Hanako Games

First Run, thoughts and opinions.

#1 by Mkitty789 - May 5 2013

I got this game today and played through it for the first time. I'm actually surprised I managed to survive my playthrough! Maybe I just have a good sense for this kind of thing, but I managed to avoid just about everything that would kill me. I still was irritated a bit though because of my skills being one point off or so and I'd end up making an ass out of myself in an area I was really trying to focus in.
I guess the reason I was so safe though is mostly because I never left the castle. Well never, except to lead a parade and the other time I did I caused a storm.

Overall I have to say I really like this game, or at the least the ideas behind it. Personally I'd love to see a game like this with a bigger team behind it that focuses on a story and gameplay of this kind. I rather enjoy being the soon-to-be would-be queen (or king) just trying to last long enough to get to the throne. Just a game dealing with your kingdom's politics.
Most of the time I see something like this it is really shallow and pointless, or horribly done...or both, I'm looking at you Fable. While with this game it was a bit shallow overall, having just about one person do everything makes that more than acceptable. It was well worth the money!

Still it felt like there were too many skills to learn and not enough time. I managed to focus my skills into the few things I wanted, which is probably why I even went out of my way to avoid danger, being a prim and proper princess, and did well enough. I think cutting down the skill tree, more class options, or overall more time would have helped fixed that.
Also it would have been nice to find a way to more easily regulate your mood. I probably wasted more time than I should have on certain skills because my character's mood made learning them harder.

What did everyone else think of it though? And how did your playthroughs go?

PS: Sorry if this seem a bit complain-y. The game is more than worth the money, it just left me hungry for more in a manner of speaking. XD

I don't know if I'm the only one interested in this idea, but I wouldn't mind an expansion, adding events before and maybe giving some time after you become the queen.

#2 by phoenixgirl - May 6 2013

Well, I do agree that I'd love a longer playthrough (more than 40 weeks) although it might be difficult to come up with additional events along the way. I found the number of skill to be intimidating at first but then found it quite fun to figure out which ones would help for certain events. In recent playthroughs, I find that certain skills always tend to help me, such as conversation, intrigue, military, faith, and lumen. Well, sometimes I go for lumen and sometimes I don't. Depends on what kind of queen I'd like Elodie to be. XD I never made much use of the athletics skill set although I know they do have a purpose. I just never encounter the events that require them. I used to work on history until I figured that other skills were better at focusing on.

The mood was hard to figure out at first but mostly because I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning. But after having successfully beat the game, I figured out how to regulate it better.

In my first playthrough, I didn't win but since I had Elodie be engaged to Talarist, then she didn't end up dying. She escaped the Shanjian invasion but yet I still lost. I think it was my 3rd try that I finally ended up winning and that was by having Elodie max her lumen skills and have high enough skills in swords and reflexes for her to defeat the Shanjian king. XD

#3 by Mkitty789 - May 6 2013

Well for possible events there could be more interaction with the nobles you can potentially marry, like the young Duke you can have move to the castle. There could be more dealing with foreign nations directly, like the time you have a diplomat visit, and maybe interaction with your knights and soldiers. For example during the festival you can throw, have a scene where you interact with the winners, giving them titles, gold, or whatever.
Another possibility for a potential expansion is to also appoint a vassal of some sort, have a knight or Lumen to cover your ass when some tries to make an attempt on your life, or an adviser who could take notice of less savory things because you lacked the training.

There are a ton of possibilities, but you'd need time to make those.
It is a wonderful game though, and after you figure out how to train yourself to be the best princess you want to be it is a ton of fun. (Or you could cheat. <.< >.>)

#4 by Ramidel - May 7 2013

@Mkitty789: I think it was intentional that you don't get much interaction with your marriage interests. You're not romancing them, and you're not marrying them for looks or personality, you're marrying them because you can secure alliances and make babies with them. (Though I agree that in an expansion, the Earl of Pastry should be made into an interactable character, just because the yuri options are romantic options, and there's no het romance in the game.)

And you already have a chief advisor; that's Joslyn. It just so happens that he's worse than useless Seriously, if Elodie had competent and loyal advisors, we wouldn't have much of a game.

