I'm a pretty pretty Princess! Let's Play Long Live the Queen

it's pretty dense, and more than that, i think it hits a good balance of showing you what you need to know to make things turn out differently, while at the same time keeping a lot of stuff out of sight for you to stumble on as you play with your options. i really really adore this game and even the music grew on me (i think the "elodie's room" song is the weakest in the game which is kind of unfortunate when you hear it the most, but the dying music and the track that plays at balls are phenomenal)

(hanako's other game on steam right now, magical diary, also has a lot of decision density, though it's much more linear overall. i'd recommend picking it up on a steam sale if you liked this one. the production values are a lot lower and i still probably wouldn't pay $15 for it but i really liked it. although obviously the whole thing revolves only around your choices still, there are some clever tricks in the writing and design that make it feel less like the entire world revolves around you and more like your roommates also get to make their own choices)

anyway i'm not gonna act like a super expert on this game but it's hard enough to pull off anything crazy when you have half the game memorized, much less in a democracy so

i'm gonna back up the vote on accounting and accounting because unless i totally missed something economics never gets emotion bonuses anyway

I've gotten myself killed a horrific number of times in this game, though I did manage to win once.

Reflexes and Novan History

You people are making it surprisingly hard to not click the spoilers for a kawaii princess sim.

In fairness, none of the spoilers actually spoil any part of the story, with the exception of MrChris's and possibly Destil's last post. Knock yourself out.

I tend to shy away from the Princess Maker comparisons, because, judging by the online reactions that I've seen, there were a lot of PM fans who eagerly bought this game and came away disappointed. It obviously bears lots of superficial similaries, but playing it is a very different experience (this is much more narratively-focused and restrictive), and if someone comes in expecting a new Princess Maker game then this is likely going to leave them cold. Which is unfortunate, because I think it's a pretty fun game when taken on its own merits; you just have to go in with the proper expectations. Princess Maker is a toy box whereas this is a puzzle.

ETA: Quick show of hands: anyone else draw up a mood/skill reference table to play this? My wife and I took turns playing while the other updated the table.

This seems like the type of game my wife would adore if it was on her ipad. Seems like it would be a great fit, but probably way too expensive, I suppose.

Don't know if there's an iPad version, but it's at the $6 level on Humble right now.

Yeah I meant any hypothetical ios version wouldn't be at the 99 cents people expect and wouldn't sell. I don't think they've mentioned it as a possibility.

I'm all for efficiency so I vote for Voice and Falcon. I'm guessing Voice = Singing, which could be useful for soothing wild beasts or magical shenanigans. Falcon I'm hoping can be used for spying and reconnaissance.

I totally did the same thing. And I tried to make a week-by-week skill rolls list, but that eventually became a little too complicated to keep track of for reasons it took me a few playthroughs to understand.

I hope Mr. Bean isn't upset that we've hijacked his LP for a discussion thread.

This is a really good game, you guys!

I approve of this LP.

Not at all! This is a cool game and it's great you guys want to discuss the cool game. Discuss away! Next update on the way!

Ok, I've worked out a scoring system for the skill voting:
Everyone gets two votes (and feel free to double vote for a skill if you want it for both morning and afternoon classes)
Top two choices get trained
If the most popular option wins by double, it gets double trained
In the event of a tie, I'll go with whatever we have greatest affinity for, otherwise a random.org coin flip

By that metric, here's what we're going to start our education with:



You guys were really into the accounting and falconry won the coin flip vs dogs.





We bone up on the basics in the morning and meet our new avian friends in the afternoon. The skill narratives aren't just there for fluff either. These are your in-game indications on how skilled you have to be to pass certain skill checks. Say for example a foreign nation comes calling - if the narrative describes that nation during foreign affairs training, Elodie will be more prepared to talk with the representative since she'll have been briefed beforehand.

That's enough of that for now though, we have visitors!



Elodie: Oh! It's my cousins! And my aunt and uncle.



Elodie: Thank you.



Well that answers the succession question at any rate. Looks like it passes in a direct line from Fidelia and if she has no more heirs, it shifts to Laurent.



And then to Charlotte.

Elodie: Hi Lottie. I haven't seen you in ages! Will you be staying long?

Charlotte: Yup! Mummy said we'd be here all month.



