Hanako Games

My feelings about this game (spoilers, post-completion)

#1 by Hyrenapth - Jun 10 2012

I kinda felt lost around so many names, characters and political background. In my opinion, the game could have more dialogues, and release the characters in a slower pace. The political issues are very interesting but to appreciate them we are forced to make the princess learn about History or Intrigue. Even so, the story feels kinda rushed, and I get confused by so many names popping out and leaving so soon.

Second, the game could use more art. For example, some pictures showing the battle between Queen vs Lumen (forgot his name, the bad guy from the battleships war) or pictures showing several events and the result of sucess or failure of each skill rolls. Why cant we see how the princess dies or there is no picture of the tentacle mosnter?

What the princess do when she visit her mother graveyard? Why is there no picture showing her being depressed there? What she do when she scapes the castle? Would be nice if the castle were filled with random encounters and new pictures wich could enrich the princess skills and story.

The game need more dialogues, a slower pace, more pictures showing each event and showing each skill roll. The game seemed more focused on survival but that comes with a very high price in my opinion hindering the freedom of choice over the princess skills and crippling the story experience.

Despite those flaws, I enjoyed playing the game, but I think it could be much more than a survival game. It could show a land full of intrigue, mistery and magic by allowing more exploration, a slower pace, more dialogues, less unforgiving rolls, more pictures too but unfortunately it is all about choosing the skills and surviving most of the time.

#2 by TheChristianBrony - Jun 10 2012

To be honest I thought it would be nice for more art but I can only imagine how long it takes a lot of time to make them and with Hanako working on the games she doesn't have time to put more focus on one game. I would have liked it to be slightly more simple also but other then that I liked it quite a bit.

#3 by hanako - Jun 10 2012

As mentioned, there may be more art coming in free updates depending on artist availability. So hang on to your registration keys and you'll be able to download anything new whenif it happens.

As for the difficulty, though, no - this game is what it was meant to be.

Re: My feelings about this game

#4 by Alfilaria - Jun 22 2012

Hyrenapth:

I kinda felt lost around so many names, characters and political background. In my opinion, the game could have more dialogues, and release the characters in a slower pace. The political issues are very interesting but to appreciate them we are forced to make the princess learn about History or Intrigue. Even so, the story feels kinda rushed, and I get confused by so many names popping out and leaving so soon.

Second, the game could use more art. For example, some pictures showing the battle between Queen vs Lumen (forgot his name, the bad guy from the battleships war) or pictures showing several events and the result of sucess or failure of each skill rolls. Why cant we see how the princess dies or there is no picture of the tentacle mosnter?

What the princess do when she visit her mother graveyard? Why is there no picture showing her being depressed there? What she do when she scapes the castle? Would be nice if the castle were filled with random encounters and new pictures wich could enrich the princess skills and story.

The game need more dialogues, a slower pace, more pictures showing each event and showing each skill roll. The game seemed more focused on survival but that comes with a very high price in my opinion hindering the freedom of choice over the princess skills and crippling the story experience.

Despite those flaws, I enjoyed playing the game, but I think it could be much more than a survival game. It could show a land full of intrigue, mistery and magic by allowing more exploration, a slower pace, more dialogues, less unforgiving rolls, more pictures too but unfortunately it is all about choosing the skills and surviving most of the time.

If you're feeling confused about who someone is, that's what the ? in the lower left corner is for ^_^ It'll bring up a window telling you who that person is and what their relationship to other people are. Needing to keep track of a lot of different people and titles is quite common in court intrigue, but at least you have a helping hand in this game ^^ And if you finished the game with the feeling there wasn't enough content, that's what replaying the game is for. You can't see everything in one playthrough, or even a few ^_^ Like most visual novels, the game is meant to be played over and over to see different things. As for not having enough art, this is an indie title, and it's really not fair to hold it to the same standards you would hold a commercial title. What there is is quite pretty, and I think that's what matters most ^^ I just LOVE Elodie's design, especially her adorable princess curls! I hope to see more of Izumi's work in future games from Hanako.

Problems

#5 by tangdok - Jun 22 2012

My problem with game is not being able to use your magic at deadly situations.For example.I got attacked by someone at tournament.I have a power that lets me throw a scorching light ball.Yet i have to run from him.Another example is having to throw something at bandits.I can destroy an entire fleet but i cant kill a few bandits.There are places which useless skills are neccesary.For example while fighting the guy from battleship battle.I try to make him dizzy but i cant because i dont have enough decoration skill.I have problem with art aswell.There is not enough background music and there is almost no activity pictures.Another problem is romance is pretty low.I mean i control a 14 years old girl.Another problem is there is no luck in game.I mean everything is rational.It feels like game was designed so that walkthrough makers would have no problem at all.Another problem is things she says.For example she is trying to reject a lord kindly.I cant marry you.Im fourteen.Court manners isnt neccesary to give a better answer.Another problem is your father doesnt give you advises when they are neccesary.Another problem is unrealisticidity of skills.You can surpass any proffesional in 18 weeks.

#6 by Alfilaria - Jun 23 2012

Sometimes you just have to let some things go if you want to enjoy works of art; it's called willing suspension of disbelief =/ Now, there are times when writers stretch that to the breaking point, but I personally don't see that here. Letting a fourteen year-old run a country is honestly more plausible than teenagers saving the world, and how many times have you seen that plot? In an indie title, there are other things you have to let go as well; with a limited budget to hire people, there's only so much they can fit into a game, especially if there's only one person doing the writing and one person doing the art. If you really want the length and polish of a commercial product, you would probably be happier spending your gaming dollars on a commercial product. Personally though, I really like Hanako's attention to detail, which is sadly missing from many commercial games nowadays. Have you read all the text displayed when you take classes? Few commercial developers would waste time making up, researching, and writing out all that. And few commercial developers would take the time to put all the little alternate tidbits in that Hanako does, which I absolutely adore because I used to have to imagine them all myself when I played things.

