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The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince Review


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1070217360_LiarPrincessboxart.png.7b6437a640954bbad9e174ec4d237101.pngOnce upon a time, Nippon Ichi Software created a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer that followed a princess and a prince on a storybook adventure through a dark forest. Playing the game isn't a complete fairy tale, though. Despite a charming story and a beautifully unique visual style, the gameplay in The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince leaves something to be desired.
 
The plot of the game reads just like an old fairy tale: each night in a dark forest, a monstrous wolf sings a beautiful song, attracting the appreciation of a young prince. Separated by the darkness the two grow close, but when the prince tries to see the source of the beautiful voice, the wolf panics and accidentally blinds the prince. With the help of the old witch of the woods, the wolf transforms into a princess to try to help the prince regain his eyesight. The story is extremely cute, a little sad, and wholly charming from start to finish. It's not too often that you get to enjoy a modern fable with poignant reflections on self-identity and appearance that still captures the feel of a classic fairy tale—cutscenes in the game are even presented as a storybook. It's easy to be charmed by the fairy tale format of Liar Princess.
 
The gameplay is a little harder to love, though. You play as the princess who is able to transform between a wolf form and human form. As a wolf, you can attack monsters with your claws and are mostly invulnerable to damage yourself. As the princess, you have to take the prince's hand and slowly walk him forward, avoiding obstacles and falls (you'll die from shockingly small heights as a human in this game). In essence, Liar Princess is one long escort mission, and I fully acknowledge the kind of baggage that comes with that term. Walking the prince around can be slow and plodding—though thankfully it's easy to leave him alone to take care of enemies or hazards yourself, so you're not constantly worried about his safety. Still, the gameplay can feel quite meandering at times.
 
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To spice things up a little, there are plenty of simple puzzles you'll have to solve using both the princess and the prince, i.e. pressure sensitive switches that require you to leave the prince behind while you find another route. For the most part these are quite simple puzzles though. Anyone that has played a decent number of platformers won't be surprised by the kinds of challenges Liar Princess cooks up and, given the slow nature of walking the prince around, the gameplay can feel particularly sluggish at times. To be fair there are few bad puzzles in the game, outside of one or two finnicky controls moments or a particularly obtuse riddle (which, to the game's credit, the game even warns you about and offers you a chance to skip it entirely). Instead the puzzles in Liar Princess are, by and large, just kind of there. Not terrible, but nothing particularly inspired either.
 
The game is also quite short, and can easily be finished in just four or five hours. Combined with the somewhat basic level and puzzle design, it can't help but feel like Liar Princess is a rough draft that was never fully fleshed out. Still, it has a certain charm while it lasts, and each level has a handful of collectibles which unlock concept art and additional story lore, both of which are well worth checking out.
 
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The presentation, like the storytelling, is the saving grace of Liar Princess. The storybook / sketchbook style to the graphics is gorgeous and totally charming for the cute fairy tale plot that unfolds here. There aren't a ton of different elements at play here—you really only encounter a few different types of monsters—but the style is undeniably appealing. There are also adorable details like how the princess and prince smile while holding hands. The soundtrack is pretty great as well. There aren't that many tracks since there are only about twenty stages in the game, but the music hits the right balance of whimsical and eerie that feels perfect for this slightly dark fairy tale. The game's cutscenes are also voiced, but only in Japanese—somehow it doesn't feel too out of place, though.
 
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The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince offers up an adorable little fairy tale that will easily charm you with its endearing protagonists and simple story of bonding. The gameplay rarely manages to feel like more than a mostly by-the-numbers side-scrolling adventure though, and your progress isn't so much limited by challenging game design as it is by the prince's slow walking speed. Still, players interested in a beautifully designed and charming story should appreciate the brief journey of the princess and the prince.
 
Rating: 7 out of 10 Fables
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