Princess Maker series

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#41

Sadly no…

PM4 is primarily story driven. There’s the day to day tasking you must assign your daughter too (school, work, etc) - but the main focus is how your daughter (Patricia by default) relates to the world around her.

Patricia’s origin is something of a mystery, and as the game progresses, she learns more and more of her importance to the balance between the realms of Heaven, Hell, and Earth. Thus your actions in how she is raised, will decide the ultimate choices she makes.

There’s also three young girls who are the same age as Patricia (more or less). As she grows, they do as well, and your selections of hobbies, education, and careers influences how your daughter forges friendships and/or rivalries with them. In the PC version, she’s able to “fall in love” with them as well.

PM4 has “event skits” that occur as changes in Patricia’s personality, friendship, and destiny (following it or refusing it) transpire. These add a lot of flavor to the world, as you’re more “immersed” in what’s going on.

Of course all this is still a Princess Maker, so the majority of elements that PM fans enjoyed the series for, remain intact… well… except for the "Adventure Mode. :wink:

[ 03-29-2007, 02:52 PM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#42

Should we add a Not Safe For Work warning to that final link? :slight_smile:

#43

WTF? She will fall in love with girls?! Where are the boys?

#44

you should go ask baldo about that one :stuck_out_tongue:

#45

Patricia can marry a guy. :slight_smile:

PM4 was first released on PS2 in Japan, but Korean and Taiwan got it on PC as well. This really peeved the Japanese fans, so when the game was released in Japan on PC, it featured a lot of expanded content that wasn’t on the PS2 and non-Japan PC versions.

This included more endings, more story events, and lesbian affairs.

Thus PM4 (Japanese PC version) has the largest pool of possible spouses: Daddy, Cube, Lee, Chris, Daratan, a nameless citizen, one of your nameless subordinates, a nameless noble, the Prince, the Prince of Darkness, or one of the three female childhood friends.

EDIT
Ah… here’s the character page on the official site. All of these people are eligible. :stuck_out_tongue:

http://www.princessmaker4.com/chara.html

[ 03-29-2007, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#46

see, i need a copy of pm4. girl-love power! :slight_smile: (It’s been oddly hard to find the japanese PC version for sale on the typical import sites though.)

#47

That’s because they’ll make more profit off the “Memorial Edition.” :wink:

#48

That’s because they’ll make more profit off the “Memorial Edition.” :smiley:

It turns out, that the reason why PM4 for Windows is hard to find on import shops, is because it’s getting harder to actually find in regular stores.

I think they stopped producing more copies. So fairly soon, it will only be available used or thru the Memorial Edition.

#49

I’ve never seen PM4 japanese-PC listed on any of the typical places where people outside Japan can buy Japanese software, and I’ve looked ever since it came out. Chinese, yes. Japanese on formats other than PC, yes. Never Japanese PC.

I do remember seeing PM1 Refine selling for something like $90 though (ouch!) which is why I insist that the Memorial box is highly affordable.

(Why is it that amazon.co.jp will not sell Japanese software to foreigners? Enormous meanies. I kept finding Bargain Edition reprints and not being able to order them…)

But I insist! No buying expensive software I can’t read until I have something to celebrate! If it goes out of stock before then, then the gods didn’t want me to have it anyway. :slight_smile:

#50

Himeya Shop has a few copies left, but they don’t list it on their site. To order, you have to ask via their custom order option.

They charge $82… so with $19 shipping it comes to $101 total. Hmmm… maybe Memorial Edition isn’t all that expensive afterall. :smiley:

[ 03-30-2007, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#51

The place I was going to get my PM4 Japanese Edition sold out of them whimpers sadly See, I have the Korean Collector’s Edition (Which was the first PC release, before they added some extra scenarios and scenes)… so I felt like I was missing out. Lucky for me, PlayAsia.com had a sale on PM4 Final, the Chinese Edition that has the scenes I lack, for only $15… bam! I instantly bought it! Now to save up $175 for the memorial pack… whimpers sadly and starts saving Why… why hasn’t this game been translated into English? Why!?
-Nicole Wagner

#52

Large numbers of reasons. Where do I even begin? Here’s a few off the top of my head:

#1: The game is strongly perceived as sexist outside of East Asia.