#5 by Franka - May 7 2013

Too many skills to learn and not enough time is pretty much the point of the game. Tearing out your hair because you just barely didn't make it is part of the appeal. Juggling moods and managing skills is the core gameplay, and yes, it's a learning experience, but once you master it, it's a joy to find all those hidden gems the game offers.

Hopefully you don't start using cheats until you've gotten all the "achievements" the legitimate way: Hard work and planning.

You can find many stories of playthroughs throughout the forum.

#6 by Mkitty789 - May 14 2013

@Ramidel:
I get that it isn't about dating it is about politics. My problem marrying these people doesn't seem to have much affect on what happens in the game overall. I know of a few points where breaking a relationship off has an effect. So they feel kind of pointless from my experience, except for the ending paragraphs which tell you a bit of what happened after.
For the most part the only interaction I've seen of appointing someone to a position that actually mattered is a certain magic user, but otherwise it doesn't seem to come up that often.
Generally my opinion of this game, it is very good but leaves me hungry for more. I wanted more time so I could be all around more competent, and to have more events along the way.

With a competent adviser, you could still plenty of a game to be had, it would be nice early on though that she had someone with half a brain to explain the world when you fail lore and knowledge checks, or a knight to be a bad ass when you fail an archery check or something. Although the second one is less viable because usually if you fail a combat check you're about to get yourself killed.
There is also the possibility of using certain abilities more often. A few only ever come up once throughout the entire game, or maybe I just didn't trigger the series of events that causes them to happen again.
While it is absurd to ask of it, this game really got me hungry for a bigger and deeper game like this one. ^^;

@Franka:
I don't see how pulling out your hair in frustration is fun to anyone. Yes, at the end once you've learned how to play it you feel accomplished, and it is quite fun because you know what you're doing. I see the management as fun and watching my princess stumble along through her story, but barely failing something is not enjoyable at least to me.
Now flip that statement around with barely passing something by the skin of your teeth, yes that is very enjoyable.

I really don't care about the achievements, I've never been big on them in any way even on steam and playstation network, ect. Unless they have some sort of novelty value (Like giving me a special outfit or something), so I'm more likely to go seeking deaths for the chibi pictures than the achievements. If I ever want to actually get them though, yes I wouldn't use cheats because that ruins the point of having them.
Personally, I've already used the cheats so I could experience the story the way I wanted, because that is what I was interested in, experiencing the events and seeing how being competent or not would affect what was to follow and the ending's explanation of what happened after.

I know there are plenty of stories and walkthroughs, I put this here as another spot for people to ramble about it.
I get what you're saying though, unless I'm dumber than I think I am. ^^;

#7 by Franka - May 15 2013

Mkitty789:

I don't see how pulling out your hair in frustration is fun to anyone. Yes, at the end once you've learned how to play it you feel accomplished, and it is quite fun because you know what you're doing. I see the management as fun and watching my princess stumble along through her story, but barely failing something is not enjoyable at least to me.
Now flip that statement around with barely passing something by the skin of your teeth, yes that is very enjoyable.

It's true that it can be frustrating when just barely failing leads to a horrible end you didn't plan for (that just made me work harder next time though). On the other hand, it's very interesting when barely failing leads to events you didn't realize were there. Especially on your umpteenth playthrough, where you thought you had everything under control. This is one game where I feel failure is rewarded almost as often as success.

Personally, I've already used the cheats so I could experience the story the way I wanted, because that is what I was interested in, experiencing the events and seeing how being competent or not would affect what was to follow and the ending's explanation of what happened after.

You should certainly play the game the way that entertains you the most, I'll not gainsay that. I just automatically warn new players against breezing through the game, because my personal enjoyment came from delving into it slowly, failing, failing, failing, failing, starting to figure things out, failing, failing, failing, eureka! The failures wetted my appetite for finding the hidden gems this game offers.

#8 by Elosva - May 16 2013

...so...much...dieing, i could never win, it didn't matter what skills i foucesed on, how i tryied, or what i chose, i always seemed to die from one thing or another, time and time again, i think i got ever death pretty much before i finaly skimped on by, barely, even so my kingdom was haphasered, shotty, and broke, in short im a total screw up... but still... that feeling i got when i finaly lived long enough to be crowned queen... that was something else... i have to agree, the fun of this game is in failing so so much, that when you finaly win its so granduous, you cant help but to cheer... that and watching the queen die in diferent horible manners that was pretty nice to