Long Live The Queen

 PC
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 121 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 84 out of 121
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 121
  3. Negative: 10 out of 121

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  1. Abysmalodin
    Aug 21, 2014
    10
    While the first playthrough is quite challenging, there is considerable depth to this game for it's length. I found myself playing it quite a bit much to my surprise.
    The first weeks seem to be crucial, and it is good to note that for the price the music and story are pretty interesting, to find all of the story you have to play the game in many different ways until you see everything.    While the first playthrough is quite challenging, there is considerable depth to this game for it's length. I found myself playing it quite a bit much to my surprise.
    The first weeks seem to be crucial, and it is good to note that for the price the music and story are pretty interesting, to find all of the story you have to play the game in many different ways until you see everything.
    Those claiming this game has no depth may have just failed to play through every part of the game.
    On a final note this game was just overall pleasant, It left me wishing there was more weeks, while I imagined what may have happened during the rest of my reign.    … Expand
  2. vaurne
    Dec 25, 2020
    9
    I could not possibly put into words how many things this game does perfectly. Even if I could write a book, I'd probably still fail in reflecting all I love about this game, so I'll just talk about the bad things.

    It's the type of game that appears to be unbeatable without checking the wiki and planning the correct path, but that's actually not true. If you give it enough tries, you'll    I could not possibly put into words how many things this game does perfectly. Even if I could write a book, I'd probably still fail in reflecting all I love about this game, so I'll just talk about the bad things.

    It's the type of game that appears to be unbeatable without checking the wiki and planning the correct path, but that's actually not true. If you give it enough tries, you'll find that you will be able to get a good ending and not an early death in 5-10 failed playthroughs, which isn't a lot of hours. The replay-ability of this game is on a whole other level, since depending on the paths you choose, lots of different events and dialogue options are triggered.

    To the reviewers that say it lacks depth and has the illusion of choice, you just don't know what you're talking about... Check the Wiki for the amount of endings this game has and you'll be informed. An "Ending" is something very subjective to this game, and not for the superficial reasons you may be thinking of once you boot up the game and die once or twice.

    Even on good endings, there are tons of things that go down very differently depending on what you do. Some trivial, and some not.

    I can understand that you may become frustrated if you don't fully enjoy the gameplay or aren't fan of the genre to replay it so many times, since you will have to go through a lot of the same plot and dialogue. I, however, being an extremely impatient and easily annoyed type of player, still did not.

    it's easy not to like it at first and delude yourself that it is simply a game that focuses on being too complex to fool you while it's content is ultimately narrow, but that's not the truth in this case. Seriously, if you still doubt that, just check the Wiki for this game and you'll be amazed by the sheer amount of things you can do in this game.

    I'm confessing to be a biased, slightly obsessed fan, and yet still, I could not possibly explore all this game has to offer.    … Expand
  3. FirestormMk3
    Jan 24, 2014
    7
    Long Live the Queen is a surprisingly engrossing visual novel type experience. With a surprising number of endings and a well-written story I can readily encourage anyone who enjoys visual novels to give this one a try.

    The game covers the year until our protagonist's coronation ceremony, and while there are many different endings make no mistake, living until that coronation is by no    Long Live the Queen is a surprisingly engrossing visual novel type experience. With a surprising number of endings and a well-written story I can readily encourage anyone who enjoys visual novels to give this one a try.

    The game covers the year until our protagonist's coronation ceremony, and while there are many different endings make no mistake, living until that coronation is by no means a guarantee. With assassins, betrayals by nobility, wars, and duels both magical and non-magical there are many ways to meet an untimely end. This game even brings with it a more literal meaning to "death by chocolate." Each week you choose two topics to be tutored in, which is how you gain skills in the game. You will have a bonus or penalty to how much you learn based on your mood plus you'll learn skills you already have many points in more quickly. Then you'll choose how to spend your weekend which will affect your mood. Each week there is also an event. What happens in each event is not only affected by your previous choices, but by your skill levels. By default you can see the skill checks that the game is making, and it can be rather disheartening to see several failed checks pass by (or sometimes worse, a single one followed by a death), but it gives you some idea what you're missing and helps you plan what you'd like to be able to do differently on later playthroughs.

    A lot of the intrigue can be a little hard to keep up with, but you can see the effort that went into the game's story with more and more attempts. Studying up and your history and domestic and foreign affairs will provide insight in the flavor text of the skill increases, but will also give the protagonist more insight and options in dealing with them. Quickly it becomes clear that each betrayal, each rebellion, and everyone's feelings about you are actually justified and their characters actually have consistency. On a first playthrough someone's actions can seem like a cheap plot twist, but only on another attempt do you have the right combination of skills and make the right choices to learn you actually could have seen it coming.

