Tester’s Corner: Princess Evangile Ed. Vol 2

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“Would you be interested in beta testing Princess Evangile?,” the e-mail said. This was my first project coming off d2b vs DEARDROPS, and I was eager to work again. I took a look at some info about the game online. A game where you just romance girls as the typical only guy in an all-girls’ environment? I despaired a bit at what I thought would sure be some awful, generic nukige.

Turns out that, as I would soon learn, I was completely wrong.

Overview

Overview

Princess Evangile is the story of the not-so-subtly named Okonogi Masaya, a young man with a deadbeat father who is totally down on his luck. Just as he’s about to succumb to poverty and despair, he’s offered the miraculous chance to attend Vincenes Academy, a private school for girls. Turns out they’re considering the idea of gender-integrating the school, and he is to be a sample of men to see what it would be like.

Over the course of the game, you have four girls to choose from: Rise, the responsible and upstanding girl who recruited you for Vincennes, Chiho, your childhood friend who unexpectedly reunites with you, Ritsuko, the serious and straight-laced girl, and Ayaka, the flighty and laid-back older student.

Story

Story

This is where the game really shines much more than expected. The common route is very long and full of unexpected twists and turns. I don’t exaggerate when I say you’ll be laughing, crying, and cheering your way through many of the scenes. There were moments when I felt legitimately terrified on the protagonist’s behalf, and quite angry at many of the characters. There were also many tear-jerking moments where I couldn’t help but be thankful nobody else was around when I played the game. The writing ropes you in and gets you attached to the characters, which is a feat few visual novels manage to accomplish very well.

Each of the girls has their own problems and backstories, and you’ll only get the full picture by playing all of the routes. This applies to the other characters as well, particularly the ruthless headmistress who has it out for you the second you step through the front gates (she’s vehemently opposed to the idea of gender integration and will resort to anything to make you leave). All in all, the routes are all quite good except for a moment or two in a few of the routes where certain things seem hamfisted or poorly executed, but even then these gripes are minor (I can’t really give them away without spoiling anything).

The only major complaint I have is the lack of a Ruriko route. Ruriko is a side character who is a member of the White Lily Society (the group of friends you join with to help push for school reform), however “side character” is a light term here. Ruriko is a very prominent character from the get-go and stays relevant throughout all of the common route. In fact, during the common route she actually receives her own romantic development with you where you help her get out of an unwanted arranged marriage. And yet, shortly after her clearly expressing her feelings for you (and her grandfather even giving you the seal of approval), the romance with her just sort of fades into oblivion and you never hear about it again. In my opinion she deserved a route more than Ritsuko did for sure (Ritsuko is in the Red Rose society which directly opposes your own anyway), but I guess they wanted a kuudere in there. In any case, there’s a Ruriko route in the fan disc sequel, so let’s hope we get to see that.

Art

Art

The character art in this game is pretty. The sprites are well-drawn and I don’t really have any complaints about them, but when I look at the art I see more-or-less that same thing that I see as stereotypically “VN.” Companies like OVERDRIVE have done a really good job of creating a unique and personal style, but Moon Stone hasn’t really done that here.

The other art assets, however, are very good. The background are all well-drawn and detailed, which gives you a nice sense of the beauty of Vincennes. There is also a large variety of backgrounds, which makes the game pretty to look at. There are also animation assets that crops up occasionally, such as sakura petals falling under the trees during certain scenes that add a really nice touch of pizazz to the whole thing. They show a nice touch in that they change the text boxes’ color to show whose perspective you’re reading from when the perspective changes. I definitely have to praise this game for its production value.

Music

Soundtrack

The music in this game is quite lovely and well-appropriated. Most of the music is classically composed, and some of the pieces are actual classical masterpieces that Moon Stone has borrowed. These pieces fit very well with the aloof and majestic atmosphere Vincennes creates, and they do a good job of balancing out the story. Certain tracks played at key moments are well done and add quite a bit to the scenes; my particular favorite is a track called “An Important Time” which plays during very intimate scenes between the characters.

My only complaint with the soundtrack is the lack of variety. The tunes worked, but I felt like I was often hearing the same song over and over again; I wish they had composed more music to use just to make certain songs appear less often (particularly the slice-of-life tracks).

sex

Sex

Of course, since it’s a romance game, there’s plenty of sex to be had. To be honest, there’s not a whole lot to say about the sex. It’s all very vanilla; blowjob/cunnilingus, paizuri, and various sex positions are all that really happens. The most exciting thing is one scene where two of the characters have sex in a bathroom in a public place.

Final Thought

It’s been a long journey beta testing Princess Evangile, and I can’t say that I don’t feel a twinge of sadness now that it’s coming to an end (especially since I finished with the Ayaka route which has a touching send-off final scene). However, I’m happy to say that my expectations have been overturned: Princess Evangile is not a generic nukige or otaku-dating sim, but instead a really good game with an intriguing story and a likable cast of characters. Play it when it comes out, you won’t regret it.

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13 Comments

  1. I want to buy this game I really do but not enough to deal with your bullshit DRM…I’ll wait for a hardcopy version before I get around to playing it.

    • There’s an all-ages version of it available on Steam as well, if you prefer that.

      • If you’ve been paying attention for the last few days then surely you’d be aware that the likes of Valve, Steam, and GabeN are viewed with much less respect than they were even just a week ago.

  2. Proud to be one of the few, the proud, the #PrincessEvangile evangelists on Twitter. Really enjoying the game. If you’re reading this review to decide whether or not to buy the game… just go buy it, already : P. You’ll have fun with it.

  3. I agree with all of the main points of this Tester’s Corner, though I liked the art more. The main group of girls that Masaya hangs out with are all good to spend time with. I liked that there weren’t any annoying characters who got a lot of screentime. I’m definitely rooting for the fandisc for Ruriko and Tamie.

    Someone will have to explain “not-so-subtly named Okonogi Masaya” to me, because I missed the reference, just like I did with Yume in Da Capo 2.

  4. There’s an actual ruriko route in the fan disc called Princess Evangile W Happiness, along with the other side characters. It’s not translated yet though.

  5. I think most people are hoping that MG bring over the fandisc, Ruriko route felt like it was planned for the original game to begin with kotomi as well tbh since they both had their own story’s in the common route like everyone else.

  6. agitatedpsyche

    are you saying the genre itself is awful? It sounds more like you come from the typical ann bandwagon that simply discards harems because they have several similarities. But thats where it ends, are you not looking at other factors? So does this also apply to how you,lets say, feel about music? Do you hate the fact that your favorite genre uses similar instruments, singers, and a similar feel? Its easy to point out bands ,that are within a certain genre, that are either bland or engaging. So What type of opening was that? By the way you talk you are no better than the people that treat anime heroines like trash. The harem genre itself wouldnt be potent at all if it wasn’t for various factors like voices, music, character patterns, colors and especially the anime style that help this genre become something special. One of the factors that is left to treat carefully is the story, characters, the way the characters interact, plus other factors.

  7. I really hope they decide to translate the FanDisk.. The game almost felt incomplete by not including several characters esp Ruriko.

  8. Hi MG i want to report bug for Evangile 18+ version that i purchase 2 month ago
    the game will crash if you skipping the text and there a annoying pop up(FCFile – open) say like: “PrincessEvangile.system.dat ?????(japanese text) code:1224”
    can U make the fix patch please….

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