A friend of mine has this game. We were joking that they should make a sequel called "Soon Dead the Princess" where you are a person trying to kill this princess, the princess is given a random allotment of stats, and you must attempt to figure out what that is so you can present her with things that will get her killed.
Maybe you can choose who you be so you have an attempt at killing her in any way you like and different endings based off of who you decide to be and how you decide to kill her.
That's a really bad comparison because Dark Souls handles difficulty very fairly, and almost every method of death you can see coming from a mile away and it is completely your fault. Long Live the Queen, however, is completely trial and error and is impossible to play through properly without restarting the game dozens of times to do exactly what the game wants you to do (unless you just look up a wiki guide).
***** it's not that bad a comparison to be honest, since in dark souls you need to learn movement patterns and room layout that you can have no knowledge of beforehand and can kill you pretty much without you being able to do anything about it, but the 2nd time you go there you know what you're up against and it will be easier, both have trial and error. but yea i prefer how darksouls do its respawning rather then savescumming, since the savescumming break the flow of the game and with no autosave it can be pretty frustrating.
Banarok Lionrage Dark souls stands out in that it tends to give you some sort of warning/hint of incoming threats. If you advance carefully and observe your surroundings, there are very very few unavoidable deaths, even in a first time playthrough.
I like how difficult this game is to win. You need multiple playthroughs, and you need to know what you're doing the whole way through. It's like a particularly difficult level in the old mario games. Dickish jumps, or invisible blocks right over cliffs that you couldn't possibly have known about the first time around. It's designed to make you die over and over so that you have to try it again a different way next time. In a game like mario, that sort of thing is made to force you to learn the level's layout, and complete the task with muscle memory, which is really satisfying. This game makes you pay attention to what is happening in the world as it unfurls around you over and over again, and makes you adjust your stats accordingly. Every new decision, or passed/failed stat check makes the story a little different, and gives you a new tidbit of information about the world. My first time playing through the game, the world seemed vast and strange, and I was somehow expected to understand all of it, but by the time I finally managed to get that girl to survive, I was fully immersed into the world. I knew what was happening, and I knew the consequences of events. I knew who to trust, and I knew how to manage my funds. By the end of my time with the game, I became a really effective queen, and I think that is what's so good about this game. That girly pink-haired avatar is supposed to be the monarch of the country, but once you get a handle of things, you really grow into the leader Elodie is expected to be: the leader that country needs.
I stopped playing Dark Souls 2 for a minute to watch this video. James: "Do you like to die?" Me: "Yes!" James: "Do you like to die a lot?" Me: "YES!!" James: "Do you like to do so in the role of a young princess?" Me: "YE - wait what?"
Long live the Queen. What basically happens when someone takes the "Big Book o' Medieval Monarchs", sprinkle it with some anachronistic cutesy anime styling, and make a game out of it. Seriously. What happens in that game (minus the magic bits), has at some point happened to some member of one of the old European Royal Families.
ShadowFalcon It's kind of like this game (In more than a few aspects, especially skills), but it's more of a life sim/RPG, as you raise your daughter from 10 to adulthood (18). You do this by sending her to school (to learn magic, science, fencing, manners, etc), work/jobs (to earn money so you can pay for lessons, clothes and food, gain stats) sending her on RPG turn based battle style adventures (to find treasure) and giving her breaks (so she doesn't work herself to sickness, delinquency, or the grave). The game, despite being from 1988 (Although recently a remake was released on steam), is truly a masterpiece, from its visuals, to its soundtrack, to its 74 endings. If you liked Long live the Queen, you will surely Princess maker 2. Anyway, that's my rant, if you like what you hear, and don't have ridiculous high expectations, I implore you to watch a review/play through of that game, or buy it (although I'd wait for a sale, because of its price)
FUCK THAT CHOCOLATE. Took me three times to get past that the first time (I was playing with the notifications off so I didn't know what skills I needed in order to survive that).
The nation's being invaded? Yes! Time to finally put those dancing and decoration skills to the test! And to think they laughed at me when I completely ignored my military.
I've played this one a fair bit, and was deeply impressed by it. The memorization and anticipation was in fact a bit off-putting for the first few plays; but after five or six playthroughs I came to grips with the fact that despite appearances, the game is not about the experience of being a princess or navigating the difficulties of making your way to that coronation. It's about discovering the whole labyrinth of hazards, actions, reactions, and stories that make up the journey -- and the rabbit holes in there go amazingly deep.
You should look at Magical Diary and give us your opinions on that, as long as we're talking about visual novel games that push the envelope. For anyone wanting a cursory explanation: Magical Diary is basically an anime, Harry Potter-esque narrative where your character finds out they have magical powers and get to go to a special school for it. What it has in cliche, it makes up for it in some genuinely progressive concepts that are honestly some of the first times I've ever seen these things in a game- such as respectful discussions about pronouns (for gender), consent, safe sex, etc. I was especially proud of how one of the relationships was handled where you can end up dating your best friend, who is a girl, and the game treats it in a very mature way like it were any other relationship. And, on top of that, it has some pretty cool mechanics for the "exams" which are in the style of those first person adventure games where you actually use the spells you learn in your classes. Its certainly not the best game ever, but I feel like its the sort of game you'll be playing through a second time not because you died or failed, but because you genuinely want a second chance to live in the world with all these characters.
I have played this game and found it a very fun experience overall. It's true that your first couple of tries are likely going to get you killed, but I think that's the consequence of making it such a story-driven experience. That said, this game does give you a lot of freedom in the way you want to play it. You can make it very far on your first try if you try to roleplay it. Eventually it becomes another game. One that is a collection of puzzles, all with their own story and little details. Finding all the details of the story, all its endings good and bad become the goal. I think this is closer to a souls game in terms of how you become successful. You'll have to learn from earlier mistakes all the time.
I got this as a Christmas present from a friend of mine. I let out a SQUEE when I died the first time. You're right about the memorization issue, but the deaths were, for me, worth the replays. Especially since the death pictures look like lace doilies, which is delightful.
This game throws you for a loop because Elodie can learn skills you'd never think a princess would need like swimming. Then all of a sudden, she drowns while commanding a naval fleet.
