Volcano Princess: a father simulator that is not allowed to go out for cigarettes and never come back.
THE GAME
Volcano Princess is a simulator, RPG, manager and adventure game from Egg Hatcher, distributed by Gamera Games. After the death of your wife, you take on the life of a single father who must care for and help his daughter grow up. Going through all the stages from childhood to adulthood, you will guide the young girl along the path of her choice: whether it's focusing on battles, becoming an artist, or immersing herself in her studies. And while doing these and many other tasks, interact with the townspeople to make friends, earn items, and perhaps start a romance.
The game is full of choices, and each one of them will have an effect on the girl's future. Be a good father and help your daughter to achieve her dreams!
MY IMPRESSIONS
I started playing Volcano Princess without much idea of what I was getting myself into. Before I knew it, hours had passed and I wasn't even half way through the game. My first run was long because I explored and experimented with everything. I thought it would be a more elaborate visual novel, but I was wrong. There is a lot to do. I won't go into details about the story to not spoil the experience for anyone, but there are plot twists and very daring endings, which, at least for me, was a big surprise. The game does not have subtitles in Portuguese-Brazil, which may put off some non-English speakers, since the story and dialogs are essential to appreciate its entirety.
The game consists of turns and action points. Each turn is a month of the year and each year is a season. Your action points, as the name implies, are points spent to do any task in the game. You have attributes that are responsible for improving your actions and have a better chance of success. As I said, you can do a lot of things, so until you understand the game itself, you will make some mistakes. However, this is not a bad thing, because Volcano Princess has a good replay factor, which makes the next runs easier.
I could spend hours describing everything that is possible to do, some things are more fun, some are more boring. What matters is that my first run was very satisfying and I could see that the game was made with care. Notice that I said "first run", ok? From then on, I was learning more about the game, understanding better the mechanics and collecting different endings and novels, after all, each one is a unique achievement. From the fifth run on, I was just advancing straight to where I wanted, just focusing on what was important for that run. The game becomes tiring. Going through the four years to the end of the game is a huge amount of time. As I mentioned before, the game has a good replay factor, but it could be a lot better for those who want to see all the endings.
The art in the game is very beautiful. We can see that it was made with passion. Volcano Princess was developed by two women in China and I can feel that they put a lot of effort into making the game the way they wanted it to be. And in my opinion, they succeeded.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Let me start with a warning: DO NOT try to do 100% of the achievements! Do you want to try? No problem, but don't say I didn't warn you. As I said in the previous topic, each different ending is a unique achievement. And remember I said it will take you a few hours to get to the end of the game, right? Well, link these two factors together and you will understand why. Even if, in a single run, you can do more than one different ending, there are still many endings that require actions and attributes in a specific value. 58 endings! And the more you do it, the more specific it gets. Not to mention the romance endings, which you can't always get more than one per run.
The other achievements are easy and you will get them over the course of several runs. Even with the help the game gives you after completing some achievements, it is still a very challenging 100%. In summary, if you have the time and desire, do them all. If not, just enjoy the game.
CONCLUSION
Volcano Princess is simple at the beginning and complicated at the end. I was genuinely impressed (and scared a few times) by some plot twists. I was engaged with the game, until I started some new saves to get different endings. Let it be very clear that this is me criticizing something that is not essential to the game, but rather to me as a player who likes to do 100% of the achievements. I could take some endings and let go, but it wouldn't be fair. So I don't think it should be that complicated. And I don't even say about the requirements for the achievements, but the playing time. This upset me a little bit.
As you can see, if my main point of criticism was only the above, the game is really fun for those who enjoy the genre. Volcano Princess does what it sets out to do well, even if the game is a continuous repetition of some actions.
I had fun playing and trying to learn every mechanic. I would explode with joy when I reached the ending I wanted, and melt with sadness when I couldn't after hours of play. Volcano Princess is the result of two women and their visions about the game they wanted to create. In my view, it was a success.
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