start the game in a position of power. The aim is to maintain your place as Emperor by forming alliances, fighting rival leaders, and ensuring your citizens are happy.
Call Me Emperor is developed by Clicktouch, an independent Chinese developer, and uses similar gameplay mechanics and a visual novel style to its other titles. Animations are limited, but the game still looks nice and isn’t a memory hog on mobile devices.
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Free-to-play
The free-to-play model is very popular with mobile titles as it means the game costs you nothing to download, but the developer makes money with built-in ads or locking certain content behind a paywall.
Call Me Emperor does feature ads, but they’re few and far between. There are also microtransactions for in-game items, including gold and character skins. However, it’s possible to play the game, or at least a good chunk of it, without parting with real-world money.
Gameplay
You govern your empire primarily by clicking on a map to enter different buildings (e.g. the Imperial Academy, Grand Council) and then assigning relevant servants to roles. For example, a minister in the Grand Council will spend a few hours levelling up. Once they’ve reached Rank V and become a Legend Minister, this, in turn, unlocks the Minister Mansion and more gameplay options.
Other actions, such as (mostly automatic) battles net you Fame and other vaguely esoteric currencies, like Intimacy. These then either level up you and your soldiers or unlock consorts for additional storylines and missions.
Deceptively simple
Even though the game bombards you with statistics, it soon becomes apparent you can largely ignore most of them. Call Me Emperor is relatively straightforward with few surprises. However, it does have a few innovative features up its regal sleeve, like the ability to ally with other players.