I played this game. Intuitively player is always able to recognize every singular deadly event is always avoidable by it alone. The challenge comes to avoid all of them. Then another challenge comes how to avoid all of them and achieve the best outcome. However, the more complex the goal become, the more restriction player start to realize. It was a great experience.
I found out about this game through Total Biscuit. It's super fun. If it were longer and had more branching options so that all of the stats have value, it could be a must play game.
Actually this is not a visual novel. There's a certain genre similar to life simulation in Japan, which the player raises a character (most likely a daughter), improve his/her attributes and get one of 80+ endings based on these attributes. Princess Maker series is the most popular of this kind. Apparently this concept is new to the North America game market.
That was actually pretty well done considering the circumstances. I like the bonus info boxes, I didn't notice them till now if they have been in previous videos. They help you to understand the information quicker, and it's a nice little touch.
About the problems you mentioned: I think it is just a matter of changing your mindset. It is kind of like Re: Zero life in another world, but made years before that became popular. The entire point of the game is to acquire meta knowledge to help you get through the game. You can ruin the game by looking up a guide or something, but the game lasted me for a couple of days of fun trying to find the different ways to get through things and figure out all that was happening. If you take it with the Re: Zero mindset, you will enjoy the game a lot more.
Im becoming more and more addicted to James Recommends as the show gets older. I remember thinking I couldn't really get into it as a replacement for the "games you may not have tried" but its growing on me.
"do you like to die" me: I play dark souls, of course. "do you like to die alot?" me: BITCH DID YOU NOT HEAR ME!? I play dark souls! naw, I kid. keep up your awesome stuff James!
I played this at the recommendation of a friend who leans toward Japaneses horror, JRPGs, and small-team-made 32-bit horror. It's honestly pretty perfect for me in terms of game play, as I enjoy carefully balancing abilities and stats and having time to mull over my next action. Sort of a problem-solving game when you get right to it. James is right that there is obviously a particular way the creators wanted you to solve different routes, and it can be really frustrating when you are nearly at the end of the game only to realize there's one last, unavoidable interaction that you can't beat unless you started building your stats all the way at the beginning. Still, I don't personally mind puzzles that only have one solution, and with so many different routes to take (the militaristic princess, the artistic princess, the occultist/religious princess, the animal husbandry princess...) you can get a lot of play out of it. Also, each play through only takes about 30-45 mins in my experience, so the many, many times you die -- even when it's toward the end -- aren't quite so devastating. Side note with a little bit of a spoiler: Despite knowing from the very beginning that that stupid ball was coming up because my friend told me about it beforehand, I still forgot about it in the thick of things every single time I played and my stats were never where I wanted them to be!
I was going to comment on my somewhat-disappointment and then James basically said what I was going to. That, and a lot of the stats are sort of useless, and may get touched upon like once, but don't ever really come into play. Also similar to this is Magical Diary, which is a pretty alright game. James, you should give that one a try too!
It seems to me that if the game boils down to memorization and knowing things that the main character possibly couldn't, then what I think the game might do well with is a bit randomness. The game wouldn't rely on your knowledge of one scenario, but on your ability to react upon many possible scenarios. Kind of like XCOM. You have all the basic elements this game does: Choices, actions, goals, and death conditions. The difference between the addictive-as-crack XCOM and this game is the extra bit of randomness in XCOM that both makes each game unique and also forces you to react to each situation based on your knowledge of the mechanics and not straight memorizing.
(Taking that to the extreme) a roguelite VN based mainly on manipulating stats for predicted (but unknown) situations? I'd play it! It would probably have to a little less complicated than LLtQ, though.
In my archive diving of TotalBuscuit and the Co-Optional Podcast, I'd heard a bit about this game; and was thoroughly intrigued. One thing James didn't mention, which I discovered with a little research, is that Hanako Games offers free demos of all their games on their website -- which is, in a word, excellent. I'll be downloading a demo before buying the game, but with what I've seen and heard of it, I'm already sold and it's only a matter of time.
Good points you made. This game really reminds me of many Japanese games I'm not content of. What got me into this community was the use of the medium for extraordinary storytelling. I usually drop games if it takes me more than 10 tries to beat a boss. That's usually why I'm not to psyched about pressing "hard" or "insane" difficulties in games. It's not that I have complexes with failing but I simply hate repeating a part of the game. If the game wants to revolve around a story then I'd have to put aside the challenges. I'm okay with dying couple of times to snap my finger and understand the mechanics, but I'd rather not waste my time trying to "master" it. It depends on the goal of the developers and the target audience but Japanese games quiet often tries to compromise both into their games, usually in ways that really turns me off. I'm crazy for anime and Japanese games but there are only couple of Japanese games I managed to finish. Reason being, way too many of them assume players' unconditioned dedication without providing any satisfying reward(which is subjective) at the end. I need to grind and level up, search for items for quests, just to move on with a story? I see these games more as types of games to play once and stash in your library as they collect dust and becomes part of your memories. Maybe you'll pull them out to recommend them to someone or recall the good times for a day. I would rather not put 200 hours into it to get 10 hours worth of content. It is plainly just stupid... It takes more worthless effort on the developer's side and gives time consuming and unattractive material for the players to dig through with their precious time. But Japanese developers constantly reuse this model. And nobody seems to mind it. I cannot understand... Does simply holding onto the game longer make players more satisfied? Then that isn't a good game, that is fanism. This repels potential new comers and make the community into what the gaming community currently is. It makes us look quiet the group of antisocials.
