Customer Reviews

Princess Debut

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So from Cave, yes, Cave, the company known for good shooting games comes this; localized by Natsume. As you can tell; it threatens you to be attacked by sparkles and flowers, at first, but that doesn't stop it from being fun.

This game, and it's sister game in Japan (Kuru Kuru Princess, published as Imagine: Figure Skater here in the US), both stand out with the cute art and fun stylus gameplay. It's a simple yet addicting game.

Basically, you have thirty days to woo a prince before the big ball, and you must not only win his heart but also master various dance routines that are controlled by strokes of the stylus. (You can also bring up a screen that shows the actual dance steps, if you care to try imitating them yourself in real life.) The stylus play is indeed simple, but oddly addicting and fun. So yes; this is a dating sim for girls, but with some added features. You can also unlock many outfits and dance routines.

I was actually impressed with the endings! While I felt the introduction was really corny, I found some of the princess fun, and some nice little plot points that were a bit surprising.

There are some negatives though, mainly two: large, typical ballroom style dresses clip quite badly (as you'll see within the first few minutes), and the little "yay!"s and "Yahoo!"s that sound every time you hit your mark get annoying. But these are admittedly easy to overlook once you get into the game.

While this game is aimed at the pre-teen female audience; you'd be surprised at it's reception; it was Natsume's big show at the last E3, and it seems the gameplay is enough to drag older girls/women and even a few men to the table to try it out.

So if you can get past all the flowers and frills (for which I personally had no problem, and even found it very laughable and kind of cute), you'll find a game with even some comical jokes (something along the lines of rabid fangirls wanting to rip a prince's pants off) and simple but creative gameplay.

Edit: I'd like to add that I think this game would be at about 3.5 stars for me really. I haven't felt like replaying it very much, but I still pick it up occasionally.

I've been hearing about Japanese dating sims for boys forever. Princess Debut is a dating sim for girls! Your character swaps places with a princess and meets 6 different princes. One of them you pick for a dance partner and steady boyfriend, although you can go on dates with the other princes too. When you win a contest or do well in the game you win magical items which give you different outfits.
It's kind of geared toward young girls, but I bought it anyway as I would like more female dating sims to come over from Japan. It's a cute game and fun. The dances are an easy version of Elite Beat/Ouendan, and it's pretty fun to pick dialogue choices for your character to say.

sad thing: in order to complete your scrapbook you have to play the game through to the end several different times, and you have to pick different princes for dance partners. The other princes that you played through with are still in the game and I feel kind of sad for them.

While the game is said to offer various modes of game play, 'story mode' is the only one really worth playing. Sadly, if you're over the age of 13 or are known to breeze through games, this will be no exception. Practicing and learning new dances quantify the bulk of the game with some random dialogue between the characters.

A notable treat for gamers, regardless of age, is how the story-line relies highly on your interaction with other characters. I myself was not able to predict the results of my actions and at times it was quite amusing and may get you to play the game numerous times in hopes of tampering with the plot.

I just recived this game friday an I am already addicted. Yes I am a male, yes this is girly game but if you like Sprung or any dating sims that you find on the internet you'll like it. However unlike the internet sims there is no sex(The game has an E rating people) but that shouldn't stop anyone from playing it.

You play as Sabrina(You can change her name, my girl's name is Sarah named after Sarah Brightman) a girl looking for a prince in the real world when she meets an alternate version of herself who is a princess who has run away because she can't dance and a ball is coming up in a month! She immidately cons you into going to her world and suddenly you are caught up in whirlwind romances with princes from other kingdoms.

The dancing is not hard to do, in fact as a rhythim game it is easier to play than elite beat agents(I hate music games because of that game!) and it offers multiple modes other than story mode.

All in all this is a wonderful game for girls and boys who are hopless romantics at heart.

Ever wish prince charming would just magically appear and sweep you off your feet? Sadly, in real life, you have a better chance of winning the lottery. However, when you play "Princess Debut" you can experience what it's like to flirt and dance with a whole collection of princes! This game is one of those titles that's easy to over look: it's already about two years old, yet I only found it recently on a discounted games display at Wal-mart. Regardless, this is a pretty high quality game: I'll analyze each aspect of it from top to bottom:

Storyline 9/10: I docked a point for lack of originality at the start: the concept of a nobody becoming a princess itself has been pretty much murdered by Walt Disney. As for the talking animals? Cinderella anyone? Regardless, the story can still be fun and engaging: you play as a common school girl (her default name is Sabrina, but you can name her whatever you want at the beginning) who's bored out of her skull, when a princess who looks almost identical to her (and even has the same name) comes through the ordinary girl's wardrobe. The princess explains that she is from a parallel universe, and wants you to take her place for a season, because she can't dance and doesn't care much for princes (if only she knew how lucky she was). Whether you agree or not, you're taken by Kip (the princess's talking animal assistant) into the other world, and you can't go back because the Princess has the only key to the portal in which you warped (and she's back in your world). So, it begins: you're given a tiara which "transforms" your appearance into that of a beautiful princess, and then you're taken to a dinner party to meet the princes. The ultimate goal is to get a partner for the ball, which may or may not require much effort (depending on the guy you want). Though cliche at the start, the tale is inuitive and the story becomes much more interesting from the dinner party on.

