#jay sapinski

[birdiereviews]

Long Live The Queen by Hanako Games, reviewed by Jay Sapinski

Long Live The Queen (Hanako Games, 2012) is a management visual novel with a complex skill building system and a wide range of outcomes and choices. You slide into the shoes of the Crown Princess Elodie of Nova as she navigates politics, war, and love following her mother's death. Because she's too young to ascend the throne (only 14 years old!), you have to survive 40 weeks until she turns 15 and is able to become queen.

This, as it happens, is much harder than one would think. Threats are around every corner. Your first run (but also most likely your next few runs) will undoubtedly end with Elodie perishing in any one of the startling 11 ways to kick the bucket.

The screen that the player returns to after each week.

The core of the game is selecting two classes to take every week, keeping in mind the skills that you want to build as well as Elodie's mood, which affects how well she learns. This is followed by reading a short event where, if applicable, skill checks are displayed, making it easier to understand where you can make different choices in your next run. During the event section, you will sometimes be able to make a choice about an action that Elodie can take. You then select a location for Elodie to visit, helping to alter her mood to suit your needs. Although repetitive in theory, this loop is a safe and enjoyable circle, allowing you a structure from which to impact the story.

The menu showing how well Elodie understands or is skilled in a particular topic.

The story is paced well with excellently crafted dialogue that distinctly sounds like each character. The choices in event sections make sense and aren't polar extremes without reason. Skill building management as well as mood management is crucial to both Elodie's survival and your ability to explore the various plotlines available. Certain events are fixed but many require you to pass a particular skill check to begin. It is, without a doubt, worth replaying to search for these hidden plotlines.

Elodie responding to another character during an event section.

Certain events are influenced by foreign policy decisions, and while fine in of itself, this could be aided by an easily accessible map of the region as well as a family tree (there is none in game but Hanako Games has posted a map on their forums and fans have created family trees). Understanding the motivations of the nobility is an important factor in making appropriate choices that protect Elodie from their plots. Even if Elodie doesn't know this information from the start, if a player passes certain skill checks, the information can be added to these diagrams.

Long Live The Queen is an excellent management visual novel, hitting all of the major requirements to be both a good read and a fun game.

Long Live The Queen can be purchased for $10 through the Hanako Games website as well as through Itch.io and Steam.

~

Jay Sapinski (they/them) is a college student studying English. They are an editor of their college’s literary magazine as well as a fiction editor of miniskirt magazine. Jay loves Japanese culture and Japanese style media and consumes it whenever possible.

[birdiereviews]

Dear WEBTOON, What's Up With Daily Pass? by Jay Sapinski

Within the past few years, web comic publisher, WEBTOON, has instituted Daily Pass, a system where readers must unlock a new episode every day in order to read. If a reader wants to read more episodes, they must exchange coins for access (about 30 cents per episode). It began with completed titles, but more recently, it has spread to serializing titles (called Daily Pass Originals). These types of serializing titles also require the last three episodes to be exchanged using coins.

Once limited to one every few months, Daily Pass Originals have become commonplace, a few debuting every month. They're nearly always Korean web comics licensed for English translation. The reception from readers to this new change is decidedly negative, especially from those who prefer to binge read. That, of course, is possible if one is willing to unlock an episode every day. But this points to a wider trend that WEBTOON is employing.

An example of a recent Daily Pass Original.

The platform is looking to expand the opportunities that it has to get readers to spend money. This in of itself is a normal practice for a business to employ, but as a reader, this is a frustrating situation. What's stopping WEBTOON from removing the Daily Pass function all together and putting everything behind a paywall? There isn't anything but the fact that Daily Pass Originals fairly consistently flop. The newest titles don't pass 100,000 subscribers or one million views within a week (a good indication of passable popularity).

(This is happening in some fashion to nearly all debuts, even if they aren't Daily Pass Originals, and even if they're from established creators, but that's a conversation for another day).

