Lisa Dawn's Blog: The Princess Blog, page 51

Review: Dress Up! Time Princess - Gotham Memoirs Visual Novel

I was going to conclude my Dress Up! Time Princess reviews with Magic Lamp since that was the last princess-related visual novel in the game, but it looks my addiction isn't over yet. While spending a few weeks idly collecting materials, I finally decided to play Gotham Memoirs, the last story I had left to complete, at least until the new one comes out the end of this month. Dress Up! Time Princess is celebrating National Princess Day today, an event that was original created to commemorate the anniversary of the animated classic The Swan Princess, so here is a bonus review of the game as my way of joining the celebration. Initially, I was not eager to play Gotham Memoirs because of the lack of fairy tales or royalty, but I soon came to appreciate the glamorous fashions of the 1920s as well as the extremely dynamic story paths within the book that are far more intense than of the other stories.

Gotham Memoirs is thematically divergent from the other visual novels in Dress Up! Time Princess. It tells the story of a reporter named Elizabeth Colvin who is willing to do whatever it takes to get a full scoop, even if it means colluding with criminals. Starting the book triggers an appropriate warning about the dark and often gruesome themes within the story. Unlike other the other visual novels in this game, in which getting a "bad ending" usually means fall from grace, the majority of bad endings in this story mean getting murdered by the mafia as punishment for getting too close to the truth. The book begins when Elizabeth is hired as a journalist for a newspaper called the Gotham Times and visits a mental hospital where she meets a patient named Jessica. She learns that Jessica's father was murdered and that her daughter had mysteriously disappeared. The rest of the novel depends on how dangerous of a path you are willing to take to uncover the mystery behind Jessica's circumstances.
This story may not cater directly to my personal tastes when it comes to visual novels, but I will say that the gameplay mechanics behind it are done extremely well. It is the visual novel in the game, with a whooping four chapters, and each chapter can take you down an entirely different story path based on your previous decisions. It is the only book in the game that contains some levels that don't link to each other at all. For instance, depending on what choices you make in the first two chapters, you could start the third chapter on level 3-1, 3-7, or 3-15. If you start on, say, 3-15, the only way to access level 3-1 or 3-7 would be to go back and replay the first two chapters with different choices. If you stick to one linear path the entire time, you can speed through each chapter fairly quickly. However, if you are a completionist like me and want to see every possible outcome, the game can be a real pain the neck to get through. After I unlocked the fourth chapter, I got stuck quite a few times trying to figure out which decisions I needed to go back and change in order to unlock new endings.

The decisions you make to unlock the three potential story paths are based primarily on which character you choose to pursue a relationship with or how you go about investigating Jessica's case. The two main love interests are Davis, the owner of the Gotham Times, and Vittorio, a sexy mafia boss who always has your best interests at heart. If you choose Davis's route, you become a full-time reporter and gain his financial and emotional support on your endeavors for the Gotham Times, but you are also judged by other characters for getting too close to your boss and shoulder the burden of responsibility for the newspaper as a whole. If you choose Vittorio's route, you must quit your job at the Gotham Times and go undercover to take down another unsavory mafia boss, risking your life and dignity. This route is more dangerous, but can also be more rewarding because it fulfills a fantasy that many people have of a life of risk-taking and excitement and allows you to make decisions that no self-preserving person would ever want to be faced with in the real world. The third route gives you the opportunity to become an independent career woman and team up with a female prosecutor to take down Jessica's persecutors in court.



Like with Magic Lamp, the fashions in this book were hit or miss for me. This is the only visual novel in the game that has two-piece outfits, making some of the levels extra challenging. Some outfits that contain as many as ten pieces, and you often can't get a passing score without at least half of them. I was a bit discouraged by the required two-piece sets. My favorite costumes from this book were the cute one-piece historically accurate dresses, and I wish it had contained more of those. The most glamorous one that players can craft themselves is a pink and silver jazz age flapper dress with a long fluffy white boa. My second favorite ensemble is a cute peach-colored lace dress with ruffles and bows and a matching oversized cap that goes over a cute black bob. If you're going to be trapped in a dangerous world of mafia, murders, and mystery, you might as well at least go down looking cute.

Review: Tangled in Time - The Portal

When I first saw an ad for the novel Tangled in Time: The Portal, I assumed that it was part of Disney's poorly rated Twisted Tales series of alternate universe fanfic retellings of their classic movies due to a portion of the title being shared with a popular Disney movie of the same name. Having little to interest in that series, I ignored the book entirely. Fortunately for me, it popped up again recently on a short list of princess book recommendations, and I realized that it had nothing to do with either Disney or the story of "Rapunzel." Instead, it is a juvenile historical fiction that incorporates time travel to the days when the most famous Queen Elizabeth was still a princess. If I had known that from the beginning, I would have picked it up much sooner than I did. The duology is written by Kathryn Lasky, who is known for her other historical fiction series including Dear America and The Royal Diaries. The book fell into my lap during a time that I started doing a lot of research on the history of royal families, so I found it a delightful read, though I have only read the first of the two books in the duology.