#2: Gainax tried, and failed, to get an earlier PM to the West. Left something of a grudge it would seem. Thus Gainax has a strong reluctance to see it ported (or so I’m told).

#3: PM is a rather popular title in Japan - and Taiwan and Korea for that matter. I’m guessing the license fee isn’t cheap: and it would be a major gamble to earn profit back, if the license isn’t cheap. Assuming the chosen title is PM4 - because PM4 is so similar to PM2 and is audio and visual candy to the senses - the cost is arguably higher. Tenhiro did the artwork, and the voice actors were professionals.

#4: Raiser/Visual Novel/Dating Game market has always been something of a black sheep in the pc/console market. Granted we have companies like Peach Princess that have won several battle in the long war, but there hasn’t been a true decisive victory. Look at the console RPG market for example. It finally dropped it’s WMD with Final Fantasy 7 on the PS One. Our genre still lacks an ultimate weapon like this. I remember Sakura Taisen was always hailed to be “The Chosen One” for the non-eroge side - but it never happened. Red Company lost faith when:

(a) - Working Designs rejected an overture to port it to the US Saturn (SEGA and WD has broken relationships at that point).

(b) - Thousand Arms from Atlus failed to make the impact they wanted.

(c) - SEGA suffered major losses, the Dreamcast died with it, the company was bought up by Sammy.

#5: Princess Maker doesn’t feature sex. Granted that can be a plus, since it allows people below 18 to buy it - but at the same time, it detracts from would be buyers who want sex. Furthermore, parents who see it as “sexist” or view something negative, won’t let a minor buy it.

#6: Princess Maker is sure to get some negative media attention from ultra conservatives and ultra feminists.

#53

Gainax never tried anything (well, except that they wanted to license the game). It was an attempt of four friends to release the game in the US. However, it was hard to find a company to actually sell the game. In the end, the shit hit the fan. Read the full story.

Heh, ultimate weapon… The game is of questionable quality where RPGs matter: the story. What sold the game was great graphics, especially the FMVs, and all-out marketing. Do the same for a bishoujo game (unlikely), and it’ll sell like hotcakes too.

EDIT: Reading the story again, it makes me wonder why the guy behind SoftEgg accuses people of pirating the game. Free copies of an unfinished version were given at random to people at E3, and I assume that’s the version that’s circulating the Internet, so how is it pirating?

[ 04-07-2007, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Benoit ]

#54

FF7’s story isn’t all that bad. Granted it isn’t all that good either, but it was “different” for it’s kind.

On marketing, FF7 didn’t have it all that great. Word of mouth and all those gaming magazines showing how it rocked in the visual and audio departments made it popular. Back then, Squaresoft didn’t have the advertising muscle it does now. Sony helped of course, but even they didn’t put all their eggs in one basket because they probably didn’t predict it would be as big as it was (hence their Wild Arms venture).

All in all, I liked FF7 for what it was worth. Titles like Xenogears is better by far (the Xenosaga are crap though) - but the worldwide success of FF7 help pave the way for Square to finance way more projects: like Xenogears.

Hmmm… this talk of RPG is making me want to finish Tales of Abyss and Dragon Quest 8. :slight_smile:

EDIT
Now that I think about it, FF7 did have it’s moments. The death of Aeris was a shocker. Sephiroth is pretty badass. Rufus Shinra had some great threads (even to this day I want a suit like that). Omnislash has it’s cooness. And who can’t help but feel “One Winged Angel” wasn’t cool. :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

[ 04-07-2007, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#55

Except that your OS is sold (someone bought it for you, also), while this unfinished version of Princess Maker 2 (which is in a sort of demo/promotional category to me) isn’t sold, and given away for free.

#56

but PM2 is still a commercial product, and nobody is allowed to give it out for free except Gainax, or parties that Gainax gave authorization to do so, regardless of intent

#57

Whew. I finally unlocked all the events and endings to PM4. Without guides or cheating. :slight_smile:

I know I’ve said it many times before, but PM4 has the best character development in the series thus far (although I admit I haven’t beaten PM5 yet). For example, even the typically thrown together “Father Marriage” scenario isn’t without a deep background - which is the final ending I just got.

