Destiny's Princess: A War Story, A Love Story

Destiny's Princess: A War Story, A Love Story ~Forbidden Love~ tells the tale of Princess [insert your name here], her wish to ressurect her dead family, and her struggles. I've put up a summary of the game as the store page doesn't have very good details, plus my general review. Spoiler-Free. Scroll to the end for my brief summary. [b] ❤Characters:[/b] Because the store doesn't give an accurate preview of the characters of the game, I'll break it down here. All except yourself are datable, of course; - You: You're the Princess of an unnamed castle on the border of Kyogoku. You have tomboyish tendencies like enjoying climbing trees and archery and tend to speak your mind if necessary. - Yukimura Sanada: Your energetic, quick-to-act twin-brother who acts as temporary commander in the events of the game. He's kind of childish and teases you a lot, but it's in good health. - Hanbei Tanaka: Your coldhearted fiance. The game describes him as "cool and calm", and while that may be true, he's a genuine ♥♥♥♥ for the majority of his route. He's a mix between your standard stoic character and your standard sadistic creep. - Masamune Date: The leading general of the castle who, while quiet, is still playful and induldges you in your tomboyish acts. - Kotaro Fuma: The game describes him as aloof, but Kotaro is really fun to be around and acts as both a comedic and intriguing character. - Nobunaga Oda: Your dad. Your rude, gross dad. Not enough can be said about him that won't get censored by steam. [b]❤Plot:[/b] The game opens up with you, Princess [insert your name here], on more or less your final day. Demons have invaded your castle, and both those you have loved and those you don't know have died; handsmaids, vassals, your father, so on. You, too, are about to meet your untimely demise, when suddenly, you discover your precious family heirloom- a blade with a demon trapped inside that can grant any wish. You quickly wish upon the dagger as you're close to breathing your last breath- a vague wish that you "want to be saved". People from "other worlds" are then brought in and replace the people important to you who have died that night. They replace the memories you have of their actual counterparts, which leaves you feeling mixed. The game then branches from this night, and you're free to choose which character you'd like to date. [b]❤Gameplay:[/b] The game plays like a standard VN with your occassional choice thrown in here and there. Depending on your choice, your affinity with the character you're romancing will rise. You'll be able to see more of their story after the final branching choice if you've crossed the ~55% affinity threshold. Each character has 8 chapters, which then split into two endings based on your choice in chapter 8 (which the game will inform you will decide your ending). After you beat one ending, you'll also unlock a Sequel and a Date Scenario, which are nice in their own right, especially if you like a certain character. The main story itself isn't as intriguing as the store page makes it out to be, and it kind of gets rammed in your head enough that you can figure it out on its own. Most plot twists (and there's none, I'm just saying that in hyperbole) are easily realized by yourself after you've completed one route. However, the stories of each character are unique and interesting, and that's the important part. There are plenty of CGs in each route. The sprites of the characters are expressive and pretty as well- perhaps my only issue is that Kotaro definitely doesn't look like a ninja with the hairstyle he sports, but maybe that's me. The music is also fairly decent for a dating sim. I personally recommend playing in the order given to you on the character choosing screen from right to left; starting with Yukimura and ending with Nobunaga (though go down to read my vague warning about that). Kotaro and Masamune have the best routes, if you're the type of person to save best for last. [b]❤My Review:[/b] Destiny's Princess: A War Story, A Love Story ~Forbidden Love~ is a game I both enjoyed yet also disliked to a degree. As stated before, I was really into Kotaro and Masamune's routes, but felt mildly disturbed by Yukimura's route (the brother thing gets kinda weird), disappointed by Hanbei's route (he's pretty cruel), but, most importantly, absolutely disgusted by Nobunaga's route. I said this was a spoiler-free review, and it will be, so I won't ellaborate on the things he did throughout his story, but I completed it feeling... filthy. Absolutely filthy. The dissatisfaction I felt with him has mainly to do with cheap shock tactics and a strong lack of morality and taste, not to mention weird characterization. The game says to play Nobunaga's route last as it contains spoilers, but honestly, it's sickening and the plot is beat into your head so much after 4 previous routes that you can just stop at Kotaro because you stop caring (as consequences are kind of nothing in this game, so you end up going "meh, whatevs" a lot). Trust me, you'll want to stop at Kotaro. I had so much fun with his whole route that I wanted to replay it again. As it stands at full price, I would not pay 16 dollars for this game. I bought this game for 5 dollars on the summer sale and I feel like that's probably more reasonable. 8 dollars is a good ground for it, honestly. [b]❤tl;dr:[/b] Would I recommend you play this game? Yes. Would I recommend you play all of this game? No, because some of it is in bad taste, specifically Nobunaga's route, but I won't stop you. Does this game offer a lot of content? Yes. Around an hour's worth of story for five characters plus two bonus stories for completing 1/2 endings. Is this game hard? Just savescum and you'll be fine, but most correct choices are blatantly obvious. Should I buy this game at full price? [b]...........Wait until a sale hits.[/b] I rate this game a 7/10. Hope I helped! ❤ lone