Eleven-year-old Rose Ashley was distraught when her mother passed away in a car accident. She is forced to move in with her grandmother in Indianapolis who appears to be experiencing symptoms of dementia. Things seem bad enough for Rose having to start a new school as an orphan when she encounters a trio of bullies. Not everyone at her new school is mean to her. She finds a small group of friends that include a wheelchair-bound boy named Myles, but she still feels like an outcast. All of that changes when she enters her grandmother's greenhouse one night, and something magical happens. Rose finds herself transported to the sixteenth century, where she is employed as a servant for Princess Elizabeth. Rose has some knowledge of history, but does not dare share her foresight with her new companions and instead does her best to blend in, She has an easier time when she becomes best friends with Fanny, another servant girl who is around the same age as her. With Fanny's help, Rose peels apart the layers of her late mother's past and her mysteriously absent father.

I could see that Kathryn Lasky has a wealth of prior writing experience from the sumptuous level of detail on each page. She made the clever decision of turning Rose into a fashion blogger, which gave her motivation to pay extra close attention to the shoes and clothing of the historical figures she met that someone else her age might otherwise overlook. She also took special care to include various types of disabilities and make sure that Rose was respectful toward all of them, as a true princess should be. In fact, it was only due to Rose's kind treatment of a midget that the tearful conclusion of the story took place at all. She does a great job of telling the story from the perspective of a modern middle school student, though some of the Disney references were a bit jarring. If Rose were truly a Disney fan, she would make more comments about how some of the things she saw in the middle ages differ from Disney Princess movies that are supposed to take place during that era. Instead, random Disney merchandise pops into the descriptions of the modern-day world every now and again, some of which don't even make sense. For instance, why would rubber Disney Princess masks ever be a thing? If you have a face, you do not need a mask to look like a Disney Princess--just a wig and some makeup.

Something else that stands out about this book is that it has little to no romance. Normally, I love a good love story, but not when the protagonist is 11 years old or when there are so many more important things going on. There was a hint of a boy she liked, but it doesn't draw any attention away from the focus on Rose coping with the lack of a parental figure in her life. The real love story of this book is when Rose finds out the truth about her father, which is a little unusual for a fantasy time travel story like this. Sure, there was a similar scene in Outlander, but Briana's circumstances were different from Rose. Even though there is a second book in this series, I appreciate that the author took the time to write a heartwarming and satisfying conclusion to this one that didn't make me feel cheated into buying the next book. It is a touching father-daughter story that reflects the emotions that children might go through if they lose their parents at a young age.

I can't recommend Tangled in Time enough. It has everything that a girl from its target age range could want from a book--a sympathetic and relatable heroine, magical mysteries to solve, history lessons, and even some photographs of clothing from the era. I only wish that Kathryn Lasky had given the book a different title. Writing a princess-related book with the name of a popular Disney Princess movie in the title can get confusing when you consider how many alternate universe companion novels Disney releases of their movies, including one that just came out a few days ago. I might look into the second book, The Burning Queen, at some point when my reading list gets a little shorter. For now, I'm happy that modern girls can read such a lovely story about family and royal history.

Review: The Princess Twins of Legendale

For those of you who aren't savvy in the world of underground Hollywood, there is a studio called The Asylum, whose sole purpose is to create low-budget imitations of popular movies in the hopes that an old granny will forget her glasses while shopping and buy one on DVD for her grandkids, thinking it's that big blockbuster movie they're always yapping on about. When they set their sights on an upcoming release from a major studio, they rush to get their imitation out before or around the same time as the one they're mimicking so they can pretend that they came up with the idea first. The Twin Princesses of Legendale was not produced by The Asylum, but it feels like it easily could have been. In actuality, it was produced by a modern toy company called MGA Entertainment, which is famous for making Bratz and L.O.L. Surprise dolls. You would think that a toy company producing a low-budget movie would only do so with the intention of selling toys, but surprisingly, my online searches for any sort of product from this movie yielded no results. Why, then, does it exist? Let's explore.

The Princess Twins of Legendale is an animated feature about two princesses who are sisters that came out in 2013. That might sound a little familiar to you, but the Frozen  similarities pretty much end there. In fact, it's more similar in plot to Disney Channel's 2005 live-action movie, Twitches, than any other animated feature. Both movies feature twin princesses who were separated at birth by a powerful evil force. One princess is powered by the sun and the other is powered by the moon. They even possess magical sun and moon amulets like Tia and Tamara's counterparts in Twitches. The biggest difference between the two stories is that the twitches were raised in a contemporary city while Princess Dawn and Princess Eve of Legendale were raised in fantasy kingdoms. Dawn, a princess of the day, as demonstrated by her blonde hair, was raised by her father, King Solter, in the day kingdom. Eve, a princess of the night, as demonstrated by dark hair, was raised by her kidnapper, Queen Dume, in the night kingdom. Though it has things in common with other movies, the story is pretty original overall. It's also quite predictable, as is usually the case for these types of films.

