Game 514: Princess Maker 2 (1993)

 

         

Princess Maker 2

Japan
Gainax Co., Ltd. (developer and publisher), Adventions (English translation)

Released 1991 for PC-98, 1992 for MSX and DOS, 1995 for TurboGrafx CD; English DOS version from 1996
Date Started: 5 May 2024

         

Princess Maker 2 occupies a strange genre with which I have almost no experience: the "raising simulator" in which you take a person or creature from a young age to an old age, making choices and prioritizing resources along the way, hoping for a positive final outcome. My understanding is that raising simulators are a sub-genre of life simulators. The earliest example on MobyGames is something called Little Computer People (1985) from Activision. You build a house and see if anyone likes it enough to move in, then watch as his life progresses with the resources you've left for him. The Sims series would of course do this in much grander fashion.

   

The way the game works is that you "create" a little girl by specifying her name, date of birth, and blood type. She begins the game at age 10. You then raise her until age 18, specifying every month what she's going to do (work, take classes, rest, or go adventuring) and engaging in ancillary activities like taking her shopping, talking with her, buying her gifts, and sending her to the castle to hobnob with the elite. Every activity raises or lowers a variety of statistics and opens up new options for later months. After an excruciating 96 such cycles, your daughter turns 18 and you get to see how she turned out.

      

This was a tough one to explain to Irene.

      

The reason that such a game qualifies as an RPG is because of the curious choice to make "adventuring" one of the options for the girl's monthly activities. You can send her into one of four wilderness areas, armed and armored, and she can spend a few days as if she's in a traditional CRPG: fighting monsters, collecting gold, and finding hidden encounters. It's an odd addition, not even necessary to complete the game. There are RPG elements to other encounters, too, such as an annual tournament at the castle and occasional challenges to duels.

   

Princess Maker 2 is, of course, a sequel. The original game came in PC-98 form in 1991, followed by DOS and MSX releases in 1992. It was released only in Japan. An "English translation" that I found online is not a full one, and the part that is translated is done very badly. I had trouble interpreting some elements of the interface, so I moved on to the sequel.

     

The interface in the original. I could probably figure it out now that I've experienced the sequel.

      

The original game's backstory is that you're a war hero who has just saved the kingdom from a demonic invasion. The king offers you any reward you want. Tired of war, you decide to ask for an orphan girl to raise as your own.

      

A sense of the quality of English in the translation.

     

The sequel keeps this basic backstory while expanding it a bit. Again, you've just saved the kingdom from a demon lord and his army, but you don't get your daughter as a reward. Instead, at some later point, while you're trying to help the king rebuild the land, you get summoned in the middle of the night to a nearby hill. A 10-year-old girl appears in a beam of light, and an angelic creature says that she's been entrusted to you. 

         

A nice illustration from the backstory.

      

The quality of animation in these opening scenes is excellent, with only the mildest influence of the usual anime features. The princess herself, as we'll see, is another matter. 

     

The royal family expresses their gratitude.

     

Something about these early images, plus the title of the game, plus the fact that it's from Japan (yes, I know it's a stereotype, but don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about) concerned me that the game would be overly exploitative of the girl. I thought it might be a bit creepy, frankly. I'm glad to report that this is not the case. A slightly-flimsy summer dress is as provocative as it gets. In truth, the game is almost progressive. Despite the title, you can "make" her into anything you want, from a housemaid to a military general. I suppose feminists might have some complaints about a few things, though: 1) Her measurements are displayed on the screen at all times, even when she's 10; 2) Even when she weighs 95 pounds at 5'2", the game will insist she's too fat to fit into a fancy dress; 3) There's an artifact that increases her bust size; and 4) She has absolutely no agency at all in her destiny. But that's still loads better than I was expecting.

    

I had concerns at this point, but they were mostly unfounded.

      

I named the girl Villainy, as I've always thought that would be a good girl's name. I don't know if the date of birth or the blood type have any impact on gameplay except that her birthday is an annual event. You also specify your own age and birthday, and again I didn't notice these things playing a role in the game.

     

Naming my "daughter." Why are "Symbols" even an option?

