Princess Debut

Hi, Blogger maniac, welcome to my first game post in 2012 and second post in this fabulous year (my first post in 2012 is manga post, see below, I will finish the character section as I have the chance), the game I would recommend today is Princess Debut for girls like me.

 

Princess Debut (お姫さまデビュー Ohimesama Debyū in Japan, Princess Debut: The Royal Ball in Europe) is a rhythm otome game published by Natsume and developed by Cave for the Nintendo DS which was released in June 19, 2008 in Japan, September 30, 2008 in USA, and in Europe on August 2009. The illustration and package design was done by Kotori Momoyuki, a manga artist serialized in Kodansha's Nakayoshi (writes Million Girl, Pink Innocent, Boku no Chopin, etc). It's kind of mixture of rhythm and lovesims which is translate into English.

Story

Yes, the story starts with Sabrina and Catherine's conversation about school prince.

The player character, Sabrina (you can change to the name you wants, but for me I prefer keep using the original name if the game does), speaking to a friend of hers, Catherine. The former laments her boredom and wishes to be whisked away by a prince.

Princess told us to never touch someone's important thing, including her emerald necklace.

Princess told us to never touch someone's important thing, including her emerald necklace.

After the two finish their dialogue and Sabrina arrives home, a strange girl and an even stranger creature burst forth from her closet. When asked about her identity, this girl responds that she is the same person as Sabrina, but from another world, known as the Flower Kingdom. Further, she explains that she is a princess there and that she will soon be required to dance at the prestigious Ball of Saint-Lyon. However, because the Princess lacks both talent and taste for dancing, she wants Sabrina to go in her stead. Sabrina accepts, and from that point forth the player has 30 days to practice dancing and find a prince to be their partner for the ball.

Listen the tutorial so you never been confused, Sabrina (also for us gamers).

Depending on where you go in the day and what you say to people, many different things can happen up until the ultimate ball at Saint-Lyons, where as the story said, only 30 days before the ball. Depending on which partner you have and how much in love you are (rated on a percentage meter), there are lots of different endings that you can accept or refuse their proposal.

Characters
In the opening dialogue, the player character's friend Catherine suggests that certain boys at the school they attend may be somewhat like princes. Each of these boys is described as having traits that are shared by a prince in the Flower Kingdom.

The Character Image I found in livejournal.com. From top left to bottom right, Kiefer, Cesar, Vince, Klaus, Liam, Luciano, Sabrina, Kip, and Tony.

Victor (Vince) [Kid (キっド Kiddo)]: The class clown. He's always running around playing jokes on people. Catherine points out he's "just so cute! Somehow, you just can't hate him."

Keith (Kiefer): Victor's polar opposite. He is a cool-mannered, perfect student, frequently seen reading upper-level books. He also scores high in his classes. Kiefer only unlocked at the second playthrough or later.

Carlos (Cesar) [Charl (シャルル Sharuru]: The school's flirt. He is always found hitting on girls. Your character will mention that he just hit on you the previous day. His pick up line was "Won't you dance the waltz of love with me?"

Leon (Liam) [Randy (ランディ Randi]: A kind and gentle soul, he is considered to be very considerate by his classmates. He is known for taking care of the classroom flowers even though he does not have to. Your character views him "like a big brother you can always count on."

Kyle (Klaus) [Karu (カル Karu): The star athlete. He has many fans, is considered to be cool and very popular. The player character thinks he is out of her league. Her friend reminds her that she has never even tried to speak with him and warns her not to jump to conclusions.

Lucas (Luciano) [Hayato (ハヤト Hayato)]: The player character's childhood friend. She considers him "pretty cute," but he has a bad sense of direction, to the extent of forgetting his way home. However, he refuses to acknowledge this deficiency. Catherine comments that he is endearing.

Kip [Tap (タップ Tappu)]: Assists the Princess in coming to your world and then assists you during your stay in the kingdom.

Tony [Coach (コーチ Ko-chi)]: He is your dance partner for the tutorial and is also your dance partner if one of the princes is not your dance partner. Can use magic to turn himself into a gentleman rabbit.

Gameplay

This is how this music game occurs.

During rhythm game, you'll be on 3D graphic, you must slide and keep your stylus on the ball until reach either blue or green ball, and then you receive the comment of your ability.  If  "Bad," I think you must beware or you lose some points in the reward, but this system was great that you don't need to tap at the right timing.

In Planner, you can see partner's love meter and their profile.

In Planner, you can see partner's love meter and their profile.

Not playing Story Mode was also alright, there were another 3 modes that you can play besides Story. There are Ballroom, Practice, and Movie Mode. Start from Practice Mode first where you can increase your ability of this gameplay after you choose your favorite music, partner, and accessories. Movie are also the same, but the differences are you can pause, stop, and adjust the angle when you watch the dance. Ballroom, is locked until you reach second playthrough and have all 20 songs, in this mode you have to dance 5 songs from either the Standard or the Latin selection of songs in a row and score above a minimum number of points, if you get less then the minimum you'll have to start over from the beginning.

Your accessories will depend on your outfit, so choose carefully which is suitable!

Let's jump to another topic, Accessories. There are plenty to unlock as you play through the game. The first is Royal Tiara and then they're so many ways to unlock others, like buy from accessory shop, the gift from the Prince, etc. You may think you must play multiple times until you got them all, don't you? Next is Music, which will set up when you play the game for x time. If you play at odd time (1, 3, 5, etc.), then Standard is set for you, if you play in even numbers (2, 4, 6, etc.), Latin will be chosen for you.

Accept your partner's offer if you want marriage photo event.

Overall, it's quite good but for the graphic, I prefer 2D one. 3D graphic is good with transformation sequence with outfit, but 2D will be better. Music I think is good too, which is suitable for everyone for any age including girls. It's very recommended if you are music rhythm game lovers!