Yeah well… it would have helped if Chris would have acknowledged her girl self more after Arata turns out to be the prince.
It would have been a cool ending to see the feminine side of Chris, maybe as a princess who resembled Iris.
Ah well…would be… should be… otherwise it was a great game.
Decent yes but not great ,it having a level of production not seen in the other games that we get should not serve to hide its many shortcomings and its seems that for some “nice effects” are more important than a good solid story ,now if you strip PW of all the unnecessary eye candy you are left with a very “been there done that” story that simply does not stand out .
Regarding your second point DanSmith: I think having two people voice Chris would be very odd and inconsistent. My opinion is that they picked a good voice that sounds like it could belong to either sex. After all, the Japanese voice of Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist is a woman…
If I understand what you are talking about correctly, then the answer is no. It wouldn’t fit with the story very well to have you so powerful at the beginning. If you really want to see how ridiculously easy the game can be when you start out so powerful, then here is the info you need:
Mini review:
Finished the game, i thought it was great, especially PP’s translation (i think PP did the translation? lol). Two of the coolest looking characters i’ve ever seen were in it too (Liesel and Angela). Game had terrific sound music and graphics, best of any VN i’ve ever seen. The OST music that came on the CD in the extra folder can be matched with the english names of the songs in the game, which is nice. 4 of the songs are amazing imo:
??? - armed forever (the titlescreen music, great sound/beat)
??? - endless dash (amazing piano)
??? - battlefield of steel (opera type stuff with guitar? i dunno it’s sweet though)
??? - the guarden (battle music!)
[spoiler]Though it feels like it was a little rushed tbh. As in pulltop, or whoever the developers were rushed it. Like it’s obvious there was supposed to be alot more to the game, multiple routes and choices etc. But I think they kinda pulled it together decently. Hopefully there’s another one in the series that deals with their adventures in the fantasy world :).
I don’t really care about the eroge scenes but they weren’t bad, not much worse than Fate/stay night’s, which I actually kinda liked, most of them.
Fate/stay night is about an 11/10 for me, PW is around an 8.5/10, if they completed it fully it’d easily of been 10/10, great game none the less and i’m very happy i bought it :).[/spoiler]
Translate more fantasy worldish type VN’s! 
March 25 next year, Mangagamer releases ‘The Queen and Princess as your rewards’
Vincent is a talented warrior and has a strong ambition to be the best.
One day, he happened to have a chance to save the princess Sana of the Kingdom of Cartooshia.
The country has been battling against the Principality of Ecryps.
This incident is the starting point for him to be the ruler of two countries and their noble ladies.
I like fantasy, but Mangagamer’s description sounds like a loose justification for a sex romp, and the CG’s don’t suggest otherwise. Then again, they have a habit of misrepresenting their games.
Well…I’ve been reading these posts with great interest, since I’m getting this game for xmas. I am a bit concerned about the problems that folks seem to have been having with this online registration business and the game freezing up. But such problems are not unkown to me. Just about every PP game I’ve gotten has some kind of annoyance associated with it: I have to play Kana in Windows mode, because the full screen version is upside down, the skip function on Xchange Two doesn’t work and never did (which means I have to sit thru the really yucky parts), Crescendo freezes up in the beginning and when I quit the game, things disappear on my desktop, etc. etc. About the only game that’s ever behaved itself is Raidy, but that’s a really boring game. The point of this is this : it’s good to know what kind of problems to expect before hand; helps with the frustration factor.
I don’t really like this game because it forces you to accept only one ending while attempting to give you something with the other girls only to slap you in the face and force you back to the one ending. Also in all honesty PW is a game that has some seriously borderline gay stuff going on for most of the chapters. I mean obviously its not gay because of the technicalities but seriously give me a break. If doujins were made for this Arata would be getting it up his ass every time. There’s more gaybait in this than your usual modernised Gundam shows.
I finally finished the game, and although it had really great production values, I thought it was mediocre overall. [spoiler]The story wasn’t bad, but it also didn’t really pull me in. I didn’t really care about what would happen next since I also didn’t get attached to any of the characters. There’s way too little development for most of the characters except for Chris. The sex scenes with them seem abrupt since there’s no sign that some of them had any interest in Arata beforehand. The game also wasn’t that funny even though it was trying to be lighthearted at times. I don’t think I ever laughed out loud while playing this game. I only smirked at some of Lun Lun’s comments.
The one ending was a disappointment since I didn’t really like Chris, and it was tedious to go through almost the exact same thing 5 times. It just doesn’t make sense for Arata to confess to loving one girl and then immediately going back to Chris. I played Angela’s path first, so it would be even more ridiculous. There’s no way she would tolerate Arata going back to Chris, but she didn’t do anything about it in the end.
The sex scenes weren’t too great either. It didn’t leave much of an impact because it was sudden and there wasn’t much character development leading to it. The CGs themselves also differed from the paper doll art too much, and it was jarring to me. Lun Lun looked especially different. It would have been better to make it more consistent.
