My review might be biased because I highly adore the elite all-girls academy (sometimes religious) setting like the anime [spoiler] Maria Holic, Ladies vs Butlers, Haganai, Mashiro-iro Symphony, Shomin Sample etc. [/spoiler] so please proceed with a grain of salt. This is my first galge (gal / bishoujo game) review on Steam, where I actually finish all the heroine routes.
[h1] The Plot [/h1]
Princess Evangile starts with your average [strike] bland self-insert [/strike] MC (main character), Masaya Okonogi, who is at his wit's end as he is caught in a debt-ridden situation caused by his dad that already run away. Then his life turned upside down when he met one of the story's main heroines, Rise Rousenin, who he did save from a somewhat "perilous" situation. She instantly invited him to attend the elite all-girls catholic Vinceness academy, to become the "male commoner sample".
The whole plot starts there as our MC meet a lot of attracting main heroines and side heroines. The story is centered around how Rise wants to integrate the school to become co-ed. Enjoy up to 15-20 hours of main story (common route), where you will meet different main and side heroines as you progress to each chapter of the story. Experience the small drama theater of all-girls school conflict, goofiness, and romance comedy. Almost all heroines in the main story chapters have their own screen time, making you care about them a lot and wonder why there's no routes for them. [spoiler] Princess Evangile W Happiness is what you need to fill the hole [/spoiler]
Each main heroine routes have its own story to tell, including some plot twist and more world-building as you proceed to read their story. The main selling point of Princess Evangile is all about the all-girls academy's cultural gap with the ordinary outside world. The main stories and routes cover different themes surrounding the academy, starting from family affairs, girl-to-girl problematic friendship, breaking one's shell, following the family's footsteps, self-acceptance, to breaking old standards [spoiler] and many arranged marriages. [/spoiler]
[h1] The Routes [/h1]
There are only four main heroine routes in the game. There are no actual bad routes as the game will tell you,"This is a bad end, please try again to get the heroine routes." and that's it, no more explanation to the story.
I recommend playing them following the order from the top-to-below style according to what the game represents you. It's also okay to play which one you like the most, but it could potentially spoil the story as you might not understand some part of it when you progress through.
Every route follows the same main events happening in the academy, like the school festival, sports festival, the votes etc. The difference is that every route has different outcomes as the main heroine and the MC, need to interact differently with the academy environment. You can play up to 6-7 hours of each main heroine routes.
1. Rise Rousenin - the brightest student like the sun, determined to change the academy.
Rise story is what I consider what Princess Evangile is all about. The conflict, the comedy, the drama, the relationship of the heroine to the academy, and how it starts with the presence of the MC, it's all there. I played this route first because it's what I feel I need to do after progressing the common route towards the end.
2. Chiho Sagisawa - the childhood friend who have hard time accepting herself in the academy.
Chiho story is kinda like pushing how you want to start her route after Rise. More context is given and what's actually happening with Chiho and Masaya's family, where Rise is out of the frame.
3. Ritsuko Kitamikado - the tight stick-to-the-rules little sister who thinks has her life planned.
Ritsuko story is like how someone presence in life can change them 180 degrees even with the same personality, making them a better person even if it's considered bad by others.
4. Ayaka Kitamikado - the easy-going older sister who have hard time finding her place in the academy.
Ayaka story is telling more about accepting the past and how you need to stop pretending as if nothing happened to communicate better with others. There will be a lot of [spoiler] family drama, soap opera like [/spoiler] in this route.
If I try to rate the story I would say Rise > Ayaka > Ritsuko / Chiho. I feel like Ritsuko and Chiho route towards the end contain heavy use of [spoiler] deus ex machina [/spoiler] and the [spoiler] damsel-in-distress [/spoiler] situation.
[h1] Art, Music, Characters [/h1]
The art is exquisite even after 11 years (original Japan release in 2011), you will get a lot of CGs and cute chibi arts from the common route and more CGs from each heroine route. The soundtrack and SFX are on point with the scenes going on, and there's nothing out of place that is worth mentioning.
All the heroines are cute and lovable, you can't dislike them. You can identify each heroine quickly with their way of speaking and how they interact with the MC. I can say with certainty that it's hard to mistake one of them for the other with how different they are. They act with a different goal in mind that have good chemistry with each other. That's why their daily conversations are always interesting to see. Unfortunately, the side characters (mostly one-time villains) are not well-written and it's just like forcing you to hate them with how they are act and voiced, a convenient plot device to keep the story moving.
[h1]Precaution for potential buyers[/h1]
[b] This game is the All-ages version, the only way to obtain the 18+ version is by buying the physical copy directly from MangaGamer. [/b] There is no patch like other visual novels on steam since it's counted as a different game. Luckily, the all-ages version contains some additional scenes for the routes to replace the nudity. I didn't feel a lot of character developments are missing by not getting "some scenes", as it's mostly there on the conflict going on each routes.
The story might be not be for some people who look for a heavy and serious plot. Princess Evangile is meant to be played light-heartedly where you don't need to overthink to enjoy the story.
The game engine is quite old, so you can't use steam overlay and there are no steam achievements (it's a thing for some people).
[h1] In Summary [/h1]
Princess Evangile is a hidden-gem visual novel that isn't that popular like other VNs on steam, but it's definitely worth a look. The game offers not too much in terms of a "mind-blowing" story, but it's good enough to make you think, "why they don't make a 12 or 24 episodes anime of this?"
The game is friendly to everyone who just started dipping their toes to galge. You will be introduced to many trope (read: dere types) heroine characters that you will meet a lot in other VNs.
I wholeheartedly recommend the game for sure.
