A long, long time ago, I got addicted to a game called Princess Maker. It was a game on MS-DOS of all things. You can now play a better version of that game on steam called Princess Maker 2 that will run on newer computers, but it used to be a game I spent a lot of time on. When I heard that Long Live the Queen was being ported to the console, and I got curious about the game.
The basic premise sounds familiar, you raise a daughter to become the queen of the land, and you have to make sure you teach her all that she needs to know and to make choices that could affect the future of the land. What I did not expect was how much more challenging this version was. Let’s take a look together at Hanako Games Long Live the Queen.
Game Name: Long Live The Queen
Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), PS4, Xbox One
Publisher(s): Ratalaika Games
Developer(s): Hanako Games
Release Date: November 8th, 2013, July 15th, 2022
Price: $9.99
The Challenge of Parenting
The game begins with the death of Elodie’s mother, the Queen. Which this act, the responsibility of raising the daughter now falls to the King. This also means that the daughter is now the sole inheritor of the land. You get access to a great variety of classes to take her to. Social, Expression, History, and Faith are just a few of the categories of classes you can have her take for a week. These classes are what give her experience. I will go into further depth in the later paragraphs but note that having a viable amount of everything helps quite a bit in the long run, even if it doesn’t always help at the start of the game. Things can randomly happen during the weeks, your cousin gets bit by a snake, or Elodie can get kidnapped from a carriage ride. A ton of outside sources change the importance of each stat. I think the randomness element is what really makes it difficult for first-time playthroughs. That was also the thing that would frustrate me of dying and having to either begin a new run entirely or choose a new choice.
Expression
You start out the game by getting an intense tutorial that helps explain the primary week’s preparations. Elodie has a mood menu that shows where she is, emotionally. She can express several emotions, such as being lonely, depressed, willful, or other states. She can study things efficiently or hard, depending on her mood. It is wise to check her mood and the perks of that mood. If she is depressed, she has better times doing creative things such as decorating or the arts.
After the week is through, events can happen that furthers the story or requires you to make a choice as Elodie. If you make a bad choice, it can result in a tougher week to come… or even having Elodie getting killed, making you restart the game or load the game from a save spot. That is one thing you need to know. Save…Save…Save! This game has no autosave, so if you don’t remember to save on your own, you will be forced to restart the game after each death. Honestly, there’s no reason for an auto-save to have been implemented. This game gets ruthless, and an auto-save would have saved me some grief.
Why is this game ruthless? Because it has a lot of stat checks during the events that happen at the end of the weeks. You need good reflexes, posture, elegance, accounting, or public speaking skills. It isn’t random it is all meant for you to learn and understand the gravity of your choices. Knowing the skill checks, you can focus on subsequent playthroughs since the events are not randomized. The story itself is quite linear, with the only deviations being that the choices you make change how events play out and the skill checks that occur.
Decoration
The graphics on this game are all hand-drawn artwork, and it looks pretty good. There isn’t anything super that stands out of Long Live the Queen, but it doesn’t need to. The characters have a lot of personality on their faces, and Elodie herself shows the various phases of her mood really well with how her face is drawn. They also put a lot of emphasis on changing how Elodie looks in the various outfits she gets throughout the game. Whenever you get a full category to at least 30 points or more, she will get a new outfit to wear. Each outfit looks really good that I unlocked. Very unique to the character and art of Elodie. I Highly recommend getting categories to 30 just so you can see new outfits.
Elegance
I want to talk about the absolute best part of this game – It has touch screen controls! I feel like developers utilize the touch screen less and less with titles, even Pokemon Unite… Which has a layout that screams touch screen, but has no touch screen controls. Being able to tap on the menus and look and speed run my classes without having to touch my directional pad is fantastic! Playing this game felt so nice with the touch screen controls and shows how more developers need to at least have menus use touch screen controls. Dying and then getting to load to a different spot to try a different class assortment and trying a new choice flies by with this control scheme.
This game isn’t very intensive, and it runs incredibly smooth on the Nintendo Switch. I think of the console ports, I would recommend the Nintendo Switch version just for the touch screen controls alone. The PC is faster at making saves with hotkeys and all, but touch screen controls make it also really fast just to go to the menu and save the game.
Presentation
This game may not be for everyone, especially those who want a lot of action in their life. Long Live the Queen, is an excellent game focused on strategy and simulation. You may never be a princess growing up to take the crown from your father in a fantasy land, but now you can get closer to the experience with this entry on the Nintendo Switch. Maybe you just want to experience helping a 14-year-old girl grow into the queen she needs to be. Either way, this game has a lot of content and replayability.
Review Disclosure Statement: Long Live the Queen was provided to us by Ratalaika Games for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please go review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
Affiliate Link Disclosure: One or more of the links above contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, we may receive a commission should you click through and purchase the item.
Long Live the Queen is available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Summary
Long Live the Queen is a fun strategy simulator game that adds a fun amount of replayability. It is challenging as a simulator but doesn’t feel unforgiving as it gives you plenty of aid in establishing the route you want to go.
Pros
- Challenging but satisfying
- Touch Screen controls make it super fast-paced on Nintendo Switch
- Fantastic hand-drawn artwork
- Interesting political stories and world building
Cons
- The first playthrough can feel unfair
- No auto-save
