Princess Maker 2 Regeneration

[i]This review is based on a review copy played on both PC and Steam Deck.[/i] [h2]Overview[/h2] [b](In-depth analysis below)[/b] Princess Maker 2 Regeneration is an enjoyable and relaxing yet challenging daughter-raising simulator remaster featuring various quality-of-life improvements, systems, and activities with plenty of replayability, an astonishing soundtrack, and Gainax's signature visual style. While I recommend this version of the game, if the quality-of-life improvements aren't essential for you, Princess Maker 2 Refine is half the price and essentially the same game with more quirks and a worse translation. Otherwise, wait for a sale. [table] [tr] [th]Positives[/th] [th]Negatives[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]- Quality-of-life improvements include significantly enhanced English localization, Steam cloud save support, togglable stats display, controller support, an art gallery, remastered ending sequences, updated vacation artwork, and more. - An entertaining gameplay loop with plenty of replayability, featuring over 70 possible endings. - Excellent OST that coherently ties together the experience with new tracks not heard before. - The voice acting sounds authentic, and each voice actor does a great job giving life to the character they are voicing. There are also additional voice lines added.   - Charming visuals reminiscent of old Gainax days, with some cute retro 8-bit animations thrown in for the events.[/td] [td]- Higher price tag compared to PM2 Refine, with essentially the same amount of gameplay, only QOL improvements. - Removal of many Steam achievements present in PM 2 Refine for some reason. - Some gameplay mechanics can feel tedious and dated, although far fewer and in between. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs & Steam Deck Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] PC: i7-9700K, 24GB of RAM, RTX 2080 Ti at 1080p, 60+ fps. Steam Deck: Unfortunately, PM2 Regeneration is not playable on the Steam Deck as of writing this review. There's no UI scaling, and the display stats background does not vanish when disabled, removing 1/4 of the screen region. You technically "can" play it on the SD, but it's not recommended unless the issues are fixed, as it results in a miserable experience. [/td] [/tr][/table] [quote] Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/] Summit Reviews [/url] For more insightful and high-quality reviews, or follow my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36435986/] Curator Page[/url], in case you're interested in more Steam Deck orientated reviews.[/quote] [h2]In-Depth[/h2] [h3]Story[/h3] In a medieval fantasy world, you, a wandering knight, discover a kingdom under siege by a demon army led by the Prince of Darkness, sent by the Heavens to punish the city for its sins. Determined to save the kingdom, you take up the mantle of its defender and force the evil horde back into the underworld, and for your bravery, a god grants you a heavenly gift: a daughter to raise. You must guide her from age ten to eighteen, shaping her into a successful and happy adult. Will she achieve her dream of becoming a princess, or will she be doomed to a life of hardship and regret, shaped by your every decision? The path she takes rests in your hands, whether she will become a peasant innkeeper, run away out of spite and fall to a life of debauchery, or attain a prestigious title and life. As with most games in the Princess Maker series, the story primarily serves as an overarching setting that provides context for the gameplay. The real narrative unfolds as you raise your daughter, in a unique setting. [h3]Gameplay Analysis[/h3] [b][u]Core Mechanics[/u][/b] At its core, the gameplay revolves around scheduling monthly activities such as education, jobs, adventuring, and time off. Education enhances your daughter's skills and attributes like intelligence, strength, faith, beauty, and more, while jobs help her earn money and practical experience. You'll quickly figure out whether the gameplay is for you as the gameplay largely remains the same throughout for better or worse; personally, I found it very endearing. Managing her health and stress levels is crucial to prevent negative consequences, such as falling ill, running away, or, even worse, having her life take a downward spiral. Between scheduling activities, you can visit the city to purchase various goods to relieve stress, seek medical attention at the clinic, or visit the palace to improve her reputation and gain favor, leading her one step closer to becoming a princess. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300806511 One of the most important events occurs once a year, offering you the option to sign up for one of four tournaments, depending on the direction your daughter is taking. Participating in these tournaments can earn her vital rewards in your journey. All in all, it combines time management, strategy, simulation, and most importantly fun, requiring careful planning to achieve your desired outcome for your daughter. This process can be stressful, peaceful, or sometimes tedious. However, the journey is rewarding nonetheless. That's without mentioning the classic JRPG element of the Princess Maker franchise, where your daughter adventures out into the world, gaining experience and money by fighting monsters while searching for treasures. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3301001041 From woodlands to mountain areas, you've got a fair few locations to pick from, and although none of these are too large or unique, considering the context of a daughter-raising simulator, errantry feels incredibly refreshing, especially when the usual scheduling feels a tad monotonous, the variety keeps it engaging. Each playthrough takes roughly seven hours depending on what you're trying to achieve, and as there are plenty of secrets to discover, ensures that you will likely want to return for multiple playthroughs to uncover more. [h3]Remaster of a Remaster of a 90's Game[/h3] As mentioned in the overview, PM2 Regeneration focuses on quality-of-life improvements without altering the core mechanics. While these improvements are welcome, they may not justify the higher price for everyone. If you are mainly interested in the gameplay mechanics, the cost might not be worth it. The most notable difference is that Regeneration has a competent English localization, unlike the previous remaster, Refine. While Refine is still playable and understandable, it has occasional awkward English. Consider the differences between these versions before purchasing, as you will get a comparable experience for less if you don't care for the quality-of-life changes. Regeneration is the best version of Princess Maker 2 available on Steam, price point aside, but by no means is it a replacement for Refine. [h3]Presentation[/h3] [b][u]Visuals[/u][/b] Overall the updated graphics and aesthetics showcase the excellent Gainax signature style well, meticulously redone by Takami Akai himself. However, the visuals are inconsistent, fluctuating between retro and modern styles, creating a conflicting visual experience. While the new illustrations are appreciated, and the old art is still great, the transition between old and new can be jarring due to the fidelity shifts and whatnot. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3301040910 [b][u]Audio[/u][/b] The OST perfectly captures the setting’s essence, adding nostalgic charm alongside new scores. Each track has a specific role, enhancing moments like seasonal changes, studying, working, and adventuring. The diverse melodies have a timeless quality and are a standout feature. The voice acting is also delightful, with each character sounding authentic and unique. Do note that there's only Japanese voice acting, and some lines can become repetitive as you perform the same tasks each month.

