The Evil that is Princess Maker 4

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So I just received Princess Maker 4 for the PSP in the mail today. Playing the old PM2 DOS version with no sound was getting boring, so when I found this version for cheap, I thought “why not?”. Now I get shiny graphics and voices!

Unfortunately I get easily addicted to management games like this one, and ended up spending my time marathoning through this game today. And here’s a little about what the game is like (there will be a few minor spoilers, but it’s not like the story in these games is that deep).

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The story starts out traditionally – the world is ending, and a hero shows up, saving the day by slaying the demon boss. (Only this time it’s a woman doing the slaying – woo!).
Travelling the world the protagonist hero, now all alone, is handed a small girl in a forest. He is asked by his former lover (the demon-slaying superwoman) to raise this child, and he agrees.

Now the game begins with a diabetically cute little girl only 10 years old. A lot of people shy away from Princess Maker games, saying that it borders on the pedophile. I don’t believe so. It’s a fun game with and interesting concept, and I know for a fact that a lot of females enjoy playing them as well. But I still feel like doing a head-desk when that little girl says that her dream is to “marry her papa”. -_-;;

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Differently from the old Princess Maker 2 that I played last, this version is filled with events and pretty CG’s. The daughter also has a wide range of friends that she gets to interact with. And as she grows a little older, potential grooms show up – yay, this game has bishies!!

Since I used to do well at the warrior route back in the days, I decided to try my luck at that here as well. I keep loosing the battles at the festival though ._.
I run into a guy called ‘Charles’, riding a white horse. He claims being a knight, but keeps running away from someone. It’s not hard to figure out why.

My daughter ‘Rio’ grows up – soon she meets Charles as the castle as well, and spends a couple of christmasses with him. For once I actually manage to both do well with her warrior training, and also get all the way up to the queen and king when visiting the castle! Things are going well, I think! I even manage to win the final tournament!

The great day arrives – the day of the dancing party when Rio is 18 years old. She and her friend goes to the castle to finally see the prince. While Rio waits in excitement, she sees that the prince is, in reality, Charles (as if we didn’t know that already).
The prince smiles, and comes walking towards Rio and her friend. ‘Yes!’ I think. ‘This is it! I finally got the Prince Ending!’

“Would you like to dance?” he asks.
“Oh yes!” answers the friend.

WTF!?!?

Next we see mr. prince and Rio’s childhood friend dancing around, while hearing Rio think about how happy she is for her friend.

Poor Rio ends up alone, and goes out to fight in the war. She becomes some hero or something.

So now what? Screw the prince! Next time I’ll go to Dark Town and go after that red-eyed bishie I saw there. Yeah.

12 thoughts on “The Evil that is Princess Maker 4

  1. Wow, does PM4 have an English translation?! I never knew! Hmm, perhaps I should try it out…

    “Playing the old PM2 DOS version with no sound was getting boring”
    Hmm, can’t you get the sounds to work? There should be some other .exe besides the game one in the folder, and you can adjust the sounds from that one. For some reasons, it is default on off… I wish I could give you more specific instructions, but PM2 doesn’t quite run on my 64-bit system, so I can’t confirm which file it was… ^^;

    Anyway, Princess Maker is a wonderful series, great to know that you like it too!

    1. Unfortunately there is no complete english patch for PM4 – for the pc version there is a menu patch: http://deekoo.net/technocracy/pm4_english/ and an uncompleted translation project:http://www.rikkaidai.net/otomeeternal/pm_main.php

      No the sound won’t work for me 🙁 I think I already tried configuring it without luck. I believe I once heard that I had to run it through dos-box to get it to work, but I haven’t tried that.

      And yes, I love Princess Maker 😀

  2. I tried the DS version, but never managed to finish a single route, even with a guide.
    I think it was a lack of determination. x.X
    How do you handle all the festivals? I keep on losing in the contests… ;_;

    I really liked the game though, and the graphics are extremely pretty.

    1. I kept loosing at the festivals too, except for the very last one – I won that 😛
      I still have to get any other endings though. It’s pretty hard ^^;

      Yes, it really is pretty!

  3. A few things to say:

    * I remember, not so long ago, how children would indeed say things like “mommy, I’ll marry you!”. And because children say this in the most innocent way possible, it would be seen as utterly cute, even though it’s clearly not a possibility. I miss the old days 😐

    * Your tale of ending alone has me do a dramatic hand-extended “Nuuuoooh!!!” gesture XD. That was really below the belt ^^;

    * PM2 does get sound if you run it with DosBox. I discovered that last Christmas when we all (#baka…) did our PM2 runs :). On the other hand, it’s only music, so it’s not like you were missing much.

    Good luck with red-eyes!

    – Moni

    1. Haha yes it was mean xD

      And yeah, it seems that things that were cute and innocent before just aren’t tolerated any more ^^; Here in Denmark we had a song where a small girl would sing “I want to marry dad, because dad is so nice!”
      Usually people thought that was the cutest thing. Now however… lol….

      And no sound, huh… well, it’s not all that necessary anyway. I usually just listened to the radio while playing.

  4. PM4 was 99% translated for PC by a company that ended up going bankrupt before it was ever released. If you use an old program like DOS-Box and you have the proper version that got leaked, you can play the game, with full menus, titles, and even conversation in full sound and music. There is a handful of endings that were never completed though and you will run into them occasionally.

    In the end it is a great game and I am upset people are so ignorant not to bring it to the States. I mean, it seems enough people are willing to import it or download an illegal copy, why not make some extra cash and just translate it already?

    1. Don’t you mean PM2? I already played the old dos version a long time ago. PM4 is too new to be played through dos-box 😉

      But yes, it’s too bad that these games don’t make it over.

  5. I know this post is old but the secret of winning combat contest in PM4 is

    Martial art skill X Pride = physical atk
    Martial art skill X Morals = physical def

    Magic art X intelligence = magic atk
    Magic art X sensitivity = magic def

  6. I have wanted to play this game since years ago after playing PM 2 using old windows OS. I wish the english version is available here in US but that is not going to happen is it. So sad. It is a very cute game! I spent days playing it over and over again! Ah too bad I wasn’t born in Japan. The games in the US doesn’t make me want to play games at all. I am more into simulation/RPG like PM and Uncharted Waters, not killing zombies.

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