Princess Waltz: THE THREAD

[Overlord87]

@linger

Princess Waltz is the first commercial VN (excluding Katawa Shoujo) I’ve ever played. At first I wasn’t too into it…playing for 2 hours and not getting to make any choices is a bit annoying to me. Are all VN’s so linear? It just gets a bit grating to click and click endlessly without getting to make any choices or input. I wonder if it’s some sort of difference among the general American and Japanese mindset. But by the 4th day (gametime) I’m starting to really get into the story and system. Can’t wait till I actually get to move off to other routes.

Princess Waltz is a really particular visual novel. In most visual novels the player has a much more active role, making all kind of choices through all the game. In some cases, these choices have no actual impact, only changing a bit the following scene. In other cases, the choices you make determine which heroine’s route you’re going into, or whether you’ll get a bad ending or not.

Although I prefer to make many choices throughout the game, in the end a good visual novel is defined by a good story, and there’s a limit to how much you should be allowed to interfere. After all, it’s not like Tolkien would allow you to choose to have Frodo die along the way

[GaiusMax]

@linger

By the way, during the 4th day, when Arata has problems controlling Iris because he knows Chris is a girl now, when I went to the Battle Mode, all the upgrades I’d bought with EXP had vanished, and I was back to 6 AGI / 6 ATK / 4 DEF base stats, and 50 hp instead of 100. This is just because it has No Chris, right? I mean, I do get my stuff back later, right? Yes, I’m still unused to story-based games and cling to traditional gamist grinding bonuses ;_;

Yes, you get the stats back later, (in two steps), after you do some training. If you’re a grinder you may want to save up XP for this period in future playthroughs, as you can pick up stat upgrades very cheap, which will later apply on top of your restored base stats.

[bamboo]

Well, I got this game for Xmas, but I haven’t really messed with it much until now. The story seemed a little slow getting started, I guess. But now I’m getting into it and find it quite interesting, except for one thing that came up recently. I just had my first fight with Angela, and she beat me soundly. I figured that would happen, but now every time I start the battle over Iris only has half her hit points. I didn’t figure on that. Is this usual when you don’t beat your opponent the first time around? I’ve even tried loading one of my earlier saves and working my up to the first battle, but it doesn’t make any difference. I don’t see how I’m going to move on to the rest of the game when Angela can put me out with one blow? And where do these special abilities come from? Because right now Iris doesn’t have dick.

[sanahtlig]

@bamboo

I just had my first fight with Angela, and she beat me soundly. I figured that would happen, but now every time I start the battle over Iris only has half her hit points. I didn’t figure on that. Is this usual when you don’t beat your opponent the first time around? I’ve even tried loading one of my earlier saves and working my up to the first battle, but it doesn’t make any difference. I don’t see how I’m going to move on to the rest of the game when Angela can put me out with one blow? And where do these special abilities come from? Because right now Iris doesn’t have dick.

That sounds bizarre. I got beaten several times by Angela and that didn’t happen to me. If you’re getting frustrated, I’d just turn on easy mode for that battle, beat it, then change it back to normal mode.

[Kimuzukashii_MEIJI]

Given that it is essentially impossible to beat Angela within the number of rounds it takes to get bonus XP from the encounter (which is what you lose when you enable easy mode) without cheating with an external program, this is quite advisable. After figuring out this, I always turn to easy mode for that one battle.

[sanahtlig]

@Kimuzukashii MEIJI

Given that it is essentially impossible to beat Angela within the number of rounds it takes to get bonus XP from the encounter (which is what you lose when you enable easy mode) without cheating with an external program, this is quite advisable. After figuring out this, I always turn to easy mode for that one battle.