For me, the most cringe-worthy scene in this movie is the song montage that features the princesses bonding as babies. Montages are used to signify the passage of time, but Eve gets kidnapped before she's even old enough to form words, so the amount of time that passes during this unnecessarily long sequence cannot be any longer than a year. Yet, the filmmakers found it necessary to show several minutes of two babies clad in only diapers playing hand games with each other or whatever it is babies do to demonstrate closeness. It would be fine if it had been a montage of them growing up together in the style of "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" but they weren't together long enough for any growth or even a change of clothes, though I hope someone was changing those diapers! There are only so many things that a person can watch newborn babies do without it becoming repetitive or downright disturbing. When the twins get kidnapped, their mother manages to save Dawn and then disappears along with Eve. I thought that she was captured and brought to the night kingdom with Eve, but I learned a while later that she was actually killed trying to save her daughters. The movie does a poor job of clarifying this along with many other important parts of the plot.

The rest of the film is pretty easy to predict. The two princesses grow into fair maidens with pretty dresses and long hair who love to sing songs. They learn from their cutesy magical companions that their guardians have been keeping their other half a secret. There's a little bit of overlap with Tinker Bell's Secret of the Wings movie here, but not much. When the princesses finally meet each other as adults, the overly dramatic panning camera sequence is almost as irritating as the baby montage. I get that they were going for the emotional reunion trope, but it comes off as too cheesy to take seriously. However, I did get a little teary at the ending, so they must have gotten something right. Though it feels nitpicky to complain about the character designs when the animation is so awful in general, I didn't think the princesses' faces looked different enough from the other character models for everyone to make such a big deal out of how similar they looked. With their different hair colors and uncanny generic CGI facial structures, I would not have assumed they were supposed to look alike if the movie didn't keep rubbing it in my face.

This was a pretty good idea for an original story and might have been a legitimately good movie if anyone else had made it. As it stands now, most people will probably take one look at the poster and write it off as a Frozen ripoff even though that's not what it is at all. I only watched The Princess Twins of Legendale out of boredom and found that it was actually a decent way to kill an hour. It's so short that by the time you get sick of the ugly animation, it'll already be over. There were some flashbacks with beautiful 2D storybook artwork, but they were few and far between. If the princesses had more personality and the animation team had a higher budget, this could have been a really good movie. As it stands, it seems like someone came up with a great story idea, but the only studio willing to produce it was a second-rate toy company. Still, I think someone who picks up this movie expecting an Asylum-style Frozen ripoff will be pleasantly surprised.

Review: Power Born

I was so pleased to be selected as an advance reader for Aya Ling's upcoming fantasy novel, Power Born. I've been a huge fan of Aya Ling ever since reading her Unfinished Fairy Tales series about a time traveler who ends up in the world of "Cinderella" and falls for the prince. Power Born is a spin-off of Aya's Reversed Retellings series that takes place in the same world but does not follow the same format of gender-bending popular fairy tales. Instead, it focuses on what she does best by challenging gender stereotypes in a unique fantasy setting. Similar to the Entwined Tales series that Aya participated in about a bumbling fairy godfather who messed up everyone's magical gifts, Power Born is about two siblings whose magical gifts are accidentally reversed. Chiara, who was supposed to receive the gift of beauty, got the supernatural strength that her brother, Cristian, was supposed to receive instead. What follows is a Jessica Jones-inspired adventure that just happens to take place in a fairy tale setting.

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You might think it would be great to have supernatural strength. Chores would get done much faster, and no one would dare to be mean to you for fear that you might beat them to a pulp. For Chiara, that strength poses a huge threat to her place in society and more of a burden than a blessing. As the daughter of a lowly baker, she must do everything in her power to fit in and act like a proper lady if she ever wishes to raise her social standing. Her overprotective mother never considered that a bumbling fairy would make her precious daughter as strong as an ox. If anyone found out about her unnatural abilities, Chiara would lose the knight who is courting her and never find another suitable match. To hide her powers, she obtains a magical bracelet from a mage that dilutes her ability from the strength of ten men to the strength of one. She must wear this bracelet at all times to avoid breaking tables or accidentally injuring people, which would be very unladylike.

This story had a lot of potential. I have enjoyed shows about innocuous-looking women with the ability to beat up men twice their size such as Jessica Jones or Dark Angel in the past, but I felt like something was missing here. Though Chiara uses her powers for good and recovers stolen merchandise from a gang of bandits, the final battle in the book seemed to come out of left field, which made for a less than satisfying resolution. I would have preferred it if the entire story revolved around Chiara stopping the bandits whose actions were having long-term effects on everyone in town. Her desire to recover the stolen merchandise is what sets her apart from a less sympathetic man who might have been gifted with the same powers. Most of my favorite parts of the book took place at the beginning, such as when she dresses up as a boy and saves her chauvinistic boyfriend without his knowledge.

This book contains a love triangle, but it's the kind where one of the guys turns out to be a jerk, which quickly eliminates the competition. Franco is a royal knight who appears to be a good match for Chiara, but over time, he shows hints of insincerity and downright dickishness. The second love interest is a prince named Leon. Of course he's a prince. Leon is built up to be a better match for Chiara, but she spends so much of the story being devoted to Franco that we never get a real opportunity to see why. That's the challenge with love triangles. We need to see enough interactions between both potential pairings to get a good feel of who we're rooting for. I don't think Aya Ling accomplished this with Leon. By the end of the book, I felt that I knew a lot more about Franco than I ever did about Leon. I was more involved in the relationship between Chiara's brother, Cristian, and her best friend, Sofia. They were an interesting pairing because Cristian, who had been accidentally blessed with Chiara's beauty, was desired by every woman in town while Sofia was plain and tried to draw attention away from herself. I was rooting for Sofia to give into Cristian's heartfelt advances for the entire book.