LLTQ was an interesting experience for me. I've been a fan of Hanako's games for awhile so I gave it a lot more of a try that I might usually. I am one of those people it's an awful game for because I really dislike losing, especially if it's solely because of information I couldn't possibly have known before it happens (Dark Souls is a favorite still because the skill element involved there means you can often eke by even when you're caught off guard). Still, I played it many times then quit for awhile, then came back once someone started compiling a wiki of the weekly events which allowed me to plan things out ahead of time. Even then, despite carefully plotting and research, I did discover that the specific series of events I wanted to chain together (getting a partially special ending and saving the kingdom without consequence) was basically impossible to do. For me, I think the next step to improve on what LLTQ did would be to create reactivity to the player's choices. As you said in the video, you do have choice but generally any given choice will end in death like making a princess who wants to be the best warrior in the world can still see you dead from several innocuous sources or simply because you didn't also learn magic. So what I would really want to see is more of a shifting list of checks: for example, at one point there's a potential death check where an assassin attacks but the only relevant combat stat to it is Polearm because she has a ceremonial scepter and is allowed to carry no other weapon. A better game, in my mind, would allow a sufficiently skilled Elodie to carry a sword anyways, or have a dagger hidden away on her person. Fundamentally the checks related to the ongoing story happening every day are what make the game so interesting and so much more engaging than any other princess raising sim. All the same, I would agree that properly cautioned people should consider playing it as it is still an excellent game within its constraints. I'll just keeping hoping that Black Closet, the next game from Hanako, will be more to my overall taste.
Whoa, where in Missouri are you going? I live in the middle of nowhere Missouri but it's just a nice thought that you'd visit this little state of ours :)
This was a game I heard about on Twitter and quickly resolved to get, even if I wasn't going to particularly be good at it. I played through it once, was so overcautious that I got married off to stave off civil war, and put it down because I didn't want to go through the grind of several playthroughs to get a better outcome. (Or to see any of the death-doilies. I might actually regret that, but not enough to pick the game up again.)
Its a princess maker... It has all the qualities of the princess maker series and its not the first westernize princess maker-esk game. I happen to be one of the im sure few people who have actually played both one of the official princess maker games (one of the few actually translated) and one of the westernized princes maker games which for the life of me i cant remember the name. Long live the queen is by far the best of the princess maker games to come to the states or any English speaking country, I would definitely suggest playing it even to just see how far you can get before dieing the first time lol death comes fast too and often its very unfair if you don't know its coming >.> (after watching the video)James really must have never heard of the princess maker series >.> wouldn't blame him its mostly all kept in japan.
NovaStalker When i made that comment no one was talking about it ... i suppose people brought it up when you made you comment but i cant help it if the future proves me wrong.
NovaStalker Can you see ... the minute that comments are made ... no honestly can you because i would love that feature ... if not then your reply is moot as far as you know the comments you are referring to were made hours after I made mine. And I honestly don't care anymore so I'm going to end this here ill read your reply though if you make one. oh and I know people reply to a comment I made half a year ago still to this very day.
Yet another game I've already played and loved. If nothing else at least this is further confirmation of our similar taste, though I keep hoping to see something recommended that went under the radar for me; I know these games are out there if only I could find them.
To be fair, most of the game's life or death moments have at least two or three different skill checks so you don't always have to follow the same path and are more likely to pass your first time. It's still the games biggest flaw that there's no way to predict what skills you'll need, but I do think the devs managed to use that somewhat positively by encouraging players to try out different things every time until they get that perfect run and making unlocking all the death scenes cute, fun, and collectable. Also, it has costumes so you can play dress up.
For a long time I was looking for a game similar to Gainax's Princess Maker 2. I missed the skill-stat sheet and the emotional state shifting mechanics. The story of 'Long live the queen' is intriguing and though it's true the thing about repeating, conveys and atmosphere just with static images and a well-written script that involves the mehcanics in it.
I noticed while watching these videos that if you hover over the annotations they can get stuck on screen, and often overlap making them unreadable. I know it's not your fault but I suggest that for future videos they're added to the about section, because I am interested in reading them but can only read one a video.
Bowserian Right. I was stating the "gamey" visual novels. Other good "non gamey" visual novels are Ever 17, Remember 11, and Fate Stay Night. Warning: last one has some porn in it if you don't patch it out. However, the porn is a very small part of the game, so don't think of it just as a porn game.
The thing I love with this game is that they use the fact you HAVE to replay 50 times to ADD to the difficulty. It makes you want to get back to it right after failing, which makes you over plan. It's impossible to cover all your bases, and it is even harder to figure out what things are going to be important, later.
I wrote so much information down about how I could make ULTIMATE PRINCESS because of all of those set events that you need a lot of diplomacy for but also you need high social standing or geography for others!
I love this game. I intended to just test the game real quick for a few minutes... ending up playing quite seriously for the next 12 hours as I tried to navigate my way to a successful ending, avoiding assassinations, take over plots and accidents from nature.
I highly recommend Magical Diary. I believe it's by the same developer. But I feel it offers both a more personal narrative, but also allows for greater freedom of choice by being less about failure states.
While I would agree that visual novels don't give the player enough interactivity, I also feel that that's not exactly the reason why VNs often feel stale and same-y. It's about the way the narrative is delivered. Traditionally, you have pictures of characters over backgrounds with dialogue boxes. The problem with this system is that it often relies on telling the story through dialogue, which sometimes works (Steins;Gate) and sometimes completely fails (due to the lack of actual narrative). I haven't played many visual novels, but some of the best I've seen are the ones that defy the traditional narrative tools used in VNs. Most notably, Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus by Christine Love. The story in these two is told through diary entries, showing the situation through the eyes of different characters, which as the player reads on paints the picture of what is actually happening.
What I got from the video: Its a game where a princess takes on an active role rather than waiting in her castle just being a princess or helplessly getting kidnapped and expecting someone to come save her. I don't care about the negative things about this game. This is a step in the right direction. Things can be improved in time.
I love Long Live the Queen! I keep bothering everyone I know to play it but they're like "I don't want to watch my princess die horribly!" I would also recommend "The Royal Trap" from the same developer. It's a more traditional visual novel, more focused on relationships, court intrigue is still there, but there's much less death.
Hope James doesn't mind this, but... In case anyone is curious, there are hundreds of other VNs (visual novels) to peruse at renai.us most of which are free. If you guys are curious about making your own VNs, you can use the same engine that Long Live The Queen uses 100% free at www.renpy.org/ There is also an extremely active forum when VN creators support each other with over 20,000 members. Link can be found in the second page I linked to.
I kinda wish james would recommend some of the older retro games that people of this gen missed out. I can a name a couple like suikoden II and Vandal hearts 2 both from PS1.
does anyone else have problems getting extra credits videos to play? I don't know why but this specific computer exclusively refuses to play their videos.
