22 year old Vietnamese American living in the US. Asexual lesbian and super hella Gay. Welcome to my blog, make yourself a home. I also write fanfic too. You can often find me at 13 Paternoster Row hanging out with the lizard woman from the dawn of time, her human ninja wife, and their psychotic pet potato. Single af, just saying.
I really should’ve done this ages ago. Still, better late than never. I’ve had such a long and prolific career writing fanfic lol. I love sharing them and engaging with fellow fans. Feedback is always welcome! 😊
Warrior (current main fandom)
Bossy Rich Widows
Hearts In Bloom
Killjoys
Queens Rise
Modern Day GQ
Sunday In The Capital
Dopamine
Doctor Who
Paternoster Drabbles
13 Paternoster Row Oneshots
I Now Pronounce You Silurian and Wife
Once You Eliminate the Impossible
Love at first lizard
The Daft and The Beautiful
Tipping the Scales of Justice
World to Come(movie)
Ledger of Life
A Better World
Tierro Des Lobos(Spanish tv show)
Star-crossed
Miscellaneous
Realizations Of A Countess
SotINF Short Stories Collection of Fun and Randomness
Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux)
English (Early Access): June 28th, 2024
"You are one of the delegates.
In this world of politics, intrigue and danger, will you find love? Make friends? Alliances? Or will you fail and be forced to watch as the world once again crumbles into destruction and despair?
It is your story and it is not yet written.
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (or 7KPP for short) focuses on player choice, customization and consequences. Politics and people are the core challenge of the game. (And it is challenging. So much so a story mode has been created for those who prefer their failures to end up less game-endy.)
Spanning seven weeks of gameplay, almost a million words of content, 12 different romance/marriage routes (3 of which are with female characters) hundreds and hundreds of choices, a detailed character creation that has has over 40 stats to master, including personality traits, a choice from six separate backgrounds (all with their own storylines and unique reactions, choices and dialogue) and world-changing outcomes that vary with every choice you make, 7KPP is massively replayable.
This is the early access version. Expect bugs, errors and typos. Many things are subject to change for the final version. The GUI, information pages, extras and gallerys are not in their final version. Three unlockable romance routes (two full GxG and one secret GxB) and three special unlockable backgrounds will be added for the final version."
The early access version of Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem has been released by Azalyne Studios! You can try the demo or buy it from itch.io here.
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem - A Long-Overdue Review
Way back in 2015, I was a fresh-faced 21 year old just getting into the world of visual novels - specifically otome games. At the time, there was a lot of buzz about this one upcoming game with a really promising demo - Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem, slated for a 2016 release.
Nine years later, it's finally out (in early access)! Let's see if it was worth the wait.
What kind of game is this, anyway?
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem was, and is, unlike any other game I have ever seen before. Considering the absolute development hell it went through, I doubt we'll ever see a game quite like it again. The demo that I played back in the day included the first three weeks of the game, and it had me absolutely hooked.
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem is a stat-raising visual novel. Basically, it's a game focused on storytelling through text and still images, with the core gameplay loop consisting of raising various skills in order to pass (or fail) challenges. The game is set on the mysterious Vail Isle, where seven nations have each sent seven young representatives to forge political alliances (through marriage or otherwise), advance their nation's interests, and - at least ostensibly - protect the fragile peace between them.
As the player, you create a character from one of six nations (the seventh nation, Skalt, is not an option), build their stats, and try to survive seven weeks on the island (and maybe find love along the way?). The game is notoriously difficult - if you go in blind, you'll almost certainly fuck up at least a few things massively. There are two difficulty settings, Challenge Mode and Story Mode. In Challenge Mode, you can fail badly enough to either get kicked off the island or die. Story Mode is a little kinder - certain skill checks have lower requirements (at least allegedly), and no matter what you do, you won't die or get sent home early. You can still fuck up in just about every other way possible in Story Mode, though.
The choices you make during character creation have a major impact on your success or failure. Aside from the stats you raise during character creation, and the background you choose, there are also a number of options you can choose to influence your character's personality. Although all stats have some relevance, some of them end up being a lot more important than others - which makes sense, since this is a social and political simulator. Being good at talking to people is going to get you a lot further than being good at self-defence.
