Moujuu-tachi to Ohime-sama - Review

猛獣たちとお姫様
 Game: [Beast and Princess].

Genre: Otome game Visual Novel. 

Developer/Publisher: Otomate

Platform: PS Vita.

Official Site: http://www.otomate.jp/beast_princess/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v18833

Release date: 2016-08-25.

I got this game because I liked Beastmaster and Prince and because I like fantasy setting(I love those)
Despite amazonJP reviews being picky, this game didn't end up that bad
but its still a disappointment since its partially wasted potential.
First of the synopsis spoils so much... hench why I am not putting that here
which makes it even less stuff for you to find out not to mention the boys
already love the sheltered princess that took care of them in animal form when no one did.

My play order was:Ludwik > Mias > Jozef  > Ryszard > Henryk > Czarodziej.
I recommend to save Czarodziej for last because there is a huge spoiler in his route
that ties the two games together the order of the first three routes shouldn't matter, after those do
Ryszard, then Henryk and finally Czarodziej because the last three ended up being the most enjoyable atleast for me.

Pro's
- Setting.

- Characters.

- Art/bgm/seiyuu.

-Mofumofu.

Con's
- Julia is a weaker heroine compared to Tiana.
- The guys all love Julia from the start but don't fully admit this.
- Disappointing story.

- Semi-long common route, shorter individual route but short overall.
- No Ignacy route.

I know I complained about lack of volume in period cube but this probably takes the cake!
 Otomate just can't get it right... (;´д｀)

The common route is decent in length but individual is short, first play was around 7~8 hours
maybe I took longer because I slogged through the more boring parts yeah it just wasn't interesting.
Almost half of it was common route so.... fasten your seat belts next round!
Route should be around 4-5 hours give or take how fast you read.

The route may be short though I know that it all depends on execution of the story

 but still I'd had hoped it'd be a bit more meatier/taken itself more serious.

Story? it certainly had some interesting bits but eh it was rather weak.
While it was interesting to me it just felt like it lacked something or to put it differently
this game just feels like it could've been so much more but it wasn't.
It literally goes like this, escape tower... run through forests to another country
and chillax there untill boom the witch shows up as last boss and then its the end.
They knew folks was coming yet act surprised and do nothing to prepare...
there's variations of who, how and why but thats the general gist of it.
The big issue is the animal boys that are with Julia from the beginning! they all love her
 because she's the only one thats nice to them and they all had some shitty past
this makes romance feel unnatural because they already love her so much.
 One way or the other Beast and Princess just didn't quite live up to Beastmaster and Prince.
 The heroine didn't stand out and in comparison to Tiana, Julia doesn't compare at all which is sad
but its not unnatural for sequels to be worse than their predeccesor but don't just put out shovelware.

It still had some repeat content like defeating the witch in like every other route or so
but it wasn't as annoying like that fangirl mob/cursed stuff at moujuutsukai to ouji-sama
maybe its because they had a different team working on this, ah it all makes sense now.

At the very least once again the characters were enjoyable... especially Jozef, Henryk and Magician!
Maybe i'm biased but sakupyon sure voices a lot of great characters! 
Sadly the characters aren't well developed at all, nor was the story exciting
but I appreciate the fairy tale like theme.

Anyway I still think the guys are all great in their own way, some just stood out more to me than
others did so I guess it wasn't so bad at all and every route was fairly self-contained to their own problem and past.
Also the game is too easy one could get the best end without a guide just perfect mofumofu
and pick choice that raise affection, don't do that and you'll get a bad end.

