Long Live The Queen

When I was much younger, I used to play this old text-based adventure game entitled Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That game really stood out for just how dedicated it was to screwing you over, killing you over mundane acts like forgetting to feed a sandwich to a dog. Long Live the Queen is no different in that regard. Dying is Fun, and you *will* die a lot. If this doesn't sound appealing, then you should probably leave now instead of trying to play it. Genrewise, LLtQ is within that stat-raising visual novel zone, akin to older works like Princess Maker and Tokimeki Memorial - just, you know, with a lot more deaths. I really like these sorts of games, where you're given tons and tons of choices that all affect and interact with one another. It's a puzzle of sorts, where everything you do has longterm consequences and the potential to utterly doom you. LLtQ is pretty open-ended puzzle at that, as most events can be passed with a wide variety of checks, only absolutely requiring multiple in succession in late-game or optional events. Unfortunately, while I really enjoyed the gameplay, the writing is a bit more hit-and-miss. In general, I found it to be "breezy" - fast-paced and not the most substantial. This makes sense, as you don't generally spend *that* much time around any given person. This is most obvious in regards to the romantic interests, which, again, makes a form of sense: most of these are purely political affairs. I do wish that one particular romantic option had an extra letter or similar, mainly because they're attached to some of the hardest checks in the entire game (those of the Old Forest). I'm also decidedly *not* a fan of one particular romance route and how its handled. I'm avoiding spoilers in this review, but there's a Cruel-only route that plays sexual assault in the same breezy manner as everything else, even though the other Cruelty routes generally have a more serious tone. It's a frustrating part of an otherwise really good experience, and one that definitely left a bit of a bitter taste. Still, despite what I've said about the writing, most of it is actually pretty fun. There's even one character who, in hindsight, gives really awful advice - genuinely a pretty fun way of nigh-guaranteeing people get swept up into bad situations. The final week writing is pretty cool, too - it feels awesome to watch your perfectly-honed skills *finally* defeat the big bad, whether that's through swordplay, persuasion, music, magic, or something else entirely. Add in the really fun puzzle-y gameplay, and I ended up definitely enjoying the game overall.