Not long ago I read "Crimes against mimesis." article, from "IF Theory Reader". There was interesting thought about why Interactive Fiction is so conservative. In short, it was all about immersion. If you make your game too inovative it will break the immersion. And IF is all about immersion, so I think it pretty natural for visual novels to be more conservative than other games.
James, I like you. Really, I do. I have nothing but the utmost respect for your work in the video game industry, your opinions, and even that you make some time recommend us some games But for the love of everything sacred, stop with the "Hello RUclipss" thing. It'll sort of make you sound like a ding dong if the videos end up anywhere other then RUclips. Also, your a grown ass man, not a god damned lolcat. Other then that, nice work :P
I really enjoyed this game, but sadly once I beat it I got distracted by other games. The ending I got wasn't as nice as I'd like. The in-the-future summery talked about how a bad flu made her barren, so she hired dancers to try and entice her husband to keep the family line going. There were other things which were similarly melancholy. I feel like I only half succeeded, and surviving shouldn't have been the only goal. I think if you want to find that great ending, along with finding all the deaths, you can get more out of this game than just "try to not die." It definitely is a trial/error and memorization game though. I heard an update tells you how the stats work a bit better; I thought crunching the numbers to figure out the patterns behind the scenes was part of the game. : /
my first playthrough i got a semi-good ending while my country was overrun with bandits for a while it got better the in the long run, and i was loved by the people so it ended overall pretty nicely.
Oh man, this game is a treat! I remember one playthrough where I accidentally screwed over the enemy invasion because of a perfect storm of stats I didn't know mattered. Tip for the wise: Invest in Music, Public Speaking, and Foreign Intelligence.
Think of it as actually being a time-travel game, except that you can only travel back in time and only to places you marked with a save-file. Kinda like Ground-Hog day.
How about "Princess Maker 2"? It doesn't seem to have as much narrative at this game (actually has several smaller ones), and the inmersion problem is solved by making you the father of the girl, thus the one tasked with setting her daily schedule and such. It doesn't have as much stats as this game, but it is varied enough to keep you on your toes. Also I like the fact that you don't really "fail", but have your "daughter" achieve different social positions by the time she becomes a grown up. I made it all the way till she became a member of the royal council, but never a princess.
I think there must be something wrong with me because not only did I enjoy playing through to get my good ending, I've been attempting to collect the different good endings, and bad ones. Some are excessively tedious and I've yet to manage them but it was worth the value of the game for me.
This sounds a lot like the novel "Heir Apparent" where a teenager is trapped in a virtual reality game as queen-to-be, and keeps dying over and over in her quest to ascend to the throne, survive betrayal and other dangers, and escape the game.
Artsy_Judoka Vivian Vande Velde. If you look up "Heir Apparent Novel" you should be able to find it. I like it. It's written with a humorous witty style, if not sliiightly juvenile. Think "Percy Jackson" style narration but slightly more sarcastic (if memory serves) but for a slightly older audience.
Hey James, loving the show, but just a note on the lighting setup you have. Your spotlight is too harsh and your fill not strong enough (some combination thereof) and there are shadows being cast when you gesticulate. It can be distracting, Its especially drawing my attention right beneath the game footage screen. Just something to keep an eye out for. Thanks for the recommendations. Keep them coming. =>
![Let's Play Long Live the Queen | Walkthrough 01 (Angel Ending) [cc]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hAkSBQHui7o/mqdefault.jpg)
![Let's Play Long Live the Queen | Walkthrough 01 (Angel Ending) [cc]](/img/tr.png)
A friend of mine has this game. We were joking that they should make a sequel called "Soon Dead the Princess" where you are a person trying to kill this princess, the princess is given a random allotment of stats, and you must attempt to figure out what that is so you can present her with things that will get her killed.
That sounds deliciously evil. I want it. -Soraya
+Extra Credits Soraya?
Maybe you can choose who you be so you have an attempt at killing her in any way you like and different endings based off of who you decide to be and how you decide to kill her.
"Dark Souls of lifesims." -Totalbiscuit
TotalBiscuit's Warrior Princess was pretty interesting. It's a shame he never got to ride War Bears into battle, though.
That's a really bad comparison because Dark Souls handles difficulty very fairly, and almost every method of death you can see coming from a mile away and it is completely your fault. Long Live the Queen, however, is completely trial and error and is impossible to play through properly without restarting the game dozens of times to do exactly what the game wants you to do (unless you just look up a wiki guide).
***** it's not that bad a comparison to be honest, since in dark souls you need to learn movement patterns and room layout that you can have no knowledge of beforehand and can kill you pretty much without you being able to do anything about it, but the 2nd time you go there you know what you're up against and it will be easier, both have trial and error.
but yea i prefer how darksouls do its respawning rather then savescumming, since the savescumming break the flow of the game and with no autosave it can be pretty frustrating.
Banarok Lionrage Dark souls stands out in that it tends to give you some sort of warning/hint of incoming threats. If you advance carefully and observe your surroundings, there are very very few unavoidable deaths, even in a first time playthrough.
Silver Cinder
this man speaks truth.
I like how difficult this game is to win. You need multiple playthroughs, and you need to know what you're doing the whole way through. It's like a particularly difficult level in the old mario games. Dickish jumps, or invisible blocks right over cliffs that you couldn't possibly have known about the first time around. It's designed to make you die over and over so that you have to try it again a different way next time.
In a game like mario, that sort of thing is made to force you to learn the level's layout, and complete the task with muscle memory, which is really satisfying. This game makes you pay attention to what is happening in the world as it unfurls around you over and over again, and makes you adjust your stats accordingly. Every new decision, or passed/failed stat check makes the story a little different, and gives you a new tidbit of information about the world.
My first time playing through the game, the world seemed vast and strange, and I was somehow expected to understand all of it, but by the time I finally managed to get that girl to survive, I was fully immersed into the world. I knew what was happening, and I knew the consequences of events. I knew who to trust, and I knew how to manage my funds. By the end of my time with the game, I became a really effective queen, and I think that is what's so good about this game.
That girly pink-haired avatar is supposed to be the monarch of the country, but once you get a handle of things, you really grow into the leader Elodie is expected to be: the leader that country needs.
I stopped playing Dark Souls 2 for a minute to watch this video.
