Approximately three years ago, I played Neo Angelique Special and was shocked not only by how terrible it was, but also by how great a departure it was from the early days of the series. It was called “Neo,” to be sure, but to me it seemed the game was Angelique in name only. If I had played Angelique Trois before it, I wouldn’t have been so surprised. All the factors that led to the series’ demise (in my opinion only; I know the “Neo” series is wildly successful) were foreshadowed way back in this game.

The first mistake was the removal of a rival. Having someone to compete against added a sense of urgency that isn’t present in this game.

The second was the removal of any sort of a challenge. There is a 115 day deadline to develop the continent, but even on Normal Mode, I got the required 6000 happiness with about 50 days to spare. Not having a rival means happiness only increases, never decreases. It means no one’s trying to stop you, not even La Ga, the so-called bad guy of the game.

If no one’s trying to hinder you or get ahead of you, then you can meet your targets pretty easily, and that means most of the features of the game are useless. For example, compatibility between yourself and guardians, and between guardians themselves, can be completely ignored. Zodiac signs and blood type don’t matter. The questions are the beginning of the game don’t matter. Guardian moods, which, along with the Heart Beat Meter, were newly introduced with this game, can also be ignored. In theory a happier guardian will work harder for you, but you don’t need their hard work so you can ignore them until they get better on their own.

You can ignore the optimum placement of houses and just stick everything anywhere. For example, Julius and Oscar are friends. Julius and Clavis are not friends. Putting a Julius house next to an Oscar house might give you 103 happiness. Putting a Julius house next to a Clavis house might give you 96 happiness. But none of this matters because there’s no drive towards efficiency. You don’t have to use the Research Institute to rearrange houses for optimum results. You don’t have to care about the elements the continent needs because anything goes. If the game were harder (e.g. rival, tougher mechanics, stricter time limit, anything!), you might actually have to think about this sort of thing. As things stand, nothing matters in this game. As long as you build something regularly, you can’t possibly fail.

As might be expected, this lack of challenge makes Angelique Trois very boring to play. Monday-Friday, wake up in the morning, visit 3 guardians, recharge power/build city, go home and sleep. Visit Queen Angelique (Limoges, not Collet) on Saturday. Go on a date on Sunday. Repeat the process for 115 days and that’s your game. I’m sure even Imagine Petz must be better than this.

Returning to my original point, the third mistake was the introduction of a story. Coupled with the first two mistakes, this just turned the game into a standard visual novel with some weak gameplay. From that, it was a simple matter to remove the gameplay, shoehorn in some terrible turn-based battles, focus completely on the story parts and thereby ruin the series, i.e. Neo Angelique.

The story itself isn’t that complicated or that bad. All the characters we’ve met so far have been thrown into an alternate dimension, a land named Arcadia. A being named Elda has been sealed in a silver tree by an evil creature named La Ga. It’s your job to build up the continent’s happiness and thereby free Elda so it can destroy La Ga and return you all to your normal dimension.

My beef? I was happier with no story at all beyond a race to be queen of the universe The only thing that could make things better would be getting to execute your rival after winning. “Off with her head!” said the Red Queen. Nah, I’m kidding. Brochel and Brosalia are my buddies. But really, I was fine with no story beyond a general outline.

But at least if they were going to dumb down the gameplay, they should have compensated by going all out story-wise so the game wouldn’t fail in both areas. As it is, the story just interrupts gameplay for extended lengths of time and doesn’t add anything to the gamer’s enjoyment. Day 1: someone’s sealed, let’s unseal him. ~20 days later: that someone’s name is Elda. ~20 more days later: Elda was sealed by La Ga. ~20 more days later: Is Elda good or bad? Oh, he’s good. ~40 more days later. Okay, Elda’s free. La Ga’s dead. Let’s all go home. The end. How this is better than no story at all is beyond me.

Other problems

Even if I had played the game without the benefit of foresight, e.g. way back when it first came out, or at least before playing Neo Angelique, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it very much. As documented extensively above, it doesn’t hold a candle to the first two games. It also has other flaws, which may have contributed to fans getting sick of the series more quickly, necessitating the reboot.

