This princess is in her own castle
March 16, 2015 11:42 AM Subscribe
Hanako Games’ Long Live the Queen is a princess story all about facets and demanding respect. You play as Princess Elodie, who must replace her late mother as queen by the end of the year. It’s a princess power fantasy where you learn all about Elodie’s world so that she may navigate politics both at home and abroad and survive attempts on her life. It’s a brutal game, as you learn how to progress by failing and/or dying repeatedly. It’s maddening for perfectionists.Kim Nguyen plays Long Live the Queen and Princess Maker.
I sent this to a friend who's got a complicated relationship with her daughter's princess obsession. It sounds like the sort of thing she might appreciate, since problem she has isn't with princesses per se, it's with the lack of effort and accomplishment in so many princess stories.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:22 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:22 PM on March 16, 2015
I love both these games. Long Live the Queen keeps the best elements of Princess Maker while ditching the creepiest parts and adding a lot more story. Great stuff.
posted by asperity at 12:30 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by asperity at 12:30 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Even excluding the completely controlling element of plotting out your daughter's ever waking moment my general Princess Maker especially Princess Maker 3 is totally not an appropriate game to give to your kids. I have no idea whether PM 4 and 5 tone down some of the creepy elements.
In theory I think Raising Sims as a genre can be done well but execution always seems to get kinda strange to me.
posted by vuron at 1:13 PM on March 16, 2015
In theory I think Raising Sims as a genre can be done well but execution always seems to get kinda strange to me.
posted by vuron at 1:13 PM on March 16, 2015
Looks like Long Live the Queen has a demo available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
posted by books for weapons at 1:34 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by books for weapons at 1:34 PM on March 16, 2015
Can anyone comment on whether the content is appropriate for younger kids (6 - 9)? It looks mostly harmless from the pictures on steam, but one review mentions being "rule 34'ed japan style", which doesn't sound good even if I'm not quite sure what they mean. I don't care if boobs or boyfriends are mentioned, but I'm not sure I want to explain to my daughters why the princess was raped by a troll or some such.
posted by recursion at 2:20 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by recursion at 2:20 PM on March 16, 2015
recursion, these games end up being rather fiddly even if the content is acceptable. Lots of minmaxing and choosing the right things (or at least that was the case in Princess Maker 2). It might be acceptable for kids, but I can't say if it would be fun for them.
posted by that girl at 2:32 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by that girl at 2:32 PM on March 16, 2015
Princess Maker is probably not appropriate for younger kids -- it's overall harmless and really fun, but there are some rather boobtastic endings and romantic scenarios/careers that are a little ehhhhhhhh. This is a pretty good LP, which may give you an idea of what to expect. That said, a friend of mine gave me a copy when I was in junior high, and this is one of the few games in my adult life I have played over and over and over. It's one of my ultimate comfort games, because it's just so soothing to watch my pixellated daughter grow up as the calendar days tick past.
Long Live the Queen is probably also not appropriate for young children. It's well written, but there are some (conceptually) gory endings and themes that small kids might not be able to handle. I also vaguely remember briefly mentioned rape and incest. Elodie also dies a lot. To me it's kind of like Puella Magi Madoka Magica -- there's nothing really explicit onscreen, I wouldn't have a problem giving it to a preteen or watching it with my parents, but I feel like kids as young as recursion mentions would either miss the point entirely or be freaked out.
posted by angst at 2:38 PM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Long Live the Queen is probably also not appropriate for young children. It's well written, but there are some (conceptually) gory endings and themes that small kids might not be able to handle. I also vaguely remember briefly mentioned rape and incest. Elodie also dies a lot. To me it's kind of like Puella Magi Madoka Magica -- there's nothing really explicit onscreen, I wouldn't have a problem giving it to a preteen or watching it with my parents, but I feel like kids as young as recursion mentions would either miss the point entirely or be freaked out.
posted by angst at 2:38 PM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Even aside from the heavy story content, LLTQ is the sort of game you have to take notes on to reach the endings you want (or cheat with walkthroughs.)
posted by asperity at 2:54 PM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by asperity at 2:54 PM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
The Princess Maker games I've never tried, admittedly because they sound like massive creepfests. I've thought that LLtQ sounded like a cool game at first, but because of its anime styling and what I've heard about PM, I've thought the genre was kind of tainted by association?
