Ren'Py - Completed - Long Live the Princess [v1.0.1] [Belle]

The game is nigh-perfect all along and definitely among my favorites. Belle (the character) has banter with the MC that isn't distracting nor conflicting with the tone of the game, characters are interesting but, most of all, I think that the gameplay elements are among the best-handled here. Most games feel that they have a choice between being linear and including a stat-grind, here the fact that character- and relationship-progression are handled by puzzles as in a point-and-click game make it actually challenging and enjoyable.
I don't know if it is among the scheduled updates but it is weird that one can't watch Evelyn and Thaddeus make out (despite there being the ntr tag) and that you can't do much to Samarra and Neil in their bed (only fondle Samarra's boobs I think). Anyway, it's almost nitpicking at this point, the 5-star rating is completly deserved.

---- Chara Design :
A lot of variety, a lot of personality, a lot of cuteness, a little bit of sexyness, and quite fun. Well it works, they are interesting and match the lore.

---- Renders/Graphisms :
The models are not top notch, but sexy/cute enough and the background is fitting well the story

---- Story/Writing :
Yup, the main sucess of the game. The setup of the story works, the progression makes sense, the detective/mentalist aspect also works well, the writing is excellent, the humor is on spot.

---- Background/Atmosphere :
The lore is well done, the music and sounds help the immersion, good job.

---- Animations :
I am surprised to see a lot of comments saying it's the best animations ever. They clearly did not play much other good games. That said, it is still above average and you have a lot of variety due to the different type of characters.

---- Sex scenes :
The good thing is that there are some original sex scenes, some cute ones, and some scary/disgusting ones as well, overall it is nice, but not great.

---- Gameplay :
The dev tried to create a meaningful gameplay, although a bit tedious at time but still playable and interesting overall. The next step is not always obvious but somehow you will get to it, it's not like there are always 35 options. Objectively it is well thought, but it makes the game slow and the story less epic/memorable than what it could be with a better pace (imo).

---- Contents/Updates :
In total, you will have some hours of play, no problem. But if you consider the number of updates and the fact it was released a few years ago, it is not that much. The progress seems slow but the quality is there.

------------------ Conclusion -----------------------------------------

I had hard time deciding between 4 and 5 stars, I will still go with 5 because of the creative work, the nice story, the lore and blablablah...
Ok ok, in fact it's because Belle didn't leave me much of choice, it was either I rate it 5 stars, or who knows what she will do in my sleep...-_-'.

I hope belle release a new update as quickly as possible (the pregnant route of all the girls and the route of the princess), it is an excellent game, with one of the best 3d animations out there... Good job Belle

I'm a big fan of big tits tag. But I know well whether the storyline is unique and deserve appreciation. This game offer different premises than most of others. The idea of magic and truthsaying are also fresh idea for gameplay and story. However, I suggest developer to add other prominent tags possible to make it more attractive as an adult games. Some character with bigger tits, harem or pregnancy may help

A hidden gem, one of the most engaging storylines I have played. The plot was wonderfully woven through every character.

I would have liked to have higher resolution renders. Keep up the good work. Let's hope for a pregnant harem ending...lol

A pretty great game with good graphics and interesting characters. As somebody who usually isn't a big fan of fantasy style adult games, this is probably the best of the genre.

Only major issue is the incredibly slow development. I discovered this game around a year ago and in that time only a couple of disconnected scenes have been released, still less overall content than you would expect from 1 major update. Sort of feels like the dev is deliberately dragging their feet in completing the game to keep sucking up patreon money.

All that said, this game is still undeniably a quality product and the rating should be bumped to a 5 when its finally done.

Edit: After 4 months my views on this game haven't really changed. Updates are still painfully slow and thin and the game's total content is still disappointing considering its promise and prominence. Good game, but the update cycle is killing my enthusiasm.

Edit 2: Another 4 months on and the game is in total limbo. I have lowered my score to 3 stars to reflect my disappointment.

- Small grind
- Decent animations
- Beautiful graphics
- Engaging story
- Fleshed out characters

Definitely worth a try. Has minigames which are quite original. You should check it out. Has a decent amount of content already.

The game is well thought out, and well rendered., and in many ways quite good. However, you have to follow strictly follow a loooong walkthrough to play it, and if you miss a step you have to essentially start over. Also, it doesn't lend well to replays, once you have gotten to the end.

