Princess Maker



A series of games made by Studio Gainax.

Each game is basically a Raising Sim with some Dating Sim elements and RPG Elements thrown in for good measure. Each game begins with the player gaining an adoptive daughter who's special in some way. The player is tasked with raising his/her daughter from adolescence to adulthood.

The player sets up her schedule regarding what jobs she takes, and what her education is. Based on how you raise her, her stats will change and she chooses a career and life partner based on that. The result can be freaking adorable... or Nightmare Fuel. Hey, it's still Gainax.

Also see Petite Princess Yucie, the anime based on the Princess Maker series.

These games provide examples of:

 * Action Girl: It really depends on what you're aiming for, but your daughter can be one if you make her work on her fighting skills.
 * Affably Evil: Lucifon in the second game is less a menacing figure and more a guy you can sit down and have a drink with. See Punch Clock Villain. That doesn't mean he's harmless though, he almost destroys the kingdom and the most generous thing you can say about him is he takes a pride in his line of work. He's especially proud if your daughter kills him and becomes princess of darkness herself.
 * Anachronism Stew: The first to fourth game seems to take place in.. a vague idea of what Japan thinks the 1200s looked like. The fifth game takes place in modern day Japan.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: If your daughter is a good martial artist/magician, she'll be constantly challenged by many of these. Also, Anita the fighting rival is a female version of the trope.
 * Artificial Stupidity: Through cheats, you can activate a "Demo Mode" in Princess Maker 2, in which the game attempts to play itself... not only does it have a tendency to constantly cancel whatever it selects, but it seems to just select directions to move at random if it gets itself into an adventure area, creating situations where it keeps moving back and forth along a path, or moves into a sign over and over.
 * Badass Adorable: Your daughter can become quite the fighter, pretty much destroying anyone that gets in her way - and she does it in quite a cute fashion!
 * Big Damn Heroes: In games where combat is possible, Cube will swoop down from the sky if your daughter is KO-ed. What a guy.
 * Bonus Boss: The War God in Princess Maker 2, who guards the (literal) stairway to Heaven. He's far tougher than any other character in the game, but can be beaten relatively easily if you use the right stat exploits.
 * Bragging Rights Reward: The war god's sword in the 2nd game. If you can beat the War God, you can beat anyone else in the game in your sleep.
 * Breast Expansion: Buxomize Pills in the second game, the Bra of Fairies in the fifth one.
 * Crossover Cosmology: Apparently, the Lord rules over the Greek gods of the planets (some of whom are Gender Flipped), and Lucifon is another of his servants. There's also the Original Generation Valkyria and the War God (and the latter has no relation to Mars, who is one of the star gods and the ruler of the constellation Aries).
 * Cute Shotaro Boy: The He'll fall in love with your daughter when defeated, who's reluctant about marrying such a young'un... or will run off with the Prince or Cube, leaving a very sad boy.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: It's possible in Princess Maker 2 for your daughter to defeat the God of War. Possibly at a ridiculously young age.
 * One Let's Play shows this to be stupidly easy with a twinked defense.
 * Dirty Old Man: The King, the local land lord and the old dragon in Princess Maker 2.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses: Implied by the title, and there are other Princess Tropes in these games.
 * Exposition Fairy: Your demon butler, Cube, who helps you set up your daughter's schedule at the beginning of each month.
 * Fetal Position Rebirth: Your daughter is sent to you from heaven this way, naked. But it is done artistically, in good taste, and no naughty bits are seen.
 * Fight Like a Card Player: In the SNES spin-off - Princess Maker: Legend of Another World.
 * Flat Earth Atheist: The alchemist. He's one of the worse teachers, besides the General - he's cheap, but will lower faith a lot as soon as your daughter is promoted to Adept, which closes off some encounters.
 * Oh, and your daughter can be one, too, even after meeting her God/Goddess.
 * Food Porn: The food you can buy at the local restaurant, the birthday cakes and definitely the food from the cooking contest. Luscious!
 * Fur Bikini: One of the outfits from the third game's ending. Also provides the page picture.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: In Princess Maker 2, your character was able to defeat the king of hell in single combat, and yet apparently can't get a better salary than 500 gold a year (your daughter can easily get several times that working part-time), you have to send your daughter away to train under somebody else in fighting and swordplay (and pay for it), and your character can't even go with her to protect her on adventures. The game handwaves it by saying that the 500g a year is what's left over from your job, which as a full-time position doesn't leave you much time for your daughter. (If you want to stay home with her when she's sick, that costs you money.)
