Angelique Duet

Angelique Duet was released for Sega Saturn and PlayStation on July 30, 1998.

It is a remake of Angelique, considered the very first otome game; that is, a dating sim aimed at women; originally released for Super Nintendo in 1994.

In this game, you play as Angelique, an ordinary girl who is summoned to become the next queen of the universe. Well, to be more exact, one of the candidates for the position. Throughout the game you compete with your rival, Rosalia, for the throne.

To decide who will be her successor, the current queen sets up a test: each candidate receives half the land in a new world, