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

A sandbox WEG with a lot of Phoenix Wright-style clue hunting / evidence gathering mechanics that actually work pretty well. The core game is pretty solid but a few small things annoyingly detract from the experience:

- The ways that romances evolve is unclear, and it's easy to get locked out of various pathways for the entire run or just not have any clear ways to progress. There are hints sometimes about how to advance romances but oftentimes they're absent, which can be frustrated especially when you have a limited number of actions to figure it out. eg. with Evelyn I got stuck because apparently I needed to kiss her with tongue to unlock the ability to give her a massage, but there was no quest hint about this.

- Relatedly, the overall time pressure is pretty high at times in the game, if you're not in New Game Plus mode and are actually trying to pursue all the activities available. In particular it seems very easy to get unintentionally locked out of the Primrose romance unless one really prioritizes her plotline at a key point in time. Yes, you can always try again in NG+ mode but this is not trivial.

- I did like that there's a pretty wide variety of endings to the game depending on how much progress you make on the main story - out of curiosity I tried a run where I just did nothing for 50 days and it went pretty much as expected (though shouldn't Primrose have stayed in jail?) One thing I'm not a fan of is that the harem end is basically a bad end, and apparently you can only have one girl flagged as your "girlfriend" or something... but despite this you still get to choose between a lot of girls on the "good ending". But only one at a time, gotta reload to see the others. Ultimately the game is pretty inconsistent with you being able to prioritize a single romance, but also you need to fuck all the girls to get the good ending, oh but also harems are bad so you have to just choose one or two at the end.

- I hate saying it, but the game deals somewhat callously with "problematic" content... I guess I'm used to WEG where there's mind control shenanigans or some flavor of perviness, but the fact that you are given the option to literally molest the girls in their sleep (up to and including fucking them right from the beginning of a NG+) is.. somewhat off-putting. And the "Morph Sexuality" spell is... yeah. The game sorta suffers from the "dirtbag niceguy protagonist" problem.

Overall the story/dialogue is nice and the girls are compelling enough. But I'm surprised that basic UX stuff like a more-explicit relationship tracker showing each girl's status wasn't included - would've made things much easier.

7/10 too much incest
Seriously though way too much incest for my liking light spoiler but like a good chunk of plot is related to incest if I were a wincest person, this would be at least 8 or 9 because of story and graphics

Story is okayish, 4/5. That is the only redeeming quality of game, sex scenes are very monotonous, you certainly would want to just skip through it, without proper walkthrough game is very messy and may confuse you from time to time.
Expected a better ending kinda disappointed.

Excellent game. All the characters have unique personalities, the girls are attractive, the sex scenes are good. The plot is good and actions have consequences. It's a solid length, and there are few, if any, significant bugs.

Got hooked with the story in the first 20 min of gameplay. Loved the character development and the writing was top notch. The graphics are also very good, especially the girls design.

Great job Belle!
Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

Story a bit too grim to my taste, but fighting exceeding odds no matter what does make it inspiring.

Most logic, although makes sense in the hindsight, is a bit difficult to guess. Since finding clues and confronting others are major in this game, it is frustrating sometimes, but luckily we have roll back.

Interactions with other characters mostly revolve either on sex or clues and main quest, thus too little is known about their personality to my taste. (but this is a porn game and who cares?)

The premise of the game is good and the storyline has a lot of potential.
The Art was good and the animation style is above average.
The issue with the game is the lack of any sort of coherent direction, it provide hurdles (in the form of secrets) that the player has to figure out with no hints, clues or any sort of guide or walkthrough. For me it fails as a porn game due to the grind required to achieve any of these scenes and fails as a RPG due to lack of any pertinent direction to figure out the secrets.
This is easily a five star game with a few tweaks added so I'm hopeful I'll be changing the rating appropriately in the future

Long Live the Princess [v0.42.0] [Belle]

I recently gave "Long Live the Princess" a go, and I have some mixed feelings about my experience with the game. I'll do my best to offer a balanced and critical assessment.

Starting with the positives, I must say that the game's puzzle-solving aspect impressed me. It genuinely challenges your problem-solving skills, and there's a real sense of accomplishment when you crack those tough puzzles. However, it's not all sunshine and roses. The game's logic can sometimes be maddeningly obscure, making it feel like you're playing a guessing game of "What was the developer thinking?" This frustration can outweigh the fun factor at times.

One major issue that struck me was the linearity of the game. From the get-go, you're basically following Belle's instructions like a loyal sidekick. If you're a fan of open-world exploration and crafting your story, this game might not scratch that itch. The lack of agency can be a considerable downer, especially when you catch glimpses of potential branching paths that remain tantalizingly out of reach.

As for the story, it took a while to pique my interest. Were it not for the looming doomsday theme, I might have checked out altogether. It feels like the game intentionally lulls you into a sense of monotony before finally tossing a curveball to wake you up.

Now, the writing – and there's a lot of it. The game boasts an extensive cast of characters, which leads to a lot of verbosity. While some characters, like Samarra and Evelyn, are well-crafted, I couldn't help but feel that the main character was a bit of a blank slate. Connecting with someone so devoid of personality was a challenge, and it certainly didn't enhance my immersion.