Gameplay 9/10: This game is surprisingly addictive. There's basically two main aspects to the gameplay: dancing and conversing. The dancing, like the box and manual say, is easy to pick up, yet challenging to master; for the most part, it's a lot of fun. I do find it slightly out of taste, however, that the girl you control keeps saying "Woo!", "Yahoo!", and "Yay!" like she's at some kind of wild party when you dance correctly; however, you get used to it. As for the conversing aspect, get ready to be asked a lot of questions: just about every prince wants to hit on you, therefore they want to learn more about you and test you. If you converse properly with a prince, you'll increase his heart meter: the more he falls in love with you, the more likely he'll request to be your partner. Conversing improperly will decrease his heart meter, and may make him more elusive. The answers to the questions and quizzes are usually quite obvious, especially once you get to know them all; regardless, it's fun to get the answer wrong at times, just to see what they say. That brings me to a final point: GREAT replayability! The story is somewhat short, but the length comes in discovering everything you can about each prince: since you can only pair up with one at a time, you'll have to replay the story quite a bit. My only gripe about that is the game keeps making you start over at level 1, with only one dance (I'm pretty tired of the Nocturne); however the game does provide a few shortcut answers that cuts out some of the repetition of explanations and such, and you can look for other techniques on the internet. Really, the whole game is pretty well thought out.

Graphics 9/10: The graphics, for the most part, are great! Most of it looks a lot like a common Japanese-themed anime you can see on TV: it's beautiful! The reason I docked a point was that they didn't stick with anime-themed style for the dancing: there, the characters take a 3D appearance, equivalent to many Sims games. While it doesn't look too horrible, it really doesn't really suit a couple of the princes. In addition, if you wear a wide-skirted ballroom dress, there's clipping problems (meaning the prince's legs sometimes go right through the dress during the dance) which looks awkward. However, you won't be watching the dances too much unless you're in movie mode, as you'll be concentrating on following the ball correctly; so, it's only a small percentage of the game that looks like this. One more thing: the writers of the speech had to get creative, because each character only has about three facial expressions: normal, happy, and upset. Again, slightly awkward, but nothing that really spoils anything.

Characters 10/10: The characters are really quite fascinating! Each of the main characters (the princes, Kip, Tony, etc.) have a mystery to them. As you get to know them, you slowly unravel most of the mysteries behind them, letting you see some interesting and intricate personalities. Some of them are easy to learn about, while others require a bit more effort: all of the characters are very diverse and well thought out!

Controls 10/10: No complaints. The controls operate very smoothly: save for the ballroom dancing, you have your choice of stylus or control pad and buttons. Still, keep the stylus on hand, because that's the only control option for dancing (which occurs a lot).

Other Information: Although I question the sanity of anyone planning to purchase a game called "Princess Debut" for a guy, I'll make it clear: this game is female oriented. There's no gender select option, so you must play as a female, and you must woo male princes. This is why I can only recommend this game for girls. Also, this game was either a low budget game, or the companies working on it simply neglected to proof-read their spelling: there's typos galore in this, most of them quite silly. Although neither one of these points make the game awful, they're something to consider when purchasing this game.

Overall 10/10: When it comes right down to it, you can't deny the unbelievably addictive quality "Princess Debut" can have over you. Once you get a taste, you'll keep playing, becoming absolutely determined to learn everything there is to know behind the intricate characters, and see their reactions to you. With a game that can be completed in many different ways, you really can't go wrong: I can only hope that, in the future, games like this will get more attention in the media.

Though I'm usually a more serious gamer playing intense games like L4D, Team Fortress, Civ 4, Jrpgs, etc, occasionally I like to get in touch with my girly side. If you're familiar with the Japanese Dating Sim genre, this is a dating sim meant for girls (or people who imagine themselves in place of the main character). It runs like a Princess Maker meets Meine Liebe meets Japanese visual novel, and the real "gameplay" is based off an engine seeming similar to Elite Beat Agents.

So was it fun? If you like anime/manga style, harem choices, reading through text, collecting cute outfits, and rhythm tapping games, you'll love it. Even after you've finished playing through the main storyline, there's a "Ballroom Mode" for those who only want to play with the rhythm tapping aspect. The only grind is playing through the main storyline again and again to collect all the items and see the different princes' endings--but that's expected. Still, it would have been nice if they changed the story up a bit more if we played through for different characters. Also, the music in this game is cute.

It's too bad this game didn't get much marketing visibility among anime/Japanese-interest gamers. I know of a lot of female anime fans who are actually looking for a game of this type to be ported to US shores. I saw this game only once at my local Fry's and then never again, and I only learnt about this game through Amazon.

