Confusing Mix of Mechanics – Palace Rule Review

First things first- this game is NOT optimized for western audiences. The translations are readable for the most part, but word choices and phrasing are confusing and don’t convey sensical ideas. Story wise, there are phenomenal leaps of logic used to push the story, all the while forcing the character that you control to have epiphanies and realizations that the player would be completely oblivious to. For a game that attempts to give you the illusion of choice in story mode and “chance encounters” with the romance options, it completely robs any ability to put yourself in the position of the character. If the devs want the choose your own adventure feel, they have to actually commit to it and not give pointless this-or-that choices that don’t change anything. If they don’t want it, then do away with the mechanic, because it’s pointless. Another odd mechanic: the “battles” that are suppose to mimic arguments that your character has with another, or some battle of will/intimidation/persuasion. There are two types- the first being in the middle of a chapter, the second being the “final boss” confrontation. The final boss confrontation makes sense- it pits the collective strength of you (your servants) against the enemy, meant to ensure that you are investing in your support network instead of blazing through the story with no friction. The middle chapter battles are strange in design and implementation. Two factors in your ability to fight these battles are your energy level and your plot level. The battle is essentially, if your energy is higher than the opponent, you win. I don’t understand why the devs felt the need to pretend that this is a relevant gameplay mechanic when it’s just meant to be added friction to your completion of a chapter. Instead of this fake battle, just require that each step of the chapter be unlocked by a certain amount of energy. Third is the dress up portion of the game, with UI and tag systems shamelessly based off of Love Nikki (most notably.) The dress up portion of the chapters and the dating mechanic have unclear methods of scoring and an abysmal option of clothes to purchase, which can easily be remedied by just adding more clothing options with more diverse qualities (i.e., elegant, cute; lively, gentle.) Some of the dating challenges can’t even be completed to perfect status because there are simply not enough clothing options that fit the criteria. This game is EXTREMELY unpolished and doesn’t quite know what to do with itself. Like many other similar games flooding the market, it steals game mechanics and shoves it into the game without much thought into how it would make sense for the setting and plot. As transparently cheap as that is, it has the potential to become a functionally good game.
Review by juliusjackson on Palace Rule.