Princess Maker series
プリンセスメーカー
Today we will do a life simulation bishōjo raising sim series Princess Maker, created by Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Gainax. Takami Akai (pictured below) designed all the games, including the characters. His official website (in Japanese, can be translated in your native language if you have Chrome) can be visited here.
The series is about a hero who raises a girl to the age of 18. Now on to the games!
Please note: Steam versions (including the DOS version of the second game) are shown in this post.
Princess Maker
The first order of business is the first Princess Maker game. It was a popular MicroCabin game at the time of its release in 1991. It was re-released in a ‘Refine Edition’ with enhanced graphics and voices. There is a fan-made English and Spanish translation for the normal MSX version. The original version is for the NEC PC-9801 system, and the Refine Edition is out for the PlayStation 2 as well as Windows.
The player is in charge of a war orphan, Maria, after defeating an evil demon. This game is similar to Princess Maker 2, but one cannot give pocket money to the daughter, and in this version, the player can send the daughter to town to view the people’s opinions of her. The wardrobe is also much larger than the sequel. There are four sets of clothing for each season. These clothes change after aging. Therefore, there are about 28 sets of clothing the daughter can wear over the years. The Harvest Festival has a Combat Tournament and a Miss Kingdom Contest. If the daughter succeeds, her popularity will rise. There are 74 possible endings, ranging from humble jobs such as a soldier or a mason, to prestigious jobs such as Archbishop or Prime Minister, to “dark side” jobs such as prostitute or crime lord. In addition, numerous factors decide whether or not the daughter is successful at her job, whom she marries, and whether she has children of her own.
Maria (voiced by Chisa Yokoyama) makes a cameo appearance in Princess Maker: Faery Tales Come True. Masahiro Kajihara composed the music for the first two games. Here is the soundtrack.
Princess Maker 2
The second game marks the debut of Cube (voiced by One Piece star Mayumi Tanaka in the original and Tomo Saeki for the Refine version), the player’s young demon butler. Originally released in 1993 on the PC-9801, the DOS version (which was released in 1995) was leaked for years until the Refine version came.
The DOS version (which did not make it available to the public) is often censored in some scenes, such as during vacations in the sea or fighting female enemies. The game takes place in a fantasy world roughly modeled after medieval Europe. The starting year is given as 1210 K.D. The player’s character is a famous warrior who defended the kingdom from an invasion by Lucifon, the Prince of Darkness (a corruption of Lucifer); consequently, he is known throughout the land as a military hero and receives an annual salary from the palace. One night, he receives a communication from a god whose identity is determined by the birthdate the player selects at the beginning of the game. This god bestows upon the mentioned player a child of the heavens, and it is their duty to raise her from the age of 10 to the age of 18, at which point she will enter a line of work; the most desirable outcome is that of a royal princess.
The daughter has a set of statistics that fluctuate depending on the activities the player assigns to her schedule, including various part-time jobs, schooling, adventure, and free time. It is these statistics that ultimately determine her final occupation, her skill level in her line of work, and her overall happiness in life; her marital fate is also decided, in part, by these statistics. The game also makes use of some invisible statistics to determine the occurrence of certain special events.
The god who visits the father is the daughter’s patron god. That patron determines her starting statistics in a way that is loosely related to the god’s role in the Roman pantheon; for example, a girl born under Mars begins the game with an advantage in fighting reputation. The game features 74 possible endings.
Along with the original Princess Maker 1, Princess Maker 2 has received a newer “refined” remake for Windows. The overall graphics and sound quality of the game have been improved, along with various other elements. Here are the comparisons, the SoftEgg translation holds 16 characters for names, and the CFK translation (which is rough) holds 8 characters for names.
An English-language version of Princess Maker 2 Refine was released via Steam in Fall 2016. Olive (voiced by Aya Hisakawa in the original version and Chinami Nishimura in the Refined version) makes a cameo appearance in Princess Maker: Faery Tales Come True, this time without Cube. The (lovely) soundtrack can be found here.
Princess Maker: Yumemiru Yousei (ゆめみる妖精) / Faery Tales Come True (aka Princess Maker 3)
Released in 1997, this game was originally unnumbered and called Princess Maker: Faery Tales Come True. It was released for the PlayStation, Windows, Dreamcast, and Sega Saturn. This makes the first game in the series not to have Cube the butler, instead, he is replaced with Uzu, a female fairy who took his place as a butler.
In Princess Maker 3, the daughter is a young faery who desires to become a human princess. The player’s task is to help her reach adulthood. In this version, everything said to your daughter and done will help determine your daughter’s attitude, social status, and outlook on life. Unlike the previous game, the player has a chance to choose between six occupations. The occupation determines the player’s social status in the kingdom, cash at hand, and the amount of yearly wage. The occupation will also affect various factors in the main character, starting with the attitude with which she begins. Along these lines, unlike the previous games where she was either happy, sick, or rebellious, the daughter’s attitude can range from happy, to average, to worried, to spoiled. Her attitude will be determined based on both the player’s job starting off (Merchant, Performer, Fallen Nobleman, Priest, Retired Knight, and Bard) and how well is she treated by the player during the game. There are 60 endings in this game ranging from the typical ones like General and Hero to some more distinctive ones like Gambler and Freelancer. There are also many “magical” endings, with not only the princess ending but the princess of darkness, cats, etc. She can also marry a variety of people.
