The Princess Blog

Magic Lamp was the last visual novel I completed in the Dress Up! Time Princess smartphone app  and will likely be my last one, at least for a while. This app is extremely addictive and time-consuming. If you download it, be sure not to start new stories lightly. Take your time with them. Don't attempt to do three stories at once like I did. The Magic Lamp novel contains two chapters and takes about as much time to go through as Queen Marie , which is a little over a month. This novel stands apart from the others in the game because of its Arabian setting. Similar to  Swan Lake , the story begins as a gender-bent retelling of "Aladdin,"  complete with similar-looking characters and costumes, but it goes in an unexpected direction by the end of the first chapter. Magic Lamp reveals secrets about the characters' pasts that are very different from the fairy tale or Disney interpretation. Players who enter the world of Magic Lamp assume the role of Gina, a slave gir...

The biggest princess news today is that Disney released their first teaser trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon , their next female-driven animated feature that is slated for release in March 2021. Early interviews  have hinted that Maya might be joining the Disney Princess line as an adventuresome  daughter of the village chief . The trailer does not look anything like a Disney Princess movie from eras past, but it does follow the newer trope  of princesses who fight, wear pants, and rebel against society . In other words, it's an action movie that's trying to mooch off the popularity of the Disney Princess brand at the same time. I don't know what to make of these "princess" movies that no longer contain any of the things we love about princesses. However, it doesn't look like a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the animation in the teaser was stunning. It just doesn't look like the princess movie that it is implied to be. The begin...

Queen Marie is the first visual novel that players can unlock in the Dress Up! Time Princess smartphone game app. It is the most user-friendly story in the game, but that doesn't mean it's easy to complete! It is the polar opposite of Swan Lake  with dynamic story branches that shift based on your choices and a myriad of possible endings. It also has the largest number of characters to bond with, although only two of them are viable love interests. The game allows you to play as Marie Antoinette from the perspective of a modern girl who is aware of her gruesome fate and has the ability to alter history, similar to the anime My Next Life as a Villainess . The interactive visual novel also allows you to unlock a full closet of extravagant French colonial-style gowns and wigs. Queen Marie gives Dress Up! Time Princess players the opportunity to experience the luxurious lifestyle of the pre-revolution French monarchy while making decisions that can alter history and potentially pr...

I already wrote a general review of the smartphone game app  Dress Up! Time Princess , but each visual novel within the game is so intricate and time-consuming that it warrants its own review. Immediately after I reviewed this game, I learned that it was about to release a new story based on the classic fairy tale ballet "Swan Lake," which is even more relevant to my blog than the other available stories since this is the only one so far that allows you to play as an actual princess. It is the shortest of the visual novels in the game (not counting side stories) with two potential love interests and three distinct "good" endings. It has fewer dress options than the other stories, but the ones in this book were some of my favorites. The only thing I didn't like was how much extra work was required to make them, which was probably intended to compensate for its length. In order to incentivize its players to participate in its visual novels, Dress Up! Time Princes...

While trying to distract myself from my addiction to Dress up! Time Princess , I was encouraged to browse through the Steam catalog  for other princess-related games I might enjoy. Sadly, there is no "princess" tag on Steam, and searching for such a thing can yield some questionable content . I decided to skip past the mainstream generic anime and Disney Princess games at the top and found some surprisingly unique indie games. Both of the ones I decided to buy happened to be inspired by the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty." However, the games themselves could not have been more different. One is a visual novel called Once Upon an Electric Dream  that tells a sci-fi reimagining of "Sleeping Beauty" in space (you read that right), and the other is a point and click adventure game called Little Briar Rose that allows you to play as the prince(s) from the fairy tale. More on that later. The first thing that caught my eye about Little Briar Rose was the art sty...

Voyage  is the latest book in The Kingdom Chronicles by Camille Peters . It is a retelling of the lesser-known fairy tale, "King Thrushbeard,"  about a conceited princess who thinks she is too good for any of her suitors. Though that concept makes it difficult for the story a likable protagonist, Seren's dignity was compensated with an unfortunate upbringing. It takes place on a ship while Seren is sailing to her new kingdom for her upcoming wedding to a stranger. I can see that Camille Peter did a lot of research for this story. There are many descriptions for different parts of a large ship and how they operate, which made the world feel organic. Even though she took some liberties with the fairy tale, it was a unique and pleasant adaptation that made for a refreshing take on an old story. Like all the books from this series, the main focus was on the romance between Seren and Ronan. It got a bit repetitive at times, but the story really picked up near the end. Similar ...