Wistful game
FROM THE outset, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince has moved to tread off the beaten path. In a live broadcast early last year announcing, among others, its development, Nippon Ichi Software made sure to highlight its unique plot: It tells the story of a wolf needing to take on human form and pretend to be a princess in order to help a prince it accidentally blinded regain his sight. And, as subsequent public updates have likewise shown, it does so by employing a singularly flat aesthetic; it relies on a hand-drawn art style that emphasizes its Grimm Brothers-storybook tone.
That The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince was the winning pitch of an in-house competition held annually (and, NIS just had to point out, by a female web designer) served only to punctuate its distinctiveness. As with previous contest winners Yomawari: Night Alone and htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary, it figured to push the envelope in its treatment of the subject matter. And, with uncommon flair, it succeeds. It isn’t merely a puzzle platformer cum action adventure; it takes pains to accentuate its themes of love and companionship by having the lead characters take center stage together.
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