The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Title: The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, Inc
Publisher: NIS America
Website: https://nisamerica.com/games/the-liar-princess/
Genre: Adventure, Platform
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Audience: 16+
Release Date: 12/02/19
Price: £19.99 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

What the Developers say

“Plucked straight from the pages of an ancient fairy tale, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince tells the story of two lonely hearts brought together through a mutual misunderstanding. Transform between the wolf and the princess to solve puzzles and evade traps, collect flowers and petals to unlock fragments of memories, and weave through the dark and dangerous forest to guide the prince toward a cure. But be warned…an all-seeing forest is no place for a blind prince.”

Introduction

Playing as a Princess with a dark secret, you have to guide the blind Prince through a deep forest to reach a mysterious witch who has the power to give him sight again. The twist; the Princess is disguising herself from her true form, a wolf, and she is the reason the Prince lost his sight. It’s a heartwarming tale of love and loss, played out in typical fairytale fashion with some great backdrops and a strong Japanese culture at the helm. Something I found incredibly endearing was listening to the narrator as she reads the story in Japanese for you, with the English subtitles spread across the page across the artistic backdrops.

There are lots of hidden secrets and collectables to find across your journey, and you’ll be solving puzzles as well as guiding your Prince through the forests labyrinth while seamlessly switching between your beast form and the Princess.

Looks and Sounds

The entire game is played out like a gorgeous hand-drawn Japanese masterpiece, the short narrative cutscenes you’re treated to are something special. If you’re a fan of anime or are an artistic individual, then you won’t be disappointed. There are vibrant tones as you make your way through mushroom filled marshes and icy caverns although there’s a very dark undertone that runs throughout the game, in its art style and story. The overall look of The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is one of the successes of the game, and it certainly stands out from the crowd.

The musical score feels very much suited to the games earthy and artistic nature, with softly sung melodies and distant dream-like sounds you’ll start to feel relaxed within no time.

Gameplay and Replayability

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is an adventure/puzzle style platformer, so in terms of gameplay, there’s a lot of walking to be done and lots of puzzles to solve. One of the key features of the game is the way you travel through each of the stages, as I said previously you are guiding the Prince through the forest. This means you have to hold his hand and walk him through each area physically; the catch being that you can only hold his hand while you’re a Princess. So if you come up against any nasty enemies, you have to leave the prince where he is before going to slay them in wolf form and pick him up once the coast is clear. It’s a great unique selling point (USP) and one that ties so closely to the story, you’ll find yourself rooting for them both for that happy ending.

One of the downsides I found was the obscurity of some of the puzzles; for example, some involve your standard ‘move block on switch type’ scenario. Then there are others that seem like an impossible riddle of text, there was a couple that had me stumped, and I had to resort to looking online to find the answers because there’s not any hint system either.

You can find yellow leaves scattered throughout each stage with 100 to find in total as well as special flowers to give to the Prince. These are usually locked behind an additional route or a puzzle. These all unlock extra lore or additional artwork which is a real treat to look at and read through. It’s very likely you may miss a couple on your first playthrough as I found a few mistakenly jumping into a darker area of the stage. It’ll take you around 4-5 hours to finish the whole game, and fortunately, you have the option to select specific stages to skip back to should you miss anything. Some parts in the later stages can feel a little clunky, involving a few accidental deaths for the Prince, where you’re dropping down steep inclines. Holding hands with another player is a learning curve when it comes to the platforming elements, but it’s certainly not an unenjoyable one.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my time with The Liar Princess and The Blind Prince. It was a joy to watch the story unfold and find out how this dark fairytale ended, with a very strong USP and an artistic art style to boot you can’t go far wrong here. Perhaps if a sequel does come to fruition, there could be some hint system added, but with additional collectables and development artwork to unlock there’s a good amount of replayability to be had — a cute and endearing addition for your Switch library.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince at the Nintendo eShop at the following link, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/The-Liar-Princess-and-the-Blind-Prince-1504999.html