James: "Do you like to die?"
Me: "Yes!"
James: "Do you like to die a lot?"
Me: "YES!!"
James: "Do you like to do so in the role of a young princess?"
Me: "YE - wait what?"
Long live the Queen.
What basically happens when someone takes the "Big Book o' Medieval Monarchs", sprinkle it with some anachronistic cutesy anime styling, and make a game out of it.
Seriously. What happens in that game (minus the magic bits), has at some point happened to some member of one of the old European Royal Families.
Simpler to Spice and Wolf, except that religion.
*****
I said minus the magic bits.
Or maybe, some viking chief got sunk by a giant cephalopod.
ShadowFalcon What about princess maker 2?
Nyanadventurer the second
No idea. Haven't heard of it.
ShadowFalcon It's kind of like this game (In more than a few aspects, especially skills), but it's more of a life sim/RPG, as you raise your daughter from 10 to adulthood (18). You do this by sending her to school (to learn magic, science, fencing, manners, etc), work/jobs (to earn money so you can pay for lessons, clothes and food, gain stats) sending her on RPG turn based battle style adventures (to find treasure) and giving her breaks (so she doesn't work herself to sickness, delinquency, or the grave). The game, despite being from 1988 (Although recently a remake was released on steam), is truly a masterpiece, from its visuals, to its soundtrack, to its 74 endings. If you liked Long live the Queen, you will surely Princess maker 2.
Anyway, that's my rant, if you like what you hear, and don't have ridiculous high expectations, I implore you to watch a review/play through of that game, or buy it (although I'd wait for a sale, because of its price)
one of my good friends recommended this one to me. BEWARE THE CHOCOLATE.
FUCK THAT CHOCOLATE. Took me three times to get past that the first time (I was playing with the notifications off so I didn't know what skills I needed in order to survive that).
PRAISE THE SUN!
wait....
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!
-Prepare to Die Edition-
Eat the chocolate Hisao.
And don't listen to the highly trained guard dogs.
They're liars.
oh no, all those failed skill checks DX
Oh God...
HyperlordB yeh
The nation's being invaded? Yes! Time to finally put those dancing and decoration skills to the test! And to think they laughed at me when I completely ignored my military.
Thanks for taking the time in your busy schedule for us James. Always appreciated.
I've played this one a fair bit, and was deeply impressed by it. The memorization and anticipation was in fact a bit off-putting for the first few plays; but after five or six playthroughs I came to grips with the fact that despite appearances, the game is not about the experience of being a princess or navigating the difficulties of making your way to that coronation. It's about discovering the whole labyrinth of hazards, actions, reactions, and stories that make up the journey -- and the rabbit holes in there go amazingly deep.
My goal when I first played was to avoid the arrow in the back. First death was arrow in the back.
This is adorable and horrifying at the same time... All the damn ways I've lost my life is... gruesome.
You should look at Magical Diary and give us your opinions on that, as long as we're talking about visual novel games that push the envelope. For anyone wanting a cursory explanation: Magical Diary is basically an anime, Harry Potter-esque narrative where your character finds out they have magical powers and get to go to a special school for it. What it has in cliche, it makes up for it in some genuinely progressive concepts that are honestly some of the first times I've ever seen these things in a game- such as respectful discussions about pronouns (for gender), consent, safe sex, etc. I was especially proud of how one of the relationships was handled where you can end up dating your best friend, who is a girl, and the game treats it in a very mature way like it were any other relationship. And, on top of that, it has some pretty cool mechanics for the "exams" which are in the style of those first person adventure games where you actually use the spells you learn in your classes. Its certainly not the best game ever, but I feel like its the sort of game you'll be playing through a second time not because you died or failed, but because you genuinely want a second chance to live in the world with all these characters.
Just incase you're not aware, LLTQ and Magical Diary are from the same person :p
I didn't know that! Its kind of a shame too because... LLTQ is kind of boring...
Ethan Merrill I disagree, but to each their own!
I got this game for my wife and I ended up loving it too. It's brilliant, sadistic and adorable.
I have played this game and found it a very fun experience overall. It's true that your first couple of tries are likely going to get you killed, but I think that's the consequence of making it such a story-driven experience. That said, this game does give you a lot of freedom in the way you want to play it. You can make it very far on your first try if you try to roleplay it. Eventually it becomes another game. One that is a collection of puzzles, all with their own story and little details. Finding all the details of the story, all its endings good and bad become the goal. I think this is closer to a souls game in terms of how you become successful. You'll have to learn from earlier mistakes all the time.
I got this as a Christmas present from a friend of mine. I let out a SQUEE when I died the first time. You're right about the memorization issue, but the deaths were, for me, worth the replays. Especially since the death pictures look like lace doilies, which is delightful.
This game throws you for a loop because Elodie can learn skills you'd never think a princess would need like swimming. Then all of a sudden, she drowns while commanding a naval fleet.
I played this game. Intuitively player is always able to recognize every singular deadly event is always avoidable by it alone. The challenge comes to avoid all of them. Then another challenge comes how to avoid all of them and achieve the best outcome. However, the more complex the goal become, the more restriction player start to realize. It was a great experience.
Thanks for constantly finding time to do these in your crazy schedule, James! :D
I found out about this game through Total Biscuit. It's super fun. If it were longer and had more branching options so that all of the stats have value, it could be a must play game.
Actually this is not a visual novel. There's a certain genre similar to life simulation in Japan, which the player raises a character (most likely a daughter), improve his/her attributes and get one of 80+ endings based on these attributes. Princess Maker series is the most popular of this kind. Apparently this concept is new to the North America game market.
0:21 Yes
0:22 Yes Dark souls
0:24 yes dark souls my female character??
This dude's voice is so calm and soothing, these videos are the best thing to watch after a tiring day at work! :-)
That was actually pretty well done considering the circumstances.
I like the bonus info boxes, I didn't notice them till now if they have been in previous videos. They help you to understand the information quicker, and it's a nice little touch.
