If there was any kind of game I’ve rarely ever seen anyone try talking about, it would definitely have to be the underrated visual novel. There are so many great visual novel games out there like the Phoenix Wright games along with interesting indie freebies like “Save the Date”. Here’s another fun visual novel where you must long live as the queen.
You play as Elodie, future queen of the country of Nova. Your mother just died and you have but a year to learn the ins-and-outs of royalty. Of course, being the leader of a country isn’t easy, especially for a 14-year-old girl fresh out of boarding school. For just a small country, Nova is one wrought with betrayals, murder, war, and lots of political and military strife. You’re not even queen yet and here you are, deciding whether or not you should start the first library of the world!
This game is hard. There are 42 different stats to raise, 4 main sections of stats, emotions that balance what stats can be raised, but only two chances a week to raise these stats. If that wasn’t confusing enough, the game has the player constantly on their toes about what skills are necessary to beat the game. One moment has you increasing your foreign intelligence to hire a spy, while the next has you needing to train dogs to prevent a box of chocolates from killing you! From world history to proper etiquette, you have to know everything in order to survive. Of course, sometimes the game gives you some freebies, like that one week where you don’t have to go on some lengthy journey along a path where archers are waiting to kill you.
Yes, you will have to backtrack and save often but there are just so many different outcomes in this game that you can’t help but aim to see everything. Of course, some of these checkpoints are so abrupt that anyone who plays “Long Live the Queen” will be shocked at some of the plot points throughout the story. Then again, that’s where all of the fun is! It’s annoying to have to backtrack every week, but who wouldn’t want to meet a tentacle monster?
That’s Long Live the Queen‘s greatest strength. With the game being so hard, the player can only try to anticipate the consequences and political implications of their choices. The stats that players choose determine outcomes that they believe are important for the events of that week, but there are also hundreds of choices during each week that affect the future of the game or even your mood, which affects your ability to learn important skills.
Bottom Line:
“Long Live the Queen” is a game where every choice you make has a huge impact to the story of the game. There are only 104 times where you can learn skills. Some skills sound obvious to learn, whereas other lessons could change the way you experience the game. Try out the demo and play as a queen because as far as I can tell, it isn’t an easy job. You can only imagine how difficult it is to rule a country at the ripe, young age of 14.