If the idea behind these games is interesting, a similar series is the Wonder Project J games, although in them you're raising a robot child.
posted by JHarris at 3:16 PM on March 16, 2015
If the idea behind these games is interesting, a similar series is the Wonder Project J games, although in them you're raising a robot child.
posted by JHarris at 3:16 PM on March 16, 2015
The anime styling is what it is, but apart from the title screen is fairly understated. It's basically Games of Thrones without the boobs 'n sex and such.
And it's more complex and unforgiving than Democracy 3 frex, to name a similar spreadsheet simulator.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:18 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
And it's more complex and unforgiving than Democracy 3 frex, to name a similar spreadsheet simulator.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:18 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
OH GOD DO NOT UNLEASH THIS ON THE UNWARY!
I mean, uh, Long Live The Queen is totally not CRACK IN A BARREL. No. Not at all..
posted by corb at 3:39 PM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
I mean, uh, Long Live The Queen is totally not CRACK IN A BARREL. No. Not at all..
posted by corb at 3:39 PM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Oh, but for the question about kids - I can't speak to Princess Maker, but LLTQ is relatively fine and my daughter was also obsessed for it for a while when she was 10.
posted by corb at 3:40 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by corb at 3:40 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've thought the genre was kind of tainted by association?
Eh, at this point there are a ton of games out there with raising sim/stat raising components, most of which aren't particularly creepy. Common way to add play difficulty to visual novels and dating sims, and usually not even close to as complicated or fun as PM (creepy or not, I enjoyed the hell out of PM and raising an endless succession of daughters named after diseases.) LLTQ is interesting since it gets the crunchy part of PM without the grossness. (And it's probably for the best I can't rename Elodie.)
It's basically Games of Thrones without the boobs 'n sex and such.
Exactly. The only protagonist is a girl who's in way, way over her head, and all the adults around her are unwilling or unable to help as much as they should for reasons that make sense.
posted by asperity at 3:41 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Eh, at this point there are a ton of games out there with raising sim/stat raising components, most of which aren't particularly creepy. Common way to add play difficulty to visual novels and dating sims, and usually not even close to as complicated or fun as PM (creepy or not, I enjoyed the hell out of PM and raising an endless succession of daughters named after diseases.) LLTQ is interesting since it gets the crunchy part of PM without the grossness. (And it's probably for the best I can't rename Elodie.)
It's basically Games of Thrones without the boobs 'n sex and such.
Exactly. The only protagonist is a girl who's in way, way over her head, and all the adults around her are unwilling or unable to help as much as they should for reasons that make sense.
posted by asperity at 3:41 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh, and the developer's got a lot of experience working with the good parts of Princess Maker. Hanako previously released Cute Knight and Cute Knight Kingdom, which are a lot closer to Princess Maker gameplay, with a simpler story and PM-ish combat elements, and a ton of different endings. They might be a better fit for younger kids but I couldn't swear to it. Still the sort of game where taking notes is rewarded, but not so much complicated political intrigue.
posted by asperity at 3:51 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by asperity at 3:51 PM on March 16, 2015
Princess Maker 2 had some sort of X-rated hentai ending someone told me.
posted by reiichiroh at 4:40 PM on March 16, 2015
posted by reiichiroh at 4:40 PM on March 16, 2015
reiichiroh: "Princess Maker 2 had some sort of X-rated hentai ending someone told me."
No. The only weird part is that one ending your daughter marries the PC (father) and some of the final CGs. However, neither of the two games are what I call kid-friendly as they are complicated and prone to failing but not knowing exactly why. It's one of those looks simple but actually you end up doing a lot of diagramming due to all the various endings.
