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Guide The Princess Elodie On Her Road To Coronation

Long Live The Queen Review

By Chloe GilholyPublished 4 years ago 6 min read
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Introduction

I think this is one of those games that you have to try before you buy. This game was a gift to me from my friend who bought it me from Steam. It's currently available to download for £6.99 on Steam, £7.89 on GOG.com and £9.18 on Hanako Games' own website. So Steam is the best place to buy it, not only is it cheaper but the Steam App itself gives you access to its community section and there are many concise guides out there which I've found useful in the past.

About Long Live The Queen

My first impression of this game was that it was going to be a very typical Japanese visual novel with plenty of drama, romance and Disney essence in it. The game looks sweet, fluffy and pleasant. Everything about this game based on how it looks would make anyone think that this game was from Japan. Nah: this game is British as fuck! The owner of Hanako Games, Georgina Bensley is a British game designer with a passion for geeky things. Hanako Games have done several games in the past, but Long Live The Queen is by far their most well-known and popular work.

I first came across the game through Steam, and I watched the trailer and my initial impressions of the game soon fell flat. I thought the trailer was really good, it tells you everything that you need know about the game and shows both the light and dark elements into this game.

The plot whilst simple is really well executed and you can explore many directions. The idea is to help Princess Elodie live to see her coronation. The game explores the life-changing 40 weeks of her life. She loses her mother, the Queen Regent at 14 and is her only heir. She needs to go to school to be prepared for the job as Queen, but what she learnt at school also comes in handy for when she's in a dangerous situation.

Long Live The Queen is about Princess Elodie. Her mother, the Queen, has tragically died and Elodie is destined to take her place as she is her only child. Princess Elodie is only 14 years old and her coronation is due to take place when she's 15. The game goes through her whole year from a depressed 14-year-old to the gracious 15-year-old. However, there are many people who would happily dispose or disgrace Elodie for their own personal gain, and Elodie must use what she learnt in her classes to make good choices to live to see her Coronation.

She is very close to her cousin, Charlotte, but her mother is one of the many people who is plotting to kill Elodie for her own personal gain. Think of it like Game Of Thrones: you either win or you die.

Poor Elodie is practically just a baby.

Gameplay

I've the gameplay to be quite easy. It's mainly reading lots of text and selecting choices. There's a lot of classes to choose from and depending on Elodie's mood, she will either excel or do poorly in those classes. The more she excels in those classes, the higher those stats will increase.

Many guides and playthroughs of Long Live The Queen, their first lessons are normally economics. Having high stats in economics help Princess Elodie gain access to the treasury and seal business deals. It also helps protect you from a particularly unfortunate case with chocolate. Don't trust chocolate in this game!

At the end of each class, you get a chance to do whatever you want at the weekend. Whatever you choose can affect your mood which also effects how she does in the game.

All stats have a maximum of 100, and there's a lot of stats. Due to how the game works, it will be impossible to max them all out. If you're lucky, you can max out at least three of those stats.

There's a twist to this though. The stats can't exceed 50 unless the other two skills in the same category are above 25. Once you've done this you can get an outfit that boosts these skills.

These stats make a huge impact on the game. They change the way the story unfolds. They can even change the way the other characters are seen such as either allies or enemies. I mention Elodie's aunt earlier, I've always thought she was dodgy. In many paths, she is Elodie's enemy, but in other playthroughs, she can also be your most trusted ally.

It will be impossible to see all the game events in one playthrough, which makes the longevity almost limitless. It's great to try different things. One of my favourite events in the game is where you go exploring the forest with Briony. It's quite a hard one to get but makes a nice change.

If you do manage to survive 38-39 weeks, you get a choice of who you want to marry. The choices of suitors can be long or short dependant on how you've played the game. If you've unlocked certain events, it is also possible for Elodie to date a girl. I always try and hook her up with Briony because I think her and Elodie had the most genuine chemistry.

The game looks like it's meant to be easy, but it really isn't. You really need to plan how to play this game or else your playthrough will be cut short. It's kinda hard to tell how long the average playthrough of each game is. As if varies a lot depending on how many times you get killed and have to start again.

The game knows that's difficult: it has over 100 save slots. So it's easy to just load and start again if something happens that you didn't want to happen.

Graphics

The graphics are really nice in this game. They mainly consist of anime-styled art. The character designs aren't the most original. I think of a lot of them are simply recoloured sprites of other characters, but these are mainly minor characters so you won't notice it much unless you play it a lot, but overall I found the graphics to be really really good.

I think there are some ways where the graphics could have been used more to make more of an impact. The ballroom scene, for example, I think instead of having a blank screen with just pictures and dialogue, I think it would have been more effective to see sprites of the characters dancing to get more of the feel. The music already adds a nice atmosphere, but more imagery would make it more effective.

Characters

I found Princess Elodie to be an interesting character. Her personality changes depending on how you train her, but it's really easy to route for her especially as you see her develop into a strong woman. Sometimes her naivety can be frustrating though, especially when you can tell that certain characters are just dodgy.

Other characters I like are Charlotte and Briony. I think a couple of users have requested for Elodie to marry her cousin Charlotte, but I don't think this will happen. I've found Elodie's father, Joslyn to be a bit of a doormat.

Banion and his family can be either friends or foes depending on your choices in the game. Both Banion and his siblings, Benett and Brin can be suitors. Banion, in particular, can also be the one who kills you if you're not careful.

Conclusion

I love this game! It's often compared and confused with a Japanese childcare simulation game known as Princess Maker 2, which is also out on Steam because of how similar the graphics and gameplay is. I love both games and they're quite different in their own way. The main difference between Long Live The Queen and Princess Maker 2 is that there are many ways for Princess Elodie to die, whilst in Princess Maker 2, there are many ways to live.

It would seem that Princess Maker 2 outshines Long Live The Queen in every light, but I think this game does have its own merits. There's a lot of depth in this game, but I think its format means that a lot of it doesn't always get appreciated.

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About the Creator

Chloe Gilholy

Former healthcare worker and lab worker from Oxfordshire. Author of ten books including Drinking Poetry and Game of Mass Destruction. Travelled to over 20 countries.

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