The premise on which 'Princess Debut' is founded is a simple one. You are transported to a world where you become a Princess in search of the perfect Partner for the Ball that will occur in 30 Days. When you arrive, you will have no dance skills. You therefore must learn to dance as well as making an attempt to discover more about each of the Princes eligible for Partnership.

When Natsume produced the English version of this game, I was intrigued but did not expect quite the degree of complexity and romance that is to be found in any Harvest Moon game with a courtship component. In fact, 'Princess Debut' more than satisfied any requirements in terms of offering humour, romance and quirky characterisations in the course of Events with the Eligible Princes. Different responses do lead to different results in many cases, enlarging the scope of the game. There are opportunities to make and break partnerships, to regain a lost character at the 11th hour and two possible endings with each of the Princes. Some Events can be experienced only if the Eligible Prince is your partner. Others can be experienced only if you remain single. Timing in choosing a partner can be crucial to your success.

For me, this game is founded more upon the Events that give it depth than the action in the form of the dances. The dances, however, are fun and it is challenging to complete the entire Course both in Traditional Ballroom and in Latin style. The music is chosen well, combining classical favourites with traditional popular songs and linking each to a difference dance form. 100% completion is NOT possible in a single game, giving players added incentive to play the game again and again. Each Prince has a special Accessory associated with him. To unlock all Accessories and complete the Photo Diary, you must end the game once as the Partner of each of the Eligible Princes.

Each of the Princes is quite different in personality from his peers. Your character can project different personalities through her choice of responses, making this a game where your attitude towards another character may control your own destiny.

It is a wonderful game that is appropriate for all ages and it should appeal to any Harvest Moon fan.

The fact that I have written a strategy guide for Princess Debut should give some idea of its complexity.

What "Princess Debut" lacks in narrative substance it pretty much makes up for in sheer eye-squeezing cuteness, and in the end that was all I was really after when I bought it, though the kawaii factor may not be enough to justify this skim game's price where most gamers above its target age demographic are concerned. (I'll be honest, it was that damn cute cover that lured me in. Call it an inspired Out-Of-Character purchase.) Fortunately, the actual non-story related gameplay, although slim pickin's, really isn't half bad.

What you have in your hands here is basically a run-of-the-mill dating sim (albeit a fairly 'lite' example--scratch that, very lite) built around a framework of power-leveling through various stylus tracing exercises, or "dances". The entire package is pretty obviously geared toward young girls (as if the box artwork and weren't a clue), and by young I mean little, as the dating sim aspects of "Princess Debut" make it pretty easy avoid floundering, and honestly, the characters really aren't as interesting as I'd hoped they would be. I imagined something along the lines of a young 'tween-oriented narrative (I dig their manga), but what the game delivers is ultimately more along the lines of being for a "just grew out of Nick Jr." crowd. The Story Mode consists of a mere 30 days and can easily be completed in one sitting, which is probably a good thing since unlocking everything is going to involve multiple plays through. There don't seem very many unlockables, however, as I fetched half of them through my first campaign, and with five princes yet to woo me it seems very doubtful that the old "Need To Unlock Things" can sustain me through enough campaigns to earn every ending.

Thankfully, the game's core--the dancing--is actually pretty addicting. While the first few dances are an insult to anyone with developed motor skills, they soon ramp up into pretty decent challenges that will keep you on your toes--er, fingers--stylus--wait, no, toes was good enough. I found myself replaying dances over and over again 1. because I had no choice :P and 2. because the old-fashioned Call of a Higher Score proved just potent enough to make me want to. As what in a meatier package would probably be considered a minigame, the dancing is able to keep the entire ship afloat just enough for it to avoid being a complete disappointment, thereby reserving this game's place in the ol' travel bag.

All in all, "Princess Debut" is about as good as I expected it to be; my standards weren't that high, and it therefore didn't falter. While I was somewhat disappointed by the one aspect that I most looked forward to--the Story Mode--I was admittedly pretty pleased with the dancing, which was at first just an afterthought for me. If you translate game prices into movie ticket fares and then compare the hours of entertainment derived from each, I'd say I got my money's worth.

If you're a fan of the DS game Elite Beat Agents, but are looking for something a little bit more girl oriented, Princess Debut may be the title for you. The game combines dating simulation elements with Elite Beat Agents style music based gameplay. You can beat the game very quickly, but the different princes and story elements as well as different accessories offer plenty of replay value. The game can be a little ridiculous, but if you don't mind a heavy dose of silly in your games, it's a lot of fun.

My copy of Princess Debut arrived two days ago and I've been glued to my DS ever since. It's fun, light and entertaining, perfect for young girls and for adults (I'm in my twenties and I love it).
Although the game play could easily get repetitive, there is just enough variety in the songs and the outfits to keep things interesting. The ending I reached was very fitting for the game, and I felt satisfied with it. Also, because there are so many princes to choose from the game has great replay value!
This game is very text heavy, so the player should be able to read well (I know that sounds silly but this IS a game for children, many are not literate yet). This is a great tool for reinforcing reading skills!
I would recommend this game for anyone over 7 years old who enjoys ballroom dancing, cute romances and giant waltzing bunnies!