A Look at: Long Live the Queen

[jkid101094]

Brief Overview:

Pricing: $10.00 (Download) $13.00 + Taxes and Shipping (On-Disc) (More details here.)
Where to Get: HanakoGames.com/Steam
Dominant Genre: Visual Novel
Notable Qualities:

• The game was made using Renpy, the same engine as Katawa Shoujo.
  
• If you already own the downloaded version, you can order the disc version for $5 plus shipping, however, this method is more expensive.

In Depth Look:

Do you like deep storytelling? Do you like games that hold your hand and let you make mistakes? Do you hate playing as a 14-Year old girl? Well fuck you, buddy. We won't be havin' any of your shit here. Long Live the Queen defies the stereotypes of a lot of other Visual Novels out there. It's not trying to immerse you in the story or bait you with hentai or even try to pass itself off as 'art', yet, it's the fact that it's less of a 'good read' and more of a 'fun game' that makes it so fun to play.

You play the game as Princess Elodie, a fourteen year old girl on her way to becoming the queen. On paper it sounds like your typical Barbie loving girly girl story and, in a way, it is...that is until you've destroyed a navel fleet, taken enemy soldiers hostage and sold them for ransom. To try to set the game's tone, let me read you off a few of the achievements.

Have You;

• ...faced a Cival War?
• ...ordered an execution?
• ...paid a reward for killing a fugitive?
• ...become an evil minion?
• ...encountered a tentacle monster?
• ...ordered a human sacrifice?
• ...been blessed by the favor of cats?

I think that gives you a general idea of the scenarios you'll be face with. Either way Elodie's path to royalty isn't daisies and dandelions. Someone will want you dead at every turn which is where the game's unforgiving nature comes in. So how do you protect yourself exactly? Stats.

It's not nearly as hard as it looks.

Every week you get to choose Elodie's morning and afternoon classes. These, in turn, will affect her stats which are needed to pass in-game checks. In some cases failing a check could result in something silly like acidentally falling out a window or tripping over yourself, but in some it can also cost you your life.

This is your idea of false flattery? Looks like I need to put more points into being an asshole.

To be fair, in most situations, just because one check isn't passed doesn't exactly mean you'll get a Death Ending. The game actually makes an effort to give players multiple ways to approach a situation. For example, at one point Elodie is sent a box of poisoned chocolates. Training her in poison will allow her to heal herself before her symptoms become deadly, but putting stats into Dog Training gives her a pet pooch that sniffs out the poison beforehand.

Stats aren't hard to raise either. Elodie also has moods which you can influence over the weekend. These moods influence how much she learns per week and in what classes, for example, putting her in an Angry mood doubles the points she gets for studying subjects in the Military category while reducing the points she gains for subjects in the Animals category. In addition, the more subjects you study in a category, the more bonuses you earn for other subjects in that category, so for example, if I study Swords for two weeks, then I'll gain more points if I decide to study Archery later on. It's a neat approach that I haven't really seen before. Not only that, but since it's so fast, the grinding you do each playthrough is made miles faster to the point where it's hardly a problem.



To make the system even more rewarding, you're given new outfits for getting all three subjects in a category to 25% (a feat which you'll need to do anyway if you want to get a stat beyond 50%). These outfits, aside from looking cute, grant Elodie boosts to all stats in the category she obtained the outfit from. For example, the Nurse outfit boosts her medicine stats. Dispite all this, however, the system is so simple that it never goes over your head. You're likely to misjudge how high you need a stat to be, but the in-game save will take you to the beginning of any week so that you can try again with more prep time. The game even autosaves in case you're a dits like me and forget to save right before a 'boss fight'.

True warlords wear pink.

Outside of the gameplay, however, the game falls short of being a 'visual novel'. The story isn't deep at all and sometimes plot elements are introduced that don't even effect your story. Because of the system it's more then possible to fail a check and die only to realize you have to restart your game. The music is nice but most tracks are 20 second long loops and sometimes the dialogue can be really corny like the aforementioned tit joke. That being said, the game is still enjoyable and those things will other bother the biggest nitpickers. I honestly found the gameplay and the short storylines to complement each other and, even after being forced to restart a couple of times, getting back to where I was was quick and easy, if a bit tedious.

