Princess Closet

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Princess Closet is a Visual Novel released on mobile devices in 2016 and brought to Nintendo Switch in 2020. This game casts you in the role of a woman who is suddenly “discovered” by a fashion designer and whisked away to become a model for his product line… which incidentally also sees you working with a group of attractive men. Yeah, so this is one of those “reverse harem” sorta’ things.

The presentation here has one bright spot, and that’s the artwork for the characters and backgrounds, with the character designs in particular being really well-done. However, the music is repetitive and annoying. The game does make use of some Japanese voice-over, but it’s nothing especially noteworthy. Also, it bears mention that since your own character is the one getting makeovers and modelling gorgeous outfits, it seems odd that you never get to see the role you’re playing. In the end, the presentation here is good, but could do with some improvements.

As for the story, I’m a bit conflicted. On the one hand, this game does have some good characterization for its characters, and the “normal girl discovered and brought into a fabulous career as a model” story, while a bit cliche, nevertheless has some inherent appeal as a fantasy wish fulfillment for its target audience. However, at the same time, the localization here is awkward and a bit stilted, and one of the male characters comes on so strong that I fear some women may get “creep” vibes off of him when the game clearly wants you to think he’s dreamy.

When it comes to the gameplay, well, as I mentioned, there’s very little in the way of choice that seems to matter all that much. At the very least I can say this game makes good use of touchscreen controls, though it works perfectly fine with normal gamepad controls too, save for one issue – the way menu options are highlighted by darkening them is unnecessarily confusing.

In the end, I see some potential for a good “reverse harem” Visual Novel in Princess Closet, but that potential is soured by annoying music and awkward localization. As it is, this game may still manage to serve its purpose as a fantasy for some of its intended audience, but I feel like players are just as likely to be disappointed, if not outright repulsed.

tl;dr – Princess Closet is a Visual Novel that has players in the role of a woman who finds herself suddenly whisked away to become a model alongside numerous attractive men in an anime-style “reverse harem” situation. The characters designs are good and the characters reasonably well-crafted, but the localization is stilted and awkward, the music is annoying and repetitive, and one of the male characters comes on so strong that it may ruin the fantasy for some players.

Grade: D+

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