Name: Little Princess Ma-ru Oukoku no Ningyo Hime 2 (リトルプリンセス マール王国の人形姫2)
Type: Fantasy RPG
Available Languages: Japanese
Today we take a look at the game Little Princess Ma-ru Oukoku no Ningyo Hime 2 (The Puppet Princess of Ma-ru Kingdom 2). It is an old favorite of mine, made by the quirky Japanese company Nippon Ichi Software. Some may actually be familiar with this game’s predecessor, Ma-ru Oukoku No Ningyo Hime, as it was released in English on the PlayStation under the title Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. Subject to some of the worst dubbing in the history of mankind, Rhapsody was salvaged by having the option to use the Japanese voices available in the menu in an age when that was really quite rare. Ma-ru Oukoku No Ningyo Hime was released before Nippon Ichi Software made its mark with major titles like Makai Senki Disgaia and, due to the shortness of the game, the fairytale-like storyline, and the insertion of song and dance into regular conversations, was overlooked by western audiences. Thus, its sequels never left the shores of Japan, which is a real shame.
The first game will only be discussed in passing here, due to the fact that it was rereleased on the Nintendo DS, and in my opinion that version is superior to its PlayStation predecessor. The story of Little Princess really can’t be fully understood without knowing something about its predecessor, and as I started my interest in the series, aptly enough, with the first game, it really does deserve a mention. I ran across the western release of the first Ma-ru Oukoku game, Rhapsody, when I was a teenager. I had heard horror stories about the English dubbing, but it was the weekend and I had nothing better to do, so I thought that it would be worth renting. I never regretted it, especially when I saw that I could change the vocals in the menu. What was presented to me was a rather fractured fairytale: a story of a girl, Cornet, going on an adventure to save her beloved prince, Ferdinand, from an evil witch with only an army of puppets to assist her. It is, needless to say, a strange little game, even if you discount the often very amusing musical numbers. But to cut a long story short, good wins out over evil, the girl marries her prince, and the story ends with them having a baby daughter.
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| People tend to burst into choreographed musical numbers in this game. It's as adorable and terrifying as it sounds. |
As a teenage girl, particularly one who loved manga, I don’t need to go into detail about how much I loved this game. So when I heard that there was a sequel, I did everything in my power to track it down. It didn’t surprise me that it hadn’t been released in the west, given that this series is something that only certain members of the gaming community can appreciate, but I was one of those people, and after quite a bit of searching, I finally got my grubby little paws on a copy of Little Princess. I was not disappointed, as the adventures of Kururu, Cornet and Ferdinand’s daughter, are superior to those of her mother’s in every aspect.
Kururu, our twelve year old protagonist, has spent her entire life hearing about her mother’s heroics and dreaming of finding a love like her parents share. So she decides that with them conveniently away from the castle, it’s time for her to go out and track down her own elusive love interest. Kururu is a rather temperamental and awkward girl, made worse by her own dubious fashion sense, which even the people of her own kingdom comment on. So with little thought as to logistics or to her position in the world, she charges forth on her adventures, best friend Kurea in tow, whether those around her like it or not.
Kururu and Cello, her love interest, meet in a way that is very reminiscent of the meeting of her parents, but unfortunately for our heroine, she is quickly disabused of her romantic notions. Cello is as rude as Ferdinand was chivalrous, a trait which will mark their interactions for much of the earlier parts of the game. As such, they meet up sparingly at first, and only end up working toward the same goal very late in the game, due to the secrets that Cello is keeping.
Kururu goes on many adventures that seem to spin away from the main plot, some of which are very interesting. When she goes looking for ‘soft cream’, the Japanese way of referring to soft serve ice cream, she finds that the local delicacy is not quite what she bargained for. You really don’t want to know what it’s made of. It isn’t Soylent Green, but it’s certainly quite disgusting, and you find out all about it in a song and dance number dedicated to the subject. I don’t think that Kururu ever quite recovers.
Each character comes with their own set of
abilities, as is common in an RPG. They can each also equip up to three
puppets, who will change your character’s stats according to their own and also
come with their own sets of abilities. Certain puppets can only be equipped by
Kururu and Cello, due to certain backstory reasons that I won’t get into here.
But that doesn’t mean that all is lost for your remaining characters. Sometimes
after a battle is over, one of the defeated enemies will transform into a
puppet that can be equipped by many of your party members and then leveled up
accordingly. It’s a strange but fascinating battle system, and I have
personally had quite a lot of fun with it.
The game ends on quite a happy, fairytale-like note,
just as its predecessor did, and is quite satisfying for people who are looking
for a longer, more difficult game that is written in a similarly quirky style
to the original. Little Princess is a game that I return to often for
relaxation purposes. For those who are interested in the series as a whole,
there are other Ma-ru Oukoku games besides these two. There were several puzzle
games released in the Ma-ru Oukoku universe, as well as a sequel, Tenshi no
Present (Angel’s Present), for the PlayStation 2. Tenshi no Present is a game
made of short stories that fill in plot gaps in the Ma-ru Oukoku universe. It
is of particular interest to Little Princess players because it contains the
epilogue to Little Princess as one of the storylines.
In closing, what I will say about this game is that
if you like Nippon Ichi Software style quirkiness, you will probably like this
game, even if you aren’t enamored with cute storylines. Sure the characters
burst into song and dance occasionally for no particular reason, but I find
that it adds to the humor value of the game, and they do have several famous
voice actors to back it up. I ran into the first Ma-ru Oukoku game one night
when I was bored, and it turned into a lifelong love for me. It might just turn
into a few hours of amusement for you.
If you feel like hearing more of my gaming prattle, feel free to follow
me on Twitter. You can find me at @bejiita_buruma
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