The fourth of the Princess Maker games by Studio Gainax.
The kingdom had perfected magic through the use of sage stones, allowing alchemists and magicians to create amazing inventions. And the greed of humans caused them to start making money by harvesting these sage stones, which could only be mined from the Demon Realm that was deep within the forest. With a torrent of humans pouring into the Demon Realm, the Demon Lord retaliated with war.
The humans were losing, until a hero stepped up and headed into the Demon Realm itself to convince the Demon Lord to stop. That hero's name was Isabelle, and her efforts caused the war to stop and the kingdom to be saved, though she disappeared.
Desperate to find this lost hero, the king ordered a group of people into the Demon Realm in hopes of finding Isabelle. Among the group was a fellow friend and soldier of hers, who had fought alongside her.Unsuccessful as they were at finding Isabelle, this friend kept searching for her until he stumbled upon an oasis in the Demon Realm and saw Isabelle with a demon youth and a young child. Isabelle told her friend to take the child and raise her in the human realm, wanting her to enjoy a normal life as a human.
This entry in the series was a joint effort between Gainax and GeneX, and was produced solely by GeneX. The art was also not done by Takami Akai, but instead by Tenhiro Naoto. This installment also lacks the Errantry aspect of the game and focuses only on the simulation of raising a daughter.
It was originally released on the PS2 in 2005, with an updated PC version released in 2006 and adding some more endings. There is also a PSP version that was released in 2006, with a Nintendo DS port brought out in 2008. It's currently the only Princess Maker game that has no official English release.
Princess Maker 4 contains the following Tropes
- Canon Name: The daughter is called Patricia Halliwell in manuals, revealing not only her first name, but also the last name of the player character.
- Diabolus ex Machina: There's an uprising of battles between humans and demons during the fourth year, indicating that war is going to break out between the two realms again, if the player has fulfilled the requirement for this to occur.
- Evil Costume Switch: If Patricia becomes rebellious, she automatically switches into dark clothes with rips and chains.
- Golden Ending: The aptly-named True Heroine ending, which is also stated to be the canon ending of the game. It's the most difficult to obtain because it requires balancing the parameters, while also getting many events. It leads to Patricia reuniting with her mother, learning her true heritage, and having the kingdom stop using the Sage Stones, which allows Isabelle to return to the human world. The epilogue always mentions that peace has been brought to the Human and Demon Realm.
- Guide Dang It!: This game is particularly bad with it, as it has a lot of events that influence how the game can go, and how much plot background gets made of. It's all but required to use a guide when opting for certain endings, just to know how to get the events needed.
- Inevitable Tournament: Occurs in October every year, with Patricia able to participate in the Combat Tournament, Art Festival, or Dance Competition.
- Interspecies Romance: Patricia can get married to the Demon butler Cube, the Prince of the Demons Baroa, and the Prince of Dragons Lee.
- Lesbian Option: Patricia can end up with one of her female friends in the game. It's mostly referred to as them being Best Friends.
- Multiple Endings: Tons of them. And several of them can have epilogues attached to them, informing the player how things proceeded with the second wave of war.
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Nintendo Hard: Getting the True Heroine ending, which is stated to be the canon ending for the game. It requires a very fine balance between increasing Patricia's parameters, while ensuring that she has enough events with each of the three princes, make sure to view a certain B Version of the Merchant's Ship event, and complete the Mother's Song sidequest, as well as having her find out about her true heritage! The only upside is that unlocking Ket Shi's store can help with the parameters in exchange for a lot of money, but good luck unlocking that. - Relationship Values: Imporant to get closer to the princes or the girls.
- Tamer and Chaster: The game is noticeably less raunchy in several aspects, with there being no endings like Patricia becoming a prostitute or clothes that are inappropriate on a young girl. This is due to Tenhiro Naoto's dislike of sexualizing his female characters.