Power Book reads like a book that wants to be a fairy tale and an epic at the same time and never quite finds its footing. It was an interesting choice to make Chiara a baker's daughter instead of a princess, but I found myself wondering why she and her brother were chosen to receive magical fairy gifts at birth when no one else in this world seems to have them. What makes them more important than the royal family to receive such blessings? I also wished this book had a more compelling love story. It was so split between revealing that Franco wasn't right for Chiara and Leon was that there was no time to include any tender moments between them that I've seen in Aya Ling's other books. I also wish that the story built up to Chiara's final battle gradually instead of tossing it in as what feels like an afterthought. If you are a fan of Aya Ling's fairy tale books, I would only recommend this one if you have nothing else left to read. However, if you are a fan of strong women like Jessica Jones, you might enjoy this more historical take on the story. Power Born will be released soon.

First Listen to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella!

When I first heard that Andrew Lloyd Webber was bringing yet another musical based on "Cinderella" into the world, I met the news with a healthy dose of skepticism. Now that there are two full songs from this upcoming show available online, I have never been more pleased to be wrong. Just a few days ago, Webber released the show-stopping number "Bad Cinderella" on both YouTube and Spotify. This song was teased in a very early preview video for the show, but hearing it in full gave deeper clarity into the context of the lyrics and who this new Cinderella is. My growing excitement for the show led me to a Twitter post from last month in which the extraordinarily talented Carrie Hope Fletcher performed another song from the show entitled "Far Too Late," which is a complementary opposite to "Bad Cinderella" in terms of tone. Hearing both of these songs gave me a more complete image of what to expect when the theater doors will open again to audiences, and I like what I've heard so far.

The catchy punk rock number "Bad Cinderella" presents a modern twist on the Cinderella we know and love, making her a rebel who doesn't want to dress up and become a trophy wife. I've written in the past about how the consistent rejection of femininity among princess content can be polarizing, but this is the first time I think that someone actually got it right. When you compare the Cinderella character presented in the lyrics of "Bad Cinderella" to someone like Sam from the recent Disney+ original, Secret Society for Second-Born Royals, you will find several similarities. Both princesses are unhappy with the society they were born into and intentionally act out in the hopes of offending the people around them enough to embrace the revolutionary changes they want to see in the world. However, where Sam is a rebel without a cause who was born into a life of privilege and a caring family,Cinderella has every reason to reject her life prior to meeting the prince. She is surrounded by petty, selfish, and vain people who abuse her without just cause. It's only natural for her to act out. Her submission to mistreatment is something that many modern versions of the story have tried to explain or correct over the years.

Not only is "Bad Cinderella" a natural progression of the "Cinderella" story for modern times, but it is also a terrific anthem for children about how to respond to bullying. I don't know what the target age is for this show, but ALW most likely anticipated parents bringing their children into the audience since it's based on a popular fairy tale. If that his the intention for this song, I wish I could bring my childhood self to the future to hear it. This is a Cinderella who knows to put up with oppressors and won't sit back and take it. With lyrics like "Every insult that you utter makes me strong" and "If you think I won't ignore you, I think 'Poor you,'" it conveys an important message about not giving in to bullies and using their taunts as a form of empowerment instead of self-degradation. As someone who was made fun of a lot in school and then targeted online several times in my later years, I wholeheartedly support this message. Princesses are role models for girls first and foremost, so it's important that the ideas they convey are positive and not about acting out or being rebellious for no reason. On that note, I can understand how having Cinderella be a troublemaker might be seen in a negative light, which brings me to the other song that was released on social media.

If you like what you heard on @MagicAtMusicals with @OfficialALW, we think you will like this... pic.twitter.com/GWFo6NWQ09

— Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella (@ALWCinderella) September 23, 2020

"Fat Too Late" is the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful "Cinderella" song I have heard since "Tell Him Anything" from The Slipper and the Rose. The lyrics imply that because Cinderella ran away from the ball at midnight, she freed the prince to be with another woman. This new twist complements the fairy tale. The whole point of the story was that Cinderella had to leave the ball early, and the prince was surrounded by other eligible maidens who were determined to be with him, so of course they would jump at the opportunity the moment she left. The gorgeous piano melody feels nostalgic for a time when movies and musicals were much better than they are today. The song also makes it clear that Cinderella's more modern traits that are often seen only as empowering in modern films are her downfall as well. Lyrics like "Too proud to stay" and "If I begged you to forgive me, we might share a different fate" demonstrate that the very same pride that keeps her guard up against her tormentors also prevents her from showing her true feelings to the prince. In the end, she will likely need to lower her tough exterior and bring out her inner princess to attain her happy ending. I love how realistic the Cinderella in this show is comparison to other modern princesses who are cold, aloof, and unrealistically capable of doing everything on their own. In short, this song proves that even though she is a thick-skinned rebel, Cinderella is still human and just as capable of heartbreak as any other woman.