The biggest one, IMHO, is the reuse of the guardians. The original 9 plus the five on the cover who were introduced in Angelique 2. If you’ve played the first two games, this game has no new men to offer you. If you liked any of those guys, chances are you’ve already cleared their routes, possibly twice. I spent time talking to all 9 guardians and even dating a few, and they bring absolutely nothing new to the table.

While I did make a double-save and get both the standard ending and Julius’ end, my heart wasn’t really in it because I’ve never liked the guys in this game:

Julius: Too nice. Not as strict as I’d expect the leader of the guardians to be.
Clavis: Also too nice, especially since he’s supposed to represent darkness. I see him as a terser palette swap of Julius.
Luva: Boring as heck, also ugly. It doesn’t help that he hates me. No, seriously, in the first two games he sided quickly and obviously with my rival, and in this game he’s the character I have the lowest compatibility with.
Lumiale: Too soft. Too dull and limp. Also I don’t like his voice.
Marcel: Too kiddy-looking. Too goody-goody. Probably the one I like best, though.
Randy: Too “normal.” Too diffident. Goofy hairstyle. But I like him enough.
Oscar: Out! No playboys in this camp.
Olivie: I like his personality, but his looks put me off. Too flashy.
Zephel: Too prickly and cranky. He can be nice, but that just makes him seem worse when he’s deliberately being a jerk.
Victor: Out! No country for old men.
Mel: Out! How dare you be prettier than me?
Sei-Lan: Eh… I dunno, I just don’t like him.
Timka: Too boring. I forget he exists half the time.
Ernst: Too boring. Too ugly.
Anyone I forgot: Did not deserve to be remembered.

Next biggest problem, the pathetic dating system. Weekday dates are over in a few minutes, which is fine. Weekend dates are 10 minutes of slooooooow walking and talking, with a choice at every turn. If you take your date to the garden (wait, all the date spots are gardens), the two of you will walk along as at a snail’s pace. Button symbols will appear over the flowers/grass/water/etc. Press the button to make your date comment, then you get to pick a choice that will hopefully make them happy. Do that 1-5 times, depending on what kind of mood he’s in, and the date ends.

For me, the problems are many. There’s no quicksave/quickload option. If you botch a date and want to start over, you have to go through the process again. The characters walk like they’re moving in slow motion. All the date spots look exactly the same. The conversations are boring. Some of the questions are patently unfair, e.g. Julius will randomly ask what Oscar does in his spare time. And penalize me in affection if I get it wrong!

Third problem, each playthrough is far too long. Especially since you can clear the happiness requirement with 50 days to spare, more if you’re more serious. There’s no timer, but I estimate it took about 10 hours to finish the game, and I can’t imagine going through the whole process again. A “forward to the last day” option or something similar that allows you to skip through time at will. I’d like it even better if I was rewarded for finishing early and showing what a clever and efficient Queen I am.

Fourth, final and pettiest problem, the CGs are horrible. The normal in-game art and character designs are okay, but when you work hard and spend time with a guy and are finally “rewarded” with a CG… he’s hideous! You’re hideous! It’s terrible!

The good stuff!

It’s not all bad news, though. I mean, I finished it, didn’t I? I even reloaded my saved for two different endings. The good points about this game – and there aren’t that many – are as follows:

+ If you’re looking for a regular dating sim (and not necessarily one with the Angelique series’s peculiar characteristics like I was) you’re all but certain to find a guy to pursue out of 13 different options.
+ You don’t get a bad ending for not picking a guy. In fact you get the best ending, IMO.
+ Lots of bright, happy colors. I can’t help it, it’s my ‘thing.’ The mood is also relatively cheerful despite the world being doomed to end in 115 days.
+ Unlockable conversation topics. They later become a monstrosity in Neo Angelique, but they were still cute at this point. It’s nice to have new things to discuss with guardians as the story progresses.
+ The background art is very nice. The date spots look fantastic.
+ Fast loading.
+ The character themes got stuck in my head!

As you can see, this isn’t really enough to outweigh the negatives of this game. I found myself nodding off more than once or twice, even when I played during the day. I’m still going to play Angelique Etoile, the next game in the series, but I’ve lost all hope now. Try it if you’ve played the older games and really like some of the guardians. Give it a miss otherwise.