Princess Battles - Review

 

Princess Battles is a stat raising game and anyone who knows me will know how much I loath these types of games (but I play them anyway for the great stories). Princess Battles is, however, one of those rare exception to my hate for them! NekoMura has taken the typical, boring and tedious stat building mechanic and made it something new and refreshing. Something even someone like me can enjoy. How have they done this? Well they've made it into an interactive card battle system and the best part is it works into the story perfectly. I think before I can talk about how great this card battle system is, I'll have to touch on the story slightly first.

You play as a young princess called Lillian (name changeable) who has recently heard about a local hero in her kingdom who is popular among the common folk and the champion of many tournaments. This year, the hero, Olivia, is planning on competing in the card battle game called “Prima” which is only for ladies. Upon hearing the news, Lillian sets out to learn everything she can about Prima to enter the tournament and beat her rival who evidently has caught the eyes of her parents, the king and queen and show the world that she's the best.

So now that that's out of the way, let's get back to this amazing stat raising mechanic. As I've said, it's done via a card battle system. The aim of the game is to raise your three stats, intelligence, charm and refinement before your opponent. Your resources are money and energy. The catch is that you and your opponent wont start with the same level of stats or resources. For example, you may have more money while they have more energy. Their highest stat could be intelligence while yours is charm, etc. To win the game you have to play with three major sets of cards. These cards are “school” which uses energy and money but can give some pretty nice stats. “Work” which gives you money at the expense of energy and sometimes decreases a certain stat by 2 depending on the type of work you pick and “item” which gives you stats at the cost of money. Some are cheap cards that gives you very little stats and some are really expensive that gives you a huge boost. There is also a special type of 'item' card which will gives you energy in exchange for money. The trick is balancing everything out. You really don't want to run low on both of your resources otherwise you will be forces to skip a turn. You can however, discard one of the five cards in your hand. Don't worry you will get them back automatically at the end of each battle. The best part about doing this is you get +5 money for each card you discard but you only have a limited amount of them so think carefully about doing it first. You are also given a little bit of energy each time it's your turn. There are also some other cards such as “attack” and “defence” cards. Defence will give you a shield that will protect you from one attack. Despite when you use it, it will protect you until you are attacked. It doesn't disappear after a certain amount of turns or anything like that. There are several types of attack cards such as one to decrease your opponents energy, one to decrease certain stats by a little and one that will decrease your energy gain per turn for 10 rounds. Other useful cards are ones that are called “coupons”. This one will allow you to buy any item card for 1 money so its good to save them for when you have an expensive card in your hand. The other is a card which will allow you to use two school cards for free. Throughout the game, you gain more cards so you wont start with all of the ones I've mentioned above! For me, the best part about this card battle game is that if you win, you are given a new piece of clothing from your opponent. Most of the time, this seems purely cosmetic but there is one guy who will react to how you are dressed! There is one more thing to mention and that is, that each opponent will have a different way in which they play. Some will be more aggressive than others etc, but you are given tips before hand.

I think I've covered everything for the battle game and it may sound a little overwhelming. I know that on my first play through I was caught a little off guard but it really is a simple game once you get into it!!

As for the story itself, it really is a simple one. It revolves mainly around Prima and Lillian's desire to win against Olivia. There isn't really that much more to it, but I find that simple is sometimes better, especially in this case. If anything more complex was added, I think it would have taken away from the card battle and that would have been a shame. As with any stat raising visual novel, that is the main focus of the game but trust me, it is pretty fun in this one!

There are four obtainable guys in this game but I felt as though one of those was more of a special character. The way to get his ending is a little different than the other three and since I'm trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible I'm not inclined to say more. You'll have to look around if you want more details or better yet – Play the game! :3 What I can tell you though is that each guy is unique from one another. They all have decent stories and reason for liking the princess. I did feel you learn more about some than others but I think that has to do with their relationship with the princess so in a way its far more believable! Like I said, I really don't want to spoil to much but I can completely understand that the guys are the main focus for some people in visual novels so the best I can offer is this link here to the main website where you can learn more about them. I really do like the little... uh, I'm honestly not sure what to call them... banners? So I'm going to put the one of my favourite guy here. :D

The CG, sprites and background are all really pleasing to the eye and unique. There were, in some cases, times where I thought “Hmm, that could be a little better there.” but even having said that, the art work is far from horrible and was a lot better than some other stuff I have seen ship out in visual novels! They are also a hundred times better than what I can draw so I really don't feel comfortable judging them too much! For anyone who is wondering though, there is a total of 19 CG's, so there's a pretty decent amount!

Another thing I really liked in this novel that I don't believe I've come across before is that it has achievements to be gained! I'm a huge sucker for achievements and as a TV show from my childhood days would say, “Gotta catch em all!” … so to speak and there are 22 achievements to be had. It's not to many and you don't have to go out of your way to get them... as in they are easy to gain as long as you play all the endings!

This game also comes with some sound effects. Honestly... I'm not sure if they were really necessary in some places as is usually the case when I come across such things in NV's but it did add a nice little touch to this particular novel. They range from such things as the girls laughing together to a word or two such as “Excuse me!”. You will find quite a lot of sound effect during card battles which seemed much more fitting. Some of them I did giggle at slightly.

And finally, something I don't usually comment on but the UI is stunning. It's very easy to navigate. There's a save, settings and load option at the bottom of the screen at all times. As with any visual novel you can also right click to bring up the save menu. I'm under the impression this game was made with Ren'Py but there are a limited amount of save spots – 10 to be exact. So if you're like me and you have this thing where you have to save before each option and give it it's own space, it's going to be a tight squeeze per play through. In the settings and right click menu there is also an option called “Help” so if you find yourself stuck on anything, check that out!!

(I think this is an older version as there's no settings option in the SS but you get the gist of it)

Overall - It's a nice little game. It doesn't take that long to finish it. I believe I got it done in about 2 evenings so I guess I'd class it as a 'medium' length game? The stat raising is new and refreshing. NekoMura really has gone all out for this in my opinion. They really have taken something that I usually find a horrible experience and made it really fun in a way that goes nicely with the story. The guys were all nice. I didn't dislike a single one of them, although I am a little curious about one of them. Mainly the one I see as a 'special character'. I would recommend this to people. Sadly though there isn't a demo currently available but if you are interested in checking it out, you can find it here!!