Both songs I've listened to from Andrew Lloyd Webber's upcoming Cinderella musical have greatly exceeded my expectations. I am now more excited than ever to learn what new twists the famous Phantom of the Opera composer will bring to this classic fairy tale. Carrie Hope Fletcher is an inspired choice for the role and looks endearing even in this silly Marie Antoinette-inspired teaser. I'm so glad her dream of playing a princess came true, but it's a terrible shame that the lockdown got in the way of it. The show will be opening in England instead of New York City, so it might be a while before any of us Americans will be able to see it live. It is currently scheduled to premiere in April of 2021, but of course that is subject to change. However, thanks to the magic of the internet, everyone in world is now able to listen to these two stunningly beautiful songs and, hopefully, the rest of the soundtrack as well as soon as it is ready for release.

Review: Dress Up! Time Princess - Magic Lamp Visual Novel

Magic Lamp was the last visual novel I completed in the Dress Up! Time Princess smartphone app and will likely be my last one, at least for a while. This app is extremely addictive and time-consuming. If you download it, be sure not to start new stories lightly. Take your time with them. Don't attempt to do three stories at once like I did. The Magic Lamp novel contains two chapters and takes about as much time to go through as Queen Marie, which is a little over a month. This novel stands apart from the others in the game because of its Arabian setting. Similar to Swan Lake, the story begins as a gender-bent retelling of "Aladdin," complete with similar-looking characters and costumes, but it goes in an unexpected direction by the end of the first chapter. Magic Lamp reveals secrets about the characters' pasts that are very different from the fairy tale or Disney interpretation.

Players who enter the world of Magic Lamp assume the role of Gina, a slave girl who is liberated with the help of a handsome stranger who turns out to be Prince Kahir of the Full Moon Kingdom. Gina is tasked with recovering a special lamp from a dark cave by a sinister-looking sorcerer with a cobra staff. Don't be fooled by the resemblance these characters bear to the classic Disney movie. This story takes a very different twist from any other version of "Aladdin" even though it make a few tongue-in-cheek references to the Disney version by naming the pieces of its Jasmine costume "Shining Bangles," "Shimmering Slippers," "Splendid Earrings," and "Speechless." The plot of Magic Lamp has two distinct paths the player can take in each chapter based on whether they pursue the genie, Light, as a love interest with the evil sorcerer Chapur as a villain or Prince Kahir as a love interest with the Prime Minister as a villain. As a long-time fan of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, in which Wonderland's Alice falls in love with a handsome genie, I opted for Light's route first and completed Kahir's arc later for the sake of completion.

For me, Light's story arc is more engaging than Kahir's. Light offers Gina a chance to have her wishes granted, but in truth, he needs her more than she needs him. She is tasked with finding a magic ruby that was stolen from his lamp to restore his powers and memories. The deeper she falls into the rabbit hole, the more Gina realizes that Light's past is intrinsically linked to the other characters in the story. I found his path extremely rewarding thanks to the beautifully romantic ending and the magical secrets that get revealed about his past and Chapur's. This story gives Chapur a stronger motivation as a villain than Jafar had due to a traumatic incident from his past. Kahir's arc is more simplistic and revolves around his desire to help Gina and his connection with Sinbad, a worldly socialite with many important contacts. The most interesting thing about Kahir's path is that his mother is the famous Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, where the original story of "Aladdin" comes from. She is the most humble and tragic queen I've ever seen in a fairy tale. She was forced to marry the king after he stole a magic relic from her but grew to love him and her son over time due to her submissive nature. I think Kahir's path would have been more interesting if it elaborated further on his mother's tragic past.

The fashions in this visual novel were a mixed bag for me. Some of the most beautiful outfits in this story are the ones that you can only win by getting lucky in the app's lottery system and are not required to play the story levels. Many of the required outfits are bland and baggy robes that a nomad might wear to traverse the desert. They may be practical, but they aren't very pretty. I liked the veils and dangly golden jewelry better than many of the outfits themselves. The flowing Arabian fashions are a big change from the stiff hair and poofy ballgowns in the Queen Marie novel. It's refreshing that each visual novel in Dress Up! Time Princess unlocks a brand new style of clothes for your wardrobe, but I wish that some of the required outfits were a little nicer. One of my favorites, the Wondrous Rose, which contains a gold fez-style crown and dazzling oversized gold earrings with little pearls hanging over a flowing red and gold dress with sheer white sleeves, didn't even have required pieces to unlock any of the story levels.

Overall, the Magic Lamp visual novel in Dress Up! Time Princess is a clever reimagining of the story of "Aladdin" with a female protagonist. I love the idea of being able to romance a genie, something that was briefly explored in the recent Aladdin remake, but was done best in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland series. The mysterious backstory between Light and Chapur was surprisingly deep and complex. It was a pleasure to follow their path and uncover their secrets over the course of the novel. Kahir's path offered a lighthearted alternative, though his mother was deep and fascinating as well. I wish the game offered as much insight into Queen Scheherazade's past as it did with Light and Chapur. Though some of the required fashions were a little frumpy, I loved the elaborate gold jewelry, flowing veils, and mystical-looking accessories. I would recommend this visual novel as the second story for players to unlock after completing Queen Marie. Just be aware that the difficulty level in the second chapter can get frustrating near the end.