    And make no mistake, you will play this game several times. Even should you live to your coronation a single playthrough will only take a few hours, depending on how fast you read. But there are several times the length of one attempt worth of hidden treasures that are fully worth digging for.

    Long Live the Queen is a game with heart and genuine emotional involvement. If you have any interest in the genre you owe it to yourself to give this a try.    … Expand
  4. azadi
    Nov 12, 2013
    5
    Don't quite understand the high rating. The game is very shallow and has no depth. What first seems may be a unique and fun system is nothing but illusion of narrow linear course. Each game is the same way with events happening in same order at the same time. Nothing changes and you only have find whatever is the skill you need get points in to get all the endings. No real choice in theDon't quite understand the high rating. The game is very shallow and has no depth. What first seems may be a unique and fun system is nothing but illusion of narrow linear course. Each game is the same way with events happening in same order at the same time. Nothing changes and you only have find whatever is the skill you need get points in to get all the endings. No real choice in the game other then finding out the points you need. Other reviewed mentioned strategies which i find none in this game at all because of the narrow nature.… Expand
  5. cidgrad01
    Mar 5, 2014
    6
    I picked up LLTQ for $2.50 or $5 during a sale and am essentially done with it after about 5 hours’ worth of play. It’s surprisingly enjoyable but I can’t recommend it because it’s too short and weighed down by an overly complex skill system that will only appeal to a very niche market.

    First of all, I give it extra points for the amount of effort that went into all the different story    I picked up LLTQ for $2.50 or $5 during a sale and am essentially done with it after about 5 hours’ worth of play. It’s surprisingly enjoyable but I can’t recommend it because it’s too short and weighed down by an overly complex skill system that will only appeal to a very niche market.

    First of all, I give it extra points for the amount of effort that went into all the different story options & skill choices. Critics say it’s too linear but that’s not entirely true. Having the same events occur at the same point in the story allows you to strategically plan how to overcome challenges. If random events were procedurally generated each time you played, you would only be able to survive by dumb luck. Also, you can unlock extra dialogue choices, outfits and hidden events depending on which skills you develop and actions you take.

    It is fun to fail at a skill check, possibly die, then replay and build your character differently and overcome a story obstacle. However, the further into the story an event occurs, the further you need to backwards plan for it. This gets complicated due to the labyrinthine way the story events snake together with learning skills & plotting mood adjustments (different moods give bonuses & penalties to learning different skills) and the only way to get around it is to write down some notes about which events occur at which times. While I appreciate all of the multiple endings and achievements available, unlocking those would require way more effort than most people would be willing to spend. The game does give you an option to export a text log of story events, but it doesn’t include any information about skill checks so it’s not nearly as useful as it could be.

    I was still having a pretty good time despite the flaws because I liked the story, but just when I felt like things were getting interesting, it ended. You only need to survive through 40 turns or so to win, and those turns go by blazingly fast when you already know which choices you’re going to make.

    LLTQ gets an A for effort but I simply can’t advise anyone to buy it unless the thought of manually charting out every story event, skill point expenditure & mood adjustment through trial & error appeals to you. It will keep you amused for a few hours and you’ll have no need to ever go back to it.    … Expand
  6. UjuidarEhcram
    Dec 31, 2013
    8
    Long Live the Queen is a game with dating-sim-like gameplay that has you making the right decisions and learning the right skills in order to survive your first year as a young princess waiting for coronation. This game is actually surprisingly tough, and you'll need either a lot of careful planning or a lot of luck to get through the game at all. There are many interesting ways to dieLong Live the Queen is a game with dating-sim-like gameplay that has you making the right decisions and learning the right skills in order to survive your first year as a young princess waiting for coronation. This game is actually surprisingly tough, and you'll need either a lot of careful planning or a lot of luck to get through the game at all. There are many interesting ways to die before the coronation.

    I played a lot of Magical Diary, another game by the same developer. While that game was objectively bad but still very enjoyable, this game is far better. The dialogue is much better, and much more focused on the politics and intrigue. Your choice of skills is incredibly important... not only how much you train them, but which other skills you choose to compliment them. On top of that, your mood has to be carefully managed, because that changes the rate of learning certain skills, so you may need to force mood changes in order to learn new skills.

    Once you realize how this game works, it becomes a careful puzzle of figuring out which skills you'll need at which times in order to survive certain encounters, but the nice thing is that there are multiple ways of doing it. As an example, when you go to a gala, you may have friends and enemies waiting as the result of previous choices. Do you have the courtly graces to appear poised and mature, or will you lose everyone's faith? Can you sense the magic taking place that night? Will you be challenged to a duel, and if so, can you leave the fight alive?

    The art style is usually pretty good, though some of the dress-up outfits are bizarre. The music is all piano, which fits this game pretty well. There aren't many different music tracks, but I found most of them pleasant and unintrusive. The control could be better.

