Retro Review: Princess Maker 2

Unlike the majority of game reviews we do, I don't actually own Princess Maker 2. It was briefly licensed in English, but was never actually brought to the market. It's largely considered to be abandonware, though the English translation/conversion company says that it's not, though they no longer retain any rights. We don't generally condone anything that remotes resembles piracy, but given that there is not a way to own the English translation, no one is profiting (or not profiting) off having it, and  I can't go out and buy it, we've made peace with the download..  When I wrote this review Princss Maker 2 occupied nebulous legal status and I was playing the abandonware version. Now Princess Maker 2 (as well as the original) are now available legally download from Steam.We bought it right away and highly recommend it for time wasting fun!

Introduction

The Princess Maker series of games, shuns convenient categorizations. It is many things: a life sim, a strategy game,  a dating sim, an RPG,  and a dress up game. It all depends on how you play it.

Look up there in the sky it's a LOGO! It's an ill omen!

Overview

The premise is simple if not a little crazy. You play the part of a famous swordsman who is granted a child from the heavens.It's your duty to raise her until the age of 18. You choose her activities, her lessons, her jobs, her clothes and just about everything else she'll do with her days. Your choices will determine how her life will go. Will she be a famous warrior, a magician, a homemaker, the princess of darkness or a loveless spinster? It all depends on your skills as a father.

Hopefully she'll spend her days painting happy trees

Controls are simple, it's a classic point and click. The only time it's different is in the Adventure Mode, where you can either use the mouse or the arrow keys. She moves a bit stiffly and awkwardly in this mode, but for the most part it doesn't cause problems as it's turned based fighting and random encounters. You might get hung up on rock or something and waste a bit of time, but that's the extent of the control issues.

Graphics are surprisingly good for a game that first came out in 1993. They're very lovely high quality manga style images that still stand up very well. They still have that early 90's VGA look to them, but they're quite detailed and look better than plenty of modern anime style games I've seen.

We would have killed for tappa tappa tappa!

Sound is what you'd expect from a sim game from 1993, repetitive midi songs which eventually just fade into the background. They're not great and they're not terrible. There isn't a whole lot else going on sound wise, just a few noises during special events but that's about it. So, if uninspired repetitive music bothers you, it's probably just best to turn all the game sounds off and listen to your own playlist.

Sexism

I can't talk about this game and not talk about sexism. This game is flagrant in your face stereotypical "girl game". Your best ending means you marry the prince, even if you don't marry the prince, you need to marry someone. In endings where you don't get married at all even if she's otherwise successful are often viewed as failures.

I didn't put her in this outfit until she was 18 but it's not a requirement..ugh

 You've also got your required girl game dress-up features.  Your daughter can wear a variety of different outfits, several of which are quite questionable for a young girl, putting it mildly. Even if the skimpiness doesn't bother you, unless you spend a lot of time making her diet, she'll often be "too fat" to fit into many of the outfits.  Not exactly a positive message for women and girls everywhere. On that note in her stats screen you see her, height weight, bust size, waist size and hip size, because I mean that's exactly what I'd want to know about my 12 year old. It wouldn't make me a creepy freak of a father at all. Perfectly on the level, no questions here at all.

Always a great day at the Sleazy Bar

In addition to questionable outfits, there are also some questionable job choices, including gems such as sleazy bar and cabaret. Though other than the moral objections involved, when your other options include doing masonry or working in a graveyard, cabaret might not be so bad.

The worst offender in terms of sexist content though, (other than the nude patch, but that's not unlocked in the game through any normal means) is that, if you're an especially sleazy kind of parent you can pick up the buxomize pill from a wandering merchant. Which, as you could guess from the name, increases her chest size. Which (as far as I know) does nothing other than alter the sprite of an underaged girl.

However, as I'll say a number of times in this review, this game is almost completely changed by how you personally decide to play it.  You can avoid focusing on having her cook, clean and be pretty. You can have a scholarly lumberjack daughter or an artistic warrior daughter and you won't have to worry too much about a lot of the more offensive content. However, that's not without it's pratfalls too. I specifically tried to go down the warrior path with one incarnation of my daughter, but when she lost the annual combat festival the family butler, Cube, couldn't resist pointing out that "Girls are cuter if they aren't incredibly tough."

