What I wanted to paint:


What I painted:


My face:


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Long Live the Queen is a weird little game. It's a visual novel with skill checks. You play a 14-year-old princess who needs to survive until her coronation, on her 15th birthday. Every week you pick which skills to develop, make decisions to maintain stability in the realm, and otherwise try not to die.

Not dying is really difficult. I got stabbed, eaten by a tentacle monster, poisoned by chocolate, shot by bandits... It seems like the reading the manual or several attempts is necessary to succeed.

Long Live the Queen is nothing else I've played before. The mechanics are interesting but definitely not fun. However I would still recommend it because Long Live the Queen captures the arbitrary nature of death. Sure, you can bone up on military skill and naval strategy, but you'll DIE because you couldn't climb the crows nest. Or you could become super glib and smooth, but it won't stop a pissed-off noble from stabbing you unless you also took the requisite points in history. Life is hard and difficult to prepare for.