    I picked this game up, thinking that if I liked Magical Diary, then I could find something to enjoy in this game. I had definitely underestimated Long Live the Queen, and it took me by surprise. This is a slow, strategic game, but people who like those sorts of games might really enjoy this one. I think this game is worth it at full price if you think you'll enjoy it.    … Expand
  7. SwitSwat
    Apr 20, 2014
    8
    Don't judge a book by its cover... or in this case, don't judge a queen by her age. This is not so much a game as it is a 'monarchy' simulator. The endless paths you can take to progress and the cute characters make this pretty addicting. I found it fun to restart and try out different strategies and take different decisions. Whether I win or die, there is never a moment when I truly rageDon't judge a book by its cover... or in this case, don't judge a queen by her age. This is not so much a game as it is a 'monarchy' simulator. The endless paths you can take to progress and the cute characters make this pretty addicting. I found it fun to restart and try out different strategies and take different decisions. Whether I win or die, there is never a moment when I truly rage quit. If you like anime or simple strategy games, give this a try. 8/10.… Expand
  8. Corwin86
    Nov 2, 2013
    3
    The given rating may seem overly punitive, but personally I still suspect that this product has been sold as something it is not.

    Sold as brand new and polished version of "Princess Maker 2" (only in the title and setting...), this game couldn't be so completely different, and the sad part is that also in is uniqueness, "Long Live the Queen" fails to impress, amaze, or just entertain    The given rating may seem overly punitive, but personally I still suspect that this product has been sold as something it is not.

    Sold as brand new and polished version of "Princess Maker 2" (only in the title and setting...), this game couldn't be so completely different, and the sad part is that also in is uniqueness, "Long Live the Queen" fails to impress, amaze, or just entertain for more than a couple of hours of play.

    In fact, only the relatively low price save it from a worst rating.

    What is really funny, and sad, is that every ingredient seems to blend and fit perfectly in the beginning...

    And then you discover that, in the end, it all comes down to a banal graphic adventure, banal as uninspired in every aspect of the plot, events, surprises and game modes.

    Let's just say, without incurring in annoying spoiler, that the game is just a straight, flat, and, foolishly, perilous road, where:

    - the story is always the same (the lesser relevance problem)
    - events unfold and flow in the same way and with the same timing
    - character growth system (so complete and intriguing at first sight) is just an excuse to extend the playing time, since there is only one way to complete the adventure and every creative variation made ​​by the player will have the unique and only effect to kill character and reaching a premature the end of the game
    - the game itself make a pride on being completely without mercy towards the player

    And at the end, you will find yourself in starting the game again and again for 5, 10, 15, 30 times, and I'm not kidding, and eventually, you'll finish to save at EVERY single turn, only to try to survive and find a solution... that you'll not find!

    And, I ask: can this be considered funny, or at least, interesting?    … Expand
  9. themagiccan
    Dec 29, 2013
    7
    If you played Cute Knight and was expecting Long Live the Queen to be something similar, you may be in for a big surprise as Cute Knight was loads more fun.
  10. MrLonwol
    Jan 5, 2014
    2
    if you've ever played a single strategy game in your life you'll know this game isn't nearly complex as people say it is.

    pretty much none of your choices matter and you'll see most of the same events no matter what you pick, even then it's more like a choose your own adventure game as it gives you the events based on what you study. nothing is random and all is pre-determined. 2/10    if you've ever played a single strategy game in your life you'll know this game isn't nearly complex as people say it is.

    pretty much none of your choices matter and you'll see most of the same events no matter what you pick, even then it's more like a choose your own adventure game as it gives you the events based on what you study. nothing is random and all is pre-determined.

    2/10 the otaku kawaii is also awful, magic monsters even being in this game is a huge joke

    i actually spent $10 on this what am i doing with my life    … Expand
  11. Paikia
    Nov 19, 2013
    9
    The concept of this game might be considered silly, childish or just plain boring. Well, in my opinion, it's none of the above. Once you give the game a decent chance, you realize that while it has its faults and disadvantages, it's actually a lot of fun, and can be quite complex.

    The basic idea in the game is to find a combination or a sequence or choices and decisions that will not    The concept of this game might be considered silly, childish or just plain boring. Well, in my opinion, it's none of the above. Once you give the game a decent chance, you realize that while it has its faults and disadvantages, it's actually a lot of fun, and can be quite complex.

    The basic idea in the game is to find a combination or a sequence or choices and decisions that will not only lead you to becoming queen, but also ensure the prosperity and safety of your kingdom. What makes this game so much fun and interesting, in my opinion, is the number of possibilities. It's not just a matter of winning or losing, it's also a matter of how. While the journey from the beginning of the game to the end might be a little short, the real point of the game, as I understand it, is to keep exploring options. Personally, I'm coming up on 20 hours in Long Live The Queen, and while I've explored most of the options, I still have quite a few to discover. The achievements list gives you some clues about how many more options you haven't explored yet (the achievements are available both in-game and on Steam).

