A good school-life sim, but...
...not a good dating sim.
Review is for the all-ages version (no patch).
In Princess Evangile, we follow the school life of Masaya, a student with a difficult past, who is one day invited to join an all-girls boarding school, to serve as a model student for the idea of also admitting boys in the future.
Despite this introduction potentially raising some red flags about what is going to happen in this game, I can assure you that it has indeed a serious story with good writing, which can be enjoyed perfectly well without the sexual content present, as is the case in the "All Ages" version.
Contrary to the "All Ages" branding however, some suggestive statements made by characters were retained, though those are rather uncommon, and mostly used as part of practical jokes, with the only notable exceptions being a few scenes during the romance section, where the characters will briefly mention parts of what took place during the removed scenes.
This was kept reasonably tactful in the route that I played however, and overall made sense in the context these remarks were made in.
=> School-life (Common Route)
After spending a few chapters being introduced to the world we find ourselves in, and the characters we have with us for the ride, Masaya finds out how much work he has cut out for him, as it will largely fall on him to convince the girls of the "Vincennes Girls' Academy" to accept not only himself, but his entire gender into the school going forward.
Naturally, the hothouse flowers (i.e. the girls) of Vincennes are rather inexperienced in dealings with the opposite sex, which quickly turns Princess Evangile into a sitcom, in which "misunderstandings" are aplenty, and Masaya finds himself in many curious, unusual, and often outright funny situations, which he needs to maneuver himself back out of.
Once the basics are out of the way, it turns from a sitcom into a drama, in which Masaya needs to navigate the intrigue and schemes of his opponents in order to avoid losing the progress he has already made, a task which is easier said than done.
In this section, I encountered a number of twists and turns which I didn't expect, though this may be different for you.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this section of the story, as the characters were interesting (even the sidekicks), the scenarios had variety, and once you got to know the girls of Vincennes, they actually tended to be rather nice people, which made for a rather relaxing atmosphere (as long as we didn't happen to be in a major drama episode).
=> Romance
Let's get to the elephant in the room...
The progression of the relationships and romantic tension in this game follows a rather strange, unnatural path in my experience.
At first, Masaya gets to know the main heroines (the girls he can choose to date), which follows a believable path.
However, during the common route, the progression between him and the heroines stalls completely in a very awkward fashion.
While multiple girls clearly show that would be interested in dating Masaya, leading some of them to even butt heads with each other over it, this tension just kind of sits there for most of the game without being addressed by either Masaya or any of the girls.
Neither he nor them ever really talk about the matter, and so the girls just keep signalling interest without any resolution taking place, to the point where them fighting over Masaya while he just ignores it basically ends up being a running gag for most of the game.
Masaya is overall a rather passive protagonist, as unless something important is happening right in front of him, he tends to just go with the flow, instead of taking initiative and making things happen (e.g. talking to the girl he likes 1-on-1).
This doesn't just apply to romantic progression either, as past a certain point, Masaya doesn't get to know the girls any further, or talk to them outside of school/club activities, which can make his relationship with them feel rather shallow, including the one with his eventual love interest.
=> Rise's Route
Since this is the only route I played, I cannot comment on the other ones, though the points above still apply, as they are part of the common route.
When Masaya first met Rise, I was excited for her route, since her warm, friendly personality really drew me in, even after only a short period of him talking to her.
However, then there were the issues with the relationship progression I pointed out in the previous section, so by the time the common route ended, all of that excitement had disappeared.
Unfortunately, it didn't get any better from here, as the progression in Rise's route was like a roller coaster for no apparent reason.
For example, at one point Masaya had only recently talked to Rise alone for the first time, a few days later she suddenly invites him on a date, and on said date she reveals that she's had feelings for him at some point. After the date ended though, they both basically act as if it never even happened.
I've played quite a few romance VNs, but I can't recall seeing such a strange progression in any of them before... though part of that may be due to Masaya's passive personality.
Outside of that, Rise's route also suffers from rushed writing and significant plotholes towards the end, which made the ending rather unbelievable, and fall flat.
As a result of these factors, I did not particularly enjoy the dating-sim aspect of the game. While it had its moments, it felt rather incoherent overall.
=> Summary
If a story about school life with lots of humor, and a sizable chunk of drama is what you want, Princess Evangile should be a good choice for you.
However, the romance aspect had a rather strange progression which made it feel unnatural and shallow, so I personally wouldn't recommend it if this is your primary focus.