This is probably the first game from these developers that I’ve actually enjoyed and I have no major complains about. The story had a deeper plot than I’ve imagined, and the characters were good. Yes, there are some cliché situations, but honestly, so far this is the best title developed by Dogenzaka. I liked that they had the balls to make canon sad endings [spoiler]and even an “evil ending”. I did not expected that![/spoiler]. Don’t get me wrong, I love happy endings in otome VNs, but this title is about war and it’s also quite violent. It felt refreshing to see something different from what I’m used to. Not all the characters treat the MC like garbage and that was a HUGE improvement. She also has her own moments like fighting. It made me happy that she was willing to learn new things and how to defend herself in the battlefield. The art is also very pretty, and I’d like to point out the BGM; it’s awesome! It gets repetitive after some time, but wow, the songs are good. 8/10. I recommend getting this title on a sale and if you’re in the mood of reading something different from the usual otome VNs.

Currently working on a walkthough one of the storylines. This game has amazing artwork, and music. If you like anime. visual novels, mystery and love. You will enjoy this game. I would get it now while its 40% off. Update; I finished Hanbei story line A and B, both of them were depressing but showed a rich story line. I won't tell anyone any spoilers but don't look forward to a happy ending regardless. 11/10 Will cry out for Hanbei again.

I had to think really hard before I wrote this review. I've played one other game produced by Dogenzaka Lab which was The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya. Two completely different games, despite them having the same annoying tendency to do loop music that you can't mute! Ahem. Back to it. Destiny's Princess didn't have the same length to it or content - it was shorter and more condensed. The visuals were nice but there seemed to be a lack of still images and some were just repeated with the characters only changing in view by their lips or stance. It was a little dissapointing. The plot of DP was incredibly cliche being centered around all the male characters loving the herione [spoiler] and even hinting at incest. [/spoiler] I'm not sure if I can say I enjoyed the game or not. There were parts that I liked and parts that I didn't like. I am certainly not used to there being [spoiler] character death that you can do nothing differently to prevent it from happening. [/spoiler] That was a real heart-string puller. It was like watching a FF7 cinematic. So let's pro/con: Pro: -Gorgeous male characters ....yeah, sorry that's all I have for the pros. Con: -Typical female lead (damsel in distress, blah blah blah) -Consistent loop music -Lack of still visuals -Some grammar and punctuation errors -Lack of choices [spoiler] It doesn't really matter what you do in the game as it doesn't effect the two endings you can recieve on any character path. You can simply save when it comes to the ending choice and play from there. [/spoiler] -Lack of smut scenes! This is probably based on personal preference but VN's should always be steamy or have proper kissing scenes. This didn't cut it! So at the end of the day, would I actually recommend this game to another person? In all honesty, no. For the amount of content you get for the price and time you put into it, definitely not. There is no replay value either. Through every character playthrough it just became more and more cliche and boring - I was actually just pressing enter a lot to skip dialogue because it was just so uninteresting and flat with no charm. However, I would recommend it as a first-time Otome/VN. It's less complicated and simpler than some of the others I have played but for experienced Otome players? Nup don't think so.