I managed to do so, it just took me a while to figure it out. There’s an element of luck, but it’s not that hard to pull off:

On an unrelated note, after redoing the battle with Angela for an hour wondering why she was so much more powerful, I think I finally figured out a winning strategy (I like to figure things out for myself ). Losing to Angela repeatedly made me realize the ridiculous overpoweredness of stacking cards of the same element. Pick a color and make it your dominant color for the extra stacking bonus, plus the increased chance of drawing that color. Accrue 3 cards of your dominant color and build levels on those 3 cards. Use the remaining 2 disposably simply to stall while those build levels–use more than 2 as necessary simply to get rid of cards that are blocking your dominant color cards from spawning. Once your 3 cards have good levels, wait til 1 of the 2 disposable cards spawns as your dominant color, giving you 4 of the same color. Here’s where the skill Feint, acquiriable with Agility 8, is very useful if not essential. It makes your next initiative round an almost guaranteed win with even 1 card (provided your agility is decent–it should always be your top noncolor stat). Use the 5th card that’s probably not the same color as your others for initiative with feint. Then just let the 4-stack bonus of your dominant color do the rest–it should instant kill whatever enemy you’re facing. Well anyway, it worked on the only enemy I’ve tried it on so far. But the strategy is theoretically applicable no matter what enemy you’re facing. Color doesn’t matter, because weak field element or not the damage it does is ridiculous, and the bonus of feint is pretty amazing. Stats shouldn’t matter much either, as long as your agility is high enough to win initiative with 1 card + Feint. With enough charging, enemy HP shouldn’t matter either, it’d just take longer. Mostly, the trick would just be surviving long enough to pull it off–5 turns was enough for Angela. Bad luck of the draw could add a turn or 2 probably. Add skills like Flash for even more ludicrous effect. I pulled off a >100 dmg attack roll earlier than the second princess battle, within 5 turns, using this tactic with Feint + Crush (add +10 for each blue card). That awards a nice chunk of Overkill XP.

[Kimuzukashii_MEIJI]

Thing is, I’m stingy about spending my XP at the very beginning. I try not to spend any until I get to the section where you have half HP and lowered stats. You can really beef up your character that way.

[PNG]

@ctyinglee

actually it seems that it crashes at the start of every battle as well, ie when teh screen turns white… ie the music goes on for a few seconds and then the windows goes not responding? anyone have and solve this issue thanks

Turn the music off; that’s what I did.

[The_Bug]

Finally giving this game a play-through. I played the japanese version so my expectation was somewhat low, but I can’t really read japanese so I was pleasantly surprised. I must say that the build up and release to the first sex scene was great and the card battles are a refreshing change from the usual decision driven ADV games.

UPDATE: finally finished the game. Had a pleasant plot twist. Kind of dissapointed that there is no harem path and then every ending is the same ending.

[asdu]

END

With that, the curtain falls, and the drama cd is over. It was a nice continuation of the story, I’m only hoping that there will be a sequel in one form or another. There are still a couple of things left to do, so I won’t accept the story closed with this:
-No one won the Princess Waltz, and the girls still have to decide who gets to be queen.
-Nodoka, being the strong willed individual she is, remembered her sealed memories two days later. No other human did that, except for Arata who came from Eldhiland to begin with and had a small portion of the prince’s blessing. Nodoka never got to make her wish (though it’s possible that her dark/shichiseiseki self was completely destroyed by Chris, Eldhi Arc is still friggin Eldhi Arc after all)
-There’s Soldia’s old man who is not too fond of Arata. Sure, the guy is pretty confident in his skills, but so am I that he would be still squashed like a bug by the old king.
-Don’t tell me no one will try to cross Arata’s path in Eldhiland. The people had a Prince for 18 years who turns out to be a girl - actually a princess of one ofthe countries, and some complete stranger takes her place and the crown. Surely, someone other than Chris’ grandpa will have something against him.
-I’m not alone who thinks that the some princesses coughLun-Luncough didn’t get an equal share out of the story here. C’mon!

(Should anyone involved in creating the game and/or drama cd read this, please note how loyal fans would love a game with seperate routes for each princess, and different character endings with them. How about an advenure revolving around the crowning, with the chosen princess to be the bride?)

quote damm i wont accept to end this game like this i want a good end like that chris and arata get married and become the new princess and prince

[SidVanHalen]

Actually, I didnt knew there was a epilogue till someone pointed it out here. I always thought, that such a game deserves a sequel. Prolly the pulltop people think same and wanted to play safe, so they left a route open.
Anyway, its not something thats within our hand, as far as I know, Pulltop really make sequels. And I dont think its any easier to work on sequels. Sure, you have character and concepts ready, but a story making is actually difficult in this case.