The player’s daughter (canonically named Lisa, who is voiced by Yukana in both the original and Refine versions) has several courses and jobs available, just like in Princess Maker 2. The courses to enhance her status include regular school, ballet class, or church. All courses, save for church and fasting sessions, will challenge the daughter with a test/exam based on her status and how long she has dedicated herself to the course. The result of the test/exam will be directly proportional to the daughter’s status. Once the result is announced, her reaction will depend on her overall status. The daughter’s reactions vary, and it may or may not have an effect on her status for better or for worse. For all courses with tests/exams, the daughter will have an opportunity to encounter her “rival” depending on your status related to the course. All courses, save for church and fasting sessions, will offer a unique rival female character. If the status related to the course is high enough, the rival may offer her friendship. Once the friendship is forged, the rival character will bring a present on the character’s birthday that would boost up some of her status depending on what kind of gift it is. They also would occasionally visit your daughter and hang out, which reduces her stress level and boosts certain personality status. School courses are rather unusual as she may get a scholarship offer depending on her academic status. The third game was finally released on Nintendo Switch.
Princess Maker 4
Unlike past installments, Princess Maker 4 was developed by GeneX, although Takami Akai (original series creator) remained on hand as a supervisor. This time, character illustrations were handled by Tenhiro Naoto, the creator of Sister Princess. It was released in 2005 on the PlayStation 2.
Structurally, Princess Maker 4 draws much inspiration from Princess Maker 2, although an adventure mode does not exist anymore. As with PM3, full voiceovers have been recorded, including contributions from famous voice actors like Sakurai Takahiro (Prince Sharul/Charles). PM4 is highly drama-oriented. Throughout the game, various event scenes offer clues about your daughter’s past, not to mention the war between humans and non-humans and her demonic roots. This is probably what differentiates it the most from previous PM games. Another change is that most of the vice-related jobs are less “adult-oriented” as the daughter can’t receive more sinful jobs such as Cabaret Dancing or as an assassin.
The story begins when the player, a soldier, falls in love with a mysterious woman. However, she disappears, only to be found by him a few years later. She hands him the child, whose default name is Patricia, along with Cube the butler, and so his quest for fatherhood begins.
A Japanese PC version of Princess Maker 4 was released on July 28, 2006. It contains many more endings and events compared to the original. A PlayStation Portable version of Princess Maker 4 was released in Japan on October 12, 2006. A Nintendo DS version of it was released with a few more endings and “extras” not released in the PC version. These extras are, like ending galleries, only accessible after finishing the first ending and credit sequence.
Earlier, there was an entirely different Princess Maker 4 in the works. Under development at Ninelives, the game was to take place in modern Tokyo rather than the medieval world featured in the final game. This project was eventually abandoned due to Akai’s health issues. However, the concept went on to be the basis of Princess Maker 5, including the modern Japan setting and the fact that Cube can transform himself into a dog. The game has not been released on Steam for several reasons.
Princess Maker 5
The fifth and final game of the series includes various Gainax references, such as the use of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann costumes (such as Rei’s and Asuka’s EVA suits, Yoko’s bikini, and Simon’s jacket). A PlayStation Portable version was also released in 2008. It has several differences from previous titles in the series. The environment has become a modern setting presumably in a fictitious city somewhere in Japan, and instead of being only able to take on the role of a father, the player can now play as a mother or a father.
The gameplay has received several major changes as well, including changes to the scheduling of her courses/work, which no longer follows the monthly timeline but follows a more lengthy weekly timeline. More detailed choices are available on how lenient you are on her diet, curfew, allowance, and her disposition towards school, people around her, and how she should think. RPG elements have been implemented as well, though nowhere as intensively as Princess Maker 2, the player can now let his/her daughter go explore the worlds that are parallel to her own.
The player in this game is a retired hero of a human realm parallel to the modern world. The daughter is a girl from a royal heritage, and one of many candidates to assume the role of princess. However, following the assassinations of the other candidates, she became the target as well. Her entire family is killed during the attempt on her life. As her protector, Cube saved the player’s daughter and requested the player to take care of the daughter until she reached the age of 18. So the journey of parenthood unfolds with Cube’s help. The game was finally released on Steam, with some issues (such as a seven-character maximum for names/jobs).
That’s the end of the post for this series.
Update 2024.07.12: Gainax, the anime studio famous for original productions such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Royal Space Force, Gunbuster, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Kare Kano, FLCL, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and Gurren Lagann, as well as the creator of the Princess Maker series, filed for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court and as a result, Gainax has been shut down.