#7 by hanako - Jun 23 2012

A lot of that is the nature of the game - it's supposed to be hard, you're supposed to need to raise skills, many skills are supposed to be useful. It would be pretty boring if most of the skills didn't affect the game. I'm sorry if the style isn't working out to be fun for you.

Some of the rest of that just isn't correct (like the bit about the bandits, which you've mentioned in other threads.)

Another problem is unrealisticidity of skills.You can surpass any proffesional in 18 weeks.

No, you can't. For example, in the tournament, Elodie can't win most of the events even if she's maxed her skills because there are people with more experience. The same thing when fighting the magical duel - which is exactly why she needs to rely on a secondary skill in order to win.

I got attacked by someone at tournament.I have a power that lets me throw a scorching light ball.Yet i have to run from him.

The only time you have to choose to run away from an attacker (the assassin at the parade) you do get the option of using magic if you have that power.

It's true you don't currently have the option of just plain killing Kevan where he stands with your magic. I'm happy to add it. It'll obviously be a bad option, because murdering someone when he challenges you to a duel is dishonorable and everyone will disapprove, but hey, bad options are fun.

But 'run away' isn't one of the choices available in that event. There is a reflex+running check to jump out of the way of him charging right at you. Attacking him magically at that point wouldn't help.

Anyway, I'm happy to fix things that can be fixed and add options that make sense to add, but some things are the underlying nature of the game and can't be altered.

#8 by Morgan_R - Jun 29 2012

hanako:

Another problem is unrealisticidity of skills.You can surpass any proffesional in 18 weeks.

No, you can't. For example, in the tournament, Elodie can't win most of the events even if she's maxed her skills because there are people with more experience.

Having maxed my falconry skill for the tournament, I thought this was an unexpected (and therefore kind of awesome) note of realism.

Please read Hanako

#9 by vicky7778 - Jun 29 2012

Edit from Hanako: Oops. Sorry. I was poking at this right before going out the door to a doctor's appointment, and I somehow accidentally deleted your post when I was trying to reply to it. I AM REALLY SORRY!

#10 by hanako - Jun 29 2012

commenting again to clarify the above - I somehow accidentally deleted your post when I was trying to quote it to respond. I didn't mean to! That'll teach me to try and answer something quickly while I'm sick and half-awake.

Anyway, if you can remember what you said feel free to say it again, otherwise I *did* read it and I didn't mean to eat it, sorry.


(As for the Brin-Banion-Bennett thing, it's glossed over in the history because I didn't think it was important enough to go into in detail, but Internal Affairs 60 mentions that Bennett was intentionally disinherited by his parents. He is not on good terms with his siblings, that's why he doesn't give you a hard time even if you have both Brin and Banion executed. Banion tries about three different things to have you killed or deposed if you mess with Brin though.)

#11 by Alfilaria - Jul 1 2012

Being sick is no fun to say the least >.< I hope you're feeling better now =/

#12 by vicky7778 - Jul 9 2012

hanako:

commenting again to clarify the above - I somehow accidentally deleted your post when I was trying to quote it to respond. I didn't mean to! That'll teach me to try and answer something quickly while I'm sick and half-awake.

Anyway, if you can remember what you said feel free to say it again, otherwise I *did* read it and I didn't mean to eat it, sorry.


(As for the Brin-Banion-Bennett thing, it's glossed over in the history because I didn't think it was important enough to go into in detail, but Internal Affairs 60 mentions that Bennett was intentionally disinherited by his parents. He is not on good terms with his siblings, that's why he doesn't give you a hard time even if you have both Brin and Banion executed. Banion tries about three different things to have you killed or deposed if you mess with Brin though.)

It's okay Hanako. I'll repeat it.
I enjoyed the game Long Live the Queen a lot. Honestly it was great and worth my money's worth. I just wanted let you know to me the game could have been better, here's why:

Dialogue and Characters The game was fun. But I felt like there could have been more conversation with the characters. Most of the characters you meet pop up quickly and left very quickly. I also felt like Elodie's father didn't really give much advice to her with her problems when you could only see him 3 times. Also with the characters when it came down with marriage scenes with Adair, Banion, nephew of Arisse, or prince of Talasse I expected with Elodie for them to spend more time together and see how much of a kind or jerks they really are. There could have been more scenes to the game. The time felt very short, even though her birthday was coming but I didn't think the game will end in August (Week 40) I expected to end all the way to December or January.

Artwork The artwork of the game of the places you go to and the corination day was really nice. But there could have been more artwork with the scenes that was happening with Elodie. Like more pictures of her weekend activities,picture of the scene with the monster and Broiny, The evil king approaching the Elodie, some of the endings. The music was wonderful that doesn't need any improvements but very limited on artwork with scenes.

Please don't take this comment as a negative on Hanako please don't. I love the game but there could have been more. I felt that this game should have a new edition: Long Live the Queen deluxe and should be free or charged $3-$5 more for the people who already brought the game.
Just like Cute Knight becoming Cute Knight Deluxe (great game by the way)

Thank you for reading this Hanako and please reply.
^-^
-Victoria Denyse Williams