Well, the plan was to do a catch-up episode this month, but I guess I only found time to do the one. I may well continue that Harvester LP at some point later this week though, given that I stopped playing before anything interesting happened, but then I wonder if uploading so many screenshots in so short an amount of time won't screw up my images again. (Did I tell you guys about my image problems? I feel like I might've mentioned them a few times.)
In case you've just joined us for the Comic Commish, this is a monthly feature I originally put together to write (and doodle terrible comics) about games that my premium membership sponsor, the magnanimous @omghisam, was interested in hearing more about. After I became a mod and no longer required his support, I decided to turn this feature towards highlighting Steam games that were gifted to me for various, usually comedic reasons. By a remarkable coincidence, today's game also comes courtesy of omghisam. Given that he also gifted me the troubling Go! Go! Nippon! a little while back (the scars will never heal), I'm hardly surprised that I'm once again contemplating a whole lot of anime frolics.
February: Long Live the Queen
(Yeah, I know it's not February. We'll catch up one day, I swear it!) Anyway, we're leaving behind Harvester's world of imminent death and bad things happening for no reason to focus on this month's game: Long Live the Queen, from Hanako Games. It's an anime girl-raising sim, only the anime girl in question is the crown princess who must survive to see her coronation. So, yes, more imminent death and bad things happening for no reason. It's a little more strategic than your average dating/raising sim as a result, not to mention more eventful.
Welcome to Long Live the Queen! Good lord, if that isn't the most anime picture. Strap yourselves in, folks.Here's our father, the King-Dowager, and absolutely not a goddamn 33 year old if my saggy ass is any indication. Since the nation of Nova can only be ruled by women, far as I can tell, the line of succession goes from his wife the Queen to the Crown Princess. Given that Joslyn's now a dowager, I'm guessing the Queen's not feeling so hot. So who is the princess?That would be Elodie, here. She's also the main character and the target for every assassin for a hundred miles. Too bad you can't name her yourself, I'd have gone with "Regina Mortis". Maybe "Mimi Tomori". Man, I had so many puns lined up, you guys.Oh thank Anime Jesus. Kawaii be his name.To summarize these tutorials: Elodie has eight moods, though they're paired off into opposing statuses. Elodie's mood affects her ability to learn new skills, so they're important to regulate.The vast amount of skills the player can choose to learn. Some are red herrings, others only help depending on the type of monarch you're playing. If I intend to be diplomatic instead of warmongering, for example, I'll pour points into social skills and less towards military strategy.Because I need to prioritize important skills early on, I'm going to draw pictures and play with birds. Hopefully, I will one day paint a self-portrait that accurately depicts who I am, where I'm from, and my passing interest in falconry.The real reason I went with these skills is because the Depressed mood, which I am currently in (my mom just died), favors certain skills while makes others harder to learn. If a skill type is boosted by your mood, it becomes easier to raise.Soon we are visited by our aunt and uncle, the Duchess and Duke of Merva. They also dragged along their kids, including Lottie.The Duke of Merva also happens to be next in line. If there's any nobles thinking of assassinating Elodie, it'll be to help this guy out. Possibly. No guarantee he and his kids won't get bumped off immediately afterwards. Being royalty is fun.Lottie's close to Elodie's age and a dear friend, not to mention an eternally chipper 13 year old girl. I don't trust her one little bit. First chance I get, I'm picking out a tower to lock her in.So after each week's lessons, you're given a choice of where to hang out for the weekend. Most choices, like "Play With Toys", will simply move your mood sliders around. Others, like the star icons, will allow you to talk to NPCs and possibly move story threads along (and they'll almost certainly affect your mood in unexpected ways as well).We're also visited by another relative, the Duchess of Ursul. She's related to the Queen in some circuitous manner (nobles, am I right?) as well as a Lumen. Lumen are a tribe of witches who pass on their powers genetically, meaning anyone who is female and