Pros:

• Well drawn characters.
• Better than average renders and animations.
• Engaging story.

Cons:

None.

Belle is the standout aspect of this game. This pixie’s attitude and sense of humour makes this game compellingly playable. I eagerly await every new installment.

One of the best games honestly
I like the detective part which makes it standout from your average fk all girls games
I like also the great efforts putted into graphics
still not that effort put into sounds & none into voices

Great game. To be honest...I am not all into fairy tale games and stories at all and I tried two times to play this game and stopped after a little bit.

What I really like about it is the fact that game gets better and better as longer you play. Thats related to animation, storyline and renders.

Ofc...Belle is funny...omg...somtimes I could not stop laughing about her phrases. In general the game has a symphatic way of humor through the whole storyline. Thats well done...there are so many movies, books and games, which can not stand this on a high level.

I would love to give 5 Stars, but without the walkthrough file I could not have make it...and yes... I played 70 days without it and then I startet again with this help.

TLDR at the end, reviewing v0.30.0, no story or character spoilers.
Minor spoilers regarding what adult content you can expect to see.

Introduction



Pros

• The Main Story
  
  First and foremost, this game has by far the best storytelling I have ever seen in any sort of adult game, including gems like Treasure of Nadia and the like. The plot is super intriguing right from the beginning. There is a lot of mystery, tons of great yet subtle foreshadowing and, my goodness, it even has honest-to-god lore in it; in an adult, independently-created Ren'Py game!
  Like any good mystery story, you feel like you should have enough clues to figure everything out, but some pieces are still missing. When you figure more stuff out, it doesn't feel like the author is just inserting more plot as filler but as if it had all been thought out from the beginning (whether that's actually true or not is irrelevant at that point) and the story actually has internal logic to it.
  The introduction of new lore and new characters is done in a nice piece-meal fashion, so you have time to process and remember all of it. You still have to pay attention, this is not a skip-till-fap-scenes game but that makes it all the more rewarding in my opinion.
  5/5
  
  
• Writing and Dialogue
  
  This is often a sore point in these VNs where the author might have some good story in mind and some skill with rendering but doesn't actually know how to write dialogue. Not the case here.
  The characters all sound real and believable, all seem to have sort of their own, recognizable way of talking without being idiosyncratic or repetitive and the writing has a really nice pace to it, contrary to other reviews, I don't think it's overly verbose; it gets the story out in as many words as necessary without being either too compact so you don't keep up nor too elaborate that you get bored.
  5/5
  
  
• Setting and Lore
  
  This section is definitely a first for me in my reviews of adult games...
  But yeah, you have a fantasy-ish, medieval-ish setting which is actually pretty unique for these games, especially if you don't like anime-style too much like myself.
  You actually have some deep lore and background to the universe that is explored in a nice, piece-meal pace so it doesn't become too overwhelming (the same cannot be said for many main-stream big-studio games) and even though some of the internal rules of the magic system seem to be yadda-yadda'ed by the author, if you don't think about it too much, it's actually pretty consistent and logical throughout.
  You get some histories of conflict between the races which further help to make the characters seem more real and grounded when you have such an other-worldly setting.
  All in all, I really like this setting and the lore in it but that's probably down to personal preference as well. But my guess is, you know that this is a fantasy-style game before you download it, so presumably no player has too much of a problem with it.
  4.5/5
  
  
• Gameplay
  
  One more great thing about this VN is that it doesn't actually feel a whole lot like a VN, it's more akin to a sandbox point-and-click game.
  There are a lot of locations to explore, you have different skills to upgrade over time, an inventory and currency system and passage of time. Now many of these aren't actually unique to this game and can be seen in a lot of these Ren'Py VN sandbox games. But I still wanted to single them out because in many other games, they can feel annoying, limiting and pointless, basically their potential being wasted. Here, almost all of these problems are done away with.
  E.g., there is a tendency in these games to have your day split up in different times, i.e. morning, afternoon and evening, where you can perform certain activities, as is the case here. But unlike in other games, where you often feel like time passes too quickly and you can't do enough in one day, here only certain actions actually take long enough to further the passage of time, like working or moving forward in the plot. But these actions, that will move time along, are always clearly marked, so you can explore freely and look at your options before deciding on what to do whereas in other games, time often just passes by you without you actually having done much. You also get enough hints from characters on what to do next that you are not just clicking on every available location to find the next scene, as many of these VNs are wont to do, you mostly know in which location you'll find which interaction(s).
  That's just one example of how the gameplay is better than in other sandbox VNs but it applies to almost all of the typical problems.
  Furthermore, you have a really interesting feature of trying to deduce secrets from people using clues you found previously which just adds to the whole mystery adventure in a fun, interactive way that's honestly better done than in some mainstream Sherlock Holmes games I've played.
  5/5
  
