Long Live The Queen

Developer: Hanako Games | Publisher: Hanako Games | Release Date: 2013 | Genre: Indie / RPG / Simulation / Strategy | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

With the untimely demise of her mother, it falls on the frail shoulders of 14-year-old Elodie to ascend the throne. Your only goal is ensuring the princess makes it to her coronation. Still, if you think the 40 intervening weeks will consist of riding ponies and entertaining suitors, you have another thing coming. The kingdom of Nova has a rather high mortality rate for royals, and even with your help, her future is looking rather bleak.

Beneath the cute manga exterior of Long Live The Queen beats the cold, calculating heart of a strategy game. The gameplay concept is deceptively simple; you choose a morning and evening class for the princess to attend during the week and an activity to engage in over weekends. Classes increase stat points while activities influence the mood of the princess. There are 14 different class categories, each with three different class options, so obviously, there will not be enough time to study everything.

Scripted events happen every week, and how the princess reacts to these depends on your choices and her stats. These events range from very minor to quite significant, and for your first few playthroughs, you never know just how vital the correct stats can be. High reflexes might simply enable the princess to dodge a clumsy maid, but good animal handling might save her life. We won’t ruin the surprise by listing the many ways the princess can shuffle her mortal coil, but suffice it to say this game is much darker than it looks.

After kicking the bucket, you can reload an older save to try to prevent whatever went wrong or start a new game and learn from your mistakes. We were so focused on turning Elodie into a capable warrior during our first playthrough that we completely neglected her royal demeanor and conversation skills. The result was a princess who committed every social faux pas in the book and was woefully unprepared for the political maneuvering of her fellow nobles. You have the option to enable feedback that shows precisely what skill checks Elodie is passing or failing, which is an immense help for subsequent playthroughs. We found ourselves constantly taking notes while playing and referring to these in new playthroughs. Each unforeseen failure made us more determined, but it might feel like a grind if you are not the type of gamer who enjoys replaying a game.

The game has a series of epilogues and a “death checklist” that you can refer to, enhancing the replay value. The beauty of this game is that even if you successfully guide Elodie to the throne, there is always something nagging at the back of your mind. What if you went to a friend’s birthday party instead of cowering in your tower? What is the terrible secret the achievement list hints at, and what would happen if you guided Elodie toward the dark side? We were shocked when we checked out the achievement list after hours of playing and saw how much more there was still to discover in the game.

The visuals in the game are very nice but relatively sparse and devoid of animation. There are various outfits to unlock, but you are mostly staring at text and statistics. Once you are hooked, this doesn’t really matter, but some small animations for the activities or key scenes would have been a nice touch. The audio features tunes as diverse as “God Save The Queen” for the title screen to some strains of classic Chopin for your demise. The piano music that plays during gameplay is unobtrusive and soothing, making it a perfect fit for the game.

Long Live The Queen is a compelling but relaxing game to play. The story is relatively short but has many branches that you can miss entirely if you don’t have the right skill sets. As a big fan of titles such as Princes Maker and Monster Rancher, which share some traits with Long Live The Queen, we enjoyed the game immensely. It is undoubtedly a rather niche title, but before you dismiss it out of hand, we urge you to check out the demo first. You may be pleasantly surprised by what this game has to offer.

*Review originally published in 2015.