[lux_ex_tenebris]

@SidVanHalen

Actually, I didnt knew there was a epilogue till someone pointed it out here. I always thought, that such a game deserves a sequel. Prolly the pulltop people think same and wanted to play safe, so they left a route open.
Anyway, its not something thats within our hand, as far as I know, Pulltop really make sequels. And I dont think its any easier to work on sequels. Sure, you have character and concepts ready, but a story making is actually difficult in this case.

I agree that there should be a sequel made to this game. It’s such a shame though because the story basically ends without tying up all the loose ends. Even the drama CDs released afterwards doesn’t do much to explain who Arata is going to be with in the end. If they did make a sequel, I guess there’s no guarantee that it’ll sell well.

[michelous]

i would rather see an anime of some kind for princess waltz

[SidVanHalen]

@lux ex tenebris

@SidVanHalen

Actually, I didnt knew there was a epilogue till someone pointed it out here. I always thought, that such a game deserves a sequel. Prolly the pulltop people think same and wanted to play safe, so they left a route open.
Anyway, its not something thats within our hand, as far as I know, Pulltop really make sequels. And I dont think its any easier to work on sequels. Sure, you have character and concepts ready, but a story making is actually difficult in this case.

I agree that there should be a sequel made to this game. It’s such a shame though because the story basically ends without tying up all the loose ends. Even the drama CDs released afterwards doesn’t do much to explain who Arata is going to be with in the end. If they did make a sequel, I guess there’s no guarantee that it’ll sell well.

nah, It’ll probably do decently at the beginning, after which people will start giving opinions and reviews. The western eroge in market is pretty small and niche, so such stuff matters a lot. I for instance, have made a lot of purchases on the recommendations of others. so as a long as a game is well done with decent story, it’ll sell well. Its not that there are a lot of options here.
The main concern of Pulltop would be their home market. As you may know, its cut throat stuff there.

[SidVanHalen]

@michelous

i would rather see an anime of some kind for princess waltz

Yeah, me too. It can be something like Fate/Stay night, with less of Arata and more of the battles.

[Ignosco]

Hm, the problem with a sequel or fandisk is that Princess Waltz is far from Pulltop’s best game (Haruka ni Aogi, possibly Yunohana might be better as well) and it’s made by their second tier team. Even if they started work on a sequel now for release in the first half of 2010, a 4 year or so delay from the original game might be a bit much, considering that Princess Waltz is by no means the top game in its genre.

[SidVanHalen]

@Ignosco

Hm, the problem with a sequel or fandisk is that Princess Waltz is far from Pulltop’s best game (Haruka ni Aogi, possibly Yunohana might be better as well) and it’s made by their second tier team. Even if they started work on a sequel now for release in the first half of 2010, a 4 year or so delay from the original game might be a bit much, considering that Princess Waltz is by no means the top game in its genre.

exactly. Companies do not make games for western markets, since they have a well developed domestic market already.

[asdu]

yea im sure that make a sequel is not easy but the story is alteredy here… leave this game at this point rly sucks…

[lux_ex_tenebris]

@SidVanHalen

@michelous

i would rather see an anime of some kind for princess waltz

Yeah, me too. It can be something like Fate/Stay night, with less of Arata and more of the battles.

I don’t understand why this game hasn’t been turned into an anime yet. It’ll be very easy to take out the H-scenes exactly like they did with Fate/Stay Night because it doesn’t really change the whole context of the story at all. Focusing on the battles between Angela/Lun Lun and Suzushiro/Liesel would be amazing in its own right.

[zalas]

@lux ex tenebris

@SidVanHalen

@michelous

i would rather see an anime of some kind for princess waltz

Yeah, me too. It can be something like Fate/Stay night, with less of Arata and more of the battles.

I don’t understand why this game hasn’t been turned into an anime yet. It’ll be very easy to take out the H-scenes exactly like they did with Fate/Stay Night because it doesn’t really change the whole context of the story at all. Focusing on the battles between Angela/Lun Lun and Suzushiro/Liesel would be amazing in its own right.

Probably because the parent company doesn’t have any good current connections into the anime industry and isn’t in the shape to start doing so, either.