A sweet stat-raiser game in the same vein as Princess Maker, but not nearly as punishing as other games in this subgenre. Instead of a breakneck run through your daughter’s childhood as you try to balance her emotional needs with creating a productive member of society, Volcano Princess throws the entire world open to you. Have your daughter make friends with whoever you want, focus on whichever stats you like, and don’t worry about all that stuff about degradation and a monster war. That’s only there if you want to dig into it, and you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Volcano Princess is one of those games where it takes more effort to get a bad ending than a good one, which is helped by the game encouraging multiple playthroughs via the Talent system. Cash in the points you earned from your daughter’s most recent completed save file by giving her a leg up on the next one with boosted status, higher friendship levels, good gear from the jump, and more. This made my second playthrough with an eye towards the true ending a breeze.
But despite that excellent quality of life upgrade, the game still has some rough patches. One playthrough is all it takes to figure out that a character with a petrification skill makes the combat trivial, and there’s an easy early game exploit with the blacksmith’s sale that turns money into a non-issue. Parts of the UI feel more at home with mobile games than a PC stat raising sim, and the translation ranges from “this could’ve used a second edit pass” to “I have no idea what these characters are trying to say.” Add that last part to a late-game lore dump if you decide to go the True Ending route, and the story ends up confusing at best.
Yet, even through all of that, the game still charmed me from start to finish. The art style is beautiful, and what I did understand of the story led to a heartwarming ending. I’m glad that my warrior girl and her fortune teller BFF turned wife are living their best lives out there, and that’s what I really want out of games like this - a happily ever after.
But despite that excellent quality of life upgrade, the game still has some rough patches. One playthrough is all it takes to figure out that a character with a petrification skill makes the combat trivial, and there’s an easy early game exploit with the blacksmith’s sale that turns money into a non-issue. Parts of the UI feel more at home with mobile games than a PC stat raising sim, and the translation ranges from “this could’ve used a second edit pass” to “I have no idea what these characters are trying to say.” Add that last part to a late-game lore dump if you decide to go the True Ending route, and the story ends up confusing at best.
Yet, even through all of that, the game still charmed me from start to finish. The art style is beautiful, and what I did understand of the story led to a heartwarming ending. I’m glad that my warrior girl and her fortune teller BFF turned wife are living their best lives out there, and that’s what I really want out of games like this - a happily ever after.