DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed here are those of the author and are not reflective of Operation Rainfall as a whole.
On July 28, MangaGamer released the fan disc to 2015’s Princess Evangile entitled, Princess Evangile W Happiness. The “W” in the title being common Japanese shorthand for the word “double”.
What’s a Fan Disc?
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of a fan disc, it basically is a stand alone expansion to a game. Usually featuring additional content and routes. Many times these will either be “what-if” scenarios, expansions into backstory and minor plot points, or even a direct continuation. The reason these are called “fan discs” really stems from the idea that it’s a thank you to the fans for making a particular game successful.
Development of full-fledged sequels for Visual Novels and Eroge tend to be pretty expensive and could take several years. As such, the fan disc is a happy middle ground where by reusing the engine and a good chunk of the assets, a publisher can release something in an economical and timely fashion for their fans. Because after all, these are the people keeping the company in business. Princess Evangile W Happiness is no different in this regard.
W Happiness, Means W the Maidens
Princess Evangile W Happiness contains “Epilogue” routes for the original game’s four main heroines. These take place after their respective routes in the original Princess Evangile and are the only thing that isn’t recapped in W Happiness.In fact, Princess Evangile W Happiness is almost geared to new players due to the inclusion of the first game’s entire common route.
The common route of Princess Evangile consists of 16 chapters and follows the story of Masaya Okonogi as he attends Vincennes Private Girls’ Academy. Being the only male student in the campus’ history. The reason? The school is facing financial difficulties and making the school co-ed could raise attendance. As such, Masaya is to be a sample student to see if the maidens of Vincennes can even adapt to boys. Considering many have been in the school since kindergarten and have had no interaction with males outside of family. It’s a tough fight, but Masaya is just the honorable kind of guy to actually be a good example. Which leads us to the actual routes.
As I mentioned, the original game contained four routes:
Rise Rousenin, leader of the White Lily Society and Masaya’s initial supporter.
Chiho Sagisawa, Masaya’s childhood friend whom he reunites with at the campus.
Ayaka Kitamikado, who is the laid back and playful daughter of the oppressive Headmistress.
And finally, Ritsuko Kitamikado, who is the leader of the opposing Red Rose Society, Ayaka’s sister, and wants to uphold the traditions of Vincennes like her mother. Each of these was 10 chapters (Chapters 17-26) and served to answer some of the mysteries about the school as well as develop the relationship between Masaya and the chosen heroine. While W Happiness does offer continuations of their routes it also offers five brand new “Another Story” routes. These routes only require knowledge of the common route to play. Which since it’s included means first time players can easily enjoy these.
The heroine’s here are Ruriko Kamiyagi, a very sheltered and polite girl who takes a keen interest in Masaya.
Konomi Yanase, a younger girl who adores Ritsuko as her “Onee-sama” and will do anything to protect her. She also has some very “interesting” ideas when it comes to sex and pregnancy.
Mitsuki Mekata, a member of the Red Rose Society, right-hand of the Student Council President, and very distrusting of Masaya at first.
Marika Myougi, the Student Council President, and Masaya’s first real opponent. Marika was elected unopposed to the Student Council and is beloved by all, however, there seems to be quite a conflict brewing in her heart.
And finally Tamie Nogi, the ace reporter for the school newspaper. Tamie never goes anywhere without her camera, microphone, and recorder. In addition, she really likes taking pictures of Masaya. Finally, let’s cover one of the neat things this game takes advantage of something that the original Princess Evangile couldn’t, MangaGamer’s free adult content restoration patch.
Putting the Romance Back into Steam
When the original Princess Evangile was released in 2015, it was released in two flavors. An All-Ages version with the Eroge content removed on Steam, and the 18+ unedited version through MangaGamer’s site. However, MangaGamer has started offering content restoration patches on their website starting with D.S. -Dal Segno- at the end of June. W Happiness takes advantage of this, so if you prefer to buy the Steam version you can easily restore the removed content. Here’s how:
- Purchase the game from Steam and wait for it to install.
- Download the 18+ patch from this page here on MangaGamer’s website
- On your “Library” in Steam, right click “Princess Evangile W Happiness – Steam Edition” and select “Properties”
- Select the “Local Files Tab” and click “Browse Local Files”. This will open the folder that we need to place the patch in.
- Go to the folder you downloaded the patch to and extract the files. If you can’t find it, search your computer for “AP1026.zip”
- Move “a.bin” into the Princess Evangile W Happiness folder.
- Launch the game! If you get the following disclaimer, then you’ve done it correctly.
If you do run into any trouble you can send MangaGamer at [email protected], or reach them via Twitter here.
The Maidens of Vincennes Await You
As you can probably tell from this write-up, I’m actually quite excited about the release of Princess Evangile W Happiness and I will be reviewing it. I recently just finished playing the original game and am in the process of writing up that review. Personally, I’m eager to explore both Ruriko and Konomi’s routes in particular. The former because it felt like she should have had a route in the original and the latter because of the humorous interactions she has with Masaya. In short, however, more Princess Evangile is a good thing and I’m hoping W Happiness will also get a Limited Edition as nice as the original.
Princess Evangile W Happiness can be bought from Steam, or MangaGamer’s website. If you want to check out the original Princess Evangile you can buy a copy from Steam, or MangaGamer’s website here. If you want a hard copy of the game, however, you can buy a copy of the Limited Edition from MangaGamer here, which comes with both a physical copy of the 18+ version and a Steam key for the All-Ages version.
If you pick up either game let us know either via a comment below, on Facebook or Twitter. Also be sure to let MangaGamer know that grabbed a copy as well via their Twitter.
Until next time everyone, enjoy your time in the world of Vincennes!