Speaking of immersion, let's touch on the erotic content. For some players, this might be a selling point, but for me, it felt more like a chore to access than a rewarding experience. And when you do stumble upon it, it comes off as outdated and uninspired, contributing little to the overall enjoyment.

While there is a New Game Plus mode, it feels like a quick fix for the issues encountered in the initial playthrough. Why should I have to endure frustrating parts of the game just to have a smoother ride later on?

Lastly, the heavy reliance on mind control as a storytelling device is a polarizing choice. It's a central theme but feels both underutilized and uncomfortable. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and it certainly didn't enhance my enjoyment of the game.

In conclusion, "Long Live the Princess" is a title that caters to a specific niche audience. It does offer challenging puzzles and a unique story angle, but it comes with its fair share of issues, including linearity, uninspiring erotic content, and a divisive theme. If you're willing to put up with these flaws in exchange for the game's strengths, it might be worth a try. However, if you're seeking a more satisfying gaming experience, you may want to explore other options.

This is an excellent game, in fact being the one which first made me realize this type of game could be fun.

LLtP does a lot of things right - it's a perfect example of what a sandbox game should be. Never overly grindy and with a fun objective early on (solving clues and murder)

The render quality is top tier and the characters all feel fun. The story also ends up being engaging as you unlock clues piece by piece.

This game is perhaps the only one I've seen that represents black women well. Samarra is an excellent character rendered perfectly, the type of person you might actually pursue in real life (if she wouldn't be a soldier who would savagely beat you haha). Depictions in other games often feel quite gross by comparison, tokens of what people with no black social circle think black women should be

There's a mind-control aspect to this game which is also really well done, thanks to its subtlety

No women in this game will throw themselves at your feet or fuck at first sight and all the characters proportions are natural, both big wins from my view

I'm not really a fan of sandbox games, but this one does pretty well.

The addition of the "clues" somehow made the usual gating of things behind specific conversations a bit more interesting. Some element of time pressure in certain situations also changed things up a little.

The writing is good overall, and the story is interesting enough to keep you going.

The general sandbox elements are ok. It doesn't take a long time to get to places, and it's possible to see which people are in locations. There are still some specifics about what events happen on which days which are somewhat confusing but overall it's fine. There is the usual problem of working out exactly what person you need to talk to when is present, but this seems unavoidable without providing a hints system. I'd say it's fairly clear what you need to do at each point.

Sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to work out if you have to search a place to get clues, or talk to a person or invade them to get the clues you need.

The characters are all fairly distinctive, both in terms of model and writing. There are no inhuman bodies here either, which is good to see.

Scenes are nothing to write home about. Some are good, some are a little lacking, and I'd say there is some variation in quality as well. There are certainly worse, but there are also better.

In combination, all of these things make for a game worth playing.

Good game is good. Maybe the most actual "game"-like sandbox I've played on here or maybe just getting edged out by the more recent "Being a DiK" updates. Story is solid, puzzles and ordering are interesting and somewhat challenging without becoming really annoying. There was only one time where getting the exact sequencing and day-timing of conversation triggers was a little off-putting, but it was still rewarding when I figured it out.

Definitely among the very best written dialogue on this site with interesting characters that don't really wear out their welcome. Hot scenes are hot as well. While I wouldn't necessarily say this game is a huge stand-out in any singular aspect (aside from maybe the comedy and relationship with the Pixie), this game should still be the 5* standard that games are weighed against. Very high quality stuff that you won't regret playing.

I played this game in 2019. It look very good specialy the story. But it is now 2022. So a story what goes already 5 years. I still like to play it. But its sometimes hard to get in the story again. I hope the story goes on. Like to see what the end is. I hope the updates will not take so long. Wish the dev good look with his work and story

So well written. Fun to play and puzzle things out. Genuinely one of the best I've played cos it had real characters. I felt bad for playing it like a harem game. Great fucking game.
Apparently I have to type more... But I've said all I wanted to.

0.39.1. The story was very entertaining it really brings you into the world right at the start and throughout the game, the actions you choose to take will have dire consequences like making a major character disappear forever. It felt hard to shut the computer off and go to bed because I really wanted to seduce the next woman and see what would come of it. These female characters are very appealing in both character and looks, you of course do not know everything about them at the start but then learning all their secrets is fun. Now about their looks that got me really going especially the characters that took a while to lay. After putting the time investment in the game was worth it, one of the best pieces of art in this genre.

This game is interesting to play .fun .im enjoying to play it .I generally play SoL but magic stuff is really good when it is well written ,writing was fine but kinda boring sometimes i prefer full visual novel mode .Im a pixie fan so its easily 5 star for me. Lesbians are only bad thing about this game but its personal preference i said its bad because i was playing Yuri games for weeks then started normal games again. this feels boring . in the end even if this game was bad i would play it because of belle. play it if you like any character then romance her this game is worth to try.

