A Matter of Principle

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

A Matter of Principle is a Visual Novel released in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, and looks at the lives of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, and Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip, leading to the assassination of the former by the latter, an event which would act as a precursor or catalyst to World War I. This story plays out as a digital comic book, and there are no narrative choices for the player, save for occasional quiz questions that seem to have little bearing on the story.

The presentation here is decent, using primarily black-and-white hand-drawn 2D art that’s decent but not particularly impressive, with non-speaking characters often faded to grey to highlight speaking characters. These visuals are backed by a synthesized instrumental soundtrack that works well enough for the scenes it plays with, but does little to heighten the story.

Speaking of story, given that Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination is one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the world, this is topic matter that is fertile ground for a good story, but rather than looking at the event from a purely historical context, A Matter of Principle aims to focus more on the human stories of these two men, with a particular focus on Princip’s life.

Unfortunately, multiple problems keep it from being very effective at doing so. First is that the writing in this game is often stilted, unnatural, and either has grammatical errors or localization errors that can make it difficult to understand. Furthermore, even though the game tries to highlight the speaker by greying out other characters, this is so poorly done that it frequently becomes impossible to follow who is talking, even in scenes with two characters. Characters here don’t have a distinct voice, and we’re given little to latch onto them in terms of personality to distinguish them from each other.

What’s more, this story can’t decide whether it really is interested in these characters as people, or if it wants to give a historical account. At one point, we’re told that Princip wore a fez to to get accepted into a school by pretending to be a Muslim, only to be kicked out when he confessed he wasn’t. This is done through narration rather than showing us Princip’s struggles with his dishonesty, meaning we haven’t gotten any greater feel for him as an honest and principled youth, and in terms of the narrative all that it amounted to was “he tried to attend a school, but they wouldn’t take him due to his race”.

As a historical account, this story doesn’t do enough to set up the tensions between Bosnia and Austria-Hungary (we’re told in passing about the annexation, which seems like a major plot point to gloss over). Princip hated Austria-Hungary as a matter of national pride, but was that really enough to push him to kill? If this is a human story, we should be seeing more of what fueled the rage that would bring him to perform such a violent act, and why that rage is aimed at Austria-Hungary.

More questionable choices abound here. The quizzes seem pointless, like the game is trying to act as a class lecture with questions it hasn’t provided students with the answers to. Late in the story, we suddenly see things being discussed in past tense via a framing device of Princip’s interrogation after being caught, a framing device that was never properly introduced.

The game’s story takes roughly 45 minutes to complete, but I neither felt informed nor emotionally engaged by it. By stark contrast, I would argue that the same events are covered in a far more informative and engaging manner in this 25 minute video essay by the Biographics channel on YouTube, and those wanting a more human, emotional story may be better served by this animated video by Extra History. Both combined are shorter, more entertaining, and give a fuller grasp of who these people were and what created the conflict that drove them.

To be fair to A Matter of Principle, this is only a $4 game, and its creator does seem to have a passion for the topic matter. However, this Visual Novel is a poorly-told story, even if the story it tells is about one of the most important events in the history of the world. Unless you are craving a different but flawed take on this turn of events, I suggest you stick with the YouTube videos instead.

tl;dr – A Matter of Principle is a Visual Novel about the lives of Archduke Ferdinand and his eventual assassin, Gavrilo Princip, an assassination that is one of the most pivotal events in world history. Unfortunately, in this digital comic book, the story is poorly-told in a way that fails to convey both the emotion of the event, as well as a proper historical understanding. Players who are fascinated by this moment in history may be able to forgive this game’s flaws to see a different perspective, but everyone else is better-served seeking out other accounts of these historical figures.

Grade: C-

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