If barely anyone is reading it, it's not making any sort of money. I suspect putting everything behind a paywall would cause a mass flight of readers from the platform that WEBTOON should be desperately trying to avoid. After all, people who disliked Lezhin's and Tappytoon's paid models for reading web comics turned to WEBTOON. If WEBTOON turns into the same as those platforms, what's stopping readers from jumping to the next platform that offers a more enjoyable reading experience? As much as I hate ads, I'm tempted to say that forcing a reader to view an ad beforehand à la YouTube is a better path to go upon. People will view the ad, especially if they know that the creator benefits from it. They will not always buy coins, even if they know that the creator benefits from it.

In addition to the frustrating experience of switching from an ad driven model to a more or less paid model, there are also some questionable UI decisions that make Daily Pass Originals irritating. There's no function for buying the entirety of a title or at least mass buying episodes. WEBTOON, you mean to say that if I read the free episodes and decide that I'm going to read the entire thing, I can't frontload all of the coins to read every available episode? I have to click each episode one by one and buy them? Frustrating. Especially if I start reading a title months after it debuted and there are potentially over a hundred episodes available. Let me select particular episodes, as many as the amount of coins I have allows, and all of the available episodes! I get as many episodes as I want in one fell swoop. I see the confirmation message once. I can read everything without interruption.

A less painful reading experience pushes the story to the forefront, making readers more capable of consuming more stories, expanding the reach of the platform. Make it easier for us to buy episodes. Make it easier for us to access episodes. Make it easier for us to read stories.

~

Jay Sapinski (they/them) is a college student studying English. They are an editor of their college’s literary magazine as well as a fiction editor of miniskirt magazine. Jay loves Japanese culture and Japanese style media and consumes it whenever possible.

[birdiereviews]

Your Throne by SAM, reviewed by Jay Sapinski

Your Throne (WEBTOON, 2020—present) presents Medea Solon and Psyche Callista, two aristocrats, in conflict over the highest seat that the Vasilios Empire can offer to rising female nobles: Crown Princess. Medea was set to win the position as part of a contest to determine who would become the Crown Princess, but the Crown Prince selects Psyche instead. Feeling betrayed, Medea works to enact revenge upon Psyche. However, on the day of the Yearly Prayer, the divine swaps Medea's and Psyche's bodies, leaving both of them in unfamiliar situations and roles.

Episode 1: The Two Ladies of Rumor (1), Medea taking notice of two minor nobles gossiping about her.

Medea adapts easily to her new reality as expected of a person who is portrayed as cool, calculating, and manipulative. Putting on a range of emotions and faces, even ones that she doesn't normally use, are child's play. Psyche's adaption, however, is riddled with mistakes, leaving many of Medea's (now Psyche's) attendants wondering if she is who she says that she is. This is also expected as Psyche is depicted as naïve, honest, and caring. She wears her heart on her sleeve and everyone can see the drastic change in behavior in "Medea".

Episode 1: The Two Ladies of Rumor (1), Medea killing a soldier in the service of Psyche.

Due to circumstance, Medea and Psyche are forced into aiding each other, and over time, they learn that the other has qualities that are important to being a ruler. Indeed, it is crucial that Medea understands that her manipulation is to lesser effect if she is so cruel that even those closest to her fear her. By the same token, Psyche learning that the people around her may be working to undermine her position and hurt her allows her to protect herself and those around her.

In this way, Medea and Psyche, although initially characterized in a simple fashion, become more complex and real people, shaped by the situations that they are thrust into.

Episode 2: The Two Ladies of Rumor (2), Psyche preparing for the ritual on the day of the Yearly Prayer.

Your Throne starts from a position that many stories have tread, but it builds characters that stand on their own, becoming understandable and loveable in their own ways.

Your Throne is on episode 126 as of this review, and it typically updates on Saturday but is on hiatus.

~

Jay Sapinski (they/them) is a college student studying English. They are an editor of their college’s literary magazine as well as a fiction editor of miniskirt magazine. Jay loves Japanese culture and Japanese style media and consumes it whenever possible.