Long Live The Queen Review

I have to add a disclaimer to the beginning of this review really, as in the middle of playing and writing about this, Queen Elizabeth passed away. So it feels a bit strange writing a review about a game titled Long Live The Queen, but there we go.

Long Live The Queen is a pretty unique gaming experience, marrying the visual novel genre with an almost RPG or management type of title and an added dash of murder, intrigue and political shenanigans. You play as the teenage Crown Princess Elodie who has recently lost her mother and as such is duty bound to become the next Queen of Nova. Elodie will need to train hard to take on this role and to survive until her coronation.

Yes, survive. Long Live The Queen might have the cute visuals of other harmless light-hearted visual novels of the same ilk but unlike them, this game is trying to get you killed. The title takes place over 40 weeks, with events taking course over this period of time. Every week Elodie will need to choose which areas she would like to train in during that week as well as what she might like to do over the weekend.

There are a LOT of different areas you can train in, from Weapons to History or Economics to Conversation. Each one of these areas has its own three subcategories, so the aforementioned Economics allows you to train up your Accounting, Trade, and Production skills, whilst Conversation includes Public Speaking, Court Manners, and Flattery. You can raise each of your individual skills up to 100, but you’ll need to hit the 50 mark in all skills in that category before you can increase any above that mark.

But wait, there’s more, because like you might expect with many other teenagers, you’re going to have to contend with this one’s royally extreme moods. Depending on the events that week, and the choice of weekend activity, Elodie will end up in one of eight different moods (and two extras). Those moods are in pairs that work on a scale in opposition to each other, so you have:

• Afraid to Angry
• Depressed to Cheerful
• Yielding to Willful
• Lonely to Pressured

The two bonus moods are Neutral and Injured but only happen occasionally or with certain game events.

Events of the week can put points towards certain moods, and the weekend activity you choose can also be used to influence the points sitting in each one. Whichever one of these moods has the highest amount of points at the end of the week, will determine what Elodie’s overall state of mind is. This is important because each mood has a positive or negative effect on how quickly she can learn different skills. So if Elodie is in a Yielding mood, she’ll get a boost to training Royal Demeanour skills that week, but she’ll take a hefty negative modifier to any attempt to train in Weapons. There are also outfits you can unlock that will add unique bonuses as well, plus they look cute.

It’s a fantastic balancing act, working out what to do every week in order to train up in the areas you want to, helping Queen Elodie to become a well-rounded (and hopefully decent) Monarch. I found it really enjoyable and loved the sheer amount of different combinations I could try out. And I think trying out is the correct phrase here because that leads me to talk about another aspect of Long Live The Queen, that trial and error is central to the whole game.

When you start Long Live The Queen, you’ll notice the sheer amount of save slots, and they are to be used. It is extremely unlikely that you’ll make it to Week 40 in your first playthrough, because like I mentioned before, this game is trying to kill you. You will “fail” often, and need to go back to an earlier save point to try something new. Perhaps you didn’t put enough points in Internal Affairs and you ended up missing some political nuance that led to someone taking the utmost offence and of ultimately plotting your demise. Whatever it is, there is just always something new, another curveball, a new branch of narrative to explore.

It is truly something impressive, I’ve played this game on a couple of different platforms (this review is for the Nintendo Switch version) and there are just so many outcomes or versions of the plot you can end up with. Who will Elodie end up romantically involved with? Will she embrace her secret Lumen (magic) self? Will she invest in naval might and take on high-stakes sea battles? WHO KNOWS?! It is a delight to explore, and I’ve never enjoyed failing at a game quite so much.

The only slightly jarring part of Long Live The Queen that I found was the musical experience. With a limited selection of classical piano music playing throughout the game, it’s easy to get bored or even irritated very quickly. There’s no voice acting, with dialogue taking place in the form of read along text, so with this music being the only audio stimulation I ended up just putting it on mute and having my own music in the background.

Clearly a lot of effort has gone into world-building here, because there is so much information about literally everything, from what Elodie learns in every single lesson to the history of Nova and its neighbouring countries. It feels expansive and, like any good novel, allows you to get lost in its universe.

I liked playing this title on the Nintendo Switch, because it’s something that’s nice to pick up and play for a while as you explore some of the different paths for Elodie and her Royal journey. It’s ideal to snuggle up on the sofa with or in bed with a cup of tea and just unwind. It’s a quintessential cosy game if you will, but like with added execution and murder and stuff.

Overall, Long Live The Queen is a really fun game with endless hours of replay value. It’s challenging and can seem initially a bit overwhelming in its vastness but will win you over with its charm and ability to not take things like failure seriously. I would highly recommend taking on Elodie’s story - who knows, she might make it to her coronation.