 * Genki Girl: Wendy the Magician Girl, who is positively happy about the prospect of getting her ass kicked by your daughter.
 * Guide Dang It: It's not always intuitive which stats will lead to which career choices, and some future romantic interests can only be met on very, very obscure sidequests.
 * Handicapped Badass: One of the fighting teachers, Carl Fox, is blind. The other has only one eye.
 * And the one-eyed one also seems to be missing his right arm.
 * Hello, Nurse!: Your daughter grows up to be very pretty, and several male NPC's aside from the ones she can marry express interest in her. If her Charisma is very high, a tycoon will come frequently to ask for her hand in marriage; if in addition to it her Morals are low, a Dirty Old Man or other sleazy person will ask her to be his concubine (and if she accepts, her Morals will go even lower).
 * The High Queen: The best and hardest ending is when your daughter becomes Queen Regent. She can be this by marriage, but it's not as cool. Not to mention one of the paths towards queenship by marriage is rather squicky, as it involves the girl marrying the old King.
 * Hot Amazon: Your daughter can become one if you increase her charisma and fighting skills, which gets her a lot of suitors.
 * Hot Consort: Some of the endings. The highest one you can get is Royal Concubine.
 * Hot Witch: Your daughter grows into this if she's charismatic and a good magician.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Best shop-available weapon in the game, but others are much, MUCH better... obviously not available in shops.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Your daughter and the old dragon from the second game.
 * Interspecies Romance: Some of the suitors your girl can marry are not 100% human. I.e, in PM 2 there's your demon butler Cube, a young dragon who is the girl's Dogged Nice Guy after she beats him in battle, and Lucifon the King of Hell.
 * From PM4 we have Baroa, the demon prince. And Lee, the dragon prince.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Princess Maker 2, the Dragon Youth is sad but willing to break off the engagement with your daughter when he thinks that she doesn't love him, if you've betrothed her (against her will) to him.. However, your daughter throws it back to his face and gives him "Stop being such a wimp" talk and agrees to marry him, because he's so pathetic and cute that she doesn't have the heart to refuse him.
 * If your daughter marries someone else, however, you get a rather sad The Stinger with him crying that he'll never love again. Poor kid.
 * Lesbian Option: Princess Maker 4 (the PC version) had four endings where your daughter could become romantically involved with her friends she made during the game.
 * Let's Play: Princess Maker 2 as played by SynthOrange with suggestions from the SA Forums.
 * Like a Badass Out of Hell: Another of the possible endings.
 * Little Miss Badass: It is possible for your daughter to kick ass early in the game.
 * Lighter and Softer: Patricia in the fourth one doesn't have a prostitute route with obligatory sultry outfit. This is due to Naoto Tenhiro's distaste for sexualizing the women he draws. Takami Akai, on the other hand, had no such compunctions.
 * Magic Knight: If you get your daughter to work on her magic and fighting skills, she becomes one of these.
 * Mighty Lumberjack: In Princess Maker 2, being a lumberjack increases your strength, which increases your attack power, which means if you do it enough, you'll be be killing enemies in one hit.
 * Misplaced Vegetation: There is a rafflesia on a small isle at the (non-tropical) Lakes in the second game.
 * Missing Mom: The fate of Patricia's mother in PM4 ties very heavily into the plot.
 * The Mistress: Some of the endings, the best of which is Royal Concubine.
 * Multiple Endings: Lots.
 * Noble Demon: Cube is a 'nobleman of the underworld.' He is a loyal butler to the hero, who fought said Demon King Lucifon. And he is always polite and helpful, helping the hero and his daughter in any way possible, including being a moral guidance (some female Cube fans speculate that he was driven out of hell for being too nice.) He is a demon nobleman alright, but no noble demon.
 * No Export for You: Came this close with the second game, but the publisher for the English release went bankrupt. The beta of this version is how most western fans know the series.
 * Personality Blood Types: Determines some of your daughter's characteristics and starting stats.
 * Physical Heaven: In the second game, to match its physical hell, but its guarded by the war god. Considering he can be beaten by a thirteen year old potentially, forcing the Gods to raise the drawbridge (or rather, make it disappear) he's probably not very good at his job.
 * Physical Hell: In the second game at least, complete with its own Legions of Hell. It's under Heavens jurisdiction however.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: At least half the ending outfits.
 * Plucky Girl: Your daughter can be rather headstrong.
 * Pretty in Mink: A few of the ending outfits.
 * Proper Lady: Yamato Nadeshiko - If you raise the right attributes (like cooking/temperament/etc. skills), your daughter can become one.
 * Specially obvious in the "[[media:housewife_9300.jpg|homemaker]]" ending, but also invoked in the "[[media:tutor_8353.jpg|tutor]]", "[[media:nursemaid_5061.jpg|babysitter]]", "[[media:millionaire_wife_8094.jpg|millionaire's wife"]], "[[media:merchant_wife_9283.jpg|merchant's wife]]", "[[media:maid_1341.jpg|maid]]" and "[[media:queen_4421.jpg|Queen Consort]]" ones.
