Princess Debut

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!
Even if you don't have a special someone, enjoy the half priced chocolate tomorrow.


Anyway, games directed at females, and because it's Valentines day what better than a game about Romance?

From the title of the blog, you can guess I am talking about Princess Debut for the Nintendo DS. This game comes to us from Natsume, the creator of my favorite game series Harvest Moon. This game thoughg doesn't have anything to do with farming, it's about ball room dancing.

Hot anime style boys and ball room dancing, two things girl love. Plus add repetitive and easy gameplay  that I couldn't put down and HAD to finish every single story plot.

Before I continue, I would never had played this game if it wasn't for my life twin! (You know who you are) and this is dedicated to her! <3


So with this game, I think I got rapped up in my own fantasies of falling in love with a prince. Is is beccause this game mostly playes like a dating game. There is a different boy for any type of guy your into.


Vince- The blond innocent boyish type.

Cesar-The romantic womanizer type.

Luciano- The mysterious type, or the bad boy of ball room dancing.
Keifer-The "cool" guy
Klaus- The popular boy that all the girls want to get with
Liam- The quiet, romantic type that loves his sister and flowers.

See a guy for every type. So, there is a replay value so you can play it multipal times to get all the endings. There are even guys that you cannot get until you play through once.

So the story,
You are an average teenage girl who is bored with her life and wishes for a prince to come and take her away. You know every girls fantasy. Well low and behold a princess comes flying out of your closet, Ironically you look exactly alike. Through more dialogue you discover that she has to prepare to dance at the ball for her kingdom, but she doesn't have the skill to dance. So she sends you in her place.
Also, the princess has an adviser named Kip that knows your secret, and acts as a guide for the game.

So the a story of mistaken identity and switching places. We all know how this story is going to end!

So this part of the story you discover the game play. The only thing you do in this game besides talk to people, is dance. Your first lesson is with a magical rabbit, named Tony who acts as your dance partner if you don't have one. You can also have an ending with him if you decided to not have a partner with any of the princes.
Speaking of endings, it would take FOREVER for me to go threw each of the partners endings. If you want to discover all of the endings, okay the game yourself or check out a Lets Play on Youtube.

So gameplay! If you want to call tracing a line to the beat of public domain music. That's it. You keep replaying the same songs over and over, to gain experience and new songs or dresses.

If you wanted to make this a dating game, make a dating game. Why the same dancing game plays over and over? If you wanted the dancing aspect then that's fine, but make it like DDR or something? I enjoyed the game for the fantasy dating game aspect, I just felt forced to do the same things over and over.
There are basic rpg elements, you improve your dance by playing more difficult of songs. That really doesn't matter in the long run though. It's all about your accuracy. You can have high stats, but if you screw up on making your little frowny face, you get a bad score. There are rhythm games for the DS that are fun. Elite Beat Agents is one of the more, if not most, popular games for the DS. It's described as having great and entertaining graphics and fun gameplay. There is verity, and a feeling of more accomplished other than getting gifts from your potential man.

That's really all there is to this game. Find a prince you like, befriend him. Win the dance competition and get married.
The whole liar reveled plot comes about at the ending competition, and depending if you win or not is the factor on if the prince marries you or you go back home.
The whole gameplay is seeing the story unfold with the different boys and picking the right dialogue to woo him.

My favorite story was Luciano. His story is the hardest to finish, and I felt like I had achieved the most. He besides being the "bad boy" is the childhood friend who is also the best at dancing. He even leaves during the story plot, and if you didn't know that he comes back for the finale, you would lose all your hard work by picking another partner.

So what does this say for female games. That we don't need to have engaging game play to keep us interested? We just need pretty boys and dresses and true love! I shouldn't say anything though because I myself did play this game. I don't think so. I played this game because I like dating games, and that's what this game feels like to me, a dating game.
I wish for a hybrid of a dating game with a good rhythm game. I don't think my wish will be answered, but I am hopeful!
 If Natsume can do anything well, it's create characters that girls can find attractive.That is what brings people back to their games, they create simple characters that anyone can get attached too.
 This was something new that they were experimenting with. I guess if failed, because I haven't seen something similar from them.

Well that's post number two down! Just in time for Valentines Day! Have a great day!
And May the Stars Guide You! *Hoshi


PS. Any name ideas? Please?