Review: Time Princess - Miss Kitty's Antiques

At this point, I think the game should change its name from Time Princess to Time Demon because it has a significantly higher number of stories about demons (but not the evil kind) than princesses, the latest one being no exception. Miss Kitty's Antiques begins as a murder mystery and evolves into a story about ancient Japanese mythology. I was surprised by many of the twists and turns it took and pleased with the touching romance. The main character is a cat yokai, which  means she is a cat spirit who can transform into a human, and she has some kawaii over-the-top cat-inspired outfits to match.

Lady Mangetsu is a cat spirit posing as a human who runs an antique shop as a cover for her quest to find the Origin Pearl to save her dear friend, Yuta, a ninetails fox yokai. Her life is already pretty interesting before she gets framed for murder when she discovers a dead body. The first half of the book is set up like a typical murder mystery, but the plot takes a drastic turn in the second chapter when Mangetsu learns the truth about the Origin Pearl and her own past. Despite being a yokai, she is unable to use magic, nor can she remember anything before ten years ago. It turns out that there is a good reason for all of these things, and there is a lot more to her past than she realizes. The story goes from a crime drama to a quest of self discovery, both of which are done equally well.

This visual novel contains three companions, though the third one's identity is a bit of a spoiler. Whichever one you choose as the main love interest drastically changes the story in the second chapter. This is the most romantic book that Time Princess has released in a while. I was genuinely touched by the passion Mangetsu shares with Yuta, who was my favorite of the three companions. They have a tragic love story that is typical of what one might find in old Japanese myths. It doesn't hurt that he's also pretty easy on the eyes. Tenho is a human from the onmiyoji clan, which is the enemy of the yokai. As such, he is pretty rude to both Mangetsu and Yuta for most of the story, but choosing his ending reveals an unexpected surprise. The third option was my least favorite of the three, but it certainly made for some dramatic storytelling!

There are a few other Japanese stories in Time Princess, but the clothing in this one is my favorite out of all of them! Mangetsu has such a vibrant wardrobe of adorable cat-themed outfits along with some lovely dresses. I especially enjoyed the bright colors and cute floral and cat-ear hair accessories. The dresses are pretty short, so I wouldn't consider them historically accurate, although I'm not sure at what point in history this story was supposed to take place. If I had to pick a favorite, I suppose I'd go with her golden fox dress with flowing chiffon sleeves, pink ribbons, matching hair, a blue floral sash on her obi, and big fluffy fox ears. It's hard to pick just one when all the outfits in this book are so gosh darn cute!

It seems like the developers of Time Princess are taking pity on their players for having to pound through so many visual novels each month because the level of difficulty for story completion has gone way down. I barely needed to replay any levels to get all the endings, and I never had to check the flowchart or a walkthrough to figure out what I was missing. Most decisions are solely to raise points with your chosen love interest as opposed to changing the story, which I appreciated. I'd say Miss Kitty's Antiques is a hit. It incorporates so many different ideas from crime dramas to mythology that work surprisingly well together. I also liked how the story map creates a shape that vaguely resembles a cat.