[Let's Play] Be My Princess for GREE

If you guys read my previous reviews on Voltage Inc's otome games (Pirates in Love & My Forged Wedding) you'll know that I adore their Visual Novels. Recently, they released a new title by the name of "Be My Princess". 

It's completely different from their usual formats, since it's used in conjunction with the GREE platform. I was quite intrigued by this change, and since I regularly follow their updates - I was definitely excited to try it out. I do have to say that I am disappointed with their lack of updates on the iOS Platform (since I am an iPhone user). 

All their updates recently have been for Android instead, so I was like "noo... why couldn't it have been for iOS?! ):" To my relief though, they haven't entirely forgotten about us - since they did release "Be My Princess" only a couple of days ago. You can download it from the appstore here. 

This isn't the kind of post that I usually write, but I thought it'd be fun to share my first experience with the game with you guys. It's a lot more casual in comparison to my reviews, since it's more so my ramblings and initial thoughts. Please let me know if you'd like to see more of these in future, or if I should stop these entirely ^_^" 


In all honesty, I would have actually preferred an update on the Pirates in Love/My Forged Wedding epilogues, sequels or side stories. In fact, they still haven't added Kunihiko's path for iOS, and it's already been released for Android. Although I initially didn't want to choose him as a "possible bachelor" (I mean, he's your uncle/relative!!) but after reading a few player's thoughts on the path, it's apparently quite good.


His path focuses a lot on the humorous dialogue between the other characters (Takao, Yamato, Saeki, Ren) and supposedly it's a lot more... corrupted? Dirty minded? Perverted? LOLOL. This was enough to pique my interest, since I think their banters at the bar are absolutely adorable. Anyways, onto my play through experience for "Be My Princess". 

From first impression, then its in the same format as "Pure Love", another free otome game for iOS. You can also download that from the appstore here. Basically, you can complete the game without paying anything at all (so it's technically free), BUT there is an extremely long waiting process. In order to progress through the game, you have a certain number of "love passes". You are given 5 per day at 11am UTC. 

Each time you pass through a section of a chapter, these are taken away. Once you use them up, you have to wait until they refresh (at 11am UTC) or you could purchase more passes using real life money to buy "PC" a.k.a. Princess Coins. I personally don't recommend these since they're just so expensive, and the chapter parts are relatively short. One section is split into maybe 8-10 parts or so, so it takes around 2 sessions/days to complete one chapter. 

This is terrible for impatient people like me, and it's merely a device used by Voltage Inc. for us to fork out our money ^_^" So even though the game is free, it may take months even to complete one character path. 

Of course, there is no such thing as "stacking" up love passes (that would be too kind, eh?) It will always stay at a total of 5 passes. Now, onto the game dynamics itself. 

It did add some rather unique features for you to do whilst waiting for your love passes to refresh. You have your "Princess Gatcha" which is basically like one of those "Wheel of Fortune" things. You can spin once per day for free, or collect 100 points to spin the wheel again. These can be gained through "greeting" your friends. The aim of this is after each spin, you receive items to complete your "collection".

NOTE: To enlarge the photos, just click on them for your viewing pleasure. :)

When you finish your "collection", you upgrade your rank as a Princess and receive special bonuses such as gaining more Royal Factors when you go to parties. 

I do have to say that gaining "friends" in this game is fairly easy, since you can just go through the list of other players, and send out friend requests. I got back 7 acceptances in a day (the max number of friends you're allowed to have so far). The game community is quite nice from what I've seen so far ^_^

Having more friends means more greetings (more gatcha points for the wheel of fortune) and a greater boost in "charm points" when you go parties!

So, what are royal factors? They're basically a certain amount of points you'll need throughout the storyline, since at some point a "mission" will come up. It may ask something like "Gain 5000 Royal Factors". You can stock up on these by going to parties. 