Who asked for your opinion anyway?

On the whole, I think the positives of the game outweigh the negative sexist overtones, but maybe I'm just repressed enough by the patriarchy into not being bothered.

Gameplay

You start off the game by setting your family name, your daughters name, your name, her birthday, your birthday and you daughter's blood type. This information does affect the game. Your daughter's birth-date determines her guardian deity, who in turn effects her stats, and her blood type determines her personality type.

For example my daughter Lily, had a birthday of June 20th and blood type O. Which meant her deity was mercury, she got an intelligence stat boost and she didn't gain or lose extra stress at the end of the month. There are loads of informative guides on the internet about choosing the optimum combination depending on the ending you're trying for but I think part of the fun of Princess Maker is the experimentation. With the initial stuff out of the way you get some very brief and barely coherent storyline before you're ready to start raising a little girl.

No pressure though...

When you start the game she's 10 and has whatever stats are determined by her birthday. The individual deity stat boosts aren't particularly generous, so it's possible to lead your daughter into any path you want. You decide what she eats, what she wears, where she goes, who she talks to and and most importantly her weekly schedule. Her schedule consists of work, school, adventure or free time. You choose the subjects you want her to study and/or the part time job you want her to take and charge the family's butler with making your daughter carrying out your plans. Why you can't do it out yourself since all you seem to do is sit at home, I do not know. Perhaps it's because dictating all that down to the letter and then pushing it on her too would be just be crossing the line. Using the butler as a buffer naturally means you're not a crazy control freak, just a dedicated father.

Your laziness and control problems aside, for the most part all you do is watch a small animation of her days spent on the schedule and see how well she did, how much her stats changed and how much money she's made. You're not in direct control over any of it, it's all ruled by your daughters stats. They only time you're active in her scheduled time is when you send her out adventuring. The adventuring interface works like a very basic RPG, and can get surprisingly addictive. I often felt sad when my 9 days were at an end and she had to go home.

Random encounters HO!

Whatever you choose to schedule for her, should be thought out carefully. Just about everything you do in this game will effect your daughter's destiny in one way or another. Again there are several guides online which will tell you detailed information if you're really dying to get a certain ending, but experimentation is more fun. This game has over 50 endings (I've seen conflicting reports on what exactly the number is ranging from 56 to 70+) I've played it through multiple times and have never gotten the same ending twice. One other thing to be aware of while scheduling, is that school is very expensive. When you start the game you can pay for one period of class and that's it, you can schedule her for more, but the instructors will just complain about her not having enough money and won't teach her anything, and having spent all your money, you won't be able to afford to feed her for the following months. So while it seems like pretty bad parenting to send your 10 year old off to work, it's a necessity here.

 Regardless of what you choose for her, even though you have almost complete control over every aspect of her life, there are some limits. If you don't give her any time off and she ends the month with stress she's likely to become delinquent, refusing to work or do schoolwork and potentially sneaking off to do unsavory things during free time. If you make her do too many things she doesn't like, she'll run away from home for a month wasting precious skill building time and not bringing in any family income. Similarly being too lenient with her and giving her too much free time nets similar results. Every girl is different so you'll have to experiment before you find just the right balance with your particular daughter.

It's OK Lily we all have loaf days

After you've hit your groove with successfully scheduling your daughter, she will eventually be visited by deities that give her stat boosts depending on what she's been excelling in. Additionally if she does particularly well at the harvest festival held at the end of every year she can gain a rival. These have different effects depending on your daughters stats. Additionally there are a few other random events as the result of adventuring, winning a contest or buying a special item that will give you random effects.

After 8 game years of working, adventuring, networking, festivals and education your daughter will turn 18 and you'll see what your choices have lead to. Will you have been a good father and pleased the deity with their decision to grant you a child? You'll have to find that out for yourself.

Thank goodness making kids work at 10 is smiled on by the heavens.

Conclusion 

Princess Maker 2 one of the most sexist stereotype driven games I've ever played that's still PG. That being said it's also a lot of fun. This game is what you make of it and has tons of little surprises (like all the different paintings your daughter can make and hang in your home) to keep you interested and make playing through it again and again worth your while. If you don't like sim games or games with very little action, this isn't a game for you. But just about anyone else could have a lot of fun with this.


~Stephanie


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