Saturday, January 31, 2009

Introduction to Princess Debut

I mentioned 'Princess Debut' after first reading reviews of it, but it was only yesterday that I finally obtained a copy of the game. I have no plans to write a guide for it but thought a little video introduction might be of interest to other fans of Harvest Moon as 'Princess Debut' offers some of the same components in terms of romance and different 'paths' based on your own responses to other characters in the game.

The basic premise of the game is that of entering another world through your wardrobe, as in 'The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe'. Here, however, your quest only potentially endangers your heart and not your life! When you exchange places with your counterpart in the 'Flower Kingdom', you only need to learn how to dance and then choose a partner for the Grand Ball from the Princes who oddly resemble your schoolmates in your own world.

There is a Practice Hall where you learn steps to various dances by tracing movements with your stylus. Encounters with the Princes and other situations are affected by your responses as you experience the 30 day period before the Ball.

Any one who enjoys the social interactions in Harvest Moon games will enjoy the flirtations in Princess Debut. It is NOT an action game, although you need to make the appropriate moves during dance practice and actual dance encounters with the Princes. What it is, essentially, is an Events-based Courtship game. So far, I am intrigued by it.

I think players will enjoy 'Princess Debut' if they RELAX and simply go with the flow... you can't expect too much and you cannot expect the game to be something other than a delightful exercise in Courtship.

I initially thought that the game resembled Island of Happiness by creating different paths based on your character's responses during Events. This is not the case. Evidently, events can occur on specific days if you go to a specific location and make the correct response that allows them to occur but there are no alternate events that are based on incorrect responses.

Here is the introduction to the game:



A few of the early encounters and events can be seen here:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I try to get it but they don't sell it on my country! On anyways, a friend went yesterday to Austin, Texas, and she'll look for it for me.
Have you thought who'll be your prince? Mine will definetely be Vince! On other files, it might be Luciano~

Freyashawk said...

How sad that you can't buy it where you live. It's a very sweet game actually. I read reviews where players complained that it was too 'easy' but that's really not what it is about, in my view. It is all about social interactions and watching events unfold. Vince asked to be my partner four days into the game, because I tried not to react too strongly to his awful pranks. It was rather sweet as well. He brought a blue thread which he wished to tie round my finger... I refused though, because I felt it was too early in the game. Sad to say, Kip pushes hard for you to choose a partner before the first Dance Competition. I chose Liam, although I could have had Vince, Liam or even Cesar, whose Walnut partner will stand him up if you express the slightest amount of regret that he didn't ask you first.

I think the trick to this game is to simply go through it once in order to unlock options. It shouldn't matter who one chooses really the first time round. One of the princes does not even appear until you have 'cleared' the game...

Freyashawk said...

Later: Well, I replayed the first Dance Competition on another file and I am glad I did. Instead of accepting Liam, I evaded first Vince, then Liam, and finally Cesar, braving Kip's disapproval and asking the Rabbit Tony to partner me instead of going through the dance with any of the Princes.
Luciano appeared AFTERWARDS to speak to me and I had the opportunity to ask him to be my partner. When I told him I wanted to be his partner because he was the best, he actually agreed to do it.

It is rather intriguing. The next morning, I thought it would be best to go immediately to the Practice Hall rather than visiting the Flower Expo. Luciano arrived late, began to dance and then stopped abruptly, telling me I was rubbish at it and that there was no point in continuing...

It became a very traditional 'teacher/student' interaction where the unworthy student pleads with the Master to be accepted, despite everything. I begged him to reconsider, wept copiously and finally persuaded him to continue. His love percentage has been at 100% since he agreed to partner me. If I had accepted any other partner, the percentage of Liam or Vince would have been a little more than 83%. I was surprised at how fast Luciano's love percentage increased in comparison.