As for the translation, I found numerous typos and grammatical errors. Some are really obvious and could easily have been spotted if it had decent QA. Mixing up names is not acceptable. That’s really easily spotted. Another easily spotted typo is the use of “Guardener” in the text and the use of “Gardener” during battles. Each chararcter’s individual routes (around the confession until the sex scene is over) is also much more rife with typos than the rest of the game. It’s like they didn’t try because they assumed people would quickly go through them. Two of the most common errors/quips in the translator’s writing were the lack of question marks for many questions and the improper excessive use of commas. Also, ellipses in English have 3 periods, not 6+.[/spoiler]
Overall, I’d give this game a 3/5 (don’t get me into a rant about people who use 100 point rating scales. :lol: )
Yeah see this is what I’m talking about. I didn’t like Chris, she was obviously way too much of a man than she was a woman. Yet the game pigeonholes us into that route without giving us a choice to go for anyone else. Angela and even Liesel was 100x better than Chris. The lack of true multiple routes really hurts the game. I can overlook the grammatical issues. To be honest though, the story didn’t really suck me in like Fate/Stay Night did but thats to be expected, Kinoko Nasu is a top notch writer and most people in the industry can’t compete with the likes of him.
Now i think its time to stop comparing the mediocre PW with Fate its like comparing a rock to a diamond simply Fate is miles away in terms of the quality of the plot . And to think that this was be the great title of the year :evil: simply a failure.
Well, the gay stuff doesn’t bother me, at all. I mean, my first game was X-Change. And I’m eagerly awaiting Catgirl Alliance. But I see from the comments that some people don’t like this game for various reasons, but basically because it only stands on one leg…the Chris ending. I withhold judgement unil after xmas.
The problem is that Chris is more of a boy than she is a girl. It’s like a futanari with the male and female parts reversed. It’s not even attractive at all. I can’t enjoy the game for forcing me into what I feel is a man to man ending that is only man to woman on a technicality. I’m not a homophobe but I’m not a homo either so I can’t say this is much of a turn on.
I don’t think the plot/ story/ ending, was ever intended to be the strong selling point of the game. It’s the production quality and novilety of the card system that makes the title stand out.
Ultimately, it’s a shame the VN aspect of the game was sub-par, but it was still a very entertaining experience for me.
It seems like the negative sentiments expressed in the thread sum up to this: Princess Waltz lacks a strong romance-driven plot. B-games with strong romance-driven plots generally have multiple endings and well-developed story arcs so that each player can find a character that “clicks” with them–or they make the main love interest so incredibly likeable or well developed that she’ll appeal to almost anyone. Princess Waltz vacillates on the issue–they tried to have one main love interest with a few poorly developed side interests. The problem is that the main love interest isn’t particularly likeable and the romances with the side interests aren’t well developed. Now, depending on the player, this can make or break a b-game–it depends on just how hung up you are on the game having a strong romance-driven plot. Of course, it goes without saying that most hardcore players expect a good b-game to feature a strong romance-driven plot by definition–it’s the primary reason they play the games. However, I think the players that enjoyed the game AND liked the story were drawn in by the setting and non-romance related plot elements, and they didn’t fixate overly much on the main character’s romantic relationship with any particular character. Personally, the card battling system was what kept the game interesting to me; otherwise it would’ve just been an average game with some nice action sequences. I do think people are downplaying the role of the game’s relatively unique (to the English b-game market) still animation “special effects.” While merely flashy eye-candy to some, I think they greatly contribute to the game’s immersiveness, perhaps compensating somewhat for the lack of the usual immersion-generating device: a love interest that really grabs the player.
I think players that approach the title as a fantasy-themed game with romantic elements will end up appreciating it more than players that pick it up expecting an involving romantic drama. And of course, those looking for a title with gameplay beyond text choices (and that’s actually fun) will only have further reason to like it.
I’d forgive the plot and main love interest if there were a hell of a lot more card battles.
I think the lack of character development would be a big issue with any story, not just with eroge. PW seriously lacked development for most of its characters, and that was the biggest thing that disappointed me. They also tried too hard to tack on romances for all the characters, and they made absolutely no sense in some cases (like Angela). Even if you enjoyed the main story and didn’t care about the romance, I don’t know how someone could call the story good if it lacked character development for major characters.
Also, the production values didn’t mean much to me since it’s not new to me, so that alone isn’t enough to grab me. Eye candy isn’t that big of a factor to me. It’s just like some people are wowed by games that have pretty graphics but have no substance. The card game is pretty pathetic too. There are much better card games out there if you want to play one. I’d rather not waste my time playing a mediocre one. If I had the time and wanted to play a card game, I’d play Culdcept Saga or something.
It sounds like you were very disappointed with PW. You call the game mediocre, but do you really mean that? Your points are well taken, but compared to all the other commerically localized H-games in English, does PW really just fall in the middle? No matter where you’re coming from, PW seems to me like it’s at least squarely above average. In the gameplay aspect at least, I can’t think of any English H-games besides Brave Soul that even come close to having some kind of fun gameplay system separate from text choices while maintaining some semblance of a story (other than some very old DOS-based games). The Raidy I RPG component is terrible, and Pretty Soldier Wars just has no story at all. Of course the Japanese market is another matter completely…
I’m not rating PW relative to other eroge published in English. I’m rating it as a whole compared to everything else I’ve played/watched/read. Its story and character development are pretty bad in general. It doesn’t matter if it’s better than other English eroge released here. It shouldn’t be judged leniently just because its competition is bad. It should be held up to the same standards as everything else. The genre will never develop if its fans don’t hold it to a high standard.
That’s also one reason I really hate eroge with a mini-game. I’ve never seen one do it well. There are always standalone games that do it better, so what’s the point? Eroge should focus on what makes it strong – a good story and character development. It’s suppose to be more of a book than anything else. Trying to spread out just makes its traditional strength weaker while not bringing any worthwhile to replace it.