Is Raya the Next Big Disney Princess?

The biggest princess news today is that Disney released their first teaser trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon, their next female-driven animated feature that is slated for release in March 2021. Early interviews have hinted that Maya might be joining the Disney Princess line as an adventuresome daughter of the village chief. The trailer does not look anything like a Disney Princess movie from eras past, but it does follow the newer trope of princesses who fight, wear pants, and rebel against society. In other words, it's an action movie that's trying to mooch off the popularity of the Disney Princess brand at the same time. I don't know what to make of these "princess" movies that no longer contain any of the things we love about princesses. However, it doesn't look like a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the animation in the teaser was stunning. It just doesn't look like the princess movie that it is implied to be.

The beginning of the teaser pays homage to Indiana Jones with a montage of our lone heroine invading an ancient temple and using her impressive acrobatic skills to dodge the deadly traps within it. After a beautifully choreographed fight sequence, Raya's voiceover narration provides some insight to her kingdom outside the dark temple. We see shots of indigenous people wearing color-coded outfits that likely represent the tribes in her homeland. Raya explains that her people have been divided and that she needs to find the last dragon in order to reunite them. The trailer makes it abundantly clear that Raya maintains an important position of leadership among her people, something that has been incredibly popular among princess stories in recent years. A princess must no longer go into hiding or wait to be rescued. Instead, she represents the hope of her people and their future.

The film takes place in a kingdom called Kumandra, which is heavily inspired by southeast Asia. The research that the creative team did for the movie shows in the unique and beautiful desert scenery with dust clouds seamlessly integrated into the animation. Like every Disney Princess, Raya has an animal companion named Tuk Tuk, which looks like a roly-poly bug, but is big enough for her to ride like a horse. In a tradition that started with The Princess and the Frog and has been going strong in every Disney Princess movie since, we see Raya as a little girl at the beginning, which encompasses the first half of the teaser. She isn't the type of little girl who runs around being cute, though. She is the type of little girl that goes through rigorous training to fight off bad guys and one day save her kingdom. In these scenes, we see how small Tuk Tuk was when he first became her companion, which leads up to a joke at the end of the trailer about how much harder it is for Raya to flip him over after he grew large enough for her to ride.

The teaser gives us a generous preview of the look and feel of the movie, but only a small taste of the story. We know that Raya studied martial arts her whole life to protect something called the Dragon Gem, but we don't know what it does or how finding the last dragon will help her mend the rift between the quarreling tribes in her kingdom. According to the Entertainment Weekly interview, the movie will feature a character played by named Sisu, a dragon who was turned into a human and needs Raya's help to restore her original form. Could Sisu be the last dragon that Raya seeks? It's certainly possible. The little I know about the story sounds promising in terms of original content, even if it doesn't sound like a Disney Princess movie. I had been worried for quite a while now that Disney was slipping in terms of original storytelling and animation. Something as ground-breaking as Raya is definitely a step in the right direction.

There are many different ways that we can interpret this first look at Raya and the Last Dragon. On the one hand, it is yet another female-driven action movie to add to the myriad of similar-looking films that have come out over the past decade. On the other hand, it is the first original animated non-Pixar Disney movie that isn't a sequel since Moana in 2016. In that respect, it looks beautiful and epic. I wish I could see what the dragons look like in Raya's world, but of course, this is only a teaser. It looks like an amazing movie to watch on the big screen if that ever happens, given the state of the world. For now, my first impression of the teaser is that it will be a terrific action movie that will not contain many of the things that I love about Disney Princesses.

Review: Dress Up! Time Princess - Queen Marie Visual Novel

Queen Marie is the first visual novel that players can unlock in the Dress Up! Time Princess smartphone game app. It is the most user-friendly story in the game, but that doesn't mean it's easy to complete! It is the polar opposite of Swan Lake with dynamic story branches that shift based on your choices and a myriad of possible endings. It also has the largest number of characters to bond with, although only two of them are viable love interests. The game allows you to play as Marie Antoinette from the perspective of a modern girl who is aware of her gruesome fate and has the ability to alter history, similar to the anime My Next Life as a Villainess. The interactive visual novel also allows you to unlock a full closet of extravagant French colonial-style gowns and wigs.

Queen Marie gives Dress Up! Time Princess players the opportunity to experience the luxurious lifestyle of the pre-revolution French monarchy while making decisions that can alter history and potentially prevent the revolution from taking place. Prior to playing this game, I knew very little about Marie Antoinette aside from the famous "Let them eat cake" conspiracy. I wasn't particularly impressed with Sofia Coppola's 2006 feature film portrayal of the infamous monarch either. Yet, this interactive visual novel managed to grab my interest and hold it for a full month of gameplay. I'm not sure if it was out of sheer curiosity for what would happen if I changed my decisions to unlock a new story branch or the primal vanity of being able to wear breathtaking gowns that bounce and twirl on my digital avatar, but something about this particular take on history really appealed to me. Yes, there were times when the political dialogue got boring or confusing, but that gave me another excuse to repeat chapters and try again for a perfect score or unlock a new section of the story.