I do have to commend the game though. Never once did I make a choice only to have Elodie take the wording out of context. I always got exactly what I expected from her. To top if off most choices are moral rather than being "door A vs. door B" or "good choice vs. bad choice". The skill checks also keep the game from becoming stale, prompting you to tackle the same situations in different ways each playthrough and since there aren't very defined, "routes" the game becomes less linear and more so reflects your actions. It's weird how much choice is in a game about a Princess Sailor Moon.

You can unlock more options by passing skill checks as well, making each game even more unique than the last.

Sailor what?...But I don't even OWN a ship!

'

So in the end the question is, "Is this game worth the $10"? The answer, in my case, is actually "no". Though that is only because I consider the $10 entrance fee to be more of a donation. I'm not one to buy a book, but I'm one to support a good product. In the end the choice is yours alone, but Long Live the Queen gets my blessing. It succeeds in the places I feel Katawa Shoujo and 999 did not. I don't find going through the game tedious or boring and the skill checks keep me pulled in enough to feel like I'm playing a game. While there aren't any puzzles and the game ultimately comes down to stats I got more of a sense of accomplishment building Elodie up just to tackle a specific check that stopped me from being crowned before then I ever did seeing Lily's hentai scenes in Katawa or finishing a puzzle in 999. I may be overselling it to you, but the game is definitely my favorite Visual Novel...if you want to call it that.

[jkid101094]

Are you sure this isn't hentai?

Positive. If it is I haven't seen it.

Also LOL at "I really enjoyed this game! Is it worth $10? Nope." Kinda negates all the praise you gave the game when you don't even think it's worth buying.

If that's the case 999 sure as hell isn't worth the $40 entrance fee. What I was trying to articulate was that I'd personally never buy a Visual Novel, and I know I'm not the only one, so I think of my $10 as a donation for a job well done rather than an entry ticket.

I still can't comprehend how you could like this game more than 999 (or how you could dislike 999 at all), but I've come to accept that your tastes are inferior different.

Because it doesn't spend an hour describing how an exploded corpse looks and smells for no reason.

[jkid101094]

What do you have against buying visual novels? Are you against buying books too? If a product is worth your time, it's worth your money as well.

And if I said yes...?
Would it work if I said the game is worth $10, just not in the conventional sense? Honestly I would have rather had it been free then have the ability to donate $10.

You're over-exaggerating, but it's called a visual novel for a reason.

I just have a hard time believing that the payoff for making Elodie a good queen is better than the payoff for going through 999. The gameplay seems to be simple stat-building and as you said there isn't a deep story to keep you interested. So both the gameplay and story fall short and yet this game is more compelling than 999?

Obviously something about both kept me playing the game all day where I gave up on 999 really early on. And at least in this game your decisions matter outside of the ending.

[jkid101094]

Well no shit you'd rather something be free than have to pay for it.

I still don't think you understand what I'm saying so I'll drop the subject. You probably don't understand me because our values are different.

Like I would totally pirate the game, 100% it and then buy it rather than buying it outright.

I'm not sure what you mean by "your decisions matter outside of the ending", but 999 is a visual novel so what were you expecting?

So is this, that's no excuse. I'm probably alone on this but I hate reading in general, especially in mass like most VNs make me do. At least with this game there's a lot of stat building and decision making to break up the narrative and keep it intresting.

[Hakudamashi]

Does she age?

[jkid101094]

Does she age?

The entire point of the game is to make it to your 15th birthday which is apparently an adult in this world.

They do tell you what becomes of her afterwards though so...kinda...?

[Hakudamashi]

Must be pretty influential if you're goal is to live to see 15...

[jkid101094]

Well you are the underage daughter of the queen and the last heir to her throne.

[Hakudamashi]

Yet you're allowed to leave your room?

[jkid101094]

Daddy let me lead a Naval fleet into a battle he knew we were going to lose. Either he's a dumbass or this kingdom doesn't have it's priorities straight.

[Hakudamashi]

Daddy let me lead a Naval fleet into a battle he knew we were going to lose. Either he's a dumbass or this kingdom doesn't have it's priorities straight.

I assume the latter...

Why do you play VNs if the majority of them force you to read a bunch of text?

Or maybe the genre isn't his cup of tea? With a few exceptions.

[jkid101094]

Or maybe the genre isn't his cup of tea? With a few exceptions.

This. The only three exceptions that I can't deny being VNs are Katawa Shoujo, the Ace Attourney series and this.