The gameplay loop
This, to me, is what makes 7KPP unique. It's actually possible, in a single playthrough, to impress every character and get the best possible outcome for every nation. It's also incredibly difficult, and requires making the right choices at basically every turn. You have to say the right things to the right people while having the right stats, and be in the right place at the right time. You have to minmax your character from the moment you start creating them, and never stop min-maxing both your stats and your relationships.
And it is FUN AS HELL.
Obviously, you don't actually "have" to do any of this. You can play the game normally, and get some good outcomes and some bad outcomes. I'd recommend doing this on your first playthrough at least, to get a feel for the game before you get bogged down in spreadsheet guides.
The stat-raising gameplay is roughly similar to raising simulators like Princess Maker or Long Live the Queen, but it's also not quite the same. It's not like stat-raising visual novels are a new concept, but I've never found anything that does quite what this game does the way it does it.
Characters
This game contains... hang on, let me count. I think eleven romance routes plus one friendship route, three characters that you can befriend (but not romance) outside of their full route, three more love interests that haven't been implemented yet, a rival character, and a few other important characters.
The cast is massive, is my point. But pretty much every character has at least some level of depth. They all have their own goals and motivations, and you can either help or hinder them. There are actually more routes than there are love/friendship interests, because political marriages are an option in the game separate from romances. Depending on your choices, certain other characters may enter into political marriages.
There's a wide range of characters, and I'm not going to describe them all here. I am, however, going to give a special shout out to the female love interests in the game. There are three at the moment (with two more coming), which is a pretty good ratio for a game about political marriages set in a fantasy world where only one kingdom allows same-sex marriage to begin with. It also avoids one of the common pitfalls I've found in games with both male and female love interests, in that the female love interests are actually interesting. Your options are:
Meek shy maid. She's very sweet and I like her a lot, but I'll admit to not finding that character type super interesting as a love interest. Nevertheless, this type of love interest seems really common in Western indie visual novels with both male and female love intersts. I think it's because they're broadly non-threatening?
Cool, tough warrior lady with the heart of a golden retriever. This is Tumblr, the muscle woman website, so I probably don't need to sell you on this one.
Evil princess. This is great for me, because I love complicated relationships in fiction, and because I had become resigned to the Bioware style habit game devs have of making the mean women straight. That is not the case here! They actually let you have the toxic yuri of your dreams! You can kinda fix her, or you can make her worse. I think she can also make you worse. Not sure. Either way, I haven't played her route yet, but I am so looking forward to it.
For the first half of the game, you'll probably spend a lot of time getting to know the various characters. The plot picks up in the later half of the game, which means that you have a lot less time to spend with the various characters, especially romanceable characters other than the love interest you chose. To be honest, that made me a bit sad - I put a lot of effort into trying to befriend all of the love interests, and it would have been nice to spend more time with them. Although considering that it's really hard to befriend them without them also developing romantic feelings for you, it does make a lot of sense - they distance themselves from you after being rejected.
They do show up throughout the story as well, in the later weeks, but if I had a criticism of the character writing, it's that I would have liked the love interests you don't choose to have a bit more relevance. However, given the massive amount of branching in the game and the fact that they are still actually there and involved in a lot of major story moments, it's not a major criticism. Realistically, I don't think they could have done more with those characters than they actually did - I just grew fond of them, and wanted to see more of them.
Luckily, this game has a ridiculous amount of replay value, so I'm sure I'll see more of them on their own routes.
Story and writing
Honestly, I think this is the part of the game that's going to be the most hit or miss. I personally really enjoyed the story, but the premise involves a basic assumption about human nature that I think is going to chafe for a lot of people: namely, the assumption that diplomacy can work.
The world of 7KPP is on the brink of war. It is possible, although extremely difficult, to turn that situation around through sheer skill and diplomacy, and instead bring all of the nations into a golden age of peace and cooperation. I think it's very easy to say that this is unrealistic - that people never change just because someone said the right things at the right time. And to a certain extent, that might be true.
But also, it's a video game. If you do all the right things and you're really good at the game, you get rewarded with outcomes that are maybe a bit unrealistic. That's true for all kinds of games, not just this one. If you play normally, you'll probably get some realistically ordinary or even depressing outcomes. You have to earn your happy ending. Right now, at this point in history, it's very easy to see the worst of humanity. It's very easy to believe that things keep getting worse, that selfishness and greed will always win out. And it's true, they often do.