I learned a lot about various historical figures through Marie's companions and love interests. It begins after she is married to King Louis XVI, but the story encourages you to choose between Count Fersen of Sweden and Marquis de Lafayette (yes, that Lafayette) as lovers because the king wouldn't be able to do much to fend off the angry citizens if you go the route of the French Revolution. One of the best endings, which I didn't discover until I was much further along, is to run away with your best friend Gabrielle, a minor duchess, and live an ordinary life in the countryside. I also enjoyed the endings that allow Marie to discuss tax reform with the nobles and prevent the French revolution from happening entirely. Among the three love interests, Fersen is by far my favorite. He is completely devoted to Marie and showers her with compliments and words of love whenever they cross paths. It's hard for any woman to not be swayed by such overwhelmingly romantic gestures.


The dynamic decision-making system is what truly makes this visual novel stand out in comparison to historical dramas. There are many different paths you can take, and each one is rooted in an actual historical event. The game begins with a famous scandal over a diamond necklace that Marie Antoinette historically refused to purchase before a scheming countess tricked the people into believing that she bought it anyway. I got my first "bad" ending when I agreed to pay for the necklace in installments and learned that the real Marie had never purchased it for the sake of maintaining the royal budget. From there, players can work on restoring Marie's good name among the people by donating jewelry, taxing the rich to help the poor, and paying a charity visit to the commoners to donate food. The game ends early if you prevent the French Revolution, but you can unlock many more events if you allow it to happen anyway. Once the revolution takes place, Marie must choose between Fersen and Lafayette to protect her from the angry citizens or she will suffer the same fate as her historical doppelganger.

The developers of Dress Up! Time Princess put a lot of love and energy into Queen Marie. As the first story that players are able to unlock, they knew that people would use this game to gauge their opinion about the app as a whole. It does a beautiful job of weaving historical events and figures into an interactive novel format that provides an equally educational and entertaining experience. I didn't find it too frustrating to obtain most of the clothing items I needed to unlock new levels with few exceptions. The dresses, wigs, and accessories are very pretty, and I had a lot of fun collecting them. I particularly enjoyed Fersen's romantic gestures and learning to become a better monarch than the tragic figure that the visual novel centers around.

Review: Dress Up! Time Princess - Swan Lake Visual Novel

I already wrote a general review of the smartphone game app Dress Up! Time Princess, but each visual novel within the game is so intricate and time-consuming that it warrants its own review. Immediately after I reviewed this game, I learned that it was about to release a new story based on the classic fairy tale ballet "Swan Lake," which is even more relevant to my blog than the other available stories since this is the only one so far that allows you to play as an actual princess. It is the shortest of the visual novels in the game (not counting side stories) with two potential love interests and three distinct "good" endings. It has fewer dress options than the other stories, but the ones in this book were some of my favorites. The only thing I didn't like was how much extra work was required to make them, which was probably intended to compensate for its length.

In order to incentivize its players to participate in its visual novels, Dress Up! Time Princess adds a unique twist to its otherwise familiar stories. In this case, it presents its players with a gender-bent version of "Swan Lake," featuring a princess who must rescue a swan prince from his curse instead of a princess who was cursed to become a swan. Even though the genders were reversed, this game tries harder to follow the names from the original ballet than the animated classic, The Swan Princess, which named Princess Odette accurately but changed Prince Siegfried to Prince Derek. Here, the princess was named Signy, a clear female alternative Siegfried, and the princes were Aldous and Audwin, which vaguely resemble masculine phonetics for Odette and Odile. Just like in the ballet, this novel has a good "white swan" and a wicked "black swan," who tries to impersonate the good one at Signy's engagement ball. The only major difference in this version is that the sorcerer Rothbart was combined with the black swan character, further simplifying the story for its shortened format.

Swan Lake takes on a more linear story map than the other visual novels in this game and is only one chapter long instead of two. There are no decisions that split the story into two separate paths, but you could accidentally prevent yourself from being able to choose either love interest at the end of the game if you don't make all of the right choices. Therefore, you must make sure that every decision you make is in favor of the prince you want to be with and never change your decisions if you repeat a chapter. The level of difficulty in this story is much higher than Queen Marie, the first visual novel players can unlock. Every level must be completed with a "Perfect" score in order to obtain the required blueprint required to unlock the next level. I was not too bothered by the large amounts of materials needed to complete each outfit because the dresses are among the most beautiful ones in the game. My favorite is the purple Wisteria Capriccio gown, which is the only ensemble with a tiara that you can unlock without having to get lucky from the balloon minigame. I did, however, dislike the fact that some levels did not give a "Perfect" even after you craft every single item for the recommended outfit. For that reason, I would only recommend this story for advanced players who already have leveled up relics from other visual novels in the game.