    In conclusion, if you like strategy life simulation games don't pass on Long Live The Queen. Give it a decent chance, it's definitely worth it!    … Expand
  12. TitaniumDragon
    Jul 3, 2014
    3
    Long Live The Queen is a quirky sort of game lying somewhere in-between a simulation, a visual novel, and a choose your own adventure game. You are Elodie, the 14-year old heir to the throne. Your mother, the queen, has died, and you must prepare yourself to take the throne in 40 weeks – if you can survive that long. The game takes its name from the fact that this is no easy task; deathLong Live The Queen is a quirky sort of game lying somewhere in-between a simulation, a visual novel, and a choose your own adventure game. You are Elodie, the 14-year old heir to the throne. Your mother, the queen, has died, and you must prepare yourself to take the throne in 40 weeks – if you can survive that long. The game takes its name from the fact that this is no easy task; death can lurk anywhere. Or so the trailers promise, at any rate.

    The trailers seemed to indicate that this game was primarily humorous in nature; you create Elodie after Elodie, training her differently each time, only for her to meet some unfortunate end along the way. While the unfortunate end bit may or may not be accurate, the humor is not; while there are a few humorous moments in the game, one the whole the story is actually quite serious, and follows Elodie as she tries to navigate the complexities of court life while being woefully underprepared for it. Frequently, Elodie is faced with some sort of situation that she has to deal with, and via a combination of her skills – which she trains herself in two of every week, at your direction – and your own decisions, you must navigate your way through the game blindly, never knowing what the consequences of your decisions are going to be in the end. Everything from deciding whether or not to attend a birthday party to choosing to assassinate a scheming noble is covered by the game, and which skills you have seem to affect the choices you can make. As you go through the game, your choices have consequences which come back on you, forcing you to deal with or benefit from your past decisions.

    The story is overall passable, but nothing special, and while there is minor variability from game to game, it is relatively minor.

    The flow of the game is very simple – every week, you choose classes for Elodie, then some scripted event happens that you have to respond to (or which gives you a hint to upcoming events), then finally you get to make some additional choice of what to do around the castle on the weekend for the purpose of effecting Elodie’s mood. There are a total of 40 weeks in the game, and your goal is to survive through to the end.

    It may seem bizarre to say that a game which gives you a large number of choices would grant you very little agency, but this game grants practically no real agency in many situations. The problem, to put it simply, is that you have absolutely no idea whatsoever what your choices mean, and you have no idea which skills are going to come up, or when they will be important. I never once used a large number of skills, while other skills were used very frequently – and while some of those skills which were used very frequently made logical sense, such as courtly manners, presence, divination, and wield magic, others were outright bizarre, with decoration being used a considerable number of times, while I never once used the dance skill or horseback riding.

    This is partially due to the choices you make – I did deliberately avoid making skill checks in some situations – but it is also due to choice blindness. While the usefulness of some skills is obvious, the usefulness of other skills is much more obscure – is knowing about horses going to be relevant? It seems like something which would be relevant, and yet, it never once came up, and only once did I ever see anything where it might have been relevant (a choice at the tournament). I only saw one instance where dancing would have mattered as well. When I went out to sea on a ship, I never made a naval strategy check or a swimming check, but I did make a climbing check of all things. Even when you’re warned of upcoming events, frequently you don’t have enough time to crank up your skill checks enough to make a difference – in many cases, a single week of preparation is all that you are given at best, while at others, you are given no forewarning at all of upcoming events, even though logically you should have been warned.

    While making choices is important, if you have no way of reasonably evaluating which choices you are going to be called on to make, or the consequences of your choices, or even how high your skills need to be to succeed, your choices aren’t really meaningful – you are simply making them at random, or near-random. Even choices which had to do with how much money you have in the treasury frequently did not tell you how much money you had, nor how much you were spending. Some choices were interesting because they were nerve wracking and the pros and cons could be easily seen, but in terms of raising skills, it was hard to tell whether raising divination was a better idea than raising courtly manners, or how the two would differ.