Some of the best actual gameplay I've seen in a smut game. Ending is outstanding, plenty of fun times, more replayability than would ever be fair to expect. Plus good smut, fun kinks. This game takes you seriously, but isn't overly serious itself.

Nice story, well done art.
There are different outcomes for your choices, altough not many.
Using the power to change sizes could have some other cool applications as well, like interacting with other charaters, spying (should be avaible earlier)

(Version reviewed 0.39.1)

Let me start this review with a quote. A side character mentions "I thought I was watching this for the porn, but now I'm watching for the comedy". This is not entirely true - but it unashamedly points to the strongest asset of this game. This game offers really great dialogue, a sidekick with snide remarks (actually you are the sidekick according to her, but, well ...) and a compelling storyline - and still porn.

As you can already see from the rating and the opening paragraph, I like this game. I will offer some caveats first though.

If you are not into sandbox style games, this one will probably not be enjoyable. Not only do you have to wander around a lot and discover stuff, you're also doing it in parts against time. There is a quest log but it can be vague in parts. The UI is very serviceable but could do with a few more tweaks. Also, while this isn't exactly a slow burn - if you follow the main story events, you will see some action soon enough - some girls will take their time and need some more convincing.

Next caveat is: there are puzzles. No minigame puzzles but deduction puzzles. Basically you need to find out about stuff not adding up and suggest an explanation. Thanks to RenPy's rollback they're easy even when they're not obvious but depending on your skills it might take some time. And as it is common for sandbox games, sometimes you might have to try a bit to advance a specific storyline.

But that is just matters of taste - they suit my taste. As does the rest of this game. There is an overarching plot besides "bedding every female in sight" which might not win a Hugo but is interesting enough in itself. The king is dead, his daughter is to be crowned, something's afoot and you're the only truthsayer in town - even if with very limited abilities. The characters are great. Some might be a bit more standard than others though. And I am not entirely convinced of the models. The models themselves are good and look different enough from your standard fare while staying within realistic realms (no oversized tits, even though some girls are well endowed), but some don't really fit the character in my opinion, or their heritage, or contradict the storyline - the black girl is from somewhere else, who'd'a thunk? But it is a "secret" to uncover even if everybody sees something is off at first glance. Some models are also a bit too "smooth" for my liking, given the background, and thus look too modern.

But the story is still good enough, but it is topped by the dialogue - which is actually funny. (Also some scenes are funny in and of itself - ever asked yourself how a grown man and a pixie could have a mutually beneficial sexual experience?) Heck, this game can even pull off a "come" double entendre and it works despite the basics being known to mankind since the word exists and it usually being the lamest possible pun by the lamest possible people. The writing is phenomenal and to be recommended. Also I consider the characters likeable enough on their own. I especially enjoy that your sister for once is neither an adoring fan nor a bratty asshole but just a caring family member which does not consider sexual options at all (well ... spoiler alert ... in the beginning - this might change).

As for the action: once you convinced a girl to try you out, there are multiple options, multiple camera angles - which really add stuff - nothing too kinky though. Girls also get repeatables. The animations are a bit rough around the edges sometimes but still very workable. But as the opening quote already gave away: that is more the icing on the cake. The real plus is the running around, trying out, and getting comments from your sidekick.

All in all this is a fantastic game if you like the sandbox style. If you're looking for VN fun, or looking for sex scene after sex scene, it might take away a few stars. I would still recommend trying it out for the humour alone.

First and formost, i have to say i did kinda become hesitant playing this after many attempts at trying to figure out how to play & achieve somthing with certain characters i was trying to get close to, However after comming back for another attempt and finding the path through all the puzzles the game has to offer (the rights and wrongs with the dialogue choices) and finaly getting to the ending of the story, i was quite taken aback & speaking with complete honesty, i choked up more than once in some scenes because of the feels & how well the characters made me legit feel for them.

Having said all that, i will be eagerly watching out for further updates for this & certainly will be doing more playthroughs.

(The best LI character in the game imo, is without a doubt the first fairy queen. (without getting into spoilers by naming names. )

TLDR
This game is first and foremost a fantasy game and secondly a sex game. It should have been the other way around.

Obviously a lot of effort went into this game. It has dept and quality to it, so I do understand why people (especially fans of the fantasy genre) would like it.

But!.. in my case.. I felt like someone had just put a book in front of me and said: "now read this". There is so much text and not enough "give", it just made me want to get through the wall of text faster. But the problem is that if you get tasks and if you don't read everything you have to go back to figure out what to do. You'll be stuck by default. So even if you find the quests tedious to do, you cannot skip them.

For me, the pay off was not worth reading through the manual. But to each their own.

Edit:
I have to agree with another reviewer who talked about the lack of build up or logic behind the sex scene's. This results in scene's that are sexual but not sexy.

junkage
The sex scenes that are a result of the story have no reason for happening. Half the women just force themselves on to the main character and the MC is just happy someone is fucking him. Why are they fucking him? Because the characters are made to fuck. There's no game or corruption. They just meet the MC and almost instantly fuck him.