     

The game begins in your daughter's bedroom on her 10th birthday. A butler, oddly named "Cube," gives you alerts as to anything happening that month, or if the princess is sick or whatever. A row of icons specifies a number of things you can do before setting the monthly schedule:

 

• Check her statistics. There are 26 of them. For all but "Sin" and "Stress," higher is better.  

• Talk to her: You can have a chat, scold her, or give her some pocket money. All of these options may reduce stress. You can only do this once per month.

     

Villainy's starting attributes.

     

• Set her diet: You've got to achieve a balance between weight and constitution. I honestly left it at "Normal" for most of the game.

• Check a different set of attributes: These include her birthday, sign, patron god, sickness level, delinquency level, popularity level, and health.

      

You can tell by the look on her face.

      

• Visit the town and its services:  These are an armorer, a tailor, a restaurant, a pawn shop, a church, and a hospital. Everything costs money.

    

I don't think I visited the restaurant once.

     

• Visit the palace: Here, if her "Decorum" is high enough, she can talk to a variety of people, including the king. Each person cares about a different attribute, and if that is high enough, the conversation goes well and she increases in popularity.

      

Why am I talking to you, then?

     

• Equip items: You can equip one weapon, one set of armor, and a dress. She starts with a plain dress, but you can buy a summer dress, a winter dress, and a silk dress at the tailor. You need to change her from summer to winter dress when the seasons roll around, or she might suffer a hit to "Constitution."

• Disk options: Save and load the game. Unfortunately, there's no option to turn the incessant music off, so I had to disable all sound.

   

Once you're done with those options, you set her schedule for the month. The month is divided into three periods of 10 days, and you can set a separate activity for each period. Your options are:

   

• Go to school: She can take a variety of classes (e.g., "Poetry," "Theology," "Fighting," "Dance"). Each class increases two or more of her attributes for up to 9 points per session. Classes are expensive, though. A couple of them decrease attributes.

       

Schooling is valuable but expensive.

      

• Work: You can make her work a variety of jobs for a daily wage. There are six of them to start (e.g. babysitter, farm, restaurant), but more get added as she gets older. By her 17th birthday, she can earn money doing everything from lumberjacking to dancing in a sleazy cabaret. Each job has a minimum set of attributes to be successful; if she's not successful, she doesn't get paid for that day. But each job also raises and lowers a set of attributes. 

       

It takes more strength than she has to succeed as a lumberjack.

     

• Adventure: This sends her out into the wilderness. More on that later.

• Time Off: School and work are stressful. If her "Stress" statistic exceeds her "Constitution" statistic, she can get sick and even die, ending the game prematurely. She can also become a rebellious delinquent. Time off, which comes in a variety of forms, can reduce that stress. You typically need to schedule a block of time off every other month at least.

     

The difficult variable in all of this planning is money. Despite being a war hero, you apparently don't get paid very much by the king. You start with 500 gold pieces and get another 500 every year. That doesn't go very far. 10 days of  novice "Dance" training costs 500 gold. A starting weapon and suit of armor costs maybe 350. Even giving your daughter "pocket money" costs 100 or more. You have to make it stretch for 12 months. So until later in the game, when means of earning greater rewards become available, you have to put the girl to work.

      

It's going to be a while before I can afford a katana and mithril armor.

     

The best-paying job at the beginning of the game is farm work, at 10 gold pieces per day. She won't be able to successfully complete every day at first, but once she does, she'll get a 50% bonus, earning her 150 per tenday. After a month of that, she might be able to take off a tenday for one training class.

   

Each job raises some statistics and lowers others. For instance, working on the farm raises "Constitution" and "Strength" but lowers "Refinement" very fast. After trying and failing to achieve any kind of balance in the gains and losses, I decided that the best strategy was to go all-in on one set of numbers--the ones that would be her primary career--and let the others drain all the way down to 0 if necessary. You've got 96 months. You can always try to develop them later.

   

I knew that if I was going to play this absurd game, I was going to experience the RPG part, so I decided to concentrate on developing her martial skills. I had her work the farm when she needed work and take classes in "Fighting," "Fencing," and "Strategy" when I had enough money to afford it. She rapidly built her muscles and stopped getting sick so much.

        

First attempts at combat didn't go so well.