Here's a bubble showing a mood shift in action. Whenever something affects Elodie's mood, a text bubble with drift up from the bottom of the screen informing you. In this case, she's happy to see her family so she cheers up a bit.

After every week's training and events, we'll get the choice of how we want to relax for the weekend.



There are a variety of activities, and new ones open up if you train in certain skill trees. Most of them affect our mood in some way and it's how we steer Elodie into the right frame of mind for training a particular skill. Here's what we've got right now though:

Crown - Attend Court - +2 Yielding, +1 Pressured, +1 Depressed
Castle - Explore Castle - +1 Lonely, +1 Afraid
Tombstone - Visit Tomb - +1 Depressed, +1 Afraid
Flower - Walk in the Gardens - +1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful
Ladder - Sneak Out - +2 Willful, +1 Lonely
Teddy Bear - Play With Toys - +1 Yielding, +1 Lonely, +1 Cheerful
Grate - Visit the Dungeon - Bonuses vary with what mood you're currently in. Right now it has no effect

The stars indicate someone we can talk to with an indeterminate effect on our mood. In the upper left is our father and in the lower right in Charlotte. People come and go from the castle, so who you can talk to changes as the game progresses.

The symbol in the center of the map is unique too. It's 'Attend Service' and it will reduce your highest mood from the first two categories by 1, moving it towards neutral. There's no additional bonus for having Elodie all the way up a mood ladder vs just a little; the bonuses only come based on what's currently dominant. You want to try and keep her relatively close to neutral if you can so it's easier to switch moods for training.

For this first weekend, let's go see what Charlotte is up to.





Elodie: ... something like this. I know your brother and sister are still too young, but why haven't you come to school?

Charlotte: My mother worries about me. She doesn't think anywhere but home is safe.

Elodie: I understand. I'm probably not going to be allowed to leave this castle until my birthday. But at least we can have fun together here! (+1 Cheerful)

After being cheered up by Charlotte, our mood has shifted a bit.



We're still depressed, but now we're equally afraid and depressed. In case of a tie, the dominant mood is decided by which one is farther left on the mood screen which means our dominant mood is now afraid.



It also means that our skill bonuses have shifted with bonuses to agility and faith.



What say ye talking time, shall we continue the noble path of accountancy, or try something else?

dogs dogs

I don't trust these people at all.

We must learn to use magic, ideally the kind that can stop someone from trying to kill you.

It looks like there's been a patch since I played this? That little box on the skills screen that summarizes your bonuses and penalties is a nice quality-of-life improvement.

In any case, I'm generally a fan of training skills with bonuses, and Solitaryre's "don't die" plan sounds like a good one. We can't train magic at the moment though, so let's work on our Reflexes (x2) in the meantime so we can dodge anything the game might throw at us.

We can't learn proper magic right now for reasons that will be explained soon, but we can learn divination so we can see threats coming from further off.

No no no. Herbs and meditation. Let's go full stoner.

The Lumen category is currently unavailable for study, for two reasons. One, Elodie's Lumen capabilities have not awakened themselves, and two, we have no one able to teach her.

That sounds pretty good. It's a lot easier to thwart assassination attempts when you know they're coming.



I mean, look at this. Charlotte clearly already has designs on making this castle her own. Nobody who becomes a princess if you die is really your friend.

Divination and/or reflexes.

sol you are going to love what happens next (as long as nobody votes for composure)

divination + lore

Tempted to double down on reflexes, but I'll vote for reflexes and divination. Also it seems like besides the mood bonus we also get bonuses if we know a skill in the same category? Also do the skills max out at 100?

I'm also voting reflexes and divination.

yeah, there's a modest bonus to your learning rate the more you advance in a given subject area (though it at best tends to save you like one study period. not that that's not valuable).

you can't level any skill over 50 until you have all three skills in a given subject at 30 or higher. or maybe it's 25, i forgot but it really doesn't make a big difference (since you usually pass both at once). this also unlocks a costume which gives you a bonus in that field when you equip it. between that and the fact that the game rarely checks 90 or higher (basically only at the very end, and usually only in one skill) you'll almost never want to rank anything all the way up to 100 manually

Novan History and Trade

Divination and Reflexes seem like a good bet at the moment.

I'll second this.

Divination and Trade!