great game, I don't seem to have faced the problems others have, I like it a lot. People claim its some weird degen game, I'm an Orthodox Christian this game is fine, has some weird stuff but that's just a symptom of being a japanese game. Some of the UI has a few bugs on occasion but the translation is good.

배속 버튼 만들어.

95/96年，小学4-5年级，玩到《美少女梦工厂2》。白驹过隙，我怎么都快40了，当熟悉的音乐响起，看到这个画面，恍惚间回到了30年前周二的下午，趁着爸妈没有回家，对着《大众软件》上的攻略，QRN+F10+F12，一切都很好~~~~ 这款游戏是经典中的经典，每次玩都感动，每次玩都惊喜。

All right, I have played a few versions of this game so my review is more going to focus on this re-release versus the game itself. But to sum up - I've always been a fan of this odd little series and getting official English releases of them was an unexpected windfall. You basically spend most of the game staring at stats and watching animations, with some of it broken up by simplistic dungeon crawling. But all of that stuff makes a surprisingly addicting game about raising a child, with all kinds of weird twists and turns and the amusement of realizing how your parenting is turning out because of some of the wacky options you have to play with. So this already has a Refine version, what's different about this one? Would I recommend it over Refine? Well... I would say yes, but there's some caveats here. Big one is it's not THAT different despite costing almost twice as much. The biggest advantage this version offers is a better gameplay experience since it was developed for modern hardware - less weird bugs, fullscreen actually works well, and the translation is new and handled by actual English-speaking human beings. The translation being *competent* in a game that requires so much reading of text and understanding stats is enough that I don't know if I want to even return to Refine. The UI has had one massive update, which is they've put your daughter's stats on the main screen instead of hidden behind a menu. I cannot tell you how useful that is and how much it speeds up the gameplay since stats are so important. You also now have an ending gallery to rewatch any of the endings you've managed to unlock. But beyond that, there's not a lot of bells and whistles added to make this version all that unique. All of the CGs have been redrawn from scratch and they look fantastic but the main character and all the game's character portraits are the same assets in use since Refine. They *really* stick out, and seeing how good your daughter looks in the CGs makes me wonder why they didn't also redraw the character models of the version of your daughter that you stare at for 99% of the gameplay. Massive missed opportunity. Someone is going to ask about censorship and having done a full playthrough, no narrative content has been altered - you can still be a creep and marry your child or give her breast pills. But the nudity that's present in a couple of CGs in Refine has been removed in the newly drawn CGs - characters that used to appear naked now have clothes. Your daughter has to wear a bathing costume, fairies have to wear little fairy tunics. Beyond that, risque costumes seem to have been left alone - overflowing underboob is apparently a-okay. So, I hope covered enough of the game for you to decide if the price tag is worth it. I'm glad I bought this, and when I play future PM2 campaigns I'll continue to favor this version because my god, I cannot stress enough how bad the machine translation is on Refine. But maybe wait till a good sale - you might have noticed I waited until this year's summer sale to finally dive in.

除了後悔買了這東西外不知道還能說什麼了...

那個，養女兒界面那個只能看到一半，我也看不到自己多少錢怎麽辦啊

回憶不滿點，沒有進步處； 遊戲很好玩，可惜已無心。

Buy the other remaster of PM2 (Refine), it's significantly better.

全程配音。浸入感比较强，倒是可以专心玩 但是两小时就玩腻，这个游戏玩起来就是刷刷刷了，而且刷数值也刷的痛苦。在里面赚钱麻烦且占用时间，想上点什么课得先去赚点钱还赚的少，小孩很容易累这个时候要么赚不到钱要么得去玩几天，一来二去时间过去了属性没怎么涨，明明上一年比武大赛还挺余力，按照相同的行程打结果下一年就被人家碾压着打了，而且压轴的那个对手数值比她去年高不少还比前面的人高一大截，就是一个数值怪高的不合理。后面一直刷真的很没意思。 游戏没什么剧情，而且很多设定不合理。可能是世界观独特吧，我这么壮，家里还能有个一个会飞管家算账，我养不起一个小孩？每个月给小孩的钱都不够小孩正常发育的伙食费，上学得这个小孩自己卖苦力挣学费。这小孩学武术没学多久就能在比武大赛上面吊打自己老师，那她后面学武而且学费越学越贵是谁在教她，还是这个老师？ 原版真的是老游戏了，玩过后面出的同类游戏很难感觉这个好玩，ui也是依旧一股古早的感觉。去年刚出就买了，当初要早知道就不硬着头皮玩下去了，没办法退款。这个游戏这个质量定价真是虚高，现在史低5折也不建议买，总之就是不建议买