Princess Arthur Otome Game Review

This is a pretty old game, and I got interested in it because of the art, and others mentioned it in comparison to Senjou Waltz. Honestly, though this game had a gold rating, and Senjou a silver rating, I think Senjou did better. I’m ambivalent though, because the content of this game is a bit more interesting then Senjou, and the heroine actually did kill someone, but there is too much lacking in this game to match up to its gold rating.

For one, In many ways, the writing for this medieval-set war game was pretty bad. I mean, coffee and hot dogs at the military camp site? Come on. The fact that they threw many elements of modernism was not the problem of the game (Well, not the main problem anyway) but the way they try to market the heroine as a good ‘King’ when all she did was accidentally touch her bro trying to pull out Excalibur and pep talk the guys ocassionally. I’m serious. She’s a puppet king, no doubt, but none of the knights care because she’s “cute”. Oh yeah Kawaii is the only way to win.

Second, the romance in the game is way too random, except for 2 routes, where it was either the guy fell in love at first sight, or the heroine Arl fell in love at first sight. Though there were some scenes for romance such as going on picnics and the festival, there were also others like Lancelot and Tristan whose routes made me wonder about when they even started noticing her. Although I do like how sometimes the intentions of the guys are not obvious at all since relationships are complicated that way, it might help to have a view from the guys’ POV, or proper reasons why they fell in love with her. I.e, not because she wore a sexy dancer outfit or because she’s kind. -__-

The game is incredibly similar to Senjou Waltz though, or should I say Senjou is similar to this game, considering release date) with the characters saying some similar things to what I remember the guys in Senjou saying, and also the use of CGs and especially the way the heroine is set out to overcome murmurings against her. Essentially as in SenjouWaltz, anyone who gives the heroine a hard time is eliminated. ‘Tis a happy world.

Yet, because Senjou Waltz’s setting is an alternate universe in a military school, there are many more things I can forgive that game for than for Princess Arthur whose tone requests for more seriousness on the part of everyone, which absolutely did not happen. P.A’s guys are like “Huh a new king who is a girl? meh.” But on seeing her face/getup in close-to-nothing clothes, “Oh yeah babeh. Female King FTW.” That’s the game for you. The team for both games are the same, which is not surprising that you can say that Senjou is essentially a PSV port of Princess Arthur, with a little of the contents and settings changed. There was a Chronicle system but it didn’t work at all except to revisit scenes. A tad useless.

As with Senjou Waltz, I would prefer the heroine’s best friend to be the heroine instead, since in both games, the best friend is a considerably stronger character and definitely more suited for war-related otome games like this. But unfortunately, Japan thinks that the weak, cutesy infantile girl is always the one who should get the man, and so here we have the heroine Arl thrown into the Round Table of Knights(who all have no girlfriends, haha)

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Storyline aside, the characters are all really interesting, with Gawain and Mordret my favourites because of the extreme blushy cuteness by Gawain and the teasing sexy voice of Hosoyan as Mordret.

The CGs were quite nice, with a few kabe-dons and a few floor-dons and kisses by them sexies.

I couldn’t find any nice CGs for Lancelot, and his route was a pity because he was the main guy, and yet there were unanswered questions about the mark on his arm and who Nimue was to him. And as I mentioned, it was a totally random romance between him and Arl since he never once blushed or anything. It’s an Otome game so we all like to see the guys blushing right?! Lancelot was sexy though, voiced by Ono Yuuki, and if they had probably explored the complications between him as a knight to Guineviere and his loyalty/love for Arl, it would have been so much better a game.

Galahad was a pity too. With him as a cold pretty boy from the priestly house or something like that, I expected some nice family trouble/shota love but I got neither. What I got was a pain-in-the-neck tsundere that was too much to handle. (I hope Prince of Stride will utilise Okamoto San’s low voice better!!)

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The finale in Merlin’s route revealed that Morgause loved her younger brother Uzel who was the previous king, and though it wasn’t a tad ambiguous, Uzel loved Guineviere who couldn’t believe his love, and in turn Uzel (may have?) had incest with Morgause and then gave birth to Merdraut. I skipped the whole drama with Morgause and Merdraut in Galhad’s route so I’m not really sure, but in the Arthurian legend, something of the sort seemed to have happened. Well who cares. (;´･ω･)

Other than Gawain’s route being one of the cutest I’ve ever played (There weren’t many instances I stopped grinning), PA is a game that I would overall NOT recommend if you’ve already played Senjou Waltz, but was pretty entertaining as a filler game and a good channel to remind myself that Otomate games were pretty bad in those days.

Once again, thank goodness for better heroines and the PSVita!