REVIEW : Princess Maker Refine (PC)
Where there was, there was, there was a kingdom full of rich and conceited people. They, in all their indifference, renounced the gods and therefore an army of monsters from hell was called upon them led by the Prince of Darkness Lucifon himself. But when it looked hopeless, a wandering warrior appeared on the scene and defeated Lucifon. He immediately became a local hero, and the king offered him a regular salary if he chose to stay with them. But the story does not end here. The warrior’s heroism was also noticed by the gods and therefore they decided that he was the right one to raise the child from heaven. One night, the sky opened up and a little ten-year-old girl, completely unsullied by the snares of the world, floated down with the light. How will her story develop? That’s just up to her surrogate father, which, you guessed it, is you.
The Japanese series Princess Maker has a novel, even bizarre concept. To a certain extent, it evokes Tamagotchi, but with the difference that here you are not caring for a virtual pet, but an adopted daughter. However, such a comparison would not be completely accurate, as it is a disproportionately more complex matter. Not to mention that the Princess Maker concept is older than the aforementioned Tamagotchi. The double was released in 1993 and an improved CD version only in 2004. This was only valid for the Japanese market, however, as work on the English version was finally cancelled. However, European players could enjoy it at least in the abandonware English version, thanks to the leak of the beta version of the created translation. The release of the official Refine version after years is thus less satisfying for all fans.
Princess Maker 2 is a mix of the simulator and RPG games. You have been taking care of your daughter since she was ten years old, and your task is to prepare her for adulthood. You choose a name for her, choose her exact date of birth, and blood type and you can start raising her. Fortunately, you don’t have to deal with everything – your home is taken care of, and you also receive a regular annual amount that can get you through the worst. You also have your servant at your disposal who can stop by and take care of everything you need. However, education as such is fully in your hands. However, the money you receive is only enough to live on and you cannot rely on it. This is especially true if you have higher ambitions than aiming for a career as a housewife. For your daughter to develop as a person, she needs to take various courses. They are, of course, not a cheap matter.
Does it seem simple to you yet? Bridge error. Your daughter is not a robot and constant work or study increases her stress. Life in constant stress will gradually make her sulk or fall ill. If you continue to exploit it despite this, it may even die for you and the game will end prematurely for you. If he chooses to sulk, it doesn’t get any easier. At work, or during studies, she will start lounging on purpose, and if you leave her unsupervised in her free time, she will just start spending your hard-earned money. You can even drive her to run away from home, or to commit a crime and subsequent arrest. And that, understandably, has a noticeable impact on her reputation.
So you have to constantly take care of her, communicate with her, give her something here and there and, when necessary, give her a vacation. In addition to all this, you must not forget to acquire connections that can only help her in the future. But you also have to count on the fact that the members of the royal palace will ignore her unless her expression is at the appropriate level and so on. So you have to constantly improve it on what you think is important. This can be achieved not only by studying but partly also by work, for which he may not have the prerequisites at first. If you put her in the kitchen and she doesn’t know how to cook, logically she won’t be able to do it at first. You will gradually teach her everything, but be careful you won’t get paid until she does well in her job. And if, for example, you decide to reorient her from farming to a hairdresser, you shouldn’t be surprised that she will start slowly,
Once a year, a large autumn festival is held in the city, where you have the opportunity to make it visible to the public. There are four different competitions to choose from – cooking, dancing, art and fighting. If you want to compete among artists, you have to paint at least one picture and this can only be achieved during the course. You can complete the other two competitions without any conditions, but if you decide to compete with the best in the tournament, you will burn out without preparation almost immediately and your morale will also suffer. In addition, at the age of fourteen, a daughter can also get a sockyna, and that complicates your potential pursuit of success even more.
How does the new version differ from the classic one? The new one, of course, has improved visuals and runs without problems even on more modern systems. In addition, you will also find music and dubbing, albeit only in Japanese. The text is of course in English, but here I would direct the first significant complaint. It is noticeably worse than the unofficial one, and the opening intro surprises with not the best translation. Different thicknesses are also found elsewhere, in a tournament, for example, it is normal for the text to inform you of your loss, even though you won. One of the positives is not even one of the final screens, where the text is missing for a change and those who do not know Japanese are out of luck. The game doesn’t even work very well with Steam itself. Only some achievements pop up quite randomly, sometimes even without you completing them, other times they don’t pop up at all, even if they should. It’s nice that you can speed up the game at any time and skip the repetitive passages, but surprisingly you can’t skip the relatively long intro. Otherwise, there aren’t many settings, but it’s still strange that the game doesn’t remember anything after turning it off. In all cases, it is rather small things, but even so, the creators should remove them as soon as possible. Regardless of these flaws, this is still an excellent game. Thanks to its unique concept, it has not become particularly outdated and has much to offer even today. Its indisputable plus is its enormous replayability, as it has up to 74 different endings. What will eventually grow out of your ward? Will she become the new queen, a court jester, the leader of a gang of criminals, a luxurious prostitute, or just the Princess of Darkness? Some endings are easier to achieve, others significantly more difficult, and sometimes it depends on the details. In short, Princess Maker 2
REVIEW : Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll (PC)