    On the whole, Long Live the Queen’s feeling of lack of agency and lack of explanation outweigh any virtues it might have; the story and graphics aren’t good enough to save it. It is an interesting idea, but the execution was lacking.    … Expand
  13. skulls
    Oct 20, 2015
    6
    The game is alright. It was fun for a night or two. I got almost every part of the story but this was more of a chore because I had to go through so many of the same things for a little bit of new content. The story comes down to a few major events happening and if you have the right stats you get a better outcome. Yay... just when you become queen and can make some real change the gameThe game is alright. It was fun for a night or two. I got almost every part of the story but this was more of a chore because I had to go through so many of the same things for a little bit of new content. The story comes down to a few major events happening and if you have the right stats you get a better outcome. Yay... just when you become queen and can make some real change the game ends probably because they couldn't handle all the possible plot lines they'd set up that never went anywhere interesting.… Expand
  14. orctown-troll
    Jun 28, 2014
    5
    LLTQ is a NICHE product. It has slide-show graphics. It has a silly premise. A silly story. Within this framework the game is fun in its niche-market mode. The point is you will run through the story many many times to uncover all the variations that flesh out the full story. If you are a fan of anime and Japanese RPG production values, then this would be a recommended buy at about $2.LLTQ is a NICHE product. It has slide-show graphics. It has a silly premise. A silly story. Within this framework the game is fun in its niche-market mode. The point is you will run through the story many many times to uncover all the variations that flesh out the full story. If you are a fan of anime and Japanese RPG production values, then this would be a recommended buy at about $2. This game (and genre) has great potential to offer GREAT gameplay. But it fails because of a vital lack of CONTENT. There are insufficient variations in the story. The graphics are UNDERWHELMING. The skill trees don't lead to anything. Too many story paths lead to death and failure rather than discovery. It is not much fun going back for 'another run' through the same, limited 'tunnels'. 5/10. Mediocre.

    orctowngrot    … Expand
  15. Rebochan
    Dec 26, 2013
    8
    While the game may appear to be a more detailed sim ala Princess Maker, it's better to describe this game as a visual novel with stat checks.

    That said, there's a surprising amount of depth in how to get poor Princess Elodie to her coronation alive. Once I got it through my head that this game was deliberately designed to prevent me from maxing out all of my stats, I started making    While the game may appear to be a more detailed sim ala Princess Maker, it's better to describe this game as a visual novel with stat checks.

    That said, there's a surprising amount of depth in how to get poor Princess Elodie to her coronation alive. Once I got it through my head that this game was deliberately designed to prevent me from maxing out all of my stats, I started making elaborate plans on how to actually win. There's a number of different ways to accomplish this and while there's certain fixed story events, you'd be surprised how subtly or dramatically they change out based on seemingly simple choices made earlier in the game. The game's storyline spends a lot of time emphasizing that being a person of nobility is hell. You'd expect a game like this to spend a lot of time on cute things like romance, but nope Elodie's life is always under threat and while you do have a lot of marriage options, you don't actually so much spend time with the groom and romance him as you quickly and shrewdly snap up someone with a political advantage to your survival.

    Something that really got to me was that while the anime art was actually good for the most part (normally a SERIOUS problem in a lot of "otaku" games like this one), only Elodie has facial expressions that change over time. Fortunately, she IS expressive enough that you can easily track her mood, which is a gameplay mechanic that will make or break your playthroughs. But seeing eveyr single other major character have the same frozen face from start to finish is quite a negative in the art department. Furthermore, much of the game's backgrounds are recycled over and over, which makes your supposedly massive kingdom feel quite small. On top of that, I expected, given the genre, that I'd get a few detailed inserts of major story events from time to time, but this didn't really happen aside from the hilariously cute/violent death graphics.

    If you hate visual novels, this game is NOT for you. If you don't mind them, this is one of the better ones made outside of Japan and the writing and surprisingly deep strategy elements make it a good buy for the price range ($10 on Steam, less during some of the sale events). It is rather short, though the game's achievement system does insist on multiple playthroughs.    … Expand
  16. SubaqueousDream
    Mar 11, 2014
    8
    Defiantly worth spending a few dollars on. A great implementation of simple & pure mechanics with surprising strategic depth. It has great replayability and nice attention to detail on how she progresses. If you have doubts, pick it up on the next Steam sale!
  17. ChanReview
    Feb 15, 2015
    6
    The game appears to be all cute and fluffy with butterflies; but it is deceiving.

    Your aim is to schedule a princess's life in order to avoid imminent death before her coronation ceremony. It's rather comedic in how the princess dies (there are many, many, many ways to die) and the way she speaks if you do not teach her any better. It is by no means easy to live all the way to the end    The game appears to be all cute and fluffy with butterflies; but it is deceiving.

    Your aim is to schedule a princess's life in order to avoid imminent death before her coronation ceremony. It's rather comedic in how the princess dies (there are many, many, many ways to die) and the way she speaks if you do not teach her any better. It is by no means easy to live all the way to the end and I can almost guarantee death on your first attempt; but that is what makes it fun.