There is a demo for LLTQ if anyone is curious though as it give a good overall idea of the gameplay. I wanted to like it ended up being very dull for me.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 5:48 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
No. The only weird part is that one ending your daughter marries the PC (father) and some of the final CGs. However, neither of the two games are what I call kid-friendly as they are complicated and prone to failing but not knowing exactly why. It's one of those looks simple but actually you end up doing a lot of diagramming due to all the various endings.
There is a demo for LLTQ if anyone is curious though as it give a good overall idea of the gameplay. I wanted to like it ended up being very dull for me.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 5:48 PM on March 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you play your cards right in LLTQ, you can get two gay witches to have a wedding at the end.
posted by Pizzarina Sbarro at 9:49 PM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Pizzarina Sbarro at 9:49 PM on March 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
The only weird part is that one ending your daughter marries the PC (father)
Adoptive father, I'd hasten to add. There's also an ending where she marries his butler, who's a cute, helpful, friendly demon.
posted by Gelatin at 3:35 AM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Adoptive father, I'd hasten to add. There's also an ending where she marries his butler, who's a cute, helpful, friendly demon.
posted by Gelatin at 3:35 AM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
There's also an ending where she marries his butler, who's a cute, helpful, friendly demon.
Isn't that the one you get by doing nothing but helping him out with housework?
posted by asperity at 10:08 AM on March 17, 2015
Isn't that the one you get by doing nothing but helping him out with housework?
posted by asperity at 10:08 AM on March 17, 2015
Isn't that the one you get by doing nothing but helping him out with housework?
From here:
posted by tickingclock at 9:21 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
From here:
Olive [the main character] has a hidden statistic in PM2: Relationship with Cube. This is raised every time Cube rescues her (3 points), or nurses her back to health (1 point). It is quickly raised (20 points) should he rescue her from a bandit that has assaulted her.Basically, when Olive goes on an adventure, gets in a fight, and loses, she gets rescued by Cube and this raises the Relationship with Cube points. If she goes adventuring to the south (the waterfall region), she can be attacked by a bandit. I didn't notice this as a kid, but I now realize that being "attacked by a bandit" meant getting sexually assaulted. Ick.
If this statistic reaches 100 and she has no superseding marriage ending lined up, then she will profess her love to Cube. The gods frown upon this, as Cube is a demon, but begrudgingly accept their love.
posted by tickingclock at 9:21 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, as far as I know, there are no explicit sex scenes in Princess Maker 2 endings. However, there are lots of... questionable endings where the main character becomes, e.g., a mistress to a rich man, or a refined harlot, and these endings are depicted with the character completely nude.
But! There are lots of other cool and completely innocuous endings. I've gotten queen regnant, general (as in the military rank), and dancer. The dancer ending disappointing, but interesting: her art score was high, but her constitution score was low, and the game put together a story where she danced beautifully but could not be on stage for many hours on end, and so became a dance instructor, instead.
posted by tickingclock at 9:31 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
But! There are lots of other cool and completely innocuous endings. I've gotten queen regnant, general (as in the military rank), and dancer. The dancer ending disappointing, but interesting: her art score was high, but her constitution score was low, and the game put together a story where she danced beautifully but could not be on stage for many hours on end, and so became a dance instructor, instead.
posted by tickingclock at 9:31 PM on March 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
That really is the most fun thing about Princess Maker and similar games: how tiny differences in how you played it get reflected in the endings. It's disappointing that so many other games with stat-raising components keep it simple and don't really do much with the results. A game like that might differentiate between maybe three different versions of the same ending, but it's not enough to make slogging through setting schedules for every week/day of a game feel anything but tedious. I wish they wouldn't bother if they're not going to put in the effort to do it right.
posted by asperity at 11:28 AM on March 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by asperity at 11:28 AM on March 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
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I'll check out Long Live the Queen -- thanks for the post. Looks like it's available on Steam for $10.99 Canadian.
posted by tickingclock at 12:03 PM on March 16, 2015 [2 favorites]