related to a Lumen has the potential to be one too. Unsurprisingly, our mother was one.Tragedy strikes soon after Julianna's visit: a milk viper attacks Elodie and Lottie in the garden. Julianna lops its head off, but not before it bites Lottie. Ominously, we get a "failed poison knowledge" check after saying this. (The skill checks work like they do in most RPGs: they require that you pass a certain number for that skill, and if you succeed the story moves in a different, usually better direction.)We're not going to let dead cousins get in the way of our painting class, however. (As you learn skills, you get a boost for skills of the same type. These are permanent skill boosts, unlike the capricious mood bonuses.)The stress of the snake attack pushed the "Afraid" gauge furthest out, which means our mood has changed.That also means the skill boosts have reshuffled. Being afraid makes you better at active skills like Agility. It also put the fear of God into us, so now we're learning more about magic.So Elodie doesn't really know anything. I'm sure she tests well.I completely blank on why a foreign noble would be sending me a pretty piece of jewelry. Because sparkly shit. Maybe I should put more points into court intrigue stuff...Damn, the Lumen sound like badasses. I better figure out how to become one. Mysterious destiny and all that. (Honestly, this game is starting to remind me of Suikoden V.)Whoa, I suddenly got all feisty.My repeated attempts to locate the heirloom gemstone that will turn me into a Lumen has given me something of an attitude. From what I gather, you want to avoid letting any mood get too prevalent, because you need to keep changing it to get a decent breadth of skills. Crazy mood swings is a necessity for any princess: just ask Super Princess Peach.We're visited by Gutenberg (Johannes, not Steve), but we turn him and his book printing idea away. I very clearly have no need for books. I'm the Dan Ryckert of Princesses.After a few skill boosts in the Agility field, a new weekend activity opens up: sports. I guess it'd be difficult to assassinate someone with a tennis racket, right? Difficult but not impossible, anyway.Dropped Willful, but now I'm back to Depressed again. Ah well, the hawks beckon.You'll hit a cap if you don't raise all three sub-skills within a skill category equally. There's also a secondary reason to spread your time across all three sub-skills, which we'll get into in just a moment.Well, well, we're getting more male attention from older Dukes. Banion definitely rubs me the wrong way, for some reason. Maybe because his sister is "Duchess of Hellas". Must be a California thing.All right! Kingdom Hearts just got a lot sexier.Anyway, this is the other Duke who badly wants to marry a 14 year old. Banion gave us the tip-off that his pendant meant he was courting us, so we politely decline his affections. At least, we would've done had I bothered to raise my "Court Manners" skill. Instead, I call him a gross old man. Accurate, but not helpful.We're having more fun with nobles after one brings in a peasant that tried to assassinate his sister. She had her reasons, but the Earl of Io don't care to hear 'em. I'm starting to think I'm a Myrcella among Joffreys.Apparently, watching unarmed women get violently murdered in front of my eyes gets my dander up something fierce, and I'm now Angry.Anger begets more violence, and so I use this opportunity to get some military tactics and fencing practice in. Given our psychopathic family members, it's probably for the best.A parade's coming up, but I'm far more vulnerable outside the castle. Still, though, I'm not going to be dissuaded from being at a carnival. Mardi Gras!Choosing to make a speech at the festival, I later decide that I'm not really a "speech" person. I fail to wow anyone. Hey, if I had my birds here...The Countess has been making eyes at my father, it seems. We're not sure what her intentions are, but we're sure as hell going to stare at her scornfully. (I am literally a child.)We move to the mood of Constipated, which makes us far better at the skills of Sitting Patiently and Medicine: Fiber Supplements. Nah, this is the expression she makes when Pressured (which is almost the same thing, really).Here's the other reason you want to learn all three sub-skills within a skill category: you unlock new outfits. Far from being mere fan service, each outfit boosts your skill levels in the skill category they pertain to. It's a great boon if you need it for an important skill check coming up (which, of course, you have no way of knowing beforehand unless you save