Anyone who follows my work is aware that I'm a fan of Princess Maker. And there are a great many stories and games about the concept of becoming royalty, either by winning the hand of a prince/princess, performing an epically heroic deed, or both. There are many fewer stories about the difficulties of actually being royalty. Princess is not an easy job. Queen is even harder. Especially when you're only fourteen years old and the reason you're in charge is because your royal parent has just met an untimely end.
Which is why our little queenlet starts off looking a bit on the depressed side.
You control Elodie, the crown princess, in the year leading up to her coronation. Under local law, she can't officially assume the throne until her fifteenth birthday, but she's the known heir and she's almost Queen, so she's still more or less in charge. Of course, she wasn't expecting this to happen, and she hasn't quite finished her education yet. You will control her schedule to try and raise the skills which are most important to a Queen - all forty-two of them! - before crises bring you down.
Every week you can choose what to study in the morning and the afternoon. There is no randomness to skill gain and no "failure"; however, the rate at which you learn skills depends on how much you've already learned in related skills and what your current mood is.
When Elodie is Angry, she is better able to learn Military and Weapons skills, but not so good at learning Medicine. Each mood affects different sets of skills, so to maximise skillgain you'll need to manage her mood. Mood changes happen based on plot events, decisions, and weekend activities.
Every weekend you'll have the chance to do things to unwind (or to wind yourself up further, if that's your plan). Some activities are available from the beginning, others must be unlocked through skillgains. Ballroom dancing, for example, will unlock after studying Dance long enough.
But the world isn't going to wait patiently while Elodie tries to get her skills up to speed. The rest of the world is well aware that this is an unstable time for your country, and everyone is trying to press their own agenda. If you're not careful, you'll end up on the wrong end of a sword, or forced to marry and give away control of your land. And that's not even touching on the magical dangers facing Elodie... but more on that later.