  
• Belle
  
  Belle is your thumb-size, constantly horny, pixie sidekick (or, according to Belle, you are her sidekick) and she might honestly be up there with the writing and story in terms of how enjoyable simply her presence makes the game which is why I wanted to devote some lines just for her.
  She's just a fantastic character, once again demonstrating the author's skill. Apart from being sexy in a very weird and gloriously original way, she is just hilariously witty and funny. To write wit in a believable way, the author himself has to be very intelligent and skilled with words, and they certainly deliver on this front; Belle has a way of making these sexual double entendres without them feeling forced, unnatural or unoriginal and I honestly laughed out loud more than once at some of her lines.
  Her accompanying facial expressions and gestures just help settle the deal and make her even more adorable.
  And even though her whole body is shorter than the MC's dick, there are still a fair number of sex scenes with her which are actually hot in a very weird way.
  All in all, she might actually be the best thing about this game.
  5/5
  
  
• Other characters
  
  While Belle is undoubtedly my favorite, the dev still delivers with a plethora of other great characters (mostly women, naturally).
  Even the more seemingly banal characters that you meet first like Callie, Primrose or Evelyn have interesting backstories and secrets that you get to as you move further in your relationship with them. There is also some great character development and it feels like your choices with them really matter, some of them are actually irreversible.
  Later on, you get to meet more instantly fascinating characters like Samarra, Nell or the physical forest impersonation Erato. All of them are deep and interesting and just all-in-all very well written. Sister Agnes might not be too original, being your typical hot nun with which you'll probably have the standard corruption story line, but seeing as how hot she is, I don't have a huge problem with that. She might also possibly be gay, and be actually be more of a love interest for another character, so we'll see, still early on in the story.
  Only the last two introductions, both of magical fey origin, the Leanan Sídhe and the Fairy Queen, are, to my taste, a bit too instantly attracted to the MC, a common adult VN affliction that the dev still manages to sell believably (or not include at all) with the other characters.
  4.5/5
  
  
• Design and Animation
  
  Another strong point of the game, although I do have some minor nitpicks here.
  All in all, the design of the game feels very rich and fleshed-out. You don't get the typical huge close-up of characters with a bland background to hide the fact that the dev couldn't be bothered to design much more than the characters themselves. Every location and every room is richly detailed which gives this game a much more realistic and comfortable feel to it.
  The rendering of the characters is also very much in the upper tier, the women all look very hot (with the exception of the gruesome crone which I desperately hope we never have to see in the nude) while remaining unique in their own way.
  The 3D-rendering and animations aren't in the same league as creations by NLT Media, Lewdlab or Faerin but seeing as this isn't really the focus of the game, they are certainly good enough to not be distracting.
  One of my nitpicks here would be that, for my taste, the women aren't, on average, busty or voluptuous enough. Don't get me wrong, I like petite women in these games as much as the next guy, but even the ones described as having large breasts still look to have a C-cup at best. This gives off the feeling of the women's bodies all looking more or less the same, ranging from toned with small breasts to toned with slightly less small breasts. That can be a bit disappointing at times. You wouldn't need to give them monster juggs, women can be reasonably skinny or curvy with D or DD-cup breasts, it wouldn't be unrealistic if one or two of the women had these bigger tits.
  Furthermore, we only see the MC in POV, which I don't really like. I feel like it doesn't bother me here as much as with other games because the dev went all the way with it, not sometimes weirdly showing all of the body except the face or something like that, but it instantly makes things like kissing or cunnilingus a bit weird and unbelievable. I also don't really care for the design of the MC's dick; for an animated cock, it's too small for my taste (looking average at best while women still comment on how big it is) and lacking details like colouring, veins, etc. That makes it look sort of bland and toy-like.
  But again, all of these are really nitpicks, mostly because, like I said, the sex and the animations aren't really what make this game good, it's really more about the story and gameplay.
  4/5

Mehs

• Adult Content
  
  One of the things that niggled me the most about this game is its pretty vanilla adult content.
  Like I previously said, the game isn't really about that but it still kinda is. And seeing the level of kinkiness referenced by Belle or read in perversity-increasing books (things like double penetration or fisting, to name the more harmless ones), I had expected some nasty shit but it hasn't really delivered (yet) on any of these.
  There is sort of a slow build-up to the sex scenes (and the level of perversity in them) which I don't mind too much because you do have adult content pretty early on in the game, so you don't have to wait too long for your first fap. After a certain point, you can also enjoy repeatable sex scenes (or nightly molesting scenes, which I don't care too much for, but they are optional anyways) anytime you want, so that's all well and good.
  But so far, the kinkiest stuff that has been done is pretty standard anal and some weird shit you get to do with magical fey women, like fucking a green forest-woman, sex scenes with Belle including licking her teeny-tiny pussy or being jerked off by her with her whole body (both of which are more funny than sexy) and being ball-drained to unconsciousness by the Leanan Sídhe, none of which are actually that kinky on a sexual basis, but merely on a fantasy one. Which I like well enough, but still. As a bit of an anal fetishist myself, I do enjoy that you almost always have the possibility of going anal with pretty much every girl which is pretty hot. There is also an NTR thing with a certain character but that's resolved pretty quickly and I'm not a big fan of NTR anyway. Oh and one threesome which is pretty hot but could probably have been kinkier.
  It's pretty safe to assume that there'll be pregnancy stuff in the future (yes, despite the contraceptive spell in the beginning, just wait and see) but so far in this build, that hasn't been there.
  All of this is still not awful, I like the sex scenes, and the fact that you have them with real characters that you feel like you actually know, make them still pretty hot, not to mention that the animation is fairly decent. There are also a lot of them, so that's always good.
  3.5/5
  
  
• Sound Design
  
  May seem a bit unfair to criticize the sound design too harshly because the dev actually bothered with it in contrast to so many others out there. But there were still some issues that annoyed me slightly.
  First of all, there is no moaning or the like from anyone. So while you generally have nice accompanying music that make some scenes more emotionally gripping or build more tension, the sex scenes might feel more hollow in contrast because of the lack of sound effects.
  In some scenes, there is also no background music at all for some stretch of time which is also annoying in these instances. In other VNs where there's no sound design whatsoever, I usually play some background music of my own so it doesn't get too boring. But here, where you usually do have some sound design, the sudden lack of it can really take you out of it and make the scene feel less poignant.
  Further minor nitpick, the background chatter loop that starts every time you look at the town map, and always starts with the same weird nonsense rambling by some woman, becomes really annoying after a while.
  There are also no actual sound effects, just general background loops. These loops sound good though, all in all.
  3/5

Cons

• Uhh... I don't really know
  
  There's some grind, I guess, which always seems to enrage people for some reason. I don't really get it, people love games like Pokémon, which are basically one long grind, but as soon as you have to do some grinding in these adult games to earn some money or something, people are fuming in the reviews. So yeah, there's some of that, you are hereby forewarned, but honestly it's really not that bad.
  And I guess if you are mainly there for adult content and don't like deep characters and stories that take away from fap time, then you might not like this game but I don't get why these people don't just watch porn then, shockingly, there is even animated porn out there if you didn't know... So yeah, there's that. Hmm.
  2/5?, I guess, if you are bothered by these things

Conclusion, TL;DR

Really well written, with a compelling narrative and interesting characters. Has some of the best decision-based gameplay I've ever seen. And there's some detective mechanics and shit too? I don't even know how one does it. My only gripes would be that the MC is a bit too much of a wimp, even in late game, and sometimes the writing can get overly verbose. Otherwise, wonderful game.

This is better than being a dik. A lot of these games are very similar and disappointing. This one is not. This is a real video game. It makes you think about scrolling up and the limitations of the format and medium. It makes you wonder how the engine informs art. This is an important game. It won't just drain your balls, it will drain your mind.

There should be a hardcore mode for this game. Save and exit, no scrolling backwards.

Is it not possible for the MC to have a back bone, not be sex obsessed or at least have half a brain.


Immediate removal of pregnancy option, not a big deal for some but kind of limits the endings.