    Story line is a bit underwhelming and could have been improved and eventually you will get bored of the game as there is only so many times you can click and rearrange classes for her to attend before you get bored. Was an interesting and fun game initially to say the least, but left much to desire. You eventually get to the point where you click classes randomly, ignoring her mood, and wishing for the best.    … Expand
  18. DiggetyDoo1
    May 10, 2015
    6
    This game features a story that at first seems cookie-cutter but when you play a bit more, it's slightly less cookie-cutter. Slightly. The art is adorable and the characters are somewhat likable. There are some pretty tricky decisions and stat management to do. The mechanic of learning different classes is pretty amazing and the mood mechanic is nice too. Your choices have a pretty bigThis game features a story that at first seems cookie-cutter but when you play a bit more, it's slightly less cookie-cutter. Slightly. The art is adorable and the characters are somewhat likable. There are some pretty tricky decisions and stat management to do. The mechanic of learning different classes is pretty amazing and the mood mechanic is nice too. Your choices have a pretty big impact on the game. Playthroughs can be VASTLY different. One annoyance is that you can often end up creating never-ending cycles of death that cannot be beaten and thus you are forced to restart the entire game so an autosave function would've been much appreciated. The protagonist really feels like an extension of you which is helped by the many, MANY things you can learn. On different playthroughs, it's hard to keep track of the different ways you can die in this game. There are plenty of opportunities to die in this game (ran through with a sword, killed by dark magic and poisoned by a box of chocolates to name a few). Often deadlines to do certain things can approach ALARMINGLY fast. Even when you're restarting the entire game because of a never ending cycle of death. But that's one flaw in an otherwise quite good Visual Novel/Life Simualtion. Get it in a sale.… Expand
  19. allo_ver
    Feb 21, 2016
    5
    While I'm not very fond of visual novels, I kind of enjoyed Long Live the Queen.

    Following an interesting initial premise - You are a young princess about to reach adulthood and your eventual coronation -, the game relies on a nice skill based system, where certain events and dialogue options are enabled depending on skill levels. The plot offers a good variety of characters and a    While I'm not very fond of visual novels, I kind of enjoyed Long Live the Queen.

    Following an interesting initial premise - You are a young princess about to reach adulthood and your eventual coronation -, the game relies on a nice skill based system, where certain events and dialogue options are enabled depending on skill levels.

    The plot offers a good variety of characters and a complex enough scenario, and figuring out a path to survive all the threats to your coronation - and there are many - will prove challenging for a while, as you juggle which skills should be trained and which will be neglected. It's a trial and error process that can be figured out after a while. More difficult is to figure out a path to get all endings, as it requires vastly different approaches to overcome the same challenges.

    However, its good ideas are undermined by very low production values.

    For a game that relies on still images to present the plot, there's not much variety. You will spend most of the time gazing at the same still picture of the castle. Events are only described in text with the still image of the castle in the background, with very few exceptions (that simply change the background for a bit). The character portraits all seem to be derived from the same very few templates, so it's hard to differentiate among them.

    Also, there's no voice acting of any kind, the music is somewhat dull and repetitive, and the writing is lackluster (all character seemed to have very similar personalities).

    In the end it's not a bad game, but it could have been much better with a few minor improvements.    … Expand
  20. beardi
    Feb 4, 2016
    5
    First time I played it I was really impressed. Then, you start to discover the nonsense. The second time I played it was somehow boring. Too repetitive (and still unpredictable). It would say it is a cute game, but not my kind of game.
  21. bigsilverhotdog
    May 1, 2016
    6
    I recommend this game IF it is on sale, and in spite of the fact that it is way, WAY, ****WAY**** too short.

    It has an interesting story, good writing, standard high quality iconic anime art design, plenty of "choose your own adventure" paths to take during the year in which you "graduate" from Princess to Queen, and a satisfying amount of humor. The problem is that at the very    I recommend this game IF it is on sale, and in spite of the fact that it is way, WAY, ****WAY**** too short.

    It has an interesting story, good writing, standard high quality iconic anime art design, plenty of "choose your own adventure" paths to take during the year in which you "graduate" from Princess to Queen, and a satisfying amount of humor.

    The problem is that at the very moment you really start to enjoy the game, right at the moment you become Queen and you think "Ok, now things are really going to get interesting!" -- BLAM, THE GAME ENDS. Seriously, I'd only been playing for an hour and I was really getting excited that the game had the potential to be a really GREAT game...

    and that was it. Game over. Thanks for playing this incredibly short story.

    Yeah, ok, there is a little replay value if you want to see all the different ways to fail, and all the different outcomes that the game displays to you as text AFTER you become Queen... but that's not very much at all. I wanted to rule, to deal with the consequences of the "setup" that I'd just played, to see the results of my choices, and to make many more choices. The game felt very much like a shareware demo -- "If you want to play the real game as the Queen, then buy the full game."

    ...or perhaps more appropriately:

    "I know we said "Long Live the Queen", but what we meant was, "Long Live the Queen perhaps, if you make the right decisions in the 1 hour 'Choose your own adventure' Princess-Graduating-to-Queen time window during which this game takes place and the long life of the Queen takes place entirely in your own imagination after it says Game Over."