and reload frequently).I get in more sword practice while dressed in my priestess robes. I'm sure I'm super maneuverable in this get-up.Success! I finally get all my moods to be perfect and balanced! I'm no longer beholden to being an emotional trainwreck. Unfortunately, I receive no bonuses while in a "neutral" state, making it somewhat undesirable. Time to throw this medication out the window, then.Not Fabian! He was my favorite! (Who is Fabian?)Deciding I need to know more about my fellow nobles and court intrigue in general, I hire this obvious spy and decide to keep her around for juicy gossip.This is more like it. This regal get-up boosts my Royal Demeanor skillset, which appears to be the most important given how often it comes up in skill checks. I also look like a damn Queen, finally.I also unlock this toga, which helps with my Expression (i.e. artistic) skills. Dunno when I'll ever use it, unless Alpha Delta Phi has a kegger coming up.After trying for a while and boosting my Presence skill, I finally strongarm my way into the Royal Treasury, which is where my Lumen jewel is being kept.After Fabian died, his heir came to live with us. I dunno if taking him away from his mother and promising to marry him was my best choice, but it gets me out of dallying with 30-year-old nobles. Now I'm the child predator! Don't quote that out of context!I'm definitely becoming more of a queen. Because my Cheerfulness stat is super high right now (as well as Elodie apparently being super high in general), I can't stop grinning.Part of the reason we're happy is because we now get to be a witch with awesome magical powers.I suspect I'll be getting a Sailor uniform out of this. Wardrobe's getting pretty full.Gwenelle, my cousin (I have a lot of cousins, shut up), will be coming of age and into her title shortly before I do. If I want to be there to celebrate, it means leaving the castle. Surely it'll be fine. Surely.Well, no, it turns out. Bandits attacked, and with my woeful grasp of medicine I decided I'd be better off trying to push an arrow through myself to get it out the other end. Funny, this is how I died in Metal Gear Solid 3 a lot too.
And so ends the life of poor Elodie, felled by an arrow on her way to a birthday party. If you ever have kids and don't want them going to their friend's house, or have friends at all, tell them of Elodie's story. Embellish the part where she slowly pushes an arrow through her own vital organs like an idiot.
Still, had events been different and I hadn't decided to do something insanely risky because I wanted to end this damn LP already, I think the rest of the game might've gone a little like this:
The FalQueen will see you now.
Long Live the Queen feels a bit like 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors in that you have to anticipate failure--a few failures, even--before you'll get a good handle on not only how the game is played but the sort of snafus you can expect to encounter. I don't think it's simply a matter of prioritizing the skills for necessary story skill checks either, as you get so many checks that you can't possibly succeed at all of them even if you meticulously plan the best study route.
Instead, it seems like you'd be better off deciding which angle you want to play, and then figure out how to be really good at playing that angle. Want to be Cersei? Better learn all those Court Intrigue and Queenly Presence skills and either intimidate or eliminate everyone who might be a threat. The commoners and nobles alike will hate you, but let them eat cakes full of poison. You could probably survive being the nicest Queen in the world, but I'm sure you'll still need a lot of guile and loyal connections to make it work. It seems keeping a bunch of save files at various points would be a big help too, especially if you can find a way to go back and escape a grim fate looming on the horizon.
Either way, it's a pretty neat game. Frustrating, of course, since Death is around every corner and really doesn't care for pink things, but it's one of those games you learn to play less through trial and error (though there's certainly a smidgen of that with these curveball story events) but by beating the system before it can beat you.
Would I play it again? Eh, maybe. I think I might consult a guide to survive to my coronation just once, and then see if I can leverage what I learned to try for other, possibly better endings. I definitely want to see what would happen if I became a super-badass Lumen Sage. Probably just get murdered by a leggy brunette with guns on her feet, knowing Elodie's luck.