About the problems you mentioned: I think it is just a matter of changing your mindset. It is kind of like Re: Zero life in another world, but made years before that became popular. The entire point of the game is to acquire meta knowledge to help you get through the game. You can ruin the game by looking up a guide or something, but the game lasted me for a couple of days of fun trying to find the different ways to get through things and figure out all that was happening. If you take it with the Re: Zero mindset, you will enjoy the game a lot more.
You look much more comfortable doing this now and it looks like you have started to really have fun in front of the camera!
Great as always James .This series keeps getting better
i hate that i love how cute the death screens are
Im becoming more and more addicted to James Recommends as the show gets older. I remember thinking I couldn't really get into it as a replacement for the "games you may not have tried" but its growing on me.
"do you like to die"
me: I play dark souls, of course.
"do you like to die alot?"
me: BITCH DID YOU NOT HEAR ME!? I play dark souls!
naw, I kid. keep up your awesome stuff James!
this game is PHENOMENAL
will you guys be doing a video about Visual novels in general?
I played this at the recommendation of a friend who leans toward Japaneses horror, JRPGs, and small-team-made 32-bit horror. It's honestly pretty perfect for me in terms of game play, as I enjoy carefully balancing abilities and stats and having time to mull over my next action. Sort of a problem-solving game when you get right to it. James is right that there is obviously a particular way the creators wanted you to solve different routes, and it can be really frustrating when you are nearly at the end of the game only to realize there's one last, unavoidable interaction that you can't beat unless you started building your stats all the way at the beginning. Still, I don't personally mind puzzles that only have one solution, and with so many different routes to take (the militaristic princess, the artistic princess, the occultist/religious princess, the animal husbandry princess...) you can get a lot of play out of it. Also, each play through only takes about 30-45 mins in my experience, so the many, many times you die -- even when it's toward the end -- aren't quite so devastating.
Side note with a little bit of a spoiler: Despite knowing from the very beginning that that stupid ball was coming up because my friend told me about it beforehand, I still forgot about it in the thick of things every single time I played and my stats were never where I wanted them to be!
what the heck is that one james' right cheek? looks all red
I was going to comment on my somewhat-disappointment and then James basically said what I was going to.
That, and a lot of the stats are sort of useless, and may get touched upon like once, but don't ever really come into play.
Also similar to this is Magical Diary, which is a pretty alright game. James, you should give that one a try too!
You're updating even though you're exhausted from traveling. I could never do that! You're unbelievable.
It seems to me that if the game boils down to memorization and knowing things that the main character possibly couldn't, then what I think the game might do well with is a bit randomness. The game wouldn't rely on your knowledge of one scenario, but on your ability to react upon many possible scenarios.
Kind of like XCOM. You have all the basic elements this game does: Choices, actions, goals, and death conditions. The difference between the addictive-as-crack XCOM and this game is the extra bit of randomness in XCOM that both makes each game unique and also forces you to react to each situation based on your knowledge of the mechanics and not straight memorizing.
(Taking that to the extreme) a roguelite VN based mainly on manipulating stats for predicted (but unknown) situations? I'd play it! It would probably have to a little less complicated than LLtQ, though.
Amazing! At last a visual novel!!! Please please do more!!!
Dude your voice is so calm... NO HOMO.
I really enjoy the series james, see you next week!
In my archive diving of TotalBuscuit and the Co-Optional Podcast, I'd heard a bit about this game; and was thoroughly intrigued. One thing James didn't mention, which I discovered with a little research, is that Hanako Games offers free demos of all their games on their website -- which is, in a word, excellent. I'll be downloading a demo before buying the game, but with what I've seen and heard of it, I'm already sold and it's only a matter of time.
Nice episode, but holy hell catching up with the Bonus Facts was an intriguing challenge~ Seriously, 9 in 5 minutes is kinda overkill.
Yeah, I'm probably gonna cut those down in the future. :( I agree it's gotten out of hand. But there will always be some in there! -Soraya
MilesFan100 You're the best, son!
Good points you made.
This game really reminds me of many Japanese games I'm not content of.
What got me into this community was the use of the medium for extraordinary storytelling. I usually drop games if it takes me more than 10 tries to beat a boss. That's usually why I'm not to psyched about pressing "hard" or "insane" difficulties in games.
It's not that I have complexes with failing but I simply hate repeating a part of the game. If the game wants to revolve around a story then I'd have to put aside the challenges. I'm okay with dying couple of times to snap my finger and understand the mechanics, but I'd rather not waste my time trying to "master" it.
It depends on the goal of the developers and the target audience but Japanese games quiet often tries to compromise both into their games, usually in ways that really turns me off. I'm crazy for anime and Japanese games but there are only couple of Japanese games I managed to finish. Reason being, way too many of them assume players' unconditioned dedication without providing any satisfying reward(which is subjective) at the end.
I need to grind and level up, search for items for quests, just to move on with a story? I see these games more as types of games to play once and stash in your library as they collect dust and becomes part of your memories. Maybe you'll pull them out to recommend them to someone or recall the good times for a day. I would rather not put 200 hours into it to get 10 hours worth of content. It is plainly just stupid...
It takes more worthless effort on the developer's side and gives time consuming and unattractive material for the players to dig through with their precious time. But Japanese developers constantly reuse this model. And nobody seems to mind it. I cannot understand... Does simply holding onto the game longer make players more satisfied? Then that isn't a good game, that is fanism. This repels potential new comers and make the community into what the gaming community currently is. It makes us look quiet the group of antisocials.
LLTQ was an interesting experience for me. I've been a fan of Hanako's games for awhile so I gave it a lot more of a try that I might usually. I am one of those people it's an awful game for because I really dislike losing, especially if it's solely because of information I couldn't possibly have known before it happens (Dark Souls is a favorite still because the skill element involved there means you can often eke by even when you're caught off guard). Still, I played it many times then quit for awhile, then came back once someone started compiling a wiki of the weekly events which allowed me to plan things out ahead of time. Even then, despite carefully plotting and research, I did discover that the specific series of events I wanted to chain together (getting a partially special ending and saving the kingdom without consequence) was basically impossible to do. For me, I think the next step to improve on what LLTQ did would be to create reactivity to the player's choices. As you said in the video, you do have choice but generally any given choice will end in death like making a princess who wants to be the best warrior in the world can still see you dead from several innocuous sources or simply because you didn't also learn magic. So what I would really want to see is more of a shifting list of checks: for example, at one point there's a potential death check where an assassin attacks but the only relevant combat stat to it is Polearm because she has a ceremonial scepter and is allowed to carry no other weapon. A better game, in my mind, would allow a sufficiently skilled Elodie to carry a sword anyways, or have a dagger hidden away on her person. Fundamentally the checks related to the ongoing story happening every day are what make the game so interesting and so much more engaging than any other princess raising sim. All the same, I would agree that properly cautioned people should consider playing it as it is still an excellent game within its constraints. I'll just keeping hoping that Black Closet, the next game from Hanako, will be more to my overall taste.