    At 10 dollars this game is a complete INSULT. At the 2 dollars I got it for during the Steam Summer Sale it was a MARGINALLY acceptable value. But there should have been a game to play after the intro was over.    … Expand
  22. gyrate
    Jan 11, 2015
    8
    This is a decent game and if you pick it up on sale it's worth every penny. You'll play it through until you get it right then you'll keep trying different combinations while dying along the way. It's a streamlined crusader kingdoms on rails. It still has many stories to tell by increasing your stats in different ways and making different choices. It's not a difficult game you just tryThis is a decent game and if you pick it up on sale it's worth every penny. You'll play it through until you get it right then you'll keep trying different combinations while dying along the way. It's a streamlined crusader kingdoms on rails. It still has many stories to tell by increasing your stats in different ways and making different choices. It's not a difficult game you just try different combinations to see the other parts of the story. There is a charm to the game but in the end there is no real skill level it's just a story unfolding. This could be a very good sequel if they change it up a bit but after you win you realize that you need to max certain stats and things that need to be done, and that hinders your desire to explore the different branches. I could be wrong as i haven't taken every path but the perception is that I will die if I don't make specific choices. Therein lies the key to a nice sequel. If the choices weren't on rails and decisions could change it would have more replay ability. Instead you quickly realize that every time you get that gift box it's going to kill you.… Expand
  23. diehard-gamer
    Jan 1, 2015
    5
    OK(ish). Just purchased this for approx £3 on steam. Played for several hours. Its OK. Its a bit like playing a spreadsheet with storyline events that require you to have certain values in your key spreadsheet cells to continue. There is no way of knowing when which cells will be required, so you will 'die' randomly quite often. There are save games so you can time travel back to beforeOK(ish). Just purchased this for approx £3 on steam. Played for several hours. Its OK. Its a bit like playing a spreadsheet with storyline events that require you to have certain values in your key spreadsheet cells to continue. There is no way of knowing when which cells will be required, so you will 'die' randomly quite often. There are save games so you can time travel back to before your death and start increasing the values in the cells you need to get past the event, but the cells are interlinked and increasing the values you need takes time, so you may not be able to increase them fast enough to continue. Its OK for £3. The spreadsheety gameplay reminds me a bit of 'console game dev' on Android and Democracy on PC -so If you liked those games, you may like The Queen too.… Expand
  24. SirCrimsonFox
    Jan 14, 2017
    10
    A unique and surpriing experience. Much like a choose your own adventure combined with the board game Tales of the Arabian Nights. A fun little story of a princess who must rise to be queen....if she can last that long. You must choose what studies to study and improve in...which can lead to rewards for using the right skills at the right time...if they are high enough. SOmetimes it meansA unique and surpriing experience. Much like a choose your own adventure combined with the board game Tales of the Arabian Nights. A fun little story of a princess who must rise to be queen....if she can last that long. You must choose what studies to study and improve in...which can lead to rewards for using the right skills at the right time...if they are high enough. SOmetimes it means little, sometimes it can lead to life or death circumstances. Lots of fun story areas and very replayable. Can win and lose in many different ways. Am really surprised how many ways I have won so far...even going down totally different paths. Highly addictive.… Expand
  25. BaddoSpirito
    Sep 25, 2014
    8
    I really liked this game but can't really put my finger on why. I mean, objectively, it's a simple trial and error game but it is surprisingly addictive. I guess it's a combination of good story, many different ways to build your character and a sufficiently hard character optimization procedure.

    In this game, your character builds her skills as time passes and if you have enough points    I really liked this game but can't really put my finger on why. I mean, objectively, it's a simple trial and error game but it is surprisingly addictive. I guess it's a combination of good story, many different ways to build your character and a sufficiently hard character optimization procedure.

    In this game, your character builds her skills as time passes and if you have enough points on a skill, you can influence the outcome of events positively. I think what captivated me most was trying to optimize the skill build to get as many good outcomes as possible. It also has a lot of replay value because no matter how good you are at optimizing, you can't have enough skill to open some routes at the same time.

    I would probably rate this 7/10 if it were expensive but it's really good for it's price and thus deserves an 8.    … Expand
  26. Bunnywagon
    Jul 18, 2014
    9
    At first I thought it will be cute and innocent game about getting girl over through hard plots to the throne, after my 6th death I have realized that this game wants you to die a lot. (Look at the achievements). I actually fell in love with this game, as it is really cute and funny, especially some ways that your character can die. (Death by Chocolate! Yum!) Also when people say that youAt first I thought it will be cute and innocent game about getting girl over through hard plots to the throne, after my 6th death I have realized that this game wants you to die a lot. (Look at the achievements). I actually fell in love with this game, as it is really cute and funny, especially some ways that your character can die. (Death by Chocolate! Yum!) Also when people say that you don't have much of a impact on the outcome, they are wrong, almost all the decisions with classes matter. You can go extremely passive, just to prepare for the last encounter before reaching crown. Or simply go wild and explore the death, which is funny!
    11/10 - Hands down, the most funny game that killed boredoom in my life.    … Expand
  27. smilzoboboz
    Mar 7, 2015
    9
    This game was a total surprise for me, I didn't expect much but in the end I'm having a lot of genuine fun playing it.