You cant reject any women and with the small exception of the direct mind control(which dosent change them it just takes temporary control for sex) the whole rest of the game MC is a masochist sub to all the women who force him to do everything.

The little fairy constantly calling you a loser, virgin while you can do nothing to her and it gets old very fast.

MC also wont be angry or even cross with any women so the game becomes just please the women.

The story is ok at the start but starts to fall apart when the whole reason for you being needed is
Art work is very nice both the figures and backrounds, plus the game runs very well(no errors) and the hints are to the point and nonintrusive its a shame the game dosent have much else going for it.

Nicely done, Belle. Very nicely done indeed.

Great atmosphere. Intriguing story. Options and surprises. Pretty lasses. A funny sidekick. What's not to like here.

The only thing I can suggest is more viewing angles for the beautiful scenes you create, especially with our little lady in the tower.

I honestly went in with no expectations, and the first 5minutes did not leave much impressions on me, six hours later, I am looking at the clock wondering wtf happened to the time. The story has me hooked, and I need to find out more.

Just spent at least 20 hrs on this game (version 0.30) and got as far as I think I can go and I have to say its one of the best games I have ever played!!!! It's not too slow and not too fast, just a great balance. When you finally unlock something you feel accomplished and rewarded. And reading what the dev has posted, I feel like this is only going to get 100% better.

I only have a couple things that I wish was a little different, I want to learn the shrink spell or a spell that I can use to be able to do more with Belle (not to sound weird, but if it was possible to fall in love with a character, she'd be my pixie wife). Also, sometimes the characters in the story look mad or disappointed with you when you are going through a scene that they shouldn't be. But that is only a very small thing I noticed.

LLtP is one of the games that inspired me to make my own. It's well-written and nicely scored, with good characterisation and dialogue, decent animations, and attractive characters (the hag aside! ). Gameplay is well managed, and the UI is one of the best around. Most of all - it's sexy and it's funny - and I recommend it highly.

I'd just like to note that - contrary to the previous review by Harem Route - Belle's output is unusually prodigious, and she puts out a decent sized update almost every single month. This is as impressive as it is rare, and she deserves much credit for it.

Review as of version 0.30.0

Pros:
+ Nice cast of colorful characters
+ Absolutely fantastic soundtrack
+ Good story with... acceptable writing

Cons:
- Absolutely atrocious development time
- Horrible animations
- A bit too much fourth wall breaking

In-Depth:
Finally, I got around reviewing one of my biggest hopes and disappointments on this site. This game is... let's say, for the most part, the good outweighs the bad. And yet it's still in such a sad state.

Visually, the characters look nice. Not the best, not the worst, but mostly pleasing to the eye. And the sex scenes aren't necessarily bad. At least when they are not animated, because these animations are probably some of the worst I've seen. Otherwise, the image quality also varies from rather crisp, to grainy and blurry mess that is too dark and simply hurts the eyes.

The music is, hands down, one of the best that I've heard in an eroge. Period. From the top of my head I can maybe think of one game that has a better soundtrack, and it still doesn't count, since it was made by a rather large studio.
So, this is a pure win. No buts here.

The story is interesting, and the characters are fun to be around. Well, most of them at least. However, you know what they say about good and bad fantasy authors? Good ones know how to write the medieval dialogues, and bad ones write about time travelers who get into the past and thus talk like modern people. Well, this game is not about time travel, but it may as well have been. The constant usage of modern slang kills the immersion completely. Which is sad, because otherwise the writing is far from being the worst on this site. It's not as jarring when you get used to it, but still, this game would be a lot better if it cleared it's descriptions of random "lol"s, "sick burn"s and all the modern references.

Gameplay-wise it's fine, it may even be good after the release, especially if the time constraints were removed or significantly prolonged, because right now a walkthrough is almost a must have. Still, I enjoy it more than I don't.

What completely kills this game for me however, bringing it from a possible 4 star to a very generous 3, is it's development cycle. 0.01 version per month for more than two years (thus adding up to current 0.30) is possibly the slowest, laziest and most predatory that I've seen in a long time. There's inexcusably low amount of content for how long it has been in development and every other update barely adds anything worth checking out, instead just putting more pointless dead ends. So maybe, just maybe, this game will be worth playing when it's fully released, and then I will gladly change this review. But right now, it's a lot of promises in an empty shell of a game. At this point in time, there are plenty of products, even unfinished ones, out there, that I would recommend over this game.