Whoa, where in Missouri are you going? I live in the middle of nowhere Missouri but it's just a nice thought that you'd visit this little state of ours :)
Put in 26 hours on this game. Loved getting my Lesbian Princess Mage to the seat of power!
love your recommendations so far James :) keep it up!
OMZ I'm so excited to see a recommendation for this game! I really love it, and I really hope to find ONE way to win it one of these times...
This was a game I heard about on Twitter and quickly resolved to get, even if I wasn't going to particularly be good at it. I played through it once, was so overcautious that I got married off to stave off civil war, and put it down because I didn't want to go through the grind of several playthroughs to get a better outcome. (Or to see any of the death-doilies. I might actually regret that, but not enough to pick the game up again.)
This game is not a visual novel. It is one of the most pure RPGs ever made.
You actually play a role. It's amazing.
I have played this one on a recommendation from someone I really respected. So I begrudgingly picked up this game and omg was this a treat.
i got this game ages ago... love it
What happened to that cheek James? I was staring at it throughout the video o_o
Knife fight broke out while trying to get his luggage. Today's not his blood on his cheek...
Hmm, this reminds me a lot of Princess Maker. Onto the queue it goes!
Its a princess maker... It has all the qualities of the princess maker series and its not the first westernize princess maker-esk game. I happen to be one of the im sure few people who have actually played both one of the official princess maker games (one of the few actually translated) and one of the westernized princes maker games which for the life of me i cant remember the name. Long live the queen is by far the best of the princess maker games to come to the states or any English speaking country, I would definitely suggest playing it even to just see how far you can get before dieing the first time lol death comes fast too and often its very unfair if you don't know its coming >.> (after watching the video)James really must have never heard of the princess maker series >.> wouldn't blame him its mostly all kept in japan.
You clearly haven't read the rest of the comments if you think the number of people who have played both is "few".
Princess maker 2 masterrace! get rid of your false prophets and head to the road of enlightenment!
NovaStalker When i made that comment no one was talking about it ... i suppose people brought it up when you made you comment but i cant help it if the future proves me wrong.
Dartinin Nope, I saw the comments at the time. The future had no part in you being wrong though I appreciate you replying to a 2 month old post.
NovaStalker Can you see ... the minute that comments are made ... no honestly can you because i would love that feature ... if not then your reply is moot as far as you know the comments you are referring to were made hours after I made mine. And I honestly don't care anymore so I'm going to end this here ill read your reply though if you make one. oh and I know people reply to a comment I made half a year ago still to this very day.
is that a go board in the background on the shelf?
Yet another game I've already played and loved. If nothing else at least this is further confirmation of our similar taste, though I keep hoping to see something recommended that went under the radar for me; I know these games are out there if only I could find them.
I liked the bonus fact annotations, but they were sometimes hard to read because the white text fell on white or brightly colored background.
Try turning on the Bonus Fact captions! That version is always legible. :) -Soraya
To be fair, most of the game's life or death moments have at least two or three different skill checks so you don't always have to follow the same path and are more likely to pass your first time. It's still the games biggest flaw that there's no way to predict what skills you'll need, but I do think the devs managed to use that somewhat positively by encouraging players to try out different things every time until they get that perfect run and making unlocking all the death scenes cute, fun, and collectable.
Also, it has costumes so you can play dress up.
Great episode, James!
Lil' off topic Mr. Portnow but whatever happened to Mental Drift( the game you helped in the development of?) Are LoAndBehold still working on it?
For a long time I was looking for a game similar to Gainax's Princess Maker 2. I missed the skill-stat sheet and the emotional state shifting mechanics.
The story of 'Long live the queen' is intriguing and though it's true the thing about repeating, conveys and atmosphere just with static images and a well-written script that involves the mehcanics in it.
I love that you say for whom this games are and for whom they aren't
This game is currently available on humble bundle weekly. Thought I could share that info.
I loved this game too :3 I'm not really into visual novels...but this one actually was pretty good at engaging me.
I noticed while watching these videos that if you hover over the annotations they can get stuck on screen, and often overlap making them unreadable. I know it's not your fault but I suggest that for future videos they're added to the about section, because I am interested in reading them but can only read one a video.
sort of a game for fans of the old point and click games as it's a matter of finding what the developer was thinking and a big focus on story.
Best visual novel ever if anyone wants to try another is 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
And its sequel Virtue's Last Reward. Also Dangan Ronpa is pretty good.
MegaZeroX7 Those are the more game-type visual novels. There are more novel-type visual novels like the recently Westernized Steins;Gate.
Bowserian Right. I was stating the "gamey" visual novels. Other good "non gamey" visual novels are Ever 17, Remember 11, and Fate Stay Night. Warning: last one has some porn in it if you don't patch it out. However, the porn is a very small part of the game, so don't think of it just as a porn game.
The thing I love with this game is that they use the fact you HAVE to replay 50 times to ADD to the difficulty. It makes you want to get back to it right after failing, which makes you over plan.
It's impossible to cover all your bases, and it is even harder to figure out what things are going to be important, later.
Gosh I remember playing cute Knight when I was younger..
I wrote so much information down about how I could make ULTIMATE PRINCESS because of all of those set events that you need a lot of diplomacy for but also you need high social standing or geography for others!
I love this game. I intended to just test the game real quick for a few minutes... ending up playing quite seriously for the next 12 hours as I tried to navigate my way to a successful ending, avoiding assassinations, take over plots and accidents from nature.
I highly recommend Magical Diary. I believe it's by the same developer. But I feel it offers both a more personal narrative, but also allows for greater freedom of choice by being less about failure states.