But I think it's important to remember that it doesn't have to be that way. Sometimes, miracles really do occur. Sometimes, people and society really do change. For all of the misery of the past few decades, we've also seen a lot of amazing people doing amazing things, individually and collectively. I think most people, fundamentally, want to live in a world that does not suck, and 7KPP is a game about reminding people of that fact.
Basically, I agree with the fundamental philosophy of the game, and I think the fact that you can fix everyone's problems if you play the game right is a feature and not a bug. But I can see how that philosophy is going to be a much tougher sell in 2024 than it was in 2015.
I will say that the writing can be a bit clumsy at times. There are a lot of typos in the later sections of the game (although those will probably be fixed), and the prose and dialogue can sometimes be a bit... unpolished, I suppose. I think that's mostly just a matter of experience, to be honest. This was the dev's first project, so I suspect that her future work will benefit greatly from the ten years she spent writing 7KPP. I'll hasten to add that the writing isn't, by any means, bad. If you're not especially picky about prose, you'll probably think I'm being overly harsh. Most indie visual novels don't meet the standard I'm imposing on 7KPP here, but I'm still going to impose that standard because I don't want anyone to buy the game as a result of my review and then end up being disappointed by this aspect of it.
Other
The game was made in Ren'py by a solo dev who isn't a programmer, so the code is apparently duct taped together under the hood. I didn't encounter any bugs, so that hasn't been a problem for me.
The game balance is kind of amazing - it's really impressive just how tight the skill checks are if you're going for the best possible result, without any New Game Plus bonuses. It's doable, but only just, and I can't imagine how much of a headache it must have been to make that happen.
I find the UI kind of ugly, if I'm being honest. It's not super navigable, and it's somewhat unfinished, with the calendar only going up to Week 3 (unless that's a bug). Apparently the UI is on the list of things that they're going to attempt to fix throughout early access, with the dev planning to hire on someone with more programming experience.
I like the art style. It's quite unique, which is going to put off a certain sub-section of the visual novel community, but oh well. There aren't a huge number of CGs, or flashy effects or anything like that, but I don't think this game really needs that to begin with.
Most (possibly all?) of the music is creative commons, so it's nothing special. I did feel like some of the music wasn't a great choice for the mood, although I generally liked the character leitmotifs. They very clearly did not have the budget for original music, and it's also pretty far down the list of priorities, so that's not a real complaint. If they'd had infinite resources, it would have been cool to see some original music. They did not have infinite resources, and it would be unrealistic to expect anything other than what we got.
Conclusion
Here's the link to the game on itch.
I would heartily recommend buying the game if you enjoy any of the following:
Visual novels in general
Political intrigue
Complex stat raisers
Interesting and likeable ensemble casts; or
Innovative video games, just in general. Seriously, I meant it when I said that there is nothing quite like this game out there. You really do need to experience it in order to understand that.
Despite the relatively minor criticisms I've had, I really believe in this game. I believe it's something special, and after the amount of time it spent in development hell, I really, really want it to succeed. I will wear my bias on my sleeve here - I want to see more devs take these kinds of risks. I want this dev's ten years of work to pay off.
It's not a perfect ten, but it's a ten to me, damn it.
Side notes
This game used to have a thriving fandom on Tumblr, but that well and truly died. There are some active threads on the itch.io community page for the game, but I want to know where to go to post memes. If anyone knows, please tell me.
I hope it isn't Twitter, though. Fuck that.
I somehow got into this game right after the Kickstarter ended, which I've been salty about for nine years. I literally just missed it. Absolute tragedy.
I'm aware that the creator is active on Tumblr, and since I'm tagging this post with the game's tag, there's a non-zero likelihood that she'll read it. So, Aly, if you've read this far: hi! I really liked your game! Hope you're doing well. It's honestly a bit awkward to review a game knowing that the dev might see it, since it's always going to include some element of unsolicited criticism, but there's no real way around that. This review was aimed at potential players, which meant that I had to be comprehensive and honest. I hope that makes sense.
Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux)
English (Early Access): June 28th, 2024
"You are one of the delegates.
In this world of politics, intrigue and danger, will you find love? Make friends? Alliances? Or will you fail and be forced to watch as the world once again crumbles into destruction and despair?
It is your story and it is not yet written.
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (or 7KPP for short) focuses on player choice, customization and consequences. Politics and people are the core challenge of the game. (And it is challenging. So much so a story mode has been created for those who prefer their failures to end up less game-endy.)
