Game Review: Princess Evangile
It's been quite awhile since I've played a meaty Visual Novel, and Princess Evangile saw fit to fix that. Luckily for me, it's a good ride. The story is one that has been told countless times before, but there's a nice twist in the way that it presents itself that sets it apart.
The story is about a boy named Okonogi Masaya who is down on his luck. His dad, fleeing from loan sharks sent by the mob, has passed on his debts to Masaya before running off. While he heads out to the city to find a job, he meets a girl named Rise who gives him the chance to become a student at her school. The only catch is that he will be attending an all-girls boarding school, and he needs to pass the preliminary vote to allow him to continue staying at the school for a year. But the reason he can even do that much in the first place is that it's part of an experiment. The school's in danger of shutting down because the costs of maintenance are too high. The attendance is also lower, likely due to it being an all-girls school for mostly wealthy people. So in a effort to increase revenue, Rise is pushing for integration. There are other areas in which Rise thinks there needs to be reform, and she also thinks that Masaya's presence there can solve those as well. With no where else to turn, Masaya agrees.
It's a pretty interesting story despite the fact that it's a bishoujo visual novel and an eroge. The themes dealt with in the game obviously fall in line with other games of it's type. Romance, teens dealing with teen stuff. But the other themes are mostly unseen in the genre, and with such care. Princess Evangile also takes a look at the conservative mindset and how resistant they are to change. How they see things that shake the status quo as chaotic and disrupt the illusion of order they think that they have. Themes about the dark side of loyalty and class-ism also come into play, as well as people being unable to grow in a isolated environment; or dealing with biases and preconceptions. Unfortunately, Masaya is pigeonholed as a perfect Gary Stu and is a big goodie-two-shoes. But he kind of has to be, as the odds are stacked against him. But regardless of that, the themes still managed o resonate with me in a way I've not seen often in the genre. Especially since it speaks to my sensibilities as a freethinking person.
The story is pretty meaty, going on about fifty hours across the four routes. The routes themselves are decided after the first ten chapters, and they are pretty easy to determine which choices need to be made. Stick with one girl for their route. Each route has some overlap, but not much, and they are pretty self-contained. The skip feature won't do much good in this case, only being useful if you forgot to save before and needed to get back to a certain part of the story quickly. Like most modern visual novels, there is also an auto text feature. But be warned, since Masaya's dialogue isn't voiced, and any speed faster than 1% might be too fast to read the text. It helps to also lower the text scroll speed to make it easier to read during auto mode. One good thing about the skip feature along with the 'skip previously read text' option is that you can leave it on and it will kick in when it needs to.
Not much bad can be said about the visual novel, but there are some things I might have liked to have seen, like more routes for some of the other girls. But due to the already long length of the game and the narrative it took, it might have been unfeasible. The sexual content only exists in the Mangagamer version, and unlike ef or eden*, it's more on the moderate side, and does not use mosaics. But they should still be considered tasteful. The steam version obviously cuts this stuff out, which might impact the story a bit. The runtime does get drastically cut down though, so if you aren't into that, there's a benefit for you. Although getting the game on Mangagamer will get you a steam key, so there's little reason not to. If you are a fan of bishoujo visual novels or eroge, Princess Evangile comes highly recommended. The $35 USD price tag is worth it.
The Bottom Line: A very good bishoujo eroge VN that has a great story that will resonate with those who are into progressive and freethinking messages.
Acquisition method: digital codes provided by Mangagamer
The story is about a boy named Okonogi Masaya who is down on his luck. His dad, fleeing from loan sharks sent by the mob, has passed on his debts to Masaya before running off. While he heads out to the city to find a job, he meets a girl named Rise who gives him the chance to become a student at her school. The only catch is that he will be attending an all-girls boarding school, and he needs to pass the preliminary vote to allow him to continue staying at the school for a year. But the reason he can even do that much in the first place is that it's part of an experiment. The school's in danger of shutting down because the costs of maintenance are too high. The attendance is also lower, likely due to it being an all-girls school for mostly wealthy people. So in a effort to increase revenue, Rise is pushing for integration. There are other areas in which Rise thinks there needs to be reform, and she also thinks that Masaya's presence there can solve those as well. With no where else to turn, Masaya agrees.
It's a pretty interesting story despite the fact that it's a bishoujo visual novel and an eroge. The themes dealt with in the game obviously fall in line with other games of it's type. Romance, teens dealing with teen stuff. But the other themes are mostly unseen in the genre, and with such care. Princess Evangile also takes a look at the conservative mindset and how resistant they are to change. How they see things that shake the status quo as chaotic and disrupt the illusion of order they think that they have. Themes about the dark side of loyalty and class-ism also come into play, as well as people being unable to grow in a isolated environment; or dealing with biases and preconceptions. Unfortunately, Masaya is pigeonholed as a perfect Gary Stu and is a big goodie-two-shoes. But he kind of has to be, as the odds are stacked against him. But regardless of that, the themes still managed o resonate with me in a way I've not seen often in the genre. Especially since it speaks to my sensibilities as a freethinking person.
The story is pretty meaty, going on about fifty hours across the four routes. The routes themselves are decided after the first ten chapters, and they are pretty easy to determine which choices need to be made. Stick with one girl for their route. Each route has some overlap, but not much, and they are pretty self-contained. The skip feature won't do much good in this case, only being useful if you forgot to save before and needed to get back to a certain part of the story quickly. Like most modern visual novels, there is also an auto text feature. But be warned, since Masaya's dialogue isn't voiced, and any speed faster than 1% might be too fast to read the text. It helps to also lower the text scroll speed to make it easier to read during auto mode. One good thing about the skip feature along with the 'skip previously read text' option is that you can leave it on and it will kick in when it needs to.
Not much bad can be said about the visual novel, but there are some things I might have liked to have seen, like more routes for some of the other girls. But due to the already long length of the game and the narrative it took, it might have been unfeasible. The sexual content only exists in the Mangagamer version, and unlike ef or eden*, it's more on the moderate side, and does not use mosaics. But they should still be considered tasteful. The steam version obviously cuts this stuff out, which might impact the story a bit. The runtime does get drastically cut down though, so if you aren't into that, there's a benefit for you. Although getting the game on Mangagamer will get you a steam key, so there's little reason not to. If you are a fan of bishoujo visual novels or eroge, Princess Evangile comes highly recommended. The $35 USD price tag is worth it.
The Bottom Line: A very good bishoujo eroge VN that has a great story that will resonate with those who are into progressive and freethinking messages.
Acquisition method: digital codes provided by Mangagamer
Our Grade:
A+
The Good:
- Meaty story in each of the four routes.
- Good commentary on the conservative mindset.
- Pretty catchy music.
The Bad:
- Which unfortunately only has a small soundtrack.
- Because of the way the narrative is setup, some of the cast don't get their own routes.
Eric is one of the co-hosts of the RPGrinders podcast, as well as a freelance video game writer. You can follow him on Twitter @EricRPG .
