[i]"Four daughters, each from 4 different game. One open spot to be a princess. Losers go home. Who will win?"[/i]
[h1]Princess Maker: Princess Party[/h1]
Let me start this by saying that translations from CFK is, has been, and will always be bad. Can't they afford someone to localize it into English?! Well, at least it's bad in English. I don't know anything about Korean, though. To be honest, the translations are still acceptable and aren't really that important, since there's less story and more gameplay here. Keep reading for more information on making your decision on buying this game.
[b]Firstly, the gameplay is heavily influenced by luck. There's almost no skill involved in this game.[/b] Almost everything is decided by the dice. Although you'll need to be careful at certain spots (some spots and events are a killer). By looking at the opponent skills, you can make a decision whether to pick up a fight or not. Other than that, [i]good luck[/i]. [strike]No, they don't sell items that can manipulate luck.[/strike] There is, actually, for example, Fruit of Forgetfulness, when consumed, allows you to move [i]twice[/i] in one turn. But it cannot be bought, and only gained from events.
Just like in real life, you become a princess by marrying the prince. The goal of this game is to have the most relationship points with the prince. The winner becomes the prince, and all losers become... someone else ([spoiler]the last placing player becomes... a bridesmaid/maid.[/spoiler]). To get relationship points, you have to land on the quest spot given in the game. The quest spot location is random. On normal map mode, they can be located far from the castle (30-40 steps). On centric map mode, they're always located near the castle, saving a lot of turns for players trying to get there. But even then, you still have to land on the exact spot and you have to move the exact number of steps the die dictates. Expect to find players spending 5-12 turns to land on the quest zone. On last turn, the game still plays until the last quest has been claimed by someone.
There's singleplayer should the game be dead and no one plays them anymore (if you're reading this, it's probably already happened). You can play with bots. The bots are not so smart. They can't use items, equip armors, wear clothes (unless they're instructed to do so), and always move toward the quest spot. You can save your game progress in singleplayer so you can always come back at anytime.
There's no tutorial on this game. Good luck finding one online, though. Unless you have prior knowledge to this game, you'll be playing really blind. But, let me tell you some info: Forget everything you've learned on how to be a good parent in the Princess Maker series, this is a completely different game. There's no debuff on over-stressing your daughter (aside from having less HP in battles). You won't need to remove stress as often as before, since trying to remove it takes time. Hopefully there'll be someone posting guides on how to play this game.
Online multiplayer works in this game. The game doesn't have any "anti-stall mechanics" or timers. One player goes AFK and you'll have to wait for the player to go back. [strike]If a player disconnects mid-game, the game soft-locks.[/strike] The game now auto-plays the offline player, probably. Players have to play the game until the end, even if you're on a losing streak. Interestingly, the game has auto-reconnect feature to get back in the previous game should you (unexpectedly) quit the game or lose your internet connection. [strike]If the previous game is gone, the game soft-locks in the main menu.[/strike] The game now gives you an option to not reconnect. [b]As of now, there are few players playing and most of them are Korean.... Better find some English friends to play.[/b]
The game could be fun to play, if only it has more skill involved in the game (but not too much skill so that the game becomes too competitive). You could play with your friends and blame at game's RNG should you be on a losing streak. Build some poor strategies from the game's lack of tutorial. Maybe read the dialogues, they have their own mini-stories.
If you're new to the PM series and would only play for fun, I suggest you play Mario Party instead of this one.
If you're new to the PM series and would like to learn more about it, start with the other PM games on the series.
If you're already a PM fan that knows well about the series, know that this game is a spin-off, and thus plays very differently.
Buy this game if:
1. Your friends play it (very unlikely to happen, given the player base of the game).
2. You want to play with your friends, either online or not (likely to happen, gifting friends games aren't rarity).
3. You're a Princess Maker fan (very likely to happen, only PM fans would visit this store page).
4. You've understood the Korean language and would like to try playing online (unlikely, can you read this review and also understand Korean?).
Because of the reasons above, I conclude that, for an average person in the internet, it's not recommended to play this game.
[h1]This game, explained in terms of other games[/h1]
[table]
[tr][th]Combination Matrix[/th][th]Mario[/th][th]Princess[/th]
[/tr]
[tr][th]Party[/th][td]Mario Party (Casual Board game, high luck, high skills)[/td][td]Princess Maker Go!Go! Princess (Casual Board game, high luck, low skills)[/td]
[/tr]
[tr][th]Maker[/th][td]Super Mario Maker (Level Building game)[/td][td]Princess Maker (Life Sim game)[/td]
[/tr][/table]
