Princess Maker 2 (Refine) Review

Princess Maker 2 (Refine)
Platform: DOS, Sega Saturn, and way too many other platforms to list (Original), PC, Playstation2 (Refine)
Genre: Life Simulation, Stat Raiser, Fantasy, with elements of Dating Simulation, Visual Novel, and an Adventure Game.
Voiced: None (Original), Fully (Refine)
Rated: Older Teen
Useful Websites: Princess Maker Corner, Princess Maker Nexus

   Remember when you defeated the demon lord, and saved the capital, so the gods granted you a daughter to raise? Yeah, it seemed lame to me, too…



    Only the regular Princess Maker 2 for DOS was ever translated into English, and it was never officially released, but floating around the internet as abandonware because the publishing company went bankrupt. The Refine edition was released for PC and PS2 in Japanese, and featured full voice acting as well as better music and art quality.

(Please don’t ask me where to download the abandonware game; google will help you there.)

Plot 3/5:
    For those of you who don’t know the series, the Princess Maker games revolve around a parent (almost always the father), who is given a daughter to raise.
    So what can PM2 due to spice it up? Well, you’re a wandering swordsman, who apparently has nothing better to do than wander around (who would of guessed?) aimlessly looking for fights, because you come upon an evil demon lord destroying a kingdom. Score! So you defeat the evil demon, who then tells you that his destruction was divinely ordained (maybe beating him up wasn’t such a good idea…?), oh, and that he killed only idiots. So the King and Queen mope to you a while about what jerks they are for leading their country astray morally, and offer the swordsman a monthly salary and home in the capital.

    This all seems like a ridiculously cheap trade-off until the gods decide to give you a gift for all your hard work! That is, a girl! Oh, wait, she’s your daughter, and you get to care for her. She’s entirely innocent and “knows nothing of the impure world of mortals”. Time to get to corrupting her then! Or, you know, I guess we could raise her to be a good little girl...
    Her name is Olive, and it is up to the player to decide upon her life (aspects such as schooling, work, adventuring, vacations, etc.), and then after she has reached her 18th birthday, how well you have done raising her is evaluated. Her heavenly origins only play out in the beginning and the end, when her deity comes to you and evaluates how well you did (which can result in some amusing “what the hell player?!” moments, both from your daughter’s resident deity and Olive herself).
    While there isn’t much of a plot per say, your task is to simply raise her, the game leaves it entirely open ended in what she does. Her moral choices, schooling, activities, and love life is entirely up to the player, resulting in a whopping 75 (or so) available endings!

Dating-Sim Aspect 2.5/5:
    Admittedly the dating simulation aspect f the game is rather low (even if to get Olive to be the princess from the title, you have to marry the prince), however it’s still quite a fun aspect to the game, even if you don’t actively pursue it. Who she marries depends on several factors, most notably her skill set, and some other factors for some.
   
Bachelors:
    There are several special bachelors that Olive can marry, as well as several general romantic roles she can fall into such as merchant’s wife, farmer’s wife, millionaire’s wife, divorcee, (high class) prostitute, Queen by marriage, and King’s concubine (he sure seems to be living that repentant life).

The Young Officer is very hard to woo, as he is only present in the palace each year on January 31st. However, while talking to him is free of requirements, his status requires his wife to have a high social reputation. (Nothing suspicious here, move along now, move along...)

The Dragon Prince is a young dragon that can be encountered when Olive is out adventuring, and if she defeats him a few times, she can eventually be proposed to by said dragon (can we say love at first punch?), who is actually royalty (and was for some reason on guard duty?), and his grandfather will pay a nice dowry of 10,000 gold. She acts quite unhappy at first, but later will grow fond of the childish prince.

Cube may be shocked one day to discover that the reason Olive never left to marry when she turned 18 was because she in fact had fallen for your all-around-good-guy demon butler! (The chance for this skyrockets if she looses a fight with he bandits and Cube rescues her.) Cube is quite nervous to marry his master's daughter, but happy.

