Review: Princess Maker 2 Regeneration revives a classic

When my eldest daughter was 14, she had 600 power points, could defeat an immortal knight who challenged her in a graveyard, and was on her way to marrying a dragon, but she still couldn’t defeat a 60-year-old pirate named Muscle Halvar in the Harvest Festival Fighting Tournament. That’s certainly some words, right? But if you play Princess Maker 2 Rebirth On Switch or PC, they not only make sense but also give you a brief insight into the kind of adopted daughter and future path the princess will take in life. This is a wild parenting and stat management game that combines hilarious absurdity with important number crunching for optimal results.

Princess Maker 2 Rebirth It starts with a war hero invited to live in a pensionable kingdom and tasked by the gods with adopting a young daughter. Your goal for the next eight years is to turn that 10-year-old girl into a princess. However, that annual allowance of 500 gold isn’t enough! Also, it seems like your avatar has decided that after all that heroic work, you’re done. So you sit at home and decide what your daughter does every week of every month, schedule three periods, and basically rely on her to earn money from odd jobs and wandering around. Oh, and maybe if she does well, you’ll let her use some of the money she earns to buy clothes, weapons, and classes to improve her stats.

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Yes, it was fun for me. I had a ball to play with. Princess Maker 2 Rebirth on Switch. Your level of enjoyment may vary. This simulation is really a game of numbers and management. Classes tend to always be beneficial and only increase stats. Jobs will increase some stats and decrease others, but give you cash. All jobs increase her stress level. Some jobs also increase her guilt level. Not to mention killing enemies while exploring the world makes her more guilty. Certain endings are locked by specific stat requirements. Other endings you will stumble upon if she works at specific jobs for too long. Marriage candidates also look for specific stats. In most cases, you will not marry one of the princes unless you have certain levels of charisma, sophistication, guilt, and morality.

Your first few runs in Princess Maker 2 Rebirth will basically involve you learning how to play the game and figuring out what you like about it. There are no tutorials here. Everything counts. You’ll learn how to manage the little money you earn and focus on saving money from your daughter’s job. You’ll learn how to manage stress so she doesn’t get so upset that she runs away from home every month, wasting what could be her time. You’ll understand that the best initial investments are sun dresses and winter dresses, in case of heat waves or storms, but you can avoid investing in weapons if you skip combat. After raising a few kids, you’ll start approaching each game with a specific destination in mind. Maybe this time, your princess will turn evil! Next time, you’ll try to trigger as many events as possible while exploring as a warrior! Maybe she’ll try to become royalty on her own merit, without actually marrying into royalty.

With the Switch version of Princess Maker 2 RebirthBliss Brain takes advantage of the new platform with some positive tweaks. For example, since it’s a 4:3 resolution game, you’ll constantly see all of your daughter’s stats on the right side of the screen. I didn’t realize how useful this was until I started playing! The voice acting is also excellent and appreciated. I also like how some of the art and CGs have been updated.

However, there are also issues with this latest version. Princess Maker 2 on Switch. Some of the font choices and formatting for the text could be better, or there are issues with sizing and spacing. The localization isn’t great either, with awkward wording appearing throughout, although I think it’s better in Princess Maker 2 Tweak sometimes. For example, I find it annoying every year when the princess enters the Fighting Tournament and calls the person she’s facing in the match “her” opponent instead of “my”. Also, saying you’re “recording time” when saving is really weird. I think the Hunting job might be bugged too. When my daughter’s Stamina goes over 300 and her Fighting Skill goes over 50, she still fails every day and doesn’t earn any money from it. These are little things that add up and make me wonder if it’s intentional, an oversight, or a bug.

There are many ways that Princess Maker 2 Rebirth feels like a fresh, new approach to the game, which is valuable, in part because it’s also on systems like the Switch. However, there are also times when it feels like it’s not quite there yet, and Princess Maker 2 Tweakcould be a better option. There are definitely some bugs that are present and need to be fixed. I also wish the localization was stronger. However, the core game is a lot of fun, especially if you appreciate stat management simulations like this. I think it’s worth your time even if it’s not the best version of the game out there, and I hope Bliss Brain fixes some of the more prominent issues after launch.

Princess Maker 2 Rebirth Available on Nintendo Switch and PC, PS4 and PS5 versions will launch on August 8, 2024.