In order to have a success at a party (and gain royal factors, or in-game money as a bonus) you must have high charm points. These can be gained through going with a friend, or purchasing better clothes. Oh, I forgot to also mention but "Be My Princess" also includes your own "My Room" feature. Its basically your own "home" in the game, and through decorating it and gaining items to furnish - it also adds to your overall "charm points". 

Since its pretty hard to purchase in game items (they're expensive... both with in-game currency and real life money LOL) it's pretty easy to just bring a friend along. 

Here are some examples of things you can purchase:

Very cute, but too much money for my pocket haha ^_^" I do like the added bonuses, since it gives you something to do while waiting. In order to go to parties, you need at least "25 strength". These are much easier to replenish, since you get 1 point per 3 minutes. You could just check up every few hours or so, and click "go to a party" - so it's simple enough. 

Now, onto the bachelors themselves! I suppose this is the thing we've all been waiting for, to see who's path we will snag next haha. Since this game is quite lengthy with all the waiting and love passes thing, I do suggest to pick your first target wisely. The game is separated into the first five chapters or so as a "common route" to get to know the guys first, before going into the actual "character routes".

The character routes are definitely lengthy (with 15 chapters each) so this game will take a long, long time to finish. 

Let's meet our bachelors, hm? :) 

I really wasn't disappointed at all by the art, although it's pretty much an expectation with Voltage Visual Novels. I'm planning to go after "Prince Keith" first since in the promotional video he had some pretty good CGs/dialogue, and from my playing experience so far he is definitely the "tsundere" character. If you've read my past reviews, you guys know that I absolutely adore them in VNs. 

I'm also pretty interested in Joshua, since he's like the "misunderstood jerk" character, and Wilfred since he's like your typical golden haired bishie/prince from a foreign land *____* I'm not as interested in the other three, as Edward seems like the typical nice guy and the other two are just... "eh". There's nothing really that stands out about them, you know? :) 

This is my progress so far on the game: 

I'm only on chapter two of the game, so I can't fully judge it quite yet. I'm mostly saving up my "in game money", since who knows if I'll need it in future for a mission where it requires me to purchase clothes and such. I do have to say that I'm quite hooked on the game so far, since it reminds me of those addictive Facebook Games where you feel compelled to check every hour or so when you're bored HAHA ^_^" 

Ah, the days when everyone was spammed with Farmville Requests... oh wait actually, that's still happening >____>" Royal Factors wise, then I'm doing pretty well - for future missions, I don't really think I'll have any trouble with the number I have so far. 

In terms of Gatcha, then I'm pretty certain that I'm a bad luck magnet since I haven't been able to complete any collection so far and rank up my "royal status" </3

Final Thoughts: It's an interesting new idea by Voltage, I'll admit that. It never hurts to try something other than the norm. I do have to say that I don't like the whole "waiting game" aspect, since it makes the storyline feel so disjointed. You technically only read about 10 minutes of the story each day, and I usually don't remember where I left off at. "Be My Princess" is obviously somewhat of a scam by Voltage, to tempt us into buying love passes to continue the story, and thus have a higher profit margin ^_^"

Although it's not required to buy love passes - trust me, you'll be sorely tempted to do so (I know I was, but I refrained - since it's just too expensive). I actually prefer their "pay per character" system since it's a lot cheaper, and you can play the whole entire story at any time you wish, or perhaps even play it again. I do commend the other bonus features, since I found them rather interesting and a nice way to kill some time when you don't have love passes to burn. 

It's quite innovative, but strongly reminds me of Facebook games >___>" I also commend the writing, since the english is much better than their previous titles and also a huge step up from Pure Love (another otome game that I mentioned earlier that uses the same "love pass" system). All in all, I quite like the game and it's actually not that bad. I will see how far I go with this, since at some point I may rage quit or become bored with waiting.

A full review on this may not be up until some time, since this game takes literally forever to finish. Let me guys know how your game experience was, and if I should do more of these "Let's Play" in future :)