Reviews VisualNovel / Princess Waltz

A few flaws, but worth reading.

The main page for this game is full of positive recommendations and details of all the Badass moments so I figured I'd go over the negative first:

• As far as the story goes, it's kind of sad that they did not include Multiple Endings. That one choice at the end doesn't really count because you're really only picking which H-scene you'll see before the game goes on to its inevitable (admittedly pretty awesome) conclusion. I guess I'm just used to a little more choice out of these visual novels than "Which girl do you want to give a few more lines to?". Though they might have just set themselves up for an easy anime adaptation, no Road Cones needed.
• The battle engine is touted in the examples as "worthy of being its own game"... Well, yes and no. In its current form, the card battles are heavily stacked against the computer. The one battle that was any diffucult was against Angela near the very beginning. Since the numbers dealt are determined by Card Levels, and every enemy gives you more points to dump into these, each battle is easier than the last. There are literally no challenges after you face Angela. The other monsters are almost never higher or even equal to your level. The most glaring mistake (probably intentional - the game is much more concerned with advancing the plot) is letting the player see the field color of the enemy's play: this guarantees anyone with a basic grasp of Elemental Rock Paper Scissors will win effortlessly. So it could be a standalone game, with a lot of tweaking for fairness. It doesn't fit well in the novel, because halfway through the game throws out all your hard earned stats and hands you a new set every other fight. And then to top it all they cut short the last boss fight for the sake of finishing him on autopilot.

Most of my nitpicks were on those two issues. Everything else is pretty much what the wiki would have you believe; awesome battles (a bit disappointing they didn't illustrate any mid-battle CG scenes), awesome music to go with the battles, and a plot that left me wondering a lot of things about the backstory of this fantasy world "Eldhiland", and hoping, probably in vain, for a sequel to further explore it.

I definitely recommend it, but don't expect too much from the interactive side.