The most disappointing thing about Swan Lake was not the length, but the love interests. A lot of fans have complained that Aldous is the least attractive love interest in the game so far. Though looks aren't everything, his personality is as basic as a piece of cardboard. He is a stereotypical heroic prince who would sacrifice anything to protect his princess. Signy develops a friendship with Aldous from when she knew him as a swan that she lovingly called Snowy, but we see so little of him in his swan form that there isn't even a drawing or animation of him as a swan. I think this story would have been more interesting if they gave Aldous a task that he would only be able to perform in the guise of a swan. Audwin, who takes on the role of both Rothbart and the black swan, turns into an owl at will, but we never see a visual representation of it in the game either. Though his backstory is more interesting than Aldous's, he is such a despicable character who tries to force Signy to marry him and doesn't have enough time to properly redeem himself during the novel's rushed ending. It's a shame that he's such a difficult character to like because his ending is more satisfying than Aldous's if you choose to make Signy fall in love with him.

What the Swan Lake visual novel lacks in length and character depth is compensated by the beautiful gowns the player can unlock for Princess Signy. While I do not think this is the best visual novel in the game, I loved the original twists on this classic fairy tale as well as the famously catchy ballet score that plays when you open the story map. I would recommend this story to experienced players of Dress Up! Time Princess who love fairy tales. If it is your first time playing the app, I recommend that you complete at least half of the Queen Marie and Magic Lamp stories before attempting this one due to the level of difficulty to obtain a "Perfect" on all of the required levels. It took me close to three weeks to complete this story, during which I spent endless hours grinding, crafting, and borrowing items. In the end, I think it was worth it for the beautiful dresses and artwork, but not so much for the plot and characters.

I Found Two Indie Games Inspired by "Sleeping Beauty!"

While trying to distract myself from my addiction to Dress up! Time Princess, I was encouraged to browse through the Steam catalog for other princess-related games I might enjoy. Sadly, there is no "princess" tag on Steam, and searching for such a thing can yield some questionable content. I decided to skip past the mainstream generic anime and Disney Princess games at the top and found some surprisingly unique indie games. Both of the ones I decided to buy happened to be inspired by the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty." However, the games themselves could not have been more different. One is a visual novel called Once Upon an Electric Dream that tells a sci-fi reimagining of "Sleeping Beauty" in space (you read that right), and the other is a point and click adventure game called Little Briar Rose that allows you to play as the prince(s) from the fairy tale. More on that later.

The first thing that caught my eye about Little Briar Rose was the art style. The entire game is made to look like animated stained glass paintings in everything from the backgrounds to the character designs. Like many princess fans, I fell in love with the art of stained glass after watching Disney's 1991 interpretation of Beauty and the Beast. I was intrigued by the concept of an entire game looking like that but wasn't sure how well it would work with full animation. Since the game only has still backgrounds and a handful of locations, the art style works just fine. If it had been just a bit longer or contained more animation, I think the developers would have needed to come up with an alternative method of portraying its characters and backgrounds. That said, I was more than satisfied to find a mermaid cove and a faery garden included among the small number of locations in the game.

Another thing that stands out about Little Briar Rose is the number of playable hero characters. You play as a prince who must perform various favors for the inhabitants of the fairy tale realm, many of whom are quite picky. Instead of getting a "Game Over" screen every time he fails a quest, the prince is transformed into one of the creatures of the realm and replaced with a new prince. I went through a handful of princes in my game and was amused to find that the second prince comes straight out of Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. What is even more amusing is that not all of the princes are capable of giving true love's kiss to the cursed princess, which forces you to remember where each prince who failed in the past ended up. This game can be completed within a few hours and is fairly simple in terms of actual gameplay. It was a hidden gem among the more generic-looking games on Steam that I was pleased to have discovered.

The other game that caught my eye was Once Upon an Electric Dream, which is a visual novel that features Sleeping Beauty in space. The concept sounded so wild and creative that I just had to check it out. This game is about as indie as they come with roughly five names listed on the credits screen. It had a great story, fantastic acting, and decent artwork. Another thing that made it unique was its black princess protagonist, something we don't see often enough these days. The game begins with Princess Rosavel waking up from hypersleep with a fuzzy memory. Depending on which choices you make for her, she could wind up with one of two potential love interests and learn some shocking secrets about her past. For a visual novel, this game is insanely short. The quickest ending can be achieved within five minutes, and the longest takes about 15-20 minutes. I unlocked every possible outcome for the story within an hour and a half. I know it had a small crew, but most visual novels take at least a few days to unlock every outcome, even if they are short. That said, the game was cheap enough for what it was, and I was impressed with the story and acting. I hope they get a larger budget in the future so they can make an extended version of it someday.

Sometimes, the best things in life are hidden in plain sight. I never expected to find either of these games when I scrolled through the mediocre Disney Princess and anime titles in the Steam library. By sheer coincidence, both of them were based on the same fairy tale, with two completely different creative interpretations offering different styles of artwork and gameplay. I enjoyed Little Briar Rose for the imagery and humor and Once Upon an Elective Dream for the writing and characters. If you plan to buy either of these games, keep in mind that they are extremely short and will only keep you entertained for a single afternoon. However, I would recommend either one for the low price and the chance to support creative people who actually care about entertaining people and not just making a profit.