 * The Queen of the Land is another one. In fact, you can visit her only if you have very high protocol, and the King refers to her as the mother of the country.
 * Psycho Lesbian: Being the only female bandit won't stop Bloodrose Vanesta from praising the daughter's beauty and then trying to rape her, if she loses their duel.
 * Punch Clock Villain: When the father defeats Lucifon in the intro to the second game, the king of hell argues that he was simply following God's orders. The father has no counter to this point.
 * God's orders to punish the decadence of the kingdom's inhabitants, including the king and his royal family, no less. In the words of Lucifon himself: "I killed only fools."
 * Ready for Lovemaking: Courtesan endings.
 * Rescue Romance: Your daughter's relationship with Cube improves greatly if he rescues her from the bandits trying to rape her after they defeat her in battle. It also slightly improves if your daughter was defeated in combat on an adventure.
 * Relationship Values: A key part in determining endings.
 * Requisite Royal Regalia: If she becomes an actual queen or princess in an ending, she of course gets a crown, and occasional ermine cape.
 * Rich Bitch: Patricia, the dancing rival in the second game.
 * Save Scumming: Given your daughter's unpredictable nature, this is virtually a requirement to achieve some endings.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Your daughter can sin all she likes in the second game, so long as she pays for it at the church collection box.
 * Shrinking Violet: Marthia, the home maker rival in the second game. Bonus for having purple-gray hair.
 * Silk Hiding Steel: Even if you raise her to be a demure housewife, she can still have good fighting skills.
 * Spiritual Successor: There are several games originally written in English which are quite similar to Princess Maker 2. The Flash game Project Princess is the most similar, since the player acts as the girl's parent. The independent games Cute Knight, Cute Knight Kingdom, and Spirited Heart all feature a female main character who essentially raises herself. Also, the Japanese game Dear My Sun!! and the Chinese fan-game Prince Maker - Braveness put the player in the role of a woman who raises one or two young men. There's also Slave Maker, which is basically this game with anime heroines from all genres and very few "non-sexy" endings. The latest version has Cube as a potential assistant. The irony is noted.
 * The Rival: The player's daughter will pick up a rival based on how she's trained.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: In Princess Maker 4, Rise and Christine.
 * Updated Rerelease: Of the first two games, called the "refine" editions.
 * Useless Useful Non-Combat Abilities: Averted in the fifth game. Certain skills that no sane person will use in combat can be used to win combat. Apparently your daughter can dance crazy, the troll boss flee in terror!
 * Video Game Caring Potential: Pretty much the whole point.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can give her an early childhood full of achievement and promise, only to dash all her dreams by forcing her to work in a sleazy bar and starve her to death with a weight loss diet.
 * ...And get yelled at by everyone.
 * Villainous Harlequin: Subverted with the second game's court jester. People think he is one, but he's actually a Trickster Mentor to your daughter.
 * Western Zodiac: Determines your daughter's starting stats.
 * What the Hell, Player?: Screw up enough and the game won't hold back trying to make you feel ashamed for what ends up happening to your daughter. The worst is if you manage to let her die, in which she bemoans her short life and gets you chewed out by your God.
 * Wife Husbandry: One of the possible endings. Unlike other cases, most do generally frowned upon it in-game but all will accept it due to there being no blood-relations.
 * The thing that makes it less Squicky is, you can set your own age, so it's possible to marry your teenage daughter before you hit your 30s.
 * You Kill It, You Bought It: This is how the Like a Badass Out of Hell ending mentioned above ends up happening. Technically happens if your daughter defeats the War God, but it doesn't affect endings - instead, he gives her the best sword in the game.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The princess in the third game.
 * Martha, one of the possible rivals, restaurant assistant, and occasional dancer in the second game.
 * Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: The fifth game. If you feel that doing both is overwhelming (it really builds up Stress), feel free to ditch either one. It's strongly implied that someone will save the magical world if your daughter doesn't.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Subverted in the second game; your daughter kills monsters like its her day job while adventuring and its one of the best ways to make money (though oddly it does nothing for your daughters experience values) but even her just killing random monsters or even criminals like the kidnappers around the lake raises her sin, implying that the rampant killing of living creatures, albeit hostile ones, is not an innocent act and one which can ultimately lead to a bad ending.
 * Wonder Child