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You’ll Hamedo Yourself a Good Time

I played this together with Jalen. It was really fun! The battles were a blast, the plot was more interesting than I thought, and when you consider the limits of the VX Ace trial, Princess Princess is impressive.

Gameplay
This game does quite a lot under very strict limits! The VX Ace trial only allows for 10 skills, enemies, and items, and the devs make sure none of them go to waste. The battles were consistently fun for me – whether Remius was showing off his Radiant Blade to unsuspecting snakes, or my entire party was dead while Naia clung to life with Hamedo, I was having a good time.

Everything was surprisingly well-balanced. Even after I’d reached max level and had a stockpile of items, the bosses managed to keep me on my toes, whereas Jalen played the game fairly low-leveled and managed to seize victories by the skin of her teeth. (Especially with the optional fight!) Either way the fights were intense, and not even in a “for an RPG Maker game” sense; I had fun, plain and simple!

Outside of battles, there’s not much to say. Princess Princess cuts all the fat, so yes, the game is pretty much just walking around and fighting/talking to people to advance plot. I didn’t mind, which also surprised me, since in typing that sentence I immediately think “so that’s it?” And indeed it is.
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Writing
The writing was fine, for the most part. Don’t gloss over this game if the description of the plot makes your eyes roll – as the story went on, I was more and more interested, and now I can’t wait to see where the full version goes.

As for the characters, everyone (NPCs included!) had their own personalities and quirks, so they managed to avoid being forgettable. I thought Naia was absolutely precious. <3

My only complaint is Sairen. And it’s not even their fault! The characters just live in some bizarre world where you absolutely must know someone’s gender or else YOUR BRAINS WILL BURST FROM YOUR EARS AND LEAK ALL OVER THE CARPET. It makes quite a mess and is a pain to clean up, so the party and literally almost every NPC in the game makes sure to constantly debate and quiz Sairen about it, yet paradoxically enough they never wait for an answer! Thankfully their brains manage to not explode as they pondered this great mystery, so who knows? It might not be that important to bring up after all!

In all seriousness, the questioning of Sairen’s gender came up more than the main plot (I’ll be honest – I didn’t care what it was. I just assumed they were genderqueer and went on with my life, unlike the characters.) and felt forced… until the end. During the last area, everyone just casually addressed Sairen as he/she based on whether they thought Sairen was a man or woman, and got a response either way. It was a subtle way to keep the mystery under Sairen’s chest plate a mystery without getting in the way of anything or feeling forced. Definitely do more of that! And when Sairen actually got lines, he was just as endearing as Naia. With the debates among party members/NPCs, there’s really only ever one way the conversation goes:

“I think Sairen’s a girl because X.”
“NOPE I THINK SAIREN IS A DUDE BECAUSE Y.”
Sairen: “…” or “Actually-“

That got old real fast!

It sounds like a lot of ranting over something minor, but it’s pretty much my only real gripe with the writing/I don’t want to spoil the plot. Even the review has accurate proportions of plot discussion to discussions of Sairen’s gender, I guess? Definitely don’t take it as something to ignore the game over, though had the joke come up again I might finally have had enough TP to unleash a Gigas Rampage.
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Graphics
The graphics are mostly RTP, as the screens will tell you. I thought it was all used just fine, and the mapping was competent. I think the additions to Ace’s RTP are nice ones, for added bonus. While I don’t have much to say about the graphics in this version of the game, the full version is already looking like it’ll be full of eye candy. Just take a look at the battle cut-ins!
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It’s inspiring as a developer to see something made in such a short time span that’s so entertaining!
The lesson I took away from Princess Princess is that you don’t need fancy custom everything systems to make a fun game. But you do need Hamedo to get through life. In fact I’ve already used it – within three posts of this review I’ll be poised like a tiger and countering ALL the attacks.

Posts

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Waaa thank you for the awesome review Penta <3
I'm really glad that you guys enjoyed this!

Definitely don’t take it as something to ignore the game over, though had the joke come up again I might finally have had enough TP to unleash a Gigas Rampage.
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Am I evil to say this?

JUST.
AS.
PLANNED.
I'd also like to make a comment on the whole Sairen thing - it actually made me pretty uncomfortable while playing, because it was kind of sort of really offensive. xD I feel like the way it was handled was very disrespectful to transgendered people, and I was having a lot of secondhand embarrassment and awkwardness because of that (especially when some of the NPCs began referring to him as an "it")!

Obviously I don't think there's any kind of outright malicious intent here, but when you go through a game where a character's hotly debated gender overshadows the plot, something is wrong! xD It's not even necessarily the idea of a character being so androgynous that the other characters can't determine their gender that's the issue here, but more of how it was handled, in my opinion.

Not trying to spark a debate about transgendered stuff or anything here, but I do think the devs should rework how they handle Sairen's gender in any future releases, and also give that wikipedia article PentagonBuddy linked a thorough read through as well as seeking out additional material if they're not well-versed in the subject.

I mean, to me, having random NPC's referring to Sairen as "it" would be the same as if they started referring to a black character as "nigger", and I'm sure most people would agree that that would be a bad thing, you know? xD

(Other than that, I still gotta go back and finish the game, but I'm pretty much echoing what's being said here! It's very fun and very cute, and other than the Sairen thing, I enjoyed the characters a lot. :3)
EMMYCH


THAT IS THE GOAL.

There is a reason to that and it is one of the character...complexities that Sairen IS facing. Also remember that Naia is a demon yet the Lazerine "heroes" are hunting them down? You'll see what I mean when the full version is out.

Everything in this game lampshades/foreshadows a lot of stuff that I wanted to cover in the full version.
author=Archeia_Nessiah
EMMYCH


THAT IS THE GOAL.

There is a reason to that and it is one of the character...complexities that Sairen IS facing. Also remember that Naia is a demon yet the Lazerine "heroes" are hunting them down? You'll see what I mean when the full version is out.

Everything in this game lampshades/foreshadows a lot of stuff that I wanted to cover in the full version.

Well colour me intrigued, then! I'll be interested in seeing what that ends up being all about~
author=PentagonBuddy

Wh-what?
author=NewBlack
author=PentagonBuddy
Wh-what?


Hamedo: Naia poises like a tiger!
author=NewBlack
author=PentagonBuddy
Wh-what?


HI-YAAAAAAAA-!

I'm really bad at Hamedo... I haven't responded to anything. OTL That should read "PentagonBuddy poises like a kitten!"
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