RE: Prince of Nigeria

The Prince That Had Almost Stolen My Heart (And Apparently My Wallet, Too)

• Addit
• 07/24/2013 10:33 AM
• 1935 views

A Game Made By: Kirroha
Created Using: Renpy
It's A: VISUAL NOVEL Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 5 - 10 Minutes To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!

So you manage to turn the ol’ boob tube on one day to see what’s on during daytime T.V. only to discover, what a shock – that’s there’s absolutely nothing on that’s remotely any good. So you then decide to change on over to the sports channel to see if anything ELSE that’s good is on, and, guess what – IT’S ALL F***ING NASCAR!!! Okay, okay…don’t panic. There’s always the good ‘ol news channel. And, what do you know; something interesting is on, finally! Apparently, while sitting on your couch, a sobbing tale begins to ensue where one man apparently lost all of his life savings by giving his money to this bearded, white robed guy who claim to be Jesus. Apparently, “Jesus,” over here, said that if you can give me all the money that you have on hand that he will take that money and use it to keep the man’s soul safe from Lucifer himself when he happens to cross on over the picket white line and heads on over to the other side. The man believed him…mainly because he was mostly high on methane and thought that the dude was actually a cat. Either way, the man felt cheated of his money; he felt embarrassed; he was, indeed, scammed. And although you might be laughing your ass off seeing it happen to somebody else, that’s not to say it can’t happen to you. Oh, yes… It can happen.

Which brings me to the topic of our next, exciting new indie game to play, RE: Prince Of Nigeria, which this game was built on a foundation of lies and deceit. I remember first seeing this game put up, and seriously went “WTF is this shit???” But also, a part of me wanted to really try it out. I mean, the premise looked hilarious and the art style doesn’t look too bad. But is this game trying to scam me out of my precious time? Or is there really a young, dashing prince on the other side of that phoney, baloney, e-mail that’s finally the answer to all my money woes?

Let’s go bag us our rich prince, shall we? (And not the "Star Stealing" kind.)

The Story

Oh - just your monies!

Horai Owen is a young, teenage girl with long dark hair and shiny greenish, sparkling eyes, sitting beside her closet friend in the whole wide world, Zak, her personal laptop, as she begins to contemplate a life of loneliness and despair. Oh, cruel fate! As she begins to log in and expect the same-ol’-same’ol’, Horei’s eyes begin to twinkle with excitement as a new e-mail had just come in from her personal h-mail account. “Oh, I wonder what this is then,” she says to herself. As she opens the e-mail, she is astonished to find that a Nigerian Prince from far, far away by the name of Apara Kachinpopgorn is need of help. Apparently, old princy, here, has twenty millions dollars in hard cash locked away in his separate Swiss bank account, and he needs Horai’s help to keep it safe from Apara’s siblings who also want the money for themselves. (or some BS, like that) By giving away her personal banking information, the money can be wired over to her and Horai can share some of the money. Unlike most sensible people who would just…throw away this e-mail and believe it to be too good to be true, Horai is, indeed, intrigued by this mysterious prince. As she keeps responding to his untimely hour of need, the pair keeps exchanging e-mails with the prince always asking for the same thing. Horei is so deeply in love and wishes to know more about this young prince. In fact, she loves him SOOOOOOOO much, that she’s doesn’t really care that much about the money, only about him. (WHHHAATTTTT!?!?!? YOU STUPID S*B!!! TAKE THE MONEY!!!) As the days grow short, and the prince’s patience begins to wear thin, Horai must make the decision of her life about whether to give up her personal banking information and do what the e-mail asks her to do or not to give in to the prince’s unruly desires. Will happiness soon come to follow?

Now, the story summary you have just finished reading is just one part of two that this game has to offer for the player. You see, this is the main story while there is an epilogue which explains the whole events of what is truly going on behind the scenes. When I first played this game, I did the main story first before the epilogue because, well – that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? Anyways, when I did just that, I actually really enjoyed the hilarity that was going on. I thought it was like watching an opening to a comedic anime about some ditzy girl falling for some scambot and that she would have to get her money back while still believing that there was actually a prince on the other line the whole time. That would have been a setup to a great story. I enjoyed everything that was going on…until I read the epilogue.

And that’s when the wind from the ship’s sails got sucked out.

