Princess Maker 2 Regeneration Review (NSW)

Anyone in the gaming scene 30 years ago has probably heard about a simulation game that took the community by storm, Princess Maker 2. One of the biggest reasons dosboxes have existed is to play Princess Maker 2. Now the game is finally available on modern consoles. Princess Maker 2 Regeneration builds on the original Princess Maker 2 with new art and a huge change in translation.

Game Name: Princess Maker 2 Regeneration
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), PC, (Will Release on PS4, and PS5 as well)
Developer(s): Bliss Brain, Monkey Craft
Publisher(s): Bliss Brain
Release Date: July 10th, 2024
Price: $39.99

In Princess Maker 2 Regeneration, you play as a hero of the kingdom who gets a daughter from the sky. Your role is to be her father and mentor. You help schedule her studies and her normal day activities. You also introduce her to a variety of people in the kingdom. You get to start her learning when she is 10 years old, and for the next 8 years, you have to help her become an adult. Based on the ways you raise your daughter, you will help her find what she wants to do in her life.

The Good

The core of Princess Maker 2 Regeneration is still Princess Maker 2. This is a game that still holds up in terms of enjoyment. Unlocking the achievements and unlocking endings and scenes are still really fun and engaging. Seeing your daughter go from a 10-year-old child into an 18-year-old warrior, nun, or Queen is still satisfying. You get to select studies for her such as dance, poetry, magic school, and other types of study to help her improve and grow as a person. Each month hits you with three tasks you can select for her to accomplish. These tasks include studies, jobs she can work, areas of the forest to explore, and also just going out on the town you live in. My main suggestion is to get a good chunk of money early on to work on things you can only work in through studying. Studying in classes costs a good amount of money.

Even though the core gameplay is very simple, it still can surprise you. I forgot there were even combat sections in the game. When I did the Path of the Warrior I was pleased that we got to see actual combat strategies and mechanics. Granted it is simple, but it was still fun to trounce the competition. I focused on Strength, Attack, and Combat Skill as the attributes to focus on so when my daughter met up with enemies who had a magical specialty it was much more difficult. Otherwise, she could knock out anyone she came across.

The art was improved in a lot of areas in Princess Maker 2 Regeneration. There was a whole opening animation made for this release of the game as well as a ton of CG scenes that were redone or touched up. I played the game in Handheld mode on the Switch so I only saw the artwork in 720p resolutions, but it was enough to appreciate the new artwork and redone illustrations.

The translation in Princess Maker 2 Regeneration also had a huge overhaul in terms of readability. The old Princess Maker 2 had what felt like machine-translated text. This new translation feels a lot more natural in dialogue and comprehension. That said, let’s get to the Bad of the translation.

The Bad

Even though Princess Maker 2 Regeneration had an overhaul in text and translation, there are a lot of weird added symbols and spaces and typos in the text. It doesn’t necessarily take you out of the moment, but it does remind you that even with large overhauls when it comes to text, there is a lot that can be missed.

I played on Nintendo Switch and I found some weird bugs in the process. The big one was during text input. Most of the time it would bring up the text input of the Nintendo interface but it wouldn’t let you read the actual text behind it. You would have to cancel the text input to look at the prompt then you couldn’t open the text interface but you could use the programmed text input screen that was made for the PC initially. It got me a bit frustrated at the beginning.

The screen layout still holds up in terms of categories and everything but with how small the icons and the indicator are, you could get lost on the menu fairly easily. Also in some instances if you pressed A to look at the whole text during dialogue, rather than finishing the text the person was saying, it would just skip to the next textbox making you just miss that text entirely.

The Verdict

Princess Maker 2 Regeneration still has the building blocks of the original Princess Maker 2 and is always a great recommendation for people who want to try a life simulator. If you don’t have access to Steam and want to experience it on a console, namely Nintendo Switch, then Princess Maker 2 Regeneration is the must-pick choice. If you want to experience it on Steam, I don’t know if I could justify the increase in price to those starting Princess Maker 2 for the first time at Regeneration. Princess Maker 2 Refine is $19.99 on Steam, Princess Maker 2 Regeneration is $39.99. That said it is great to see Princess Maker 2 make its way to modern console so if you are not a PC player, then this is the way to go.

Princess Maker 2 Regeneration is available on Nintendo Switch, and PC. It will be available on PS4, and PS5 on August 8th, 2024.

Review Disclosure Statement: Princess Maker 2 Regeneration was provided to us by Bliss Brain for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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