Can you survive long enough to reach your coronation?
Being a Princess is not an easy job. Being a Queen is even harder. Especially when you’re only fourteen years old, and the reason you’ve inherited the throne is that your royal mother has just met an untimely end. Now power is up for grabs. You may be the official heir, but much of the country’s nobility would love to steal the throne for themselves. Aggressive neighbours will take advantage of any weakness to enlarge their borders at your expense. And that’s not even mentioning the magical dangers which are lying in wait…
The original PC version of Long Live The Queen came out in 2012, so it’s a bit of a mystery as to why after a decade it has finally hit consoles, but regardless let’s see if this monarchy is worth saving…
Long Live The Queen plays out like a traditional visual novel but with a twist. You will need to make choices such as what lessons the Princess learns, which gives her stats towards them when it comes to more dramatic choices down the line. You’ll also need to maintain her mood as she begins the game depressed after her mother’s death, so keeping her in a good mood is the best way forward and gives you boosts to skills depending on what sort of path you want her to take.
Ultimately, the game has a number of different endings, and these can vary from who she marries, her father’s fate, how she deals with other nations and whether she even survives, so chances are you may do badly during your first playthrough but with enough work you can get the ending you want her to have. It’s a much darker game than it looks in this regard and it definitely makes a nice change of pace.
The visuals are simple but get the job done, while the interface does a good job overall. Load times are more or less non-existent and the soundtrack isn’t too bad either.
The Verdict
Getting the ending you want for Princess Elodie isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish, but Long Live The Queen gives you enough to warrant at least a second or third playthrough to achieve it. Definitely a nice twist on the visual novel and strategy genres.