"Do you like to die? Do you like to die a lot?" Dwarf Fortress concept of fun comes right away to my mind.
While I would agree that visual novels don't give the player enough interactivity, I also feel that that's not exactly the reason why VNs often feel stale and same-y. It's about the way the narrative is delivered.
Traditionally, you have pictures of characters over backgrounds with dialogue boxes. The problem with this system is that it often relies on telling the story through dialogue, which sometimes works (Steins;Gate) and sometimes completely fails (due to the lack of actual narrative).
I haven't played many visual novels, but some of the best I've seen are the ones that defy the traditional narrative tools used in VNs. Most notably, Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus by Christine Love. The story in these two is told through diary entries, showing the situation through the eyes of different characters, which as the player reads on paints the picture of what is actually happening.
Is ... Is that a go board in the background? :D
What I got from the video: Its a game where a princess takes on an active role rather than waiting in her castle just being a princess or helplessly getting kidnapped and expecting someone to come save her.
I don't care about the negative things about this game. This is a step in the right direction. Things can be improved in time.
I love Long Live the Queen! I keep bothering everyone I know to play it but they're like "I don't want to watch my princess die horribly!"
I would also recommend "The Royal Trap" from the same developer. It's a more traditional visual novel, more focused on relationships, court intrigue is still there, but there's much less death.
Awesome Go board you got back there, just noticed. thumbs up.
Wait, is that a Go board behind James?
Hope James doesn't mind this, but... In case anyone is curious, there are hundreds of other VNs (visual novels) to peruse at renai.us most of which are free.
If you guys are curious about making your own VNs, you can use the same engine that Long Live The Queen uses 100% free at www.renpy.org/
There is also an extremely active forum when VN creators support each other with over 20,000 members. Link can be found in the second page I linked to.
Very good recommend, the demo is definitely worth a try. It may not be new, but it's rarely seen in the west.
I kinda wish james would recommend some of the older retro games that people of this gen missed out. I can a name a couple like suikoden II and Vandal hearts 2 both from PS1.
does anyone else have problems getting extra credits videos to play? I don't know why but this specific computer exclusively refuses to play their videos.
Not long ago I read "Crimes against mimesis." article, from "IF Theory Reader". There was interesting thought about why Interactive Fiction is so conservative.
In short, it was all about immersion. If you make your game too inovative it will break the immersion. And IF is all about immersion, so I think it pretty natural for visual novels to be more conservative than other games.
I have already played this but watching just to see what james has to say :D
James, I like you. Really, I do. I have nothing but the utmost respect for your work in the video game industry, your opinions, and even that you make some time recommend us some games
But for the love of everything sacred, stop with the "Hello RUclipss" thing. It'll sort of make you sound like a ding dong if the videos end up anywhere other then RUclips. Also, your a grown ass man, not a god damned lolcat.
Other then that, nice work :P
Watch out for your "ahhs" and "uhhs". You have improved so much since the first video!
I really enjoyed this game, but sadly once I beat it I got distracted by other games. The ending I got wasn't as nice as I'd like. The in-the-future summery talked about how a bad flu made her barren, so she hired dancers to try and entice her husband to keep the family line going. There were other things which were similarly melancholy. I feel like I only half succeeded, and surviving shouldn't have been the only goal.
I think if you want to find that great ending, along with finding all the deaths, you can get more out of this game than just "try to not die." It definitely is a trial/error and memorization game though. I heard an update tells you how the stats work a bit better; I thought crunching the numbers to figure out the patterns behind the scenes was part of the game. : /
Hint: it wasn't flu that made you barren. If you want a better ending, try to figure which of your relatives is an evil magic-user.
my first playthrough i got a semi-good ending while my country was overrun with bandits for a while it got better the in the long run, and i was loved by the people so it ended overall pretty nicely.
QuantumFinn That's more of a spoiler than a hint, but good to know.
Still have yet to finish this game but i think now would be a good time to start
Oh man, this game is a treat! I remember one playthrough where I accidentally screwed over the enemy invasion because of a perfect storm of stats I didn't know mattered. Tip for the wise: Invest in Music, Public Speaking, and Foreign Intelligence.
Think of it as actually being a time-travel game, except that you can only travel back in time and only to places you marked with a save-file. Kinda like Ground-Hog day.
How about "Princess Maker 2"? It doesn't seem to have as much narrative at this game (actually has several smaller ones), and the inmersion problem is solved by making you the father of the girl, thus the one tasked with setting her daily schedule and such. It doesn't have as much stats as this game, but it is varied enough to keep you on your toes. Also I like the fact that you don't really "fail", but have your "daughter" achieve different social positions by the time she becomes a grown up. I made it all the way till she became a member of the royal council, but never a princess.
James could sell his talking as a sleep aid. O_o I have trouble sleeping but I get sleepy watching these.
On the topic of visual novels, how about Katawa Shoujo?
Bought this last week and I been playing every day!
I think there must be something wrong with me because not only did I enjoy playing through to get my good ending, I've been attempting to collect the different good endings, and bad ones. Some are excessively tedious and I've yet to manage them but it was worth the value of the game for me.
This sounds a lot like the novel "Heir Apparent" where a teenager is trapped in a virtual reality game as queen-to-be, and keeps dying over and over in her quest to ascend to the throne, survive betrayal and other dangers, and escape the game.
I pretty much agree with you, and I love both that novel AND the game in the review. :)
Carlos Diaz What is the authors name?
Artsy_Judoka Vivian Vande Velde. If you look up "Heir Apparent Novel" you should be able to find it. I like it. It's written with a humorous witty style, if not sliiightly juvenile. Think "Percy Jackson" style narration but slightly more sarcastic (if memory serves) but for a slightly older audience.
Thanks.
Hey James, loving the show, but just a note on the lighting setup you have. Your spotlight is too harsh and your fill not strong enough (some combination thereof) and there are shadows being cast when you gesticulate. It can be distracting, Its especially drawing my attention right beneath the game footage screen. Just something to keep an eye out for.
Thanks for the recommendations. Keep them coming. =>
Dodger has really taught me how to play games like this and magic diary. To me it's all about propagating the characters in your on ways.