WARNING - THE ITALIC DISCUSSION IN THE QUOTE BOX IS A MAJOR PM4 SPOILER

WARNING - THE ITALIC DISCUSSION IN THE QUOTE BOX IS A MAJOR PM4 SPOILER

[quote]
[i]The daughter in PM4 is half demon. Her mother was the greatest heroine of her time and fought the Demon King to a stalemate. However even her power wasn’t enough to end the war. So she made a deal: she would return with the Demon King as his Queen - loyal to him so long as he vowed to spare the human world. Seeing the chance to end the stalemate and consolidate his rule in Hell further with the heroine’s might, he agreed. Several years later, the daughter was born; although the Demon King cared little for his half breed daughter (sorta… but that’s a spoiler for another time).

You play as a warrior who fought in the Demon War. Someone who gave up everything to the conflict, and in return lost everything: friends, family, and love. Thus with nothing to live for at the war’s end, he undertook suicide mission after suicide mission – yet his great skill and power prevent him from finding a worthy challenge that could kill him in combat.

Enter the heroine turned Demon Queen. She saw a kindred spirit in the warrior, and handed her daughter over to him, in hopes he would save her tainted soul – and in return the daughter would save his.

In the “Father Marriage” ending, the daughter can learn of this entire situation. Despite what he knows of her – that’s she is half demon, the child of the evil that destroyed everything he ever held dear (and the heroine who ended the war before he could extract total revenge and die) - he raised her as his own and again sacrificed everything just for her. He didn’t find a wife to start anew; he never returned to the village of his birth; he never ended the pain of being a last survivor.

Thus in this scenario, she comes to wonder what will happen to him should she leave, as she is his last purpose for living. She literally falls in love with who he is, what he has done, and how selfless everything was. To keep him happy, would be the greatest happiness for her.

:smiley:

#58

Atleast in the US they must show a loss of profit. It’s hard for a company to show a loss of profit when the game was never translated into English. They’d have to show each of those people would have bought a japanese version of the game which no one would buy…and it would be Gainax that would be the plantiff, not Softegg as Gainax would be the one who would have gotten those “missing” sales, which again, probably weren’t going to happen.

[ 04-09-2007, 03:29 AM: Message edited by: Jinnai ]

#59

And yet how is any of this any good for the possibility for Gainax to allow the port of another PM to the West? Even if the piracy of PM2 is a “grey zone”, it doesn’t shine a favorable light for those who want a legal port of PM4 or PM5. While I don’t morally agree with it, I’m willing to accept the argument that PM2 is not seriously causing anyone to lose money these days - especially the DOS version; hence the whole Memorial release and all - but I am in the pool that believes the piracy is definitely affecting how Gainax views the potential of expanding the market.

PM2 was ultimately a commercial failure in the West, but it got pirated out the ying-yang over the course of time. Of course the piracy help make the title known in b-game circles, but it clearly didn’t make it mainstream. I just asked several of my “Only EA Gamer” friends if they ever heard of Princess Maker. Out of the five of them, only one seemed to have a foggy idea, but he got it mostly confused with Sister Princess (he saw the anime - didn’t know there was a magazine series or game) and thought they were the same.

I truly believe Gainax doesn’t care if the pirated PM2 left a small impression in the West. What they see, is that PM didn’t make them a success in the US and got pirated - but Neon Genesis Evangelion became a major source of $$$. Hence their more than happy to fund asinine anime projects and even a live action NGE movie - but they avoid the US PM venture like a vampire to holy water.

[ 04-09-2007, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: Nargrakhan ]

#60

Whereas I can say that tons of people who aren’t hardcore gamers OR b-gamers have heard of PM2 - because it was circulated all over the web. And that it was good and helpful market-building for me to exploit. :slight_smile:

Trying to sell Princess Maker through the typical english PC b-game ‘ghetto’ of limited availability would be a waste. If they really wanted to bring Princess Maker to the West the easiest thing to do would be to release a PM2 version on the DS. (Or a later one on the PSP since the Japanese game’s already been ported to PSP, however the western PSP audience would not be as strong for the product as the western DS audience.)

I don’t think they do want to, though.