If a sequel does come out for this i'd probably buy it though... JUST BECAUSE
I like Hendryk and Wizard but I doubt they'd give Ignacy a route
as much as I love him he doesn't really have chemistry with Julia.
Then again I am doubtful they can work miracles and make it worthwhile if they did that.
I can't say no to petting cute animal boys! which is part of the reason I got this
and I like it enough to be willing to spend on a fandisc... yeah curse at me all  you want
but when I like the characters and want to spend more time with them I will support something
even if the original work left to be desired, also doM sakupyon doM SAKUPYON.😆

Still I think the main reason for Moujuutachi to ohime-sama's existance
 is to appeal to beastmaster and prince's fanbase... they didn't try all too hard though
they only focused on the art and the seiyuu's but the story? lol nope.
That definitely needed more work overall, the link to the original game was nice
but there is no doubt about it that this is a mediocre spiritual successor.
Now I am still going to say something very harsh but pretty art, seiyuu, likeable characters
 and petting minigames won't save a game and certainly not this one.

More ramblings and possible spoilers after the jump. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the prologue of sorts where the heroine pick up the beasts
whenever she was able to leave the tower they just TL;DR it for us, lol.
So we start with the part where the heroine spends a little time with her furries.
(Also the book they read in the beginning is the story of the original game.)
Later the heroine Julia is told by Henryk that Hubert killed the king and that she should escape.
Oh and Julia's pouch with magic pixie dust from her late mother turns the furries into hot guys.
They all vow to protect Julia and they travel around since Julia is free now.
Some soldiers of Hubert be trying to chase them and so trouble brews.
Sadly even tho they know people are coming after them they think they're save in the neighboring
country... so we just get chillax moments till the you have no chance to survive, make your time!
This game would prolly be better with some humor, it all felt pretty dry
except for Jozef, Hendryk and Wizard's routes not everything can or needs to be fun
but don't try so hard to be dramatic or serious when its not.

Anyway just to put it out there the first half of the individual route is pretty slow
and I guess this helps for some necessary development but it wasn't that interesting at all.
Some subplots felt fillerish even... and then it time for the witch to show up...
I noticed this game has multiple writers so maybe thats why it like that.

Ludwik.

CV: Hino Satoshi.

 The loyal dog, wan wan.

I did his route first, he's a good kid and super sweet but if I got to be honest
Ludwik didn't leave much of an impression on me though my favorite part was
when he had to go on stage and the part with the kids! the fight with the witch was nice I guess?
albeit a bit cliche... but who cares I liked the ending but overall can't say I was impressed.
 Ludwik sure was cute but I expected more for some reason and overall it was disappointing
since nothing memorable happened at all and thus I can barely mention anything
other than his owner used to be a knight who abused him... poor boy. T~T
Also he isn't really human... bestiality puts me off you know?
I mean moujuutsukai did it better they were cursed into animal form but Ludwik
is an animal to begin with so I can see why people do not like this.

 Romance ★☆☆☆☆
Plot ★☆☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★☆☆☆☆
 ~
Mias.

CV: Yonaga Tsubasa.

 The yandere Canary, dresses up all fancy he enjoys singing.

The 2nd route I did, sure went by a lot faster since you skip all the common stuff.
Sadly as much as I like common routes its kind of bad when the individual route is also short.

I didn't really like this route or his character but I'll admit his confession was sweet.
If only the beginning of his route wasn't such a snooze fest it would've been a lot better
since it did get interesting later on atleast more than Ludwik's route before this.
 Anyway this route had a more entertaining twist and was a bit better than the previous route
I guess it was the conflict but in the end I couldn't like Mias all that much.
 I really wanted to like Mias but at the same time I can't and the overall story
in his route sure didn't help these type of characters on a fundamental level are just not for me.
Overall plot was interesting but Mias just wasn't really my type, sorry.

 Romance ★☆☆☆☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★☆☆☆☆
~
 Jozef. ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ

CV: Hatano Wataru.
 The kind bear, want a bear hug? sure no problem this one won't bite, I 100% guarantee you!

 Jozef is just so adorable, he thinks of Julia as a mother. (lol momcon?)

Our big bear is actually a big softie, he hates violence but seriously
don't mess with him or Julie cuz he'll show you who's boss.

