YMMV / Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem

• Awesome Music: Stop playing at any time, minimize the window and just listen to the OST. Chances are good that what you hear will blow you away. And it's all royalty-free public domain music!
• Base-Breaking Character: As much as the Adorable Army breaks over anything: some people hope that they'll be able to change Jarrod with their love, while others decry that mindset as one that keeps women in abusive relationships in Real Life and think he's getting a Draco in Leather Pants treatment. Yet others hope to put a knife in his back, or are simply astounded that he's as popular as he is.
  • Not so much the character themself, but Lisle's route comes across to some as an Esoteric Happy Ending; While the friendship path has nearly as much content as any Matchmaker approved romance, many fans wish they could set something up for them to be happy with another man. Others think that is putting too much emphasis on the need to have love and sex to be happy, and that plenty of historical kings have had to Lie Back and Think of England to ensure the stability of their country, so being married to a trusted friend is one of the best outcomes he could have. Muddying matters further, Aly herself pointed out that he doesn't have to totally forgo having a lover, that's his choice.
  • While the character himself is very well-loved, many people dislike how snarky and combative the MC is with Zarad; Aly claims that this is because 'only a certain type of character will be able to romance Zarad' but in reality, he's nearly mandatory to befriend (which entails going on a few dates) if you want the best results on the trial, and probably also your personal plot.^note Only the Countess and Pirate backgrounds are likely to be able to pass the trial perfectly without him, and he's involved in a staggering 4 out of 6 personal plots, one of which is the Pirate's. One of them admittedly doesn't need high friendship, and another has Cordelia as an alternate option, but as an official LI there are many more opportunities to raise friendship with Zarad than Cordelia.
• Breather Level: There are two weeks that stand out as being such thus far and ironically, both have a chance for your character to be Killed Off for Real.
  • Week 2: Only three possible invitations to the previous week's nine, and plenty of time until the second Matchmaker interview; even with the group ride and boat race taking place, it's the week with the most free time until...
  • Week 5: After all the effort required to get a perfect result at the end of Week 4 and before the bustle of the ambassadors arriving and the last week to level skills in 6, the theatrical at the end of week 5 doesn't require the use of timeslots to prepare, nor do the friendship dates, and you can still get a perfect result even if one or two things go wrong.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: All over the place, given the setting and the theme of the game being "the struggles and dilemmas and limits placed on the women in stereotypical feminine roles in historical fantasy/medieval politics".
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Of the origins, Arland Princess and Revaire Widow have a lot of people gushing over them. Jiyel Scholar and Corval Court Lady are also well-liked due to offering more flexibility in terms of personality.
  • Of the romances, many people admit to making a character planning to pair them with someone in particular, but then ending up with Zarad. Clarmont is also very well-liked, and Gisette may be the most popular female Love Interest.
  • Finally, if you see a mixed-nationality MC, odds are the parent that isn't from the country she's representing will be from Revaire, Wellin, or sometime Jiyel.
• Fanfic Fuel: The Jiyel scholar's poisoning and her Love Interest's reaction, the concept of all the playable origins being at the Summit, any of the stories the MC tells Clarmont in his Week 1 date, Constance meeting Aamir at the last Summit...
• Fan Nickname: Jarrod is often called "Jarrude," for obvious reasons. Grand Duke Woodly is popularly known as "Stranger Danger."
  • On a more meta level, a character who befriends everyone, gets all secret chains, and passes every challenge with at least a good result, if not perfect, is called a "Superdelegate".
  • The Hise Pirate MC's kidnapped Wellish nobleman father is also often called Wellindad.
• Fanon: Zarad gained a llama through the artist's chibis.
  • Though the time between the Emperor's marriages is not known, Zarad's interview states he has no full siblings and given the age differences involved, it's assumed that Aamir and the second prince are by the Empress, Zarad by the second wife, and Sina the third.
  • The Revaire Widow being very attached to her younger siblings and wanting them to have a better life than she did is a common fan interpretation, especially for Ethical Widows.
  • Though it's never explained how a Grand Duke is different from a regular Duke, most people like to make Woodly the the younger brother of the current king of Wellin, and thus uncle of Lisle and Penelope, based on how such titles worked in Real Life.
• Foe Yay Shipping: There are a truly surprising number of people asking after a Blain route.
  • A relationship with Gisette might also fall into this, given her attempt on your life happens even if she loves you. Fans joke that murder is one of her love languages.
• Friendly Fandoms: There is a lot of overlap between fans of this game and of Long Live the Queen, as they both appeal to people who enjoy female protagonists, political machinations, potential assassinations, and optional romance.
• Game-Breaker: Persuasion is far and away the most useful cumulative and it's rare to be able to sub in something else for it to pass a check. (In fact, you can bypass a couple of specific Likability checks with Persuasion) Therefore, most guides for the game focus on raising Persuasion as quickly as humanly possible, to the detriment of people who would like to be successful with other kinds of builds.
