A cursed princess with evil family members who hold a grudge against her for reasons outside of her control. A kingdom awaits a prophesied event that could spell the end of their society. A group of random individuals who find themselves working together to survive, resulting in them forming a found family. All of these are common staples in fantasy settings, whether you’re looking at books, games, or TV/movies. Mix all of these, and you end up with Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knight.
You play as the princess Cecilia in a kingdom during a time of peace, although the current year is the year of the dreaded calamity known as the Night of Aldegius. During this time, people are said to go mad, and several natural disasters will occur. This pressure hangs over the story as you play through and get to know the cast of characters. But the main story of Temirana is focused on you as the princess of a peaceful kingdom trying to make her own way. However, things are not so peaceful for Cecilia, who is isolated and verbally harassed by members of her family due to rumors that she is cursed.
The story is slow to get started. Along with getting a feel for Cecilia, you follow her as she navigates her life as a “cursed” princess, trying to stand up for herself while finding members to join her knight order. If you’re someone looking for immediate action, or even just something that isn’t a generic medieval fantasy setting, you’ll probably find yourself not all that interested in what Temirana has to offer. Along with that, there are times when the writing feels cartoonish, such as moments when Cecilia’s family members emphasize just how much they don’t like her. The main draw is the relationships between the characters, and how a group of people from different kinds of backgrounds find themselves working together for a common goal.
There are a total of 5 standard routes and 1 secret route that unlocks after completing all other routes. Josephy, Tobias, Milan, Adel, and Kiya are the five main guys who will eventually join Cecilia’s knight order, and who have available routes to play through. Whichever route you end up on is decided by which character you have the closest affinity towards. While there isn’t a strict route order, Adel and Kiya’s routes do contain much more plot information than the other three, and as such, are better off being played after the first three. All five characters have their charming points and, honestly, are the highlight of the story. Each personality shines through, and while at times, they fall into their character tropes, they are still fun to read.
Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights is a visual novel where you make decisions and play through specific routes based on a character’s affinity towards you. Some decisions have no bearing on affinity and just have a different set of dialogue associated with them, or even a bad end. These particular choices, known as Fortune Choices, are very obvious, as they usually appear when your life is in danger. And just as obvious as they are to spot, they are also obvious to select the correct response to stay alive. If you’re aiming for a specific character’s route, there is an affection chart that is available at any time, and it fills immediately after making character-specific choices. So if you end up choosing a choice that doesn’t change affinity, you can easily reload your save and choose the other option.
Outside of the game, there are your standard extras that are available in other otome games. You can access all BGM and CGs in their respective galleries, and these can also double as a way to see how far you are to seeing all of the content of the game. And after completing a chapter, you can target specific chapters to immediately jump to at a later point. There are also mini dramas that unlock as you complete chapters, which are just audio-only snippets of each of the characters.
As with other visual novels, Temirana is fully 2D with plenty of sprites for all major characters, along with CG art that appears during major story moments. The designs and illustrations are done by Nitaka, who is known for doing art for series like Yume100, Touken Ranbu, and Fate Grand Order. The art is clean, and while the designs themselves are a bit lackluster, the art is cute. Their art really shines in the CGs, though, where they get to play with more interesting poses and actions.
The game is partially voice-acted, with everyone but Cecilia and narration lines having voice lines. Like other otome games, there are only Japanese voices available. The voice cast is all strong, with credits in other video games, from popular games like Cupid Parasite and Persona 5 to anime like Naruto and Tokyo Revengers. The voices perfectly match the characters and add to the charm of the game, and honestly, are probably the strongest part of the game.
In terms of the music, it does serve the purpose of the game; each song is simple and settles right into the background. But on the other hand, the songs are nothing to write home about and are pretty much forgettable. All of the songs are your standard piano, string, and flute pieces, songs that you’d hear while walking around a medieval city (which…is what you’re doing a lot of the time). They all tend to blend and, much like the art, do not have enough of an impact to leave an impression.
Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights is your standard fantasy medieval visual novel, for better or for worse. It falls into the typical pitfalls of fantasy pieces, such as inventing a lot of terms for items, phenomena, and events that the game has no choice but to info-dump explanations. The cast is generally enjoyable, if a bit flat for a good chunk of their time on screen. And with the game’s slow start, it can sometimes feel like a slog to just play through. But there are pockets of moments in the game that bring a smile to your face. The characters are all earnest in their beliefs and their goals, and you can’t help but cheer them on. It’s a standard story, and for those who like a more simplistic experience compared to other otome games, this one may be right up your alley.
Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights gets a 7/10.