I’m not going to spoil it all, but let’s just say, it was a bit of a letdown. When you finally see the truth behind Horai’s real character and the perpetrator who send her that e-mail, your heart just suddenly sinks to the bottom of the blacken sea. *sigh* You stole my heart and then RIPPED it out of my chest, game… If the entire game focused on the first part of the story and expanded upon that – this would be a worthwhile, if not funny, story that I would personally want to read and continue on with. It’s just something I find would be a great setup to a bunch of wacky adventures. But the second part just is a bit of a downer… It basically just ends everything and makes you feel like you just got dumped yourself. Maybe that’s a bit of the joke here.

Two tales to this side of the coin, and only one of them I felt truly shined.

The Gameplay

Heh, you know I would.

RE: Prince Of Nigeria is a short – and I mean, VERY short – visual novel experience that has you reading lines and lines of constant text while occasionally making the odd decision throughout. It really doesn’t matter what decision you make in the end, because there are only two possible outcomes that can happen to you: Give the monsies or be sensible about the whole thing. Either way, you’ll want to stick around for both endings because they’re both mildly amusing to watch. Frankly, unlike most visual novel games I’ve played, this one really doesn’t have much going towards it in terms of multiple paths and different decisions to make; it’s more like reading a transcript to the opening of an animated show more than actually playing a game. Although I like a good story and all, I would appreciate the fact that there was more for me to do. Besides checking out some artwork and listening to some music, RE: Prince Of Nigeria just doesn’t have that much going for it than most visual novel games on the site do, which is really a shame.

The Soundtrack

…And the winner of the 2013’s Most Awkward Catchphrase Of The Year GOES TO…!!!

Musically speaking, RE: Prince Of Nigeria does sport some very nice tunes that fit the mood rather well. It also has one of the STRANGEST title BGM openings I’ve ever heard. Turbulence sounds like something that could fit in a Bionic Commando game for the NES more than an actual visual novel. It just seems…well, WERID! WHY WOULD YOU PUT THIS HERE? IT MAKES NO SENSE!!! Start, Love Story, and Horei Owen all sound like traditional visual novel themes and are quite relaxing and enjoyable to listen to from time-to-time. As for the sound effects, I really never heard that much in terms of actual sound effects. I think the only one I heard was when you’re typing or reading any of the e-mails. Either way, nothing really special. But man, that main title opening song - what the hell!?

The Aesthetics

What’s a visual novel styled game without a pretty boy in it?

Another pretty looking game that’s put on display here. The in-game cutscenes and custom artwork look great and definitely have a bit of a centric touch to everything. I also like the many different expressions that the characters happen to make during certain cutscenes; it really is a nice feature to put in. (especially the expression on Horai’s face during the Bad Ending) The interface is also pretty slick and easy to navigate from. Maybe not as glamorous as most H.U.D’s in most visual novel games, but it gets the job done here. I do have to complain about a few things, actually. First off, the title page. While it isn’t necessary bad, with all the nice custom artwork why couldn’t the creator make a more fitting title page instead of the one we got? I mean…it’s nice, I guess… But I would have liked to see something a bit more along the lines of most visual novel title pages with something that matches with the rest of the game’s artstyle. I mean, there is one piece of art in the Music Room which would have probably worked better along with the song Horei Owen and that would have been a million times better. I dunno, just a minor gripe. Also, the onscreen display for the e-mail scenes could have been done a bit better, as I often have trouble seeing what’s on the actual screen.

Besides a couple of strange, looking artistical choices that don’t really fit or aren’t rendered well, I still thought this game looked rather nice.

The End Result

:(

RE: Prince Of Nigeria definitely has some good qualities about it that, if the story gets revised or expanded upon in a future installment using the first part of the story’s approach then this could be a smash hit with all of us comedy fans that love us some anime. I personally would love to see this project go more into that direction than more the epilogue direction. Sorry, but that just…ruined most of the experience for me, not to mention that this game is VERY short with only a few limited scenes and actual player input that it just…doesn’t do it for me. I mean, Visual Novels are more supposed to be read more than actually playing, but only having two possible choices is really not going to drive this sucker home. Overall, griping aside, this game isn’t a bad game. It just needs to be expanded upon more in order to have any serious merit for it. If you’re looking for a couple of minutes for a cheap laugh, I would say check this one out. But for all of you who are looking for a more serious, in-depth Visual Novel game to play, I would probably pass on this one.

(I still want my money back…)

OVERALL GRADE:
2 / 5 - D+ ~ Has Some Potential To Succeed, But Fails In A Lot Of Areas.