Oh boy, you have no idea how much I liked Jozef the bear, he's just such an adorable dork!
plot in the route was alright I guess, I managed to enjoy it more because of Jozef's characteristic.

Anyway this route has been nothing but a gold mine, if you ever wanted to
date Winnie the pooh now is your chance lmao.
(Why did I even make this comparison... good grief.)

Say ah...

The amount of cute in this route was too high, honestly the others I did so far don't compare.
 Even though Jozef was a bit stupid near the end, like the average otome game heroine kind of stupid...
I'm like boy pls don't charge in all by yourself FFS, anyway he was still rather cool in the end.
Overall its all good that didn't manage to affect my overall enjoyment of the route.

As cliche as some bits were, I still liked it.

  Romance ★★☆☆☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★☆☆
~
Ryszard.

CV: Suwabe Junichi.
   The horse and yet another white haired suwabe character!(he just can't help himself at this point, lol.)
Unlike say Ludwik this guy is actually human to begin with.

His route unlocks on 2nd play, sadly you can't do him first which is for a good reason.

So when this dude starts hitting on Julia in broad daylight, Ryszard tells him to **** off.
However as turns out the dude who was hitting on Julia is Ignacy who coincidently
was also searching for a prince who had disappeared and that prince is Ryszard.
Ah what a wonderful way for them to meet again is it not? lol.
This route had a good start but dragged on a bit in the middle and it
didn't get good again till the end but this happens in all routes because they
don't care about folks being after them at all.
Ryszard probably had the most bittersweet ending thus far which I suppose
makes up for everything  else that was lackluster in this route.

 Tbh I was more interested in Ignacy, gomen. /shot.
   Romance ★★★☆☆
Plot ★★★☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★☆☆
~
 Henryk.

CV: Kimura Ryouhei.

 A relative(cousin) of the heroine and knew each other for a long time.

So at one point Julia has the chance to get in touch with Henryk her cousin
who's been looking all over the place every since she escaped with the furries.
Since Henryk spend a bit too long amongst the furries it seems he also got
infected with the rabies they carried and low and behold he turned into a beautiful swan.
^Okay thats not how it actually happened but its close and I actually like digesting it that way www.
Well anyway to my surprise Henryk turned out to be quite the cutie pie!
You won't believe how much of an adorable mess Henryk is, he falls under the
oh noes you're my cousin and a princess no we musn't trope. good example for this is when he
hugged Julia in broad day light on the street, afterwards he was like zomg i'm sorry forgive me, lmao.

 Overall Henryk had a good route some moments were pure gold, anyway
Henryk's the typical osanajimi with lot's of feels for Julia.(how 2 express them asafsfsdSDS?)
I really enjoyed this route but couldn't care less about the plot also Kimura-san acting was also A++.
   Romance ★★★★☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★★☆
~

Czarodziej (Mahoutsukai).

CV: Sakurai Takahiro.
  The hentai ferret, also a wizard who should surely be feared... or not.
 Perhaps it was destiny that decided I saved his route for last.

His route was really enjoyable and the part where they accidently kissed was gold.
As for actually plot it was decent, we also learned that the story is indeed connected to the original
beastmaster and prince, Barthold is the king of Fazan kingdom and the father of the princes back there.
There's more to it but I feel like I shouldn't dump it all here.
Honestly Czarodziej had the most interesting route in the whole game, bad thing is we only got to
pet him once but whatever after you finish his route you can pet him to your hearts content.
Czarodziej's past was really sad, fitting for a white haired sakurai character since they suffer a lot.

T~T

 I wouldn't say the route was perfect but I enjoyed it, in the end the two just elope
leaving the others behind and they'd be all sad and stuff.
The heroine was also better in this route than others, she took action for him.
Oh and he gets not one but THREE kiss cg's, its like this game is biased!
If this game really is biased about him I don't care because I sure am.
   Romance ★★★★☆
Plot ★★★☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★★☆

~

Oh and there was also an IF story you can access at the start of the game after completing every route.
It was nice and gave us some much needed Ignacy and more time with everyone else but
the way they ended make it seem like they're going to make or wanted to make a sequel/FD.
In the end is what if there was no fighting and everything resolved peacefully
which is sorta wishful thinking but again its what if.

