Yay or Nay? Princess Arthur (Otome Game)

Confession time: I've been wanting to review this game since this blog began. The basic premise? Hey! What if the story of King Arthur was gender-swapped and it was actually a girl leading the Knights of the Round Table? 

Now you know what this game's premise is. 

The Story

You play as Alu, a girl who lives in the village of Camelot, daughter of the retired knight Sir Hector, and sister to Kay, a knight of King Uther's Round Table. You're an unusual girl, trained in the art of swordplay as your father runs a Swordsmanship School. You've bested your brother in a duel, and that bothers him. So when King Uther dies, his sword, known as "The Holy Sword", is placed in a stone, only to be removed by the worthy King. It's called the Choosing. Your brother removes the stone, but only when he's touching you. Merlin, the Wizard,  notices something is afoot and gets you to try to remove the Sword yourself. Shockingly, you do, which names you the new King. 

Yes King, not Queen. Guinevere is actually still in this, so you're technically the King of Camelot. The Knights call you "Lady-Princess King", which, yes, is as convoluted as it sounds. She's a queen or a princess, pick one. Guinevere, in contrast, becomes a motherly figure to Alu, helping her become the leader she must be. Essentially the rest of the game is about you adjusting and becoming the King you need to be, and in, at the end, getting a handsome knight as your love-interest.

This is an interesting story. I actually hadn't considered how they might go about this. How do you make King Arthur gender swapped? Can you even do it (apparently yes). It's done fairly well though. Like I was surprised. This game is also really long too. It took me about a week per route, and the chapters, while maybe 8-9 chapters long, are long in themselves. The first five require about five different choices before going onto the next. 

My Thoughts 

So, I ended up playing most of the routes on my way home from school riding the bus. And each of the knights has their own unique trials and downfalls. 

 

You can choose from: 

So as you can see there's quite a lot of variety to be found with this game.

Personally, I enjoyed Gawain's, Mordred (the little asshat that he is), and Galahad's routes especially. 

It is rather funny though. When I was doing an initial playthrough of the game, way back at Christmas, I sent Olga the title card for this game (with all of the characters above on it) and asked her to guess which knight or character was which. 

This was her response: (I'm in white text, she's in green)

She tanked the test haha. But really, there wasn't a bad route at all, but perhaps some that were boring. 

So, for example, I'll use Galahad's route: So Galahad's route up until maybe chapter 5-6 is pretty much the same as anyone else's. It repeats the same events over and over. The turning points are Alu running away, the ball that Guinevere holds, and the coronation (where Alu is almost murdered). These specific points of interest do not change, and for the most part incorporate none of the romantic interest (save for a couple parts, like at the dance, where the knight you picked escorts you). 

So, played one half of the route once, and you've played half of the others.

It's only after you go off to war that the story picks up, but to be fair that's four-five chapters. That's not a lot of time for a rising action and climax, as well as building romantic interest between Alu and her chosen knight. As a result, the romance aspect of the story becomes very rushed. 

In Galahad's story, however, I found there was a little more time. His story had a little more buildup and cute moments (granted he's a huge tsundere and comes off as a little childish. Regardless, I felt he was the most "cute" (besides Gawain) of the group. Galahad comes from a special house, "Silverth" which makes him chosen to be a priest. However, as with Alu, he was destined to something else. He was destined to be a knight (as his name showed up on the Round Table chair, as it did with Alu, by magic. If you play this route, you'll see more of what I mean by this).

With Galahad, it's about building trust. Which, to be fair is like, an essential part of any relationship. I find it a little funny though (and impressive), since given the heritage he has, and the real-life myth of Galahad, who was known as the "Holy and Pure", and then what his route makes him out to be is pretty interesting. I noticed this with the Merlin route as well. The creators stick as closely as they can to the myths. I mean as close as you can get with gender-swapped Arthur. 

None the less, it's the little things that make these games good. This is one of those things. The art is nothing less of stellar and is thematic of the story. The CGs are numerous and really nicely done. I don't think I've had a game that actually has given me so many CGs per route. As a final note, the time period this game takes place is supposed to be ancient England, but the costumes are sort of a fantasy, medieval-ish, type thing. I suppose that's interesting, although in this type of story I think accuracy was needed. There's one CG where I saw Alu's armor, and it is not proper for battle, that's all I'm gonna say. 

I think I'm gonna nitpick that a little. 

The MC Alu isn't really a "damsel in distress", but at the same time, she kind of is. She learns to be strong and a leader, but the one problem with this storyline is that I don't (or didn't) think Alu got a lot of agency. She's pushed into the decisions she's made, and while I think that the focus was originally on making Alu a strong leader, it gets distracted (possibly with the fast-paced romance plot, and the climax of the story). I don't think this is because it clashes with the position Alu is in or the romantic aspect. Rather, I think it's the fast nature of the story, which, if the repetitive first few chapters were removed, would definitely help spread the story out and go more into detail. It's disappointing in that regard because the story itself is really plot-driven and really good. 

My Rating

So, I really enjoyed this game. As I've said, Galahad's route was one of my favourites, and I thought it did a good job art, character, and storywise. However, the lack of varying routes, in the beginning, is a little problematic. Alu, our MC, isn't too bad, although I think her development isn't as solid as I would like. Still, this game is a solid, and good game. 

My Rating? ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 

Definitely worth a download! 

~Meghan