Written by Faizxero, edited by Otaku Apologist
Princess Waltz is a visual novel developed by Pulltop. Localized in English by JAST USA. You play as Fukumori Arata, a classically dense protagonist, who meets the new transfer student, Chris Northfield, a fucking prince. After school, on the first day, he runs into you and drops a ring. You try it on, because of course that’s normal right? WRONG!! Putting on that ring transports you to an alternate dimension where monsters called Guardeners, who think you’re tasty, roam. You find Chris in the Dimension, and after a tense battle, the two of you are forced to combine with your rings and turn into Iris, the princess of the sword. From here, your adventure begins. You meet the other 5 princesses, each of whom you get to fuck later. The tasty girls battling each other and to be the last one standing, to marry Chris.
The art in Princess Waltz is good, lined to a point where you really notice each person when they’re in front of you. Seriously, look at Suzushiro’s eyebrows and eyes, they stare into your very soul. These characters aren’t static either, they flip, slip and slide, look straight at you, literally eye to eye in some cases. It’s not just 2 or 3 characters standing next to each other with text; the characters in Princess Waltz move. They are alive. There are a few animated scenes too!
Princess Waltz’s music is absolutely top notch. Just opening the game gives you an epic, awesome song that just sticks with you. There’s never a tune out of mood or place in the game. Sad scene? You get music that reminds you of that time you poured milk before cereal. Boss battle? The music lets you re-experience that one time where you had a dramatic argument, and 30 minutes later, you realized you could have said a ton of better stuff. Yeah. It’s that good.
Even the sound effects are really well made. Sword fights actually sound like sword fights. Monsters sound like they’re constipated. The only thing I would make note of is that Guardeners almost all have the same roar, so when an “Elite Guardener” comes out and gives the same roar as the first one you heard, it underwhelms its impact. Otherwise, the sound is very good. Voice acting is on point. Although normal lines have the normal voices, the voice acting really shines in depressing scenes. All those small sobs and quiet words are just sick. There aren’t any annoying or over the top anime voices – thankfully!
One thing that made the game unique was the card battles you have later on in the story. These are a major letdown, because there isn’t a tutorial at all. I spent the first 3 battles having absolutely no idea what was going on, until I found the help button in the bottom right. After that, it got more intense. It’s a relatively simple mini game that involves both skill and luck to some degree.
You get two difficulty settings before each battle: Easy and Normal. Choose Easy if you want to just demolish the baddie and get on with the story, or Normal if you want a bigger challenge. The music is the same for all card battles, and gets repetitive near the end. The battles get longer later on, at which point the music may start to piss you off, tilting you further and making battles even longer. It’s a vicious cycle.
The sex scenes: these are frankly pretty long, and some are too long to be necessary. Some of them are even longer than the battle scenes, with up to 5 other characters chiming in for the fuck of it. The music fits the atmosphere extremely well. There’s a shit ton of reading that’s offset by the amount of sexy moaning every other line. Overall, it’s good, but too long.
The first sex scene comes (teehee) in chapter 10, which is a pretty big investment. You don’t play this game just for the fap material, though. You play it to appreciate everything else it offers. Before chapter 10, the only fap material you get is the occasional nipple, and that’s it. After chapter 10, there’s another sex scene in chapter 11, and then no more hubba bubba until chapter 19. But, depending on the choices you make in chapter 17, you can have sex with 5 different girls, so there’s that. Of course, this is the only thing that gives the game any replayability.
Just one hint if you play this game: Let the credits roll. You’ll know what I mean.
Should you play this game? Abso-fucking-lutely. Everything from art, to music, to sound effects, to voice acting, are all top notch, and had a ton of effort put into them. Literally the only two things to complain about are the card battle for not having an explanation of its system, and long ass sex scenes. However, these are the only two cons in a list full of pros. Download at JLIST or JAST USA.
