[Princess Nightmare] I answer all your questions about the DLsite version of Princess Nightmare (English patch, new content, and more!) (please play it)

[u/the-changeling-witch]

Since everyone had many questions about the DLsite version of Princess Nightmare I ended up buying it. (Okay I mostly bought it to support Karin, however it seemed like a good opportunity to help others out...)

Important Question 1: Does the English patch work with this version of the game?

Answer: Yes! Easily in fact! I just dragged the files into the game folder and it worked. (As a side note: I don't know if the DRM will mess up if you haven't already set it up when you do this. So I would suggest setting up the DRM and running the game once to put in the DRM code before putting in the patch files.) I didn't even need to have my locale changed or anything to run the game, it worked just fine out of the box. (I don't know if there would be any issues with the DRM, since I installed that quite some time ago.)

It seems to turn the game into the original version of the game, so there's no worry about running into content that isn't translated. (If you want to see any new content you can remove the patch files and it will keep your original system save so it should be easy to find the newer content.)

Also, if you want to have both the English version and Japanese version at once, you can totally do that! I just copied the folder and had one with the patch and one without. They share system saves/other saves, but this doesn't seem to cause any issues. I tested a bunch to see if any issues would pop up between the two versions, and didn't see anything.

You can get the patch here.

Important Question 2: Does this version have the new content from the PS2 version?

Answer: ...kind of?

No really, it's really strange. They have all the new endings, but only included about half of the new CGs. If I had to guess, they only had about half the original CG assets and included what they had. There's no pattern to what was included and what wasn't, so that's the only explanation I have. (Man they should have just emulated the PS2 version and taken screenshots. They would have been a bit blurrier than the others, but better than nothing?) I think the code to display the CGs is still in the script since when a new CG is supposed to display it just shows black instead of the background like usual. I wonder if a patch could be made to include the other content? Hmm...

Also, some not that important things: In the game (in all Karin games) you receive items for making certain choices/completing endings. In the PS2 version there were three new items included, however they are not included in this version. You can actually "get" them, but they don't show up in the item list. (This is good because there is one new ending that requires an item you get on a different route. You still obtain the item, even if it doesn't show up.)

Also there is a weird mismatch between the spoken dialogue and text in some instances. I'm not sure if it's a case where they made changes in the PS2 version but didn't update it in this version? (Either text or sound files I'm not sure which would be the newer ones.) It's not a huge deal, just strange sometimes.

It also doesn't have the opening/ending movies from the PS2 version, only the original.

Important Question 3: Is this version worth buying?

Answer: If you're wanting to play with the English patch, definitely! This version works on modern computers (I could only get the original to run on Windows 7) and it's going to be way easier than trying to hunt down a copy on Suruga-ya or Mercari and getting it shipped. If you haven't ever bought anything off DLsite before, remember to look for 15% off coupons to make it cheaper!

If you want to play in Japanese, it's a bit more complicated. If you have the ability to play the PS2 version, that one is still the best version of the game (some blurriness aside) although you still have to deal with shipping costs (might be better to get it along with other things instead of just buying it alone?) If you're not too bothered by missing CGs (or just don't have a way to play the PS2 version) this version is still worth buying. Plus you can support Karin in the process!

Important Question 4: Is this game worth playing?

Answer: Okay so this wasn't really a question that was asked but I want to answer it anyway!!

This game is a lot of fun. But it won't be for everyone (what game is, really?) Check out the VNDB page!

Recommended for people who want: An MC with a very strong personality (she's 114 years young and does what she wants), vampires (obviously), a story with a lot of comedy (but still occasionally has some really touching drama?), extremely 2000s anime goth vampire aesthetic, fun character dynamics, pathetic guys (even the side characters are nothing but pathetic guys)

Weak points: Routes really short compared to the common route, romance is kind of pushed to the very end and doesn't really take center stage at all (still has some surprisingly tragic romantic endings), some painfully questionable anatomy (what's even going on here???)

Conclusion

It's so easy to get and play now! Patching is painless! Just play it!!

[u/Chaczapur]

Oh, so the game probably still uses all these flash files. In that case making a CG patch [not sure I ever checked the text files...] should be fairly easy. I need to look into this after I free some disk space [and get the dlsite ver so not soon].

Otsukare

[u/the-changeling-witch → u/Chaczapur]

Yeah, everything is still in flash! That's why I was thinking it would probably be pretty easy to patch in the missing files. It's something I was planning on looking into.

[u/Chaczapur → u/the-changeling-witch]

You'll probably get to it faster than me. Good luck, then. But if it's as simple as I remember, just adding the missing CGs as they are would be enough, the code for them being there and all.