Most Romantic Tales: Romeo and Juliet Preview

When it comes to romantic stories, William Shakespeare’s tale of two star-crossed lovers from the houses of Montague and Capulet is one of the classics. But how many people have actually read Romeo and Juliet cover to cover? Indie studio Baby Eish Games is working on Most Romantic Tales: Romeo and Juliet, a "visual novel" designed to introduce more people to the story by presenting a line by line translation of Shakespeare’s original play into contemporary, colloquial American English.

Gameplay is presented as an interactive novel. As you play, you’ll be asked to choose from a variety of different dialogue options that can affect the storyline while still keeping true to the original. In the opening scene, for example, do you choose to try to break up the fight between the servants of Capulet and Montague, or just stand back and watch? When the fiery Tybalt arrives on the scene, do you try to calm him down, or draw your sword and egg him on? You can choose to follow the original storyline, or choose a happy ending.

In between acts, you’ll complete a variety of jigsaw puzzles of images taken from the scenes in the game.

Most Romantic Stories will include an illustrated text file of Shakespeare’s original prose as well, for comparison purposes or just for the user’s reference.

Most Romantic Tales: Romeo and Juliet is launching soon, so if you’ve ever been curious about this story, or simply want to read a new and more modern interpretation, stay tuned.

Erin Bell