THIS is how you make a game aimed at girls.
To be more specific, otome games are those aimed typically at a female audience, which place the player in the role a female character that must choose from a grouping of possible mates and develop a romantic relationship with one of them. Since these games are normally played by younger girls, the relationships are often sweet and innocent, and more emotional, rather than physical, in nature.
Princess Debut, then, fits perfectly into this genre as it places you in the role of a young schoolgirl named Sabrina. After returning home from school one day, Sabrina is ambushed by a mysterious girl and her floating rabbit-like friend named Kip when they burst from her closet. Sabrina notices that the stranger from her closet is identical in appearance and in name to herself, and after some wacky dialogue, you find that she is Princess Sabrina from the Flower Kingdom.
Princess Sabrina has come with a quandary. She has been tasked with learning how to dance in preparation for her Kingdom's prestigious "Ball of Saint-Lyon", but due to the fact that she lacks a desire to dance, she wishes for "our" Sabrina to take her place instead. After agreeing, you are whisked away to the Flower Kingdom, where you take over Princess Sabrina's life and go about your business of learning how to dance and otherwise preparing for the Ball of Saint-Lyon, a goal that you have a mere month to accomplish.
Along the way, you will encounter various gentlemen callers, each with their own unique personalities, and it's mostly left up to you which ones to befriend and which ones to avoid. At first though, your days will be fairly routine, and will consist of training with the kingdom's rabbit dance instructor Tony, who will teach you how to perform various dances from both the ballroom and Latin categories.
Dancing itself is where the main gameplay in the title takes place, and is comparable to games like Elite Beat Agents, in that it has you placing the stylus over a moving orb and following a set path (that is, dragging your stylus along the path) which matches the appropriate speed and rhythm to each dance.
Most moves are simple enough to perform, and require nothing more than a simple half or full circle to accomplish. As you progress however, you unlock new and more difficult dances, which not only include more varied shapes like spirals, triangles, and even intricate combinations of multiple shapes, but are also faster in tempo, causing your reflexes to truly receive a workout.
You are judged on your performance based on how accurately you followed the moving orb from one end of the shape to the other, and whether or not you started the movement at the correct time (that is, you didn't take a step too early or too late). In this respect, the game is fairly lenient, meaning that even if you don't follow the orb's progress exactly, as long as you trace the complete shape before the orb finished doing so, it will be considered a successful step. Move your stylus outside the lines, however, and your rhythm, and therefore your dance as a whole, will be thrown off.
After each dance, Sabrina gains a certain amount of experience points, turning the game into a very light RPG, with the only real character growth coming in the form of increased technique and artistry points. At certain points in the game, you will also gain access to various accessories like hairpins, crowns, and necklaces that magically transform your outfit when you wear them while dancing.
When you are not busy dancing, you'll find yourself spending time in the various marketplaces, gardens, and natural areas of the Flower Kingdom as you schmooze, flirt with or otherwise pass the time with the various men you have access to in the game.
Dialogue is all text based, but offers many choices when it comes to Sabrina's responses to any one question asked of her. Usually, these choices have an effect on how much or how little a boy likes Sabrina romantically, and therefore are a great way of making sure you end up with the boy that you want. With so many choices available as you make your way through the game, replayability is a huge factor here, as the story's ending changes every time you pick a different partner.
Another aspect that makes replaying the game worthwhile is the noticeable increase in difficulty seen on subsequent playthroughs. While my first run through the game posed little in the way of challenge, the second, third, and so on definitely did, as I was able to dance to more complex dances that, as one would expect, contained more difficult shapes to trace and master.
Being that the game is so musical in nature, I am very happy to say that the sound department performs beautifully here. Each time you choose a song, whether a classical piece or one original to the game, it is presented with crisp audio that makes the Nintendo DS's speakers seem much more impressive than other games make them out to be. Furthermore, when you're not practicing your dancing, the game's own background music is just as catchy, and fits the overall lighthearted nature of the title.
While the graphics within the game are just as frilly and lighthearted, I did notice one snag that took away from the dancing as a whole, with that flaw being a substantial amount of clipping between Sabrina and her dance partner, that causes the male's legs to actually float within Sabrina's dresses, which is very odd to say the least. That misstep aside, the graphics are filled with typical Japanese animation, including oversized eyes and crazy hair in a rainbow of colors that doesn't let you forget how magical the entire game really is.
One unfortunate thing about rhythm games is that you are often so concentrated on what's happening on the touch screen, that you miss all of the action on the top screen. Princess Debut has thought of that, and includes a movie mode that allows you to watch your previous dances, so that you can see how beautifully (or how badly) you did. This is where the game's work with motion-captured dancers really shines, as Sabrina and her partners do look very lifelike, especially in terms of hip movement and the like.
Another extra is the addition of a Ballroom mode that lets you skip the romantic storylines entirely and jump straight into the dancing. A practice mode is also available for those who wish to master every move of a dance before moving on to a judged performance.
All in all, Princess Debut is a breath of fresh air in the department of games aimed at girls, but in fact, contains such a truly entertaining storyline and easy to learn gameplay that even open-minded guys would probably enjoy it as well. In a time when many games are focused more on realism and tend to take themselves too seriously, it's so refreshing to see a carefree title such as this. And while Princess Debut may not contain the gameplay complexity of titles like Elite Beat Agents, it definitely provides the same amount of fun.
Full review and screenshots at: http://www.grrlgamer.com/review.php?g=princessdebut