Long Live the Queen is a Visual Novel with light RPG elements released by Hanako Games in 2012. It is a more of a reading sort of game rather than the adrenaline based shooters.. and as such, it is a perfect diversion for times when you want a little bit of a relaxation where speed and reflexes don't matter too much.

Although the initial impressions from the artwork suggest a light and breezy sort of story, it is not really aimed at kids. It is definitely more of an adult or teen game, with language and topics befitting a slightly older and mature taste.

The Setup

The game sets you up as the Princess Elodie in the days after her mother, the Queen of Nova, has died in mysterious circumstances. Your father is still around to help guide you, but the Empire has always been led by a Queen and so he serves as a Regent until you come of age. That is the goal of the game, to guide and shape the Princess for 40 weeks until she is old enough to take the throne when she turns 15.

Unfortunately, the various factions and personalities from within and without the Empire see the loss of a strong Queen and the potential ascent of a weak Princess to be an opportunity to move into the power vacuum. They will stop at nothing to influence or remove the Princess... just staying alive is much harder than it appears!

The Game

The gameplay is based around the growth of the Princess in various skill areas in the limited time available. Each day, you have the possibility to spend time training two skills out of a pretty exhaustive list of potential skills. As you upgrade the skills, you become better equipped to meet the various challenges that will test that particular skill... however, you will be LESS equipped to meet the challenges that test the skills that you have neglected to train! It's a tough choice... with life and death consequences for the Princess!

The mood of the Princess plays a large part in how motivated she is to train up certain types of skills. Different moods will enhance or hinder training certain skills, so it is a good idea to keep the Princess in the right mood to optimise the skills that you are currently focussing upon. Needless to say, at the beginning of the game, the Princess is in a pretty depressive mood after the passing of her mother!

Each day, you have two time slots (morning and afternoon) to train up the skills that you have selected. You are met with a little status bar that fills up as you train up the skills, and a little bit of flavour text to indicate that a certain level of proficiency has been met. It's nice and cute, but it is the same through every playthrough.... and after reading it a few times, you start to just focus on the numbers.

The way to affect the mood of the Princess directly is via the options that you choose for your "free time". Whether you choose to isolate yourself, chat with others or escape the castle... these all modify your mood bars, leaving you better (or worse) suited to the training of different skill focuses.

As you get more proficient in skill areas, you are rewarded with costumes that will further boost your effectiveness in those areas. It is a further specialisation that leaves you better (or worse) suited to meeting the challenges that you will face throughout the weeks ahead.

... and the challenges are all text based. You are presented with a situation and then are given a few options which will test your relevant skills. Choices have lasting consequences down the line as the story evolves... so, it is a constant battle to survive in the present or stack the cards against you in the future!

It does become quite difficult to keep track of all the personalities that come to you with all their various problems... thankfully, the story is the same or similar (depending on your choices) on subsequent playthroughs, so you can start to learn the various competing power plays that are aimed at you. However, it really does limited the replayability of the game.

It is a pretty rough game of balance, and as such, it plays out in a very unforgiving manner. Expect to have the Princess die in various different ways as you try to navigate the different power interests. Quite often, you will die in one fashion... rebalancing your skills and responses in the next play through, only to succumb to a different manner of assassination!

In this particular playthrough, I successfully avoided the arrows and swords and snakes of the hidden enemies... only to fall prey to poisoned chocolate!

Visuals, Sound and Performance

Well... this game has static artwork and sprites, and was made in 2012. Seriously, if you have a computer that can run Chrome or Notepad then you are probably good to go. Seeing as this game is sold on Steam, if you can open the Steam store on your computer... it is more than powerful enough!

The art style is pretty distinctive... a bit on the pink side of things... and touch overcute. However, the death panels are pretty gruesome... but still pink and cute. Go figure how that combines together!

The music is pretty catchy... but there is only the single soundtrack that goes round and round and round and round. It sticks in your head, and before long, you will turn off the music!

My Thoughts

Long Live the Queen is a pretty cute and interesting visual novel. The light RPG elements give it that "gaming" character, but it is hard to shake the feeling that there is "right" way to get through the story. I'm sure that there isn't, but it does feel like you are constantly careening out of control... from one bad choice to another as the consequences of each training and challenge grow to further destabilise your attempts to stay alive for another week!

That said, it is a game that takes up very little in the way of storage and computing resources... and so it is a game that I've had lingering around on my SSD for quite some time. For those travel days when I don't feel like killing the laptop battery.... but need something to distract me for a few hours. However, I do wonder about what people think when they see an adult playing a game that has a little girl on most of the screens and is predominately very pink!

Review Specs

DELL XPS15 (9560)

CPU: i7-7700HQ
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: SSD
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050

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