IGNACY ROUTE WHERE?! Come on Otomate don't leave me hanging here!

Fav route:
Czarodziej > Henryk > Ryzard > Jozef > Mias > Ludwik.

Fav character:
Czarodziej > Henryk > Jozef > Ignacy > Ryszard > Ludwik > Mias.
All guys were great in their own way but some just weren't anything special.

Final Thoughts:

 I don't think the story was that bad because some of it was interesting, some of the guys were great...
too bad the execution of the story is terrible and makes you wonder why they aren't taking
drastic measures and are just chilling till the enemy shows up on their doorstep.
For the most part I absolutely loved the character interaction in the common route
but the routes itself are short and they don't have much of that since it is character focused.
The overall story was pretty mediocre, not to mention I almost fall asleep at the first half of the route.

The first two chapters are common and the 3rd and 4th are individual.
It was still boring overall since not much happened like they know they're on the run

but they all pretend they're safe in another country. -_-

There's not many choices either as everything is deciding by which guy you go for
and how well you do  in the mofumofu minigame, the minigame... is actually pretty easy
this time and you could do it without a guide if you really want to.
There's only like two-four choice in the average route and the only thing that change
in the common route is the guy who you're going for, like it should be most of the time. >_>
Too bad the new mofumofu took a while to get used too... which could be annoying
I literally sat there for 40 minutes before I said fuck it and used the joysticks instead 
of touchscreen and low and behold it worked miracles!

Oh well for whatever its worth it was a nice otome game, its not perfect and the connection to
Beastmaster and Prince was nice too bad that half of the routes in this game felt like a waste
and the overall story was pretty mediocre compared to moujuutsukai.
All is ruined when that witch showed up in most routes and it just boring to see it conclude.
Need a game with lots of cute? this game won't disappoint you on that front but the story might.

There is room for more but I still think the volume of this game is not acceptable for the price.
This also had a famitsu gold rating, though otomate probably paid  them...
TBH after reine des fleurs which was a huge hit or miss I don't trust them anymore, lol.

Anyway for what its worth I had fun but still otomate should have put more effort in this
and yes I am disappointed by the lack of worthwhile content it was mostly a snooze fest
because there was so little to go on and everyone loved Julia from the start.
The story, heroine and some of the routes are all a step down from moujuutsukai to ouji-sama
and thats very disappointing and imo its not worth it. Which makes me come back to the point I
made in my period cube review as in; otomate is making too many otome games in general
and half of them becoming rush jobs to please fans.
Even if you start with moujuutachi a lot of stuff will fly over your head
because it connects to events in the original game so its only for people
who liked moujuutsukai and/or fantasy themed otome games
but even then I think there are better otome games worth your time and money.
5/10
Looking back it really was a so-so experience and a 5 seems about right for what I did enjoy.
 know they're trying to cater to fans of the original but I wish they would've put more effort in it. 

For comparison I gave Moujuutsukai to ouji-sama a 9... Where did otomate go wrong?
Bestiality that's what!
I'm not sure but I wish they could have come up with something better
because for the most part I felt like I wasted my time despite liking some of it.

Characters ★★★☆☆ (Meh except Wizard and Henryk.)
Art  ★★★★☆(Good.)
Scenario/plot. ★☆☆☆☆(Wasted potential.)
Music★★★★☆ (Fits the mood...)
System  ★★☆☆☆ (Mofumofu takes some practice.)
Enjoyment overall ★★☆☆☆ 

TL;DR Do not recommend unless you have time and money on your hands
and if you've yet to play beastmaster and prince I'd recommend that first instead of this.