I spent the weekend binging through the title, and I must say that after having finished the routes, I fairly enjoyed the game. I may go further into detail later on, but for now I'll give a brief review and explaination at the end. Pros: -Great artwork -Beautiful soundtrack -Varied character archetypes -Fairly interesting story Cons: -Some QC errors with a good chunk of typos, missing grammar, and awkward sentences. (Still better than Kikuya's QC problems though) -Game fell short of a good bit of potential the story and characters had -Became somewhat dull in places Overall, for the price, I'd highly recommend the game for otome fans. While there's better titles out there if you're new/just getting into the otome scene, Destiny's Princess was an enjoyable play for its length. However, there is quite a lot of sad/bittersweet endings, so If you're looking for a very "feel good" otome, then you should probably look elsewhere. I've seen a few people comment negatively about the fact that there are two "incest" routes, but what a lot of people fail to mention is that, while there is quite a lot of incestual context, the two routes in question are not true incest routes. The male characters in those routes have "taken the place" of the protagonist's twin brother and father, but they are not actually related in any way. This is explained right off the bat in every route.

Oh boy. Where do I even start? It has a similar theme to their other games, pretty straight forward non-linear branching storyline with minimal choices each of which either add to the MC's likeability or add no points. Destiny's Princess has two distinct good endings as well as two basic endings. All of which are easily attainable within a very short timespan. It does come with trading cards which is good for some people as well. You can tell which endings that you've unlocked by going to each character's selection page. Silver crowns are ones that are still locked, Gold or copper are unlocked. Not quite sure why but it does make it easier to navigate. Unlike a few of these developers games, this one does a good job of keeping the story PG-13. That may be a bonus or a detractor depending on who is playing. It's not an eroge by any means, which means it's suitable for most ages. I doubt that they read any of the reviews posted by their customers, but on the off chance that they do, or care; I would like to suggest a few things that would really up the overall play factor in the game, and in the process help other people into otome choose whether or not this game is worth purchasing for themselves. 1) It would be nice to have a few more twists in the story and a few more ending choices. Perhaps more dynamic endings that involve multiple characters or "mixed path" romance options as well. This game is pretty straight forward. Unlike other titles in this genre there really is no "common path" where you learn about the characters either which means it's guess work. There is no suggested play order outside of one path in this game, which I didn't like. I prefer having a general idea. IMO the best way to do their games is simply top left to bottom. Otherwise it breaks the story flow. The prologue much like their other games is short, and while the characters have a description of their character points before you choose the path, there really isn't enough besides the character's looks in this game to invest you into their character imo. 2) The looping music. While it's not a detractor for everyone, I literally had to mute the music entirely in order to finish the game. It's too repetitive. I've seen this in other games as well, and for the price I am not surprised but I would have preferred an option to merely turn down the music. 3) The length of the overall game. While I did buy this on sale, it wasn't that expensive normally. I can however say that had I not gone to work at all, I could have completed this game within two hours. I do read -very- quickly so that could vary by user. [spoiler]The main reason I say this is a short game however, is simply because the story does not change much in regards to different character's paths outside of how much they know about their situation in the story. In fact, it changes so little outside of that, by the time I had gotten to the suggested "final" path, I had already figured out the entire story.[/spoiler] 4) The UI. While I understand that this is a cheaper game. I would have liked the ability to set my screen resolution. In most of their games that I've played I've noticed, there is only "windowed" or "full screen" which is kind of an annoyance to me, as it means that there isn't an option for windowed full screen. Another gripe is that there isn't a quick load or quick save button. This game has many save slots but if you're familiar with how the developer makes their games, there isn't a need for more than one save file per character. One good point is that you can choose the opacity of the text window, and the text speed. There isn't really much that can be said outside of that. It's just a very basic user interface. 5) Lack of minigames at all. Like other games by these developers there is absolutely no end game content. There's nothing ingenuitive or creative here. Once you've finished the game, there's no reason to keep it installed. It feels very much "factory produced" rather than "creative" and that makes me quite sad. This game isn't utter garbage, but it really could use more to it, like their other games. In my favorite visual novels there is usually more depth in these regards. I wouldn't mind paying significantly more for a more complex game in this category by the publisher if they spent more time on their games. I've spent over 60 dollars on multiple fully fleshed out games within this category which had minigames, way more CG's, a ton of options, and replay value, so I would like to see less quantity and more quality from these developers, since I know where it could be better. Also for a few spoilers and from my perspective one really big detractor: [spoiler]This game implies incest, in regards to MC and her brother/father. While it wasn't acted on, thanks to story and also I get that it was set in a different time, but there were a few definite cringe moments for me when completing it thanks to this. Also many of the characters know they're not who they are "replacing" by the end of the game, before they're "allowed to know" which totally breaks the entire plot in my opinion. Not fun![/spoiler] I also want to say that while the art style is okay, the backgrounds leave much to be desired. A lot of the artwork goes through a ton of lazy filters and post processing work. The character models are well designed, and the small sample of CG's are pretty good as well. There's not much uncanny valley, (but there is a little bit regarding eye placement, or body placement. It happens. I get it.) The men didn't seem to have glaringly obvious "yaoi hands." That's an improvement from prior titles. I do wish that there was a bit less post processing with the "grunge" filter added to the characters. It looks a bit lazy in my opinion. So overall, the game isn't -terrible.- It is definitely not the worst visual novel with non-linear branches that I've played. However - if you're looking for something which will invest a lot of your time and get you fully interested in this genre, this isn't my first recommendation. Overall it's a 4/10 from me. TL;DR: The music is okay but repetitive. The story is fine but short, and the characters were fairly predictable. Get it if you like this companies other otome games, overall I am not a fan.

