It's fun the first time around, but you soon realize how linear the story is. The same events, in the same order, repeat at every playthrough. This means that there's a few combinations of stats that are just plain better than the others, and there's no way of knowing besides trial and error. There's no actual strategy or intrigue to it, just playing over and over until you can see the way through the maze. Compare to Princess Maker 2, which allowed boundless freedom - with failure statuses being very very rare - and multiple, arguably equivalent endings. The setting and characters seem very detailed and carefully planned but there's no point to them, as you can only interact with them when the story allows you to, and even then it's just a stat check. This means that you could beat the game skipping all the dialogue, just hitting the right stats combinations, never even knowing who "the blond guy" is. The graphics are cute and it's a good time waster for an otherwise boring afternoon, but I regret spending $10 on it. Get Princess Maker 2 instead.
