(https://youtu.be/35YXvmEluYc?si=6sm75qPc4hx2utk9)


I don’t really remember when I brought this game onto my PC but I am certainly glad I did take the short time to download this game. Another challenge that would be faced with this game would be the language barrier, however, the game isn’t story heavy enough to burden anyone interested in this game. Meaning that every other aspect of this game is strong enough that the barrier isn’t an issue, but we’re getting to that.

The playstyle of Duo Princess isn’t unique to itself but isn’t commonly seen in games, a platforming beat-em-up with a nice hybrid mix of Brave Fencer Musashi and some of the middle Ys titles, mainly Ys: Ark of Napishtim. The handling of the character itself, placed as a sprite, is okay but nothing special or something that regards itself more than average. Some of the beat-em-up aspects come in where the game will trap you in an area, unable to progress, unless you obliterate this horde of what can only be a group of small forest creatures of various colors. There isn’t much to the actual combat, spam attack and crowd control, you are given magic attacks charged with MP but they’re ok, except for the meteor you get on the last two levels, all bosses from there get destroyed from that.

The story, or at least what I can gather from my small amount of Japanese, is that you play a cast of two sisters and pick from either Mint or Maya, Mint uses close range and Maya is long magic bursts. Both have different sets of magic spells they unlock through the game and are useful. The cutscenes between each level lose their luster when you can’t read what’s going on, if you can, it’s just charming, not great.

Music, the music is great, charming, and whimsical at heart, makes me feel funny, like butterflies in my stomach. There isn’t a lot to it, in fact, it’s about five songs in total, and it’s not memorable, but it’s great. Some may be able to listen to the OST while listening to this review, ill link it at the top of the review.

All in all, yeah, the game is short, has some shortcomings from being made as a fan project of a forgotten Square Enix game but there’s a lot of charm and passion placed into the game. It’s short and free so I cannot see any reason not to visit this truly hidden indie gem of a game.