• Memetic Bystander: The player base occasionally wishes that the unnamed stable boy who saves the MC from the falling balcony was romanceable. They have also decided that he is the same stable boy who gives the player the hint about the missing horse in week 4 and wanted to poison Jarrod and Gisette, meaning he's part of La Résistance.
• Memetic Mutation: Thanks to his stringent requirements and general tendency to hide from social interaction, pursuing Duke Lyon's romance is often referred to as "hunting/stalking the Lyon."
  • "Jarrude" for Prince Jarrod, for obvious reasons.
  • 7KPP stands for Seven Kingdoms Protect Penelope.
• Moe:
  • General consensus among the fandom is that if you're mean to Penelope, you're a monster and should feel terrible about yourself for the rest of your miserable life.
  • Imogen in week 4 is also an example, and in fact, you can use that to your advantage while defending her in the trial, by explaining to the jury that Imogen is too sweet-natured to be capable of murdering Lord Adalric.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The "bling!" that plays when you pass a skill check, especially when you hear several in a row, such as during your second (or even your first) Matchmaker interview and the theatrical.
• Narm: Getting a threatening letter is never a good thing. But the fact that, in the Tomboy Countess route, the one threatening you childishly refers to you as the Countess of Horrid? Even if they're serious, it does detract a bit from their threats...
• Occam's Razor: The trial. With the victim being from Revaire, most people guessed Gisette had him offed somehow. Sure enough, she did, but finding out how is a Guide Dang It!.
• Purple Prose: Sure, you can click the menu options for blonde hair and blue eyes, but you can also write in that your MC has flaxen hair with sapphire eyes. It makes the Matchmaker's criticism of your looks sound weirdly flirtatious.
• Ship Mates: It's common for anyone not romancing Emmett to ship him with Penelope.
• Surprise Difficulty: Visual Novels are all about just picking the right dialogue options to make characters like you, right? Wrong, in Challenge Mode, building your character and planning your schedule requires near-surgical precision, and it's not all uncommon for players to document every single choice they made if they have a character that works well. Even in Story Mode, an inefficient build can lead to the player missing a lot of critical information.
• That One Achievement: There are a few that are very hard to obtain.
  • Dual Thorns and Sailing To Victory both rely on having very high romance with Hamin (except for the Hise MC, who doesn't need him for the latter), and the former requires equal romance with Zarad as well. As explained on the main page's Unintentionally Unwinnable entry, you need People skills to even pass Zarad's date, and if you don't, he's probably not going to rescue you. Alternatively, sometimes one has slightly less affection than the other and doesn't come, or the MC is just too self-sufficient and rescues herself, and yet other times the game just won't acknowledge that you've done everything right.
  • Marvelously Misjudged, in which the Matchmaker admits she was completely wrong about you: requires high friendship, respect, romance from everyone, high approval from the various factions, less than three stats below 50 (not counting manipulation, though if you have it above, it's another point in your favor), and probably some above 75.
  • Not Even Your Birthday: Hoo boy. For starters, it requires 75 manipulation (so Princess and Countess can't even get it) right out of the character creator to fool Gisette about your ethics and pass her event in Week 1, and you NEED to be ethical, else you will not be able to pass Lyon's event. You must also strain your already-very-limited free time (possibly your wallet too) in Week 1 even further to throw a successful Musicale for Woodly's gift. You need to have a certain amount of Interpersonal Insight to pass Avalie's Week 2 event, and you'll probably need to invite her to your Musicale and boat race team. Which you probably want to win, meaning you need Hamin and Cordelia if you aren't a pirate yourself. You must pick some specific dialogue choices for Mrs. White's gift, make absolutely sure you treat your maids well for their gifts, and also visit your room very early in the week for Jasper's.
  • Miracle Worker, requiring a universal acquittal in the trial. The trial is not hard to pass if you actually spend time preparing, but the achievement requires you to have trusted Jasper, witnessed a certain scene in Week 2, and then passed every single skill check during the investigation, including one against your total friendship with the named delegates. And even if you get the achievement, crafting your theory incorrectly still locks you out of the whole story.
• The Un-Twist: In the beginning, Jasper implores you to trust him, causing many players to doubt his intentions. He's completely loyal to the PC, and trusting him is absolutely the right decision if you want a perfect acquittal in the trial and the various stat boosts he gives you each week
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The Arland Princess used to be able to get manipulation in the character creator, despite the fact that she wasn't supposed to be able to. There are a few confused complaints littered about the creator's tumblr from people who were unable to recreate their high-manipulation princesses in later builds.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Many people wish that the player's personal plot touched into the main story more, particularly the Jiyel MC's poisoning and her Love Interest's reaction to it.

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