PRINCESS

EDIT: In response to the dev's comment, saying inaccurate things about the law is not a matter of "semantics" -- and speaking kindly to your customers and fans certainly isn't. Digging in like this, on a review that has both positive and negative things to say about the game, speaks for itself. This is a difficult game. Some of the difficulty is real difficulty, and some of it is just fighting with the UI. It was clearly a labor of love, and some of it is quite inspired, but some is a real slog. I might lean recommend, if it weren't for the labor of love including no love for QoL. There's also no love for paying customers, who like the game, asking questions, which has somehow prompted angry (and in at least one or two cases, legally misleading) official statements on the forums: "concepts are the intellectual property of myself", "Modding... is illegal", "an unauthorized use of my property", "a proprietary product", "a violation of my IP rights", "a direct violation of international copyright law", "immediate DMCA takedowns"... there are much kinder ways to speak to your fans who are just trying to navigate a very difficult part of the game. Unfortunately, being a fan of this game is even harder than the game itself is. It's a pity, because it truly does have some inspired bits.

[h1] PRINCESS [/h1] [h1] 9/10 [/h1] [h2]A great non-linear adventure RPG heavily inspired by classic graphic adventure games.[/h2] PRINCESS is an experience that captures a rare sense of exploration and wonder that’s hard to find in modern gaming — a feeling I only experienced when gaming was new to me and the last game that had come close to recapturing it was Zelda: Breath of the Wild back in 2017. While many games try to capture the spirit of classic titles while removing the frustrating elements, PRINCESS deliberately keeps some of those rough edges — but in smaller doses. As a result, it perfectly recreates the feel of a game released decades ago while still delivering an experience that feels more suited to modern times. The developer describes PRINCESS as a non-casual gaming experience, and it certainly has: no hand-holding, lack of QoL features, some seemingly unfair and frustrating ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and even the possibility of having to restart your whole playthrough because of things you couldn’t have predicted without a guide. But at the same time the game is pretty forgiving, with plenty of save points, even right before bosses, and many of the annoying parts can be easily bypassed in future playthroughs; it’s heavily a knowledge-based game. The level design is great: the world is just the right size, with no area feeling like filler, always having something hidden to discover or figure out later, which almost makes up for the lack of fast travel. A lot of the items you find can range from genuinely useful to kinda junky, but that just makes it more satisfactory to figure things out by yourself. The pixel art is very charming, and the soundtrack is good too (though it’s a shame it’s not available to listen to on any platform). Despite the game’s minimalistic narrative, I ended up being far more invested in it than I expected. [h3]Cons[/h3] [list] [*]The combat is a bit simplistic and comes down to button-mashing. You can easily assign a turbo button through Steam if you don’t want to deal with that. [*]Even if later knowledge trivializes some parts of the game in future playthroughs, they’ll most likely feel like a huge pain in the ass the first time around. [*]By the end of the game (Chapter 1), the lack of fast travel really starts to become more noticeable, as you start to have a clearer sense of your main goal, but you are still unsure how to actually reach it. [*]I got really unlucky with the true final boss(Chapter 1). I couldn’t beat it after 6-7 hours and ended up dropping the game at the very end. According to dev, the boss is perfectly beatable after some attempts and the dude that wrote one of the reviews seemingly beat the entire game twice(Both chapter 1 and 2) in like 60hrs. [/list] Even if I wasn’t able to beat the game in the end, I think PRINCESS was still a great and unique experience, with a true retro feeling that is so hard to emulate. It’s a game that has encouraged me to keep trying obscure indie games, because it proved that a game can be a shining diamond yet not receive the attention it deserves; PRINCESS is truly a hidden game. As a side note, the developer is still quite active on the forums and always willing to help newcomers and there are even community-made guides now, so you don’t have to worry about getting stuck without any help because of the game being too obscure.