      

Eventually, I bought her a dagger and suit of leather armor and sent her out into the wilderness. This was very premature. Until she has a "Combat" skill of at least 50 (halfway to the maximum) and "Strength" and "Constitution" topping 200, she can't fight even the easiest enemy without missing every attack. That takes until she's at least 12, closer to 13. I found that the tables turned quickly, though. By the time she had a "Combat" of 75 and the other two numbers above 250, it was hard for her to lose a battle. I went from not being able to beat one enemy in the eastern forest (the easiest area) to being able to fight dragons in the western wastes (the hardest) in little more than a year.

        

Thus ended my first few attempts at adventure.

       

Combat is very simple. You don't see enemies in the environment; you just get thrust into combat at regular periods. Your initial options are to fight, talk, flee, and hide. Monsters never talk, but there are some NPCs who occasionally do (to no benefit).

      

I guess it's a good thing you don't have to approve.

      

If you fight, you face off with your enemy. The game shows relative hit points, magic points, fighter reputation, magical reputation, and morale. A successful attack causes loss to both health and morale, and if either reaches 0, the battle is over. Combat actions boil down to just F)ight and M)agic. If you choose magic--another set of statistics that you can train or work for--you just cast a generic blast spell.

       

Eventually, I got better.

     

I don't believe you gain any attribute increases for successful monster combats, but you do gain gold, and the rest of the game becomes a lot easier at this point. A tenday spent in the wilderness can easily earn you 1,000 gold pieces, enough to take a couple of classes instead of working for pennies. The only downside is that combats increase your "Sin" meter, and I understand that can lead to bad endings if it gets too high. You have to ameliorate that by working in the church or tithing at the church in town. Some enemies don't drop gold, so you learn to just hide from them.

   

But adventuring also has other benefits. Each area has treasure chests that might give you heaps of gold or artifact items. Unfortunately, these are one-use only and do not respawn. Each area has one "boss" creature that gives you an artifact item. Artifact items raise your attributes; for instance a Black Scale adds 3 to "Defense," a Silver Pelt (from a silver wolf) adds 5 to "Magic Defense," and Venus Jewels not only add 20 to "Charisma" and "Refinement," but they give you a boost to these statistics every year on your birthday.

    

Opening a chest on an island.

     

The areas you can explore aren't epic--they're small enough to explore in a single outing--but they're fun. Little signs give you some context and history of the areas. The eastern area is forest; the northern is ice and snow; the southern is ocean (with rock pathways and bridges); and the western is desert. They're supposed to get more challenging in that order. I'm not sure I solved all the quests in these areas. For instance, the eastern forest has some huge obelisk I could never make any sense of. Several areas have houses that never seemed to have anyone home.

    

No idea what this is about.

And I never found a dragon in this area.

        

The northern area has some stairs that lead up to an encounter with the War God. He tells you that humans have to turn back from this point, but you can attack him. Even towards the end of the game, when I had epic combat skills, I couldn't even hit him in combat, let alone defeat him. But there was more development I could have done.

        

Good idea.

       

The western wastes have some ruins guarded by a young dragon. If you defeat him and drive him off, you can enter the lair of an ancient dragon, who pointedly tells you that he's too old for this @$*% and lets you loot his Dragon's Fang (+20 "Fighter Reputation") from a nearby chest without even getting up.

     

Anyway, with the money afforded by these outdoor adventures, I could afford better weapons and armor, which helped with the duels and contests back in the palace. There are other special encounters I need to tell you about. I've already finished the game, but this entry is getting pretty long, so I'll relate the rest in my next entry.

     

Villainy got a little cocky.

     

A quick note on the provenance of this game: My understanding is that this version of Princess Maker 2 was prepared for public release in the United States by having Adventions produce an English translation, but for whatever reason, it never hit the shelves. The Florida-based publisher IntraCorp was supposed to be the distributor for the translated game. The version I'm playing was prepared for "exclusive use" of an IntraCorp employee; naturally, it somehow got leaked. My further understanding is that an official English translation from Korean publisher CFK was published on Steam in 2016. It's called Princess Maker 2 Refine. I love that no one in the development, publishing, distribution, or marketing chain bothered to tell anyone to put a "d" on the end of it.

      

Total time: 6 hours

Playing out of: duty, mostly, but with a slight amount of curiosity