    The game mechanic associating moods with affinity to learn certain school subjects (not to mention the originality of the "studying to become queen" idea too) is simply addicting. Events are more or less the same during the progression of the game but, depending on    This game was a total surprise for me, I didn't expect much but in the end I'm having a lot of genuine fun playing it.

    The game mechanic associating moods with affinity to learn certain school subjects (not to mention the originality of the "studying to become queen" idea too) is simply addicting.
    Events are more or less the same during the progression of the game but, depending on your areas of expertise, you're able to expand your choices to get unexpected results... I'd say this game ironically is actually a game to find out all the possible way the princess can die (all of them overly cute).

    Story and gameplay aside the game had clearly a low budget because there are no fancy visual effects or symphonic music but I'd say that character design and realization is gorgeous, backgrounds and generally stuff is overall well drawn too, princess costumes are extremely cute and more than everything else, princess's moods realization is just pure cuteness.
    As anticipated, music is not much good, probably the worst compartment of the whole game. While themes are not that bad, there are just a bunch of them and this may lead to feeling them somehow repetitive.

    Last but not least this game runs flawlessly on linux (as well as MS Windows and Mac OSX).

    To recap I'd totally recommend buying this game to anyone, better if you can wait for sales ofc but even at full price (which is not high to start with).    … Expand
  28. Pannacone
    Sep 4, 2014
    8
    Little girls dream of being queens—but ruling a kingdom is harder than you would think. Long Live the Queen is a cute visual novel that combines elements from tabletop strategy games with in-depth stat building to create a choose-your-own-adventure journey to queendom. The road to rulership is never easy, though, and players of Long Live the Queen will find themselves dazzled by a vastLittle girls dream of being queens—but ruling a kingdom is harder than you would think. Long Live the Queen is a cute visual novel that combines elements from tabletop strategy games with in-depth stat building to create a choose-your-own-adventure journey to queendom. The road to rulership is never easy, though, and players of Long Live the Queen will find themselves dazzled by a vast array of possible death scenarios and addicted to the thrill of finding new strategies to overcome obstacles.

    As Crown Princess Elodie, you spend the majority of Long Live the Queen choosing how to spend your valuable time in weekly classes that boost Elodie's various stats. Each week allows you to choose two classes to take, some of which will boost Elodie's softer skills (like conversation, royal demeanor, history, and medicine) while others will add points to more aggressive skills (such as weapons, intrigue, and military knowledge). The broad scope of skills and abilities allows for many styles of play: perhaps you'll choose to be a fierce warlord who is skilled with a sword or maybe you'll choose to be a radiant debutant with the manners of a young socialite. Both strategies are viable options in Long Live the Queen, and the endless amount of weekly options makes for varied strategies and approaches.

    In between times spent studying, Elodie will be given the option to attend various events, pass judgment on people of her kingdom, and pass laws and taxes. Players can start wars, behead criminals, break betrothals, and challenge opponents to duels. The player is frequently presented with skill checks and decisions that, depending on Elodie's ability to pass or fail these checks and your choices of actions and dialogue, can change the course of Elodie's story and, yes, even lead to her untimely death!

    In sum, Long Live the Queen is a wonderful little casual game meant for those who are attracted to visual novels with strong elements of strategy to them. Its large number of choices lends itself well to several playthroughs, especially for those seeking to collect Long Live the Queen's achievement for discovering all eleven ways to die. Unlocking the tragic story of the death of Elodie's mother (and getting revenge for her demise!) is an experience that deserves a solid 8/10.    … Expand
  29. seraphmina
    Jan 26, 2017
    7
    I played with a walkthrough and enjoyed it a lot. If you go in blind then you're going to need a bit of determination to figure the game out and keep your character alive.
  30. Red_Coat05
    Nov 20, 2019
    8
    Quite good fun, though only for about 8 or so hours until it gets dull, but that is made up for by its charm and price.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Feb 24, 2014
    70
    What initially seems like a game of dressups and progress bars reveals itself to be a much deeper story based affair. [March 2014, p.58]
  2. Eurogamer
    Jan 31, 2014
    70
    The fact is that wandering through the plot of Long Live the Queen, blithely making mistakes on the assumption you'll do better the second or third time, is wonderful. Trying to actually do better is a byzantine process involving either heavy use of a guide or incredible persistence.
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  3. Everyeye.it
    Jan 22, 2014
    70
    A spoiled-teenager-princess simulator, where the main character can die in the most unlikely ways. What more do you want?
    Read full review
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