The Royal Trap
Feb. 24th, 2013 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI spent much of today playing The Royal Trap (EDIT: now known as Confines Of The Crown), the new game from Hanako games, creators of Magical Diary. It's been a lot of fun.
The game is set in a vaguely 17th century-ish pseudo-Europe notable mainly for being a matriarchy. Men have a moderate amount of power, but cannot inherit and must wait to be married off to a woman with land to support them. The main character, Madeleine, is a minor noble who acts as valet/bodyguard to the sweet young Prince Oscar. They are in a nearby kingdom with various other Princes vying for the hand of an eligible Princess...when THINGS HAPPEN and the player must choose who to trust/makeout with etc.
The structure is like Katawa Shoujo and a lot of other visual novels: Past a certain (clearly signposted) point the plot splits into one of at least four distinct paths, and each of these splits at the end into good, average and bad ends based on your past decisions. SAVE OFTEN. Most of the "good" ends require a romantic relationship with the relevant guy, but there's f/f friendship and romance options and nonromantic happy-ish endings.
I've done all the good ends (EDIT: Gaston path definitely grew on me :D :D) and they were all (a) sweet and (b) focussed more on finding stability for everyone the main character cares about than Twue Love.
Still a pretty heteronormative game, and everyone except the sly fey guy from pseudo-East-Asia and ambiguously brown pseudo-French maid is white. The way the game treats sex and gender is well meaning but may upset some people (ask me if you want details) But it's a story about a kickass woman dealing with a bunch of complicated crap, making out with cute boys (there are no f/f makeouts afaict ;_;), and deciding her own fate and I enjoyed it.
The game is set in a vaguely 17th century-ish pseudo-Europe notable mainly for being a matriarchy. Men have a moderate amount of power, but cannot inherit and must wait to be married off to a woman with land to support them. The main character, Madeleine, is a minor noble who acts as valet/bodyguard to the sweet young Prince Oscar. They are in a nearby kingdom with various other Princes vying for the hand of an eligible Princess...when THINGS HAPPEN and the player must choose who to trust/makeout with etc.
The structure is like Katawa Shoujo and a lot of other visual novels: Past a certain (clearly signposted) point the plot splits into one of at least four distinct paths, and each of these splits at the end into good, average and bad ends based on your past decisions. SAVE OFTEN. Most of the "good" ends require a romantic relationship with the relevant guy, but there's f/f friendship and romance options and nonromantic happy-ish endings.
I've done all the good ends (EDIT: Gaston path definitely grew on me :D :D) and they were all (a) sweet and (b) focussed more on finding stability for everyone the main character cares about than Twue Love.
Still a pretty heteronormative game, and everyone except the sly fey guy from pseudo-East-Asia and ambiguously brown pseudo-French maid is white. The way the game treats sex and gender is well meaning but may upset some people (ask me if you want details) But it's a story about a kickass woman dealing with a bunch of complicated crap, making out with cute boys (there are no f/f makeouts afaict ;_;), and deciding her own fate and I enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-24 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 04:58 am (UTC)I didn't figure it out until you pointed it out, and then I was horrified. And since then I've seen people commenting on how "clever" it is, ack.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 05:19 pm (UTC)