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

(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.

Well thought out, well written, and the NG+ feature makes replaying actually worthwhile! No longer do we have to grind up our skills everytime we want to try for a different ending, and boy are there a lot of different endings!

A really good game,
Lots of H content inside a very good plot.
The best part of the game is the originality, it's a harem-like game but the universe and story are very profound.

This game is not just a porn game.

great story and artwork but the animation is just ok. It's more of a short animation in a loop. But none the less it's a completed game AND best of all it has sleep sex wish is rare in games. If you're into sleepsex this is the game.

Good story, interesting game design, good art. Altogether a great game that warrants multiple playthroughs. The only con to the game is that it can be frustrating or interesting with the clue mechanic.

Solid and has multiple endings.. Better than 90% of the games here. Belle is the anti-MilkStor. The game is fun to play, hot renders, good storyline. Plot twists and involved gameplay! What more could one want?

I had put aside this game two years ago, hoped for a lot, I liked the way the game left open choices and a good scenario..... I was wrong down all the line, the game leaves the impression that the choices are yours, sometimes yes (Evelyn can be saved from Thaddeus.), sometimes no (Forced relationship.), and finally the sandbox is the place where we spend most of our time, which is not a good mark, there is also a crazy numbers of back and forth.

I'm not going to lie, I stopped at Samarra's relationship, why? She did not interest me and the relationship is forced with her, if this character is forced, it means there will be others, here, that does not interest me at all, if I had to continue it would be by cheating to skip events and gain skills, that's not how I want to play.

Long live the princess, has some interesting ideas but done in a way where we believe in multiple choices, our so called "choices" come down to having different ways of having multiple relationships... I understand why it was done this way, I read the story, but it's clearly not for me and think it could have been much better, too bad. 3/5

Very good Story, well defined and rich content. Good stories are what keeps me coming back for more and more. Would have loved to see the story between the Ice Queen(the one that tried to take his life force in the ruins) and the MC maybe develop a little further after she realized she liked being nice again.

Multiple paths and story endings are a good thing. Especially for re-plays.

Great renders and artwork.

Again, Great Story and sub-stories throughout. Definitely back for more!

My review of Long Live the Princess [v0.36.0]

A pretty decent game overall.
Good story and writing, but boring and annoying sandbox gameplay.
It felt like I must have spent hours of one playthrough randomly clicking locations and skipping time to find certain characters.
On my first playthrough I also took 8 instead of 7 ingame days to prove a certain character's innocence, which locks you into the very short bad ending later (which is total bs).
You literary get a bad ending hours later because a character had to spend a few ingame hours in a jail cell before you rescue her unharmed.
edit: This was apparently fixed in v0.39.0 and you no longer get locked into the bad ending for missing a quest's time limit once.
The sex scenes are also very vanilla and nothing special.
Game length is about 5-10 hours.

What saves the game is the "good" ending (which basically is an extra chapter and very interesting) and the cute pixie.

Overall barely 4 stars.
If I didn't check guides and replay it for the "good" ending it would only be 3.

v0.37.0

An interesting story with pretty good writing, hot girls and solid sex scenes. The plot is interesting, but the gameplay is a bit of a chore. I eventually had to turn to walkthrough because there was just no way I was going to figure out my way through using trial and error. There is a lot of game too, which if you're liking the game is great but I eventually ran out of steam.

Wow... This game is genuinely one of if not the best game I've ever played. The storyline = 9.5/10. The story is god tier beacuse it's not a simple fuck her game since it has some romantic elements into it as well. Art style= 7.2/10. All and all this game rocks

This game feels like the 18+ was added afterwards, especially the sex scenes, it all feels forced, it doesn't feel like sex is an homogeneous part of the world, like something that is there and exist.
That's the biggest problem, you have a power to corrupt the minds of people and literally remove any inhibitions and most of the girls you meet just want to have sex with you for no reason, and the reason is justified by the plot, in such mediocre and ridicolous ways (The sex scene with the queen of the fairies made my jaw drop)all the build up is ruined.
The writing is really smooth, no errors, for the humor instead you must be a fan of it, or you won't laugh a lot.
Characters are ok, but there are some that are so annoying that I wished there was an evil route in this game, the pixel is literally the Navi of porn games, and the protagonist is awful, a coward, an idiot and a pervert, it's the least relatable character I have seen.
But now for the good part the plot is super engaging, it always makes me want to know more, and putting the pieces of evidence in a greater picture is always fun.
For the grind, there is, but it's reasonable, it's not annoying.
And that's it, if the game was just a plot and investigating I would have given 5 stars.
But the linear structure with few choices, the irritating plot sex scenes and some characters really drag the game down to 3,5.
It's not a bad game, I would say that is above average and stands out in his own ways.

Rating version 0.37.0
Overall, I'd give this a 9/10 if I could give a more granular score, but I'm rounding up.
The story is interesting, with a neat little twist at the very end to justify NG+. The gameplay is pretty good, though I think the clue system could probably use some more work, especially given that there are currently a bunch of unusable clues. The art/rendering is good, though I'm not a huge fan of the style, and the animations could be a bit better. Overall, well worth the time I put into it. My only major complaint is the lack of a "good guy" harem ending, but that's a matter of personal preference beyond anything else.

This game is a gem.
While the outstanding part for me is the excellent writing I did enjoy the stupid story and that adventure-esque searching for clues and exploring. Graphics and designs are good, sex scenes could be better - but overall it is a 4 or 5 out of 5 for me.

The clue development of this game is to keep you grinding, extremely boring. You said how good the plot is, and there is no, investigating the murders, you have to constantly talk from each role, but the role is random in certain situations, and there is a secret to solving a female role. This plot is really a bit stupid. Without proper guidance, it is easy for people to get stuck in the plot, and the sex scenes are not done well, and the reasons for sex are very far-fetched. So I don’t think this game deserves a high score of 4 stars or more.

Good engaging story. Good light-hearted humorous writing that doesn't take itself too seriously.

The best NG+ system that I have seen in an 'adult' game with a story wrapped around it that makes sense.

One of the best uses of background music I've experienced in an adult game.

Interesting 'detective' game-esque gameplay. Nothing too difficult for the most part, but difficult enough to get you interested in what's happening.

I personally liked Nell, The Fairy Queen & Callie the most

Excellent game, for sure this game is one of the best in this forum! I'm waiting the next update. If the developer create a spell to make Bell big I'll be glad, I need to fuck him in tall form. Aqui é Brasil porra!

tl;dr
Extremly good and fun to play but the name giving Princess is just a bystander

CON: -> Only the first one is a major letdown for me, the other two are minor ones.

- The Princess is only a bystander in the whole game and you only get her near the end of the game. From the looks she is by far the hottest for me and it really saddens me that your whole quests revolves around her while there is next to no contend with her. How should you build an emotional bond with her if you only talk like 5 sentences with here before the ending. I think thats the worst part of the game.

- Its not a harem game but its mostly ok because it wouldnt rly work with the game AND + Its kinda sad that So you are more or less forced to be the "mostly" good guy.

- The clues you already used are still there so while getting more and more clues it gets rather hard to find the ones you need in your notes

PRO:
- The characters are all loveable and near the end there is even a short moment where MC starts to shake out of fear and understanding whats at stake.

-> thats the only think i came up with as PRO but only because its remarkable for me. The whole game itself is great!

PS: Im really looking forward to what comes next seeing its 0.36 and it feels like quite finished BUT you never know with the version numbers you get here.