You (the Father) can even be proposed marriage by her. (Well… She is technically your adopted daughter.) This is squick fuel for many, but Olive can confess her love for “dear old dad” as well if the two of you are close. Everyone will admit this is quite unusual, but the gods will give you their blessings for the sake of her happiness.

Lucifon, that’s right, the demon you defeated back in the day, can also marry your daughter. Of course, she has to essentially be corrupted to marry him… The gods are not happy, but there isn’t a lot they can do about it, since she’s the Princess of Darkness and all.




Graphics/Artwork 4.5/5:
    For a DOS game from 1993, the artwork is highly detailed and charming. The animated sprites for activities are done smoothly, and the monsters when Olive goes out adventuring are unique and colorful. The characters all look distinct, and overall the scenery is well done.
    For Princess Maker 2 Refine, the art was all gone over and redone, making it smoother and more realistic as computers (and the PS2) could handle higher graphic capabilities. It’s still nothing special by modern standards, but is a nice spiff-up for fans of the original game.
    The fact that each of the endings gets their own portrait of Olive, then her wedding portraits, each of the townsfolk, the monsters, the various outfits she has (plus Olive herself looks different every two years she ages, not to mention the moods for said ages), amounts to a ton of artwork that even Visual Novel games made today don’t often even try to match.
    Here are some screen comparisons so you can decide which game has better artwork:

Left: Original, Right: Refine

Voice Acting None/4/5:
    The Refine edition, however, is fully voice acted, and has an impressive cast to boot. The voices are impressive, and overall the lines are read with a great amount of feeling. I can’t say if the voice actors in this game are famous, but I do know in later games they are (such as in Princess Maker 4) so if you pride yourself on Japanese voice actor knowledge, you may recognize some of the cast. Cube’s voice is particularly well done.

Music 3/5:
    The music in Princess Maker 2 is fitting, but nothing very special. It has several unique sounds and themes, and the battle and adventure music is especially nice. It is, by no means, bad, and the tunes don’t get repetitive, but it’s not something particularly deserving of a soundtrack, unless you were a very intense fan. The battle music in particular is very catchy.

Translation 5/5:
    The translation for the DOS game was excellent, so it’s truly a shame that it never got officially released. The dialogue is error free and conveys great emotion, and they did an excellent job of capturing the cast’s personalities. In addition there are several cheat codes added into the English game to make gameplay easier, or to test out the endings and get the various requirements of them.

Controls/Gameplay 5/5:
    Overall the gameplay is simple: you use various menus to assign tasks to your daughter for the month, such as schooling, work, vacation, adventuring, and such. These are then done throughout the month. The number of classes and work she can do is staggering, and each has a cute little animation routine of her doing the chores (complete with various slapstick mess ups).
    One of the best aspects of the game is the ability to shove your daughter out into the wilds!

Like this, but with bandits and demons and monsters!

    The adventure aspect is handled much like, well, an old adventure game; you take direct control of your daughter here and wander around, finding various treasures, traps, and monsters. Depending on if she fights physically or with magic, she will level up in that skill, and combat is done in a turn based style. The monsters are all various and colorful, and the number of interactions per map is no small amount, giving the player many reasons to revisit the four available areas.
   
Overall:
    Princess Maker 2 has overall become a herald of the Princess Maker series among English speaking fans, despite the fact that there have been 6 main games (1, 2, 3/Fairy Tales come True, 4, 5, and Legend From Another World), as well as several spin-offs, both official (Go!Go! Princess, Pocket Daisakusen, Princess Maker Q, Petite Princes Yucie) and unofficial (Prince Maker), and has truly been deserving of it’s spot. Even after playing other games, this one has a special place in the series, and many unique gameplay aspects that have since inspired many others.
    It’s a very unusual game hailing from older days, but nonetheless great fun for modern gamers, due to it’s unique style and the ability to go from lighthearted and heartwarming to affably evil, and a great combination of life simulation and adventure game.

P.S. “The Underworld really isn’t so bad.”