Spanning seven weeks of gameplay, almost a million words of content, 12 different romance/marriage routes (3 of which are with female characters) hundreds and hundreds of choices, a detailed character creation that has has over 40 stats to master, including personality traits, a choice from six separate backgrounds (all with their own storylines and unique reactions, choices and dialogue) and world-changing outcomes that vary with every choice you make, 7KPP is massively replayable.
This is the early access version. Expect bugs, errors and typos. Many things are subject to change for the final version. The GUI, information pages, extras and gallerys are not in their final version. Three unlockable romance routes (two full GxG and one secret GxB) and three special unlockable backgrounds will be added for the final version."
The early access version of Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem has been released by Azalyne Studios! You can try the demo or buy it from itch.io here.
I wanna write some NellieXAhToy fan fic for you, but have you any triggers??
Sorry for taking forever! Too busy for Tumblr these days!
Awww thanks anon! That's so sweet! The lack of DavenToy fic (Warrior fic in general) is atrocious! As for triggers, the only one that comes to mind is sexual assault. Which we know Ah Toy had experienced. Though, just mentioning it is fine.
Ah Sahm: Where's Ah Toy? I've been searching for her but I can't find her anywhere
Nellie: wait I got this
Nellie: can someone hold my hand?
Ah Toy, appearing from nowhere: [grabs Nellie's hand] I'm here.
Nellie: *tearing up*
Ah Toy: oh no, why are you crying?
Nellie: I'm okay, it's just the onions
Ah Toy:
Ah Toy: [angrily towards the onion] what the fuck did you say to my wife?!
Ah Toy: Come on, I wasn’t that drunk last night.
Ah Sahm: You were flirting with Nellie.
Ah Toy: So what? She's my wife.
Ah Sahm: You asked her if she was single.
Ah Toy:
Ah Sahm: And then you cried when she said she wasn't.
Ah Sahm: Where's Ah Toy? I've been searching for her but I can't find her anywhere
Nellie: wait I got this
Nellie: can someone hold my hand?
Ah Toy, appearing from nowhere: [grabs Nellie's hand] I'm here.
[A day before Ah Toy goes back to Chinatown]
Nellie: what am I gonna do when you're gone?
Ah Toy: I don't know, what do you normally do when I'm gone?
Nellie, voice cracking: w-wait for you to get back?
Hong: Bro, I had a dream we fucked.
Young Jun: Bro, relax it was just a dream.
Hong: Huh, gay, I wouldn’t fuck you.
Young Jun: You wouldn’t?
Hong: I mean, unless you want to-
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: Warrior (TV 2019)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ah Toy/Nellie Davenport, Mai Ling/Eliza Pendleton, Hong/Marcel, Past Mai Ling/Li Yong, Ah Toy & Mai Ling, Ah Toy & Ah Sahm, Ah Toy & Lai, Mai Ling & Ah Sahm, Nellie Davenport & Eliza Pendleton, Ah Sahm & Young Jun & Hong
Characters: Ah Toy, Mai Ling, Nellie Davenport, Eliza Pendleton, Lai, Ah Sahm, Young Jun, Hong, Marcel, Chao, Li Yong, Bolo, Kon Pak, Father Jun
Additional Tags: DavenToy, Mailiza, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Modern AU, San Francisco, California, Supermodel/Fashion Designer Ah Toy, Lawyer Mai Ling, Nellie and Eliza own a flower shop, otp, I only do AUs when I'm really obsessed with a ship or media, I've been rotating this one in my head for a while, Let's see where it goes lol, Seriously I would kill for more Warrior fanfic and content, Eliza was trash on the show but the femslash potential with Mai Ling!!!, Ah Toy and Nellie and Hong deserve everything, Warrior said Gay Rights!, Romance, Family, Friendship, Drama, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Bisexual Character, Canon Gay Character, Questioning Sexuality, Useless Gay Idiots falling in love, Interracial Relationship, Covid and the pandemic never happened
Summary:
Warrior…but they time travelled to 2023 San Francisco! Starring Ah Toy and Mai Ling as modern day women. They had everything figured out, but fate works in mysterious ways. A supermodel and a lawyer walk into a flower shop, changing their lives forever. Success and failures, love and heartbreak, hopes and fears. They’ll experience it all, and more!
Something fun to do while waiting for Warrior season 4 announcement
