Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4

Publisher

NIS America

Developer

Nippon Ichi Software

Genre

Adventure, Platform

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

2.51 GB

Release Date (NA)

Feb 12, 2019

Release Date (JP)

May 31, 2018

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

GameStop

NIS America, Inc.

eShop

PSN Store

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a gorgeous game that plays like an interactive fairytale. Developed by Nippon Ichi Software, the company who created the Disgaea series and Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven Of Dusk, the game is quite different from those in terms of its design and gameplay.

A Wolf and a Prince

The game’s story is told as if you were reading a fairytale from a hardcover book. It begins in a deep, dark forest filled with monsters, and among them, there is a female wolf who has a magnificent singing voice. One night, when the wolf finishes singing, she hears a clapping sound. Surprised, she looks down from the steep hill where she’s perched to see that the noise is coming from a young prince. The prince doesn’t know who is singing, but he starts coming by every night to listen. The wolf does not like it at first but soon begins to appreciate the prince’s encouragement.

Days later, the prince decides to climb the hill to find out who was creating the beautiful music. When the wolf finishes singing, she’s shocked to see him almost at the top. She is scared to have the prince find out that it was a monster that was singing because she thinks he will hate her. Panicked, the wolf attacks with her claw and slashes the prince’s eyes, causing him to lose his sight. He falls and is taken back to his castle by a soldier who happened to be nearby.

Feeling guilty about what she did to the prince, the wolf asks the powerful witch of the forest for help. However, to fix the prince’s eyesight, the wolf needs to bring the prince to the witch, but the wolf knows he’s scared because of the incident. To make things right, the wolf asks the witch to turn the wolf into a princess. Why a princess? When she visited the prince before, she lied to the prince, telling him that she was a princess who came to meet him.

In exchange for transforming the wolf, the witch asks for the wolf’s singing voice. (Now, this sounds quite familiar to another fairytale, does it not?) The wolf agrees, and as a bonus, the witch grants the wolf the ability to change between the two forms. The wolf heads back to the prince’s castle, where he is locked in a tower. In her princess disguise, she grabs the prince’s hand, and they escape into the monster-filled forest.

As you play, you will see dialogue cutscenes between the prince and the wolf. In them, the wolf becomes more anxious about their travels and continues to lie about herself, but she is still determined to help the blinded prince. It’s a touching story about a monster and a human and their feelings toward each other.

Like a Pop-Up Book

Design-wise, the game is laid out like a pop-up book. Beautiful scenery in the background, with objects in the foreground that visually give levels a sense of depth. The 2D animations are subtle and smooth, too. The game isn’t colorful, but the dualtone theme meshes well with the story’s tone. If you are familiar with Edward Gorey’s illustration work or Tim Burton’s films, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince has a similar feel.

When you complete a stage or a cutscene starts, a “page turn” effect occurs. As if you were reading from a book. Similarly, going to the menu screen curls the corner of the screen, revealing the game’s options.

Something that would make the book concept feel more interactive would be to have the game be touchscreen friendly for the Nintendo Switch portable view. The ability to touch the right-corner of the screen and drag it to reveal the menu, like flipping a page, would have made it feel more unique.

Enchanting and Haunting

The game’s soundtrack consists a mixture of soothing and repetitive. The introduction features a lovely harp piece, and as you venture forth, clarinets and muted drums, as well as strings and gentle pianos, create a mysterious and otherworldly atmosphere. The more important scenes in the game have more interesting scores, filled with piano and harps playing off each other. The witch’s theme, in particular, is one of the best tracks with its fast tempo and piano parts.

On the other hand, a few of the stages, such as the Witch’s Garden, start to become dull with their same-sounding score. Some players may tune out the music or lower the volume as they focus on solving riddles and getting the prince to safety.

Guide the Prince

Those who have grown up with point-and-click games during the 1990s may remember one called Lemmings. The object of that game was to guide a group of the titular creatures across a level while avoiding traps, long drops, and deadly pits. Players set up detours to help the helpless creatures exit the level with as few casualties as possible.

The prince feels just like a lemming, but he does not move on his own like one. Instead, you need to grab his hand and direct him across the level. Like a lemming, you need to help him avoid enemy attacks and pits—and so do you while in princess form—since one attack or long fall can cause instant death. When this happens, you start from the last save points. Thankfully, the game has you covered on those, saving automatically quite often.

Grabbing the prince’s hand requires you to press and hold the action button, not unlike the PlayStation classic Ico. Some may find this annoying, but it’s actually clever. Holding the button down feels as if you were literally holding onto the prince. (He even smiles when you do it, which is a nice little touch.) At times, you will go to grab the prince’s hand and the game won’t recognize it, but this only happens rarely, like after falling onto mushrooms to break your fall or commanding the prince to grab something. Leading the prince around is the point of the game, and solving puzzles and riddles with him makes it fun. Interacting with the world is straightforward, too. Instructions are simple, with clever commands to control the prince, and there are no gauges on the screen to speak of.

As for your wolf form, monsters cannot hurt you like they can when you are in human form. Of course, you cannot grab the prince’s hand in this form, so expect to transform back and forth frequently. A word of advice: Place the prince in a safe area while you venture forth, defeating foes. This will help avoid many deaths.

Do As I Say

The prince is helpless but not useless. He will aid you when it comes to unlocking gates and other puzzles, but doing so may require a few different commands, which you will unlock as you play. For example, having him walk at a certain distance or pick up a lantern can open new areas for travel.

Additionally, having the prince hold a lit lantern will keep monsters away, since they cannot stand fire. Unfortunately, the fire does not last long, so use your time wisely until you can replenish it. (And remember, there are no gauges here.)

Riddle Me This

While some players may find the idea of dragging a blinded prince around tedious, it’s actually a challenging experience filled with puzzles to solve. You are regularly required to tackle obstacles, from dealing with enemies from afar to opening gates. Some puzzles also involve deciphering cryptic clues. For example, in the Witch’s Garden level, there are many number-based riddles that must be solved in order to proceed. Clues are spread across each stage, and the answer has to be entered next to the relevant locked gate. The clues and hints that the game gives can be difficult to figure out, though, leading to a lot of head-scratching.

Replay the Story?

When you are done with a book, how often do you immediately re-read it? While this fairytale has a great story, the game itself, with its simple, straight-forward goals, just isn’t very deep. Most players will be able to finish it in about five hours. And yes, there are collectible items in each level, which can double that amount if you want to achieve 100% completion. However, it’s not enough to justify replaying the game. If the developers had added secret levels that branched out from other areas, that would have been more appealing, but when dragging a blinded prince around, how much is enough?

Ending on a High Note

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a beautiful game with a touching storyline. Its unique gameplay is quite different from anything Nippon Ichi Software has done before, but don’t expect to have much to do after you finish it. Still, it’s an enchanting experience while it lasts, and players will live happily ever after…probably.

A review code was provided by NIS America for this review.