Road to Empress I
Live-action historical adventure about surviving palace intrigue and pursuing power
New One Studio · Published by New One Studio, Ariel · Released Sep 8, 2025
- Reviews
- Very Positive
- 88% of 14K
- Recent reviews
- Very Positive
- 92% of 194 in 30 days
- Players
- 169
- daily peak, Oct 28, 2026
- Steam Deck
- Playable
- Last update on Steam
- 2 months ago
- Aug 5, 2026
Metacritic: 83/100 (critic reviews)
What is Road to Empress I?
A single-player interactive drama set in an ancient Chinese imperial court, following a young woman's early struggle for influence. You watch scenes performed by live actors and choose her responses, moving through a story with branching paths.
For you if...
- +you enjoy Chinese historical dramas with a female lead
- +you like finding collectibles and unlocking hidden story scenes
Not for you if...
- −you prefer hands-on action to watching scenes and choosing responses
What players say
88% of 13,815 reviews are positive · 92% of 194 in the last 30 days
Players praise the acting, production quality, and character relationships. Their main complaints are choices that lead to death rather than meaningfully different storylines, and a cliffhanger ending that leaves the story unfinished.
Screenshots and trailer
Road to Empress I system requirements
Minimum: Dedicated, 4 GB RAM, 10 GB of disk space.
As published by the developer.
Can my PC run Road to Empress I?
Tell us your graphics card once and every game page will answer this for you.
Set up my PC →Minimum
- OS
- Windows 10 / Windows 11
- Processor
- Intel Core i3 or AMD equivalent
- Graphics
- Dedicated Graphics Card
- Memory
- 4 GB RAM
- Storage
- 10 GB available space
- DirectX
- Version 11
Recommended
- OS
- Windows 10 / Windows 11
- Processor
- Intel Core i5 or AMD equivalent or better
- Graphics
- Dedicated Graphics Card
- Memory
- 4 GB RAM
- Storage
- 10 GB available space
- DirectX
- Version 11
Does Road to Empress I have co-op or multiplayer?
No: single-player only, no multiplayer modes declared.
Does Road to Empress I run on Steam Deck?
Playable Playable: it runs on Steam Deck with some adjustments.
- Default controller config not fully functional
- Sometimes shows mouse, keyboard or non-Deck controller icons
- Some text entry requires manually opening the on-screen keyboard
- Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
- Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
- Singleplayer gameplay requires active internet connection
- External controllers are not supported for the primary player
PC version details
- DRM
- None declared on Steam
- Controller
- Keyboard and mouse
- Platforms
- Windows
- Achievements
- 40
- Steam features
- Family Sharing, In-app purchases
- Languages
- Full audio: Simplified Chinese. Text only: English, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Spanish - Spain.
Does Road to Empress I use AI-generated content?
No AI-generated content is disclosed on the game's Steam page.
Self-reported by the developer under Steam rules: it covers AI content that ships in the game, not tools used to make it. Steam page checked on Oct 27, 2026. How to filter AI games on Steam
Tags
- Choices Matter
- FMV
- Female Protagonist
- RPG
- Story Rich
- Visual Novel
- Immersive Sim
- Multiple Endings
- Adventure
- Historical
- Interactive Fiction
- Cinematic
- Singleplayer
- Sexual Content
- Dating Sim
- Indie
Recent updates
- Aug 5, 2026 · August 5 Update Notes
- Jun 22, 2026 · Update Notes for June 22
- May 30, 2026 · Patch Notes for May 30
- May 13, 2026 · 한국 지역 이용자 연령 인증 절차 업데이트 공지
- Apr 24, 2026 · April 24 Update Notes
1 DLC available.
