プリンセスナイトメア Princess Nightmare PC Version

I've known this game for about two years now but never had a chance to play it until now. I haven't played that many otome games (one hand is all I need to count the number of games I've played), but it's probably safe to say that Princess Nightmare is nothing like your ordinary otome game. The genre of the game is classified as Gothic Battle Adventure on the game's website, whatever that means...

But instead of playing an adventure game, it does feel more like watching a visual novel. One of Princess Nightmare's appeals is that it's fully voiced, including the heroine Little and every single sub-character, and that none of the playable character routes is 100% human. Really, with some clever writing, all the individual story lines can be woven together to make one OVA or even a half-season anime series, and no one would even suspect its origin being an otome game.

Only a few of the seiyuu are of my taste, but I still recommend this game for the story and the setting. Of course, the music, too. Katakiri performs the OP & ED songs (especially love the ED theme song Akumu no Himegimi), and the music is mainly composed by HIR, which almost guarantee quality BGM by that name alone.

Character design is one thing I have mixed feelings about. The girls are all pretty pretty (pun intended), and I like the looks of sub-character Izumo the best out of all the females. The guys are more hit and miss. Some of the shots are nice, but sometimes they don't look so nice. And Inukai's werewolf design is probably the worst beside some of the youma.

There's roughly seven playable routes, divided into two main story lines. Completing the game once unlocks the demon world story line which contains the real meat for the game's setting and world view. That's not to say the regular research centre story line is superficial, but rather it focuses more on the present than in the past. Out of the seven routes, I played through Franken, Phantom, Radou, Shinji, and Inukai.

I have a habit of keeping the best until last (as demonstrated when I eat), so that leaves me with either Franken or Van Helsing for the first round. Normally I'd go for the enemy-turned-love interest, but I couldn't bring myself to like Helsing's seiyuu so I went with Franken... It's kind of obvious from the beginning, but still, what a star-crossed ending *orz* I've only started to notice Taniyama Kishio recently, but he's actually pretty good. He's the reason I chose Franken over Helsing.

My second round was Phantom. This short route is more history telling than anything, where it's revealed how all three members of the current Dracurea family came to become vampires and what they were like as humans. I was once again impressed by Ogata Megumi's acting during the recount where the character went from age 11 to 13 to 17, then back to the 517-year-old poltergeist. A melancholy yet somewhat attained ending.

Radou's route enters the demon world, and the reason behind and the consequence of choosing Little as the Demon Prince's bride is revealed. The ending is rather anti-climatic, though, as the two just got married and went back to school in their human disguises, after Radou's dramatic assassination of the Demon Prince in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Then it's just normal school business as usual. I think Radou x Sumomo would actually be a better pair. orz

I wasn't planning to play Shinji's route, but Ishii Makoto's acting as the Prince kinda lured me in (he's noisy as Shinji). The little bit about the Prince shown in Radou's route also played a part. Most of the events were similar to that of Radou's, but instead of the Prince getting assassinated, he and Little duked it out. The battle spanned from the demon world to the human world, where Helsing and Inukai chipped in a little but were obviously no match to the Demon Prince. There's a couple big moves and spells from the characters, rendering some pretty cool CG. The Maou's blood inside Little emerged at the last moment, and she transformed into the Nightmare Queen and cast a very big one (think Lina Inverse casting Dragon Slav in Lord of Nightmare mode). As Little and the Prince were thrown into the chaos dimension from the forces of their opposing spells, Little's wish allowed Shinji to take back his body from the Prince, and the Prince faded away wistfully. Frankly, I feel sorry for the Prince and would prefer to have a route for him, but that's only available in the PS2 version, I heard. :(

Inukai is really the obvious choice from the start. He gets along with Little the best and fights alongside her, and he's possibly the most understanding and perceptive character out of the whole cast beside Papa Dracurea. The part about his father was cliché but still sad. The bit about him going berserk on full moon nights was hinted very discreetly in other routes and only realized here. His ending makes the most sense and is the sweetest out of the five I played. If only there's more romance in his route...

One interesting point about the game is that while bits and pieces can be induced, the real connection and background information is only obtained through another character's route. Phantom's route revealed the Dracurea family's past. Radou's route revealed the scheme of the demon world as well as a glimpse at the Prince's feelings. Shinji's route revealed Inukai's past and more of the Prince's personality. Inukai's route revealed the true identity of the Prince and his sister, and how Helsing was resurrected. The down side of that is that I will never know the full story and character background and settings because I didn't play through all the routes.

Too bad there isn't more exploring of Little's state of mind after she went berserk from not having her master vampire's blood for too long in the research centre story line. How did she feel and reconcile with herself after killing so many -even though they were technically not human- subconsciously since she's never harmed anyone before? Little is a very likable character and leaves a strong impression. If the game ever gets animated, with her style and personality, I can totally see her being popular among guys and having a sizable following.

I'd also liked to see more integration between the two story lines. Does Little's hidden power play any role in the research centre story line? Is Inukai's rare and pure werewolf father with Japanese wolf's blood connected to the demon world in any way? Yeah, I definitely think an anime series would be a good medium to put them all together in one big tale...