As a whole this game is somewhat less blatantly pornographic than the other Dogenzaka Lab games I have tried to play, which I appreciate. There was a small amount of actual story but it's mostly just the same old boring, bland, Mary-Sue MC that EVERY Dogenzaka game has. She lives to be wooed by one sketchy dude at a time but, woe-is-me, she's just too pure and embarrassed to ever really consent to anything that goes down. Each character story is linear but with two possible endings. You just sort of pick the ending you want; it's not based on your game choices. Periodically there is a dialog options where one of the two responses is arbitrarily right. Enough right answers and you unlock a short epilogue to the ending but no dialog choice actually impacts the story. The art was lovely but there is so little music that I had to mute the game to stop myself from going insane.

So before I bought the game I read the reviews here on Steam. Most of them were good and a few of them were bad... I should've listened to them... I've played quite a few otome games such as Code Realize, Dandelion, and Amnesia, which were all amazing games I actually bawled my eyes out. This game, however, did not make me feel anything at all. WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS There are like 10 endings and I played it all and unlocked all the pictures.. There were so little so it wasn't hard (which was one of the things that bothered me) The gallery was just filled with the same picture but just them closing their eyes or smiling (it was horrible and honestly this should've been a mobile game). It took me like 2-3 hours to finish each guy's story (both endings) which is super short. There were a few guys (won't mention who) that had died or got injured or whatever... I did not shed a single tear and the only thought that came to me was... idfc... It was a chore to play through it... As mentioned before in previous posts, there are a few scenes of sexual harrassment, but that didn't really bother me as much because I've played Diabolik Lovers *shudders* (never again). So if you're not into that, definitely don't buy it. What REALLY bothered me is the lack of details. They didn't answer my questions I had through out the game and it really aggravates me! And WTF was that ending??? Nobunga's story... I have no words... All I can say is that it made me cringe SO bad. So in conclusion, if you're immune to cringey sh*t, knock yourself out. The art was still lovely though, I'll admit that... Lack of content, little details... all for 15 bucks... it's up to you guys to figure out if it's worth your money, but I should've expected much from a cheap game.

I really wish I could review this without having to label it as "recommended" or not. This game has huge amounts of problematic content for such a short game. In fact it probably should come with a tw for rape and sexual harrassment since that's what it happens in every single route, even if the mc does not recognize it as such and even justifies it. THAT being said, I must admit I enjoyed it in spite of myself and all the terrible behaviour all these dudes exhibit and that I'm supposed to find "charming". Two of the dudes are plain awful and can go straight to hell, the other two are decent, and only one reaches respectable human being status. But it was entertaining and Saya is a nice MC, with an actual personality and some backbone too. It would've been nice to have an ending where she doesn't end up with any of the guys. I guess I recommend to buy this game only if it's on sale? And if you are able to overlook everyone's behaviour for long enough to finish the game.

I got half way though the Hanbei route and requested a refund because I do not support the message that [spoiler] blackmail for sex [/spoiler] is ok.