Chapter: 16

Worlds and Worlds of Endless Bad Ends

(Sakura)

Here are a few words for you to explain the impression I got from the ‘world(s?)’ being described by the franchise. Violent, harsh, cruel, primitive and bleak.

Yes it was somewhat all of those and though in the slice of life portions and periods you could kind of see some hope that maybe the place wasn’t so bad? The fact that those periods most of the time quickly ended and usually in a brutal and violent way should tell you something.

Yes as possibly hinted by the epic amounts of cheese the various authors of the various PF world media didn’t seem to have enough imagination and style to come up with a plot line deeper than the typical overused ‘point and go and hack and slash’ variety.

I will admit that I usually skipped and skimmed over these parts along with the cheese in order to get to what I felt were the few hidden gems that remained so it is not like I am an expert on the subject but even from just with what tattered and burry stuff remained to me I felt a decent amount of fear.

Basically all of them even the ones that were not rpgs or related to them were chalk full of death flags.

PF was a huge one when it came to plot, but even when you discounted her a defined cornucopia of various death, doom and destruction, greeted you no matter your viewing (or possibly listening) pleasure.

From what I read, as can be expected, it was particularly evident in the games.

A good example would be that supposedly if you didn’t game a butt load of various stats, skills, equipment, items, allies and maybe a pet or two before you headed out of the tutorial/beginner zone that was the immediate area surrounding the royal castle and the small capital city that enclosed it, you would die, and there would be no if ands or further buts about it.

The monsters were always many, OP and completely aggressive, necessary items and consumables like equipment and HP replenishing items were rare and or expensive, and there was little if at all any kind of guidance, leaving the players to wander around on their own to figure things out for themselves.

According from what I can remember it was typical to die at least once per story arc but probably and usually many times more, even if you had the advice and guidance of those online who had gone through the challenge before.

Yep it was quite the hardcore game, which was kind of surprising considering how beautiful, sparkly and fluffy the artwork was, not to mention it’s common use of extremely handsome/beautiful appearances for all the characters ex except for maybe some of the old men and FP.

Of course obviously the challenge appealed too many, gamers who liked that kind of challenge. I learned this more fully, when I happened to seen a few videos made by several of the apparently more well-known gamers where they challenged the gauntlet know as…er let’s just continue to call it Fat Princess World or FP world for short.

I didn’t really get into the videos or even finish it because I found their bragging, self-congratulating and various comments kind of stupid and or annoying but I saw enough of it for it to impress on me, the difficulty of the game. And it even said in the comment section that the one they were playing was considered one of the easier games!

Even if you pretended the rest of the world didn’t exist and stayed in Quarnz you weren’t safe either, because if you didn’t go to the danger apparently the game felt it would be a good idea to bring the danger to you. Plagues, wars, and even random things like crazy old men that were once supposedly assassins in their youth could and almost always would a appear to deal out death’s hand.

You must of course always keep in mind that when I say no matter what media from the franchise you held death was always the easiest possibility to achieve, I really mean it. Though the role play video games were the most obvious all of them were dark one way or another.

Most of the manga and light novels were chalk full of various tragic elements and painful plot twists. And maybe shockingly to some the more romantic visual novels and [Otome] based games (those that focused more on the relationships then the battles) were almost as death flagged as the rpgs.

In those choose your own adventure stories apparently if PF didn’t squash you flat under her rolls of fat, there was always the possibility that you triggered something in your love interest or rival and they did you in.

The story in those cases usually went something like this: you pick a love interest and try to raise familiarity or friendship or whatever points with them, then a few death flags pop up here and there one after the other and if and once you side step them (whilst of course continue to up those happy points) a rival will appear and start getting in the way, and you have to either befriend them to the point that they consider leaving you alone for friendships sake, or completely devastate them even and up to including the option of killing them and only then do you pass that wall.

Then just when you feel relieved and think you have reached the end of the game, some sort of disaster or doom appears and you have to face and endure that too, hopefully with the help of your conquered love interest and befriended love rival turned ally.

The sad thing is even if you defeat even that, the game is still not over, for you have to then defeat the disasters that would have showed up on the other love interests routs even if you didn’t choose them.

Actually this specifically was even ranted about several times on the forums that even if you didn’t strive for the hidden condition triggered really difficult to get harem love, and harem friendship ends you still had a royal harem sized mound of obstacles to face, and as already said probably and usually without the benefits (?) that would come with it.

Of course all of those possibly only can exist in a play through in which PF didn’t get in the big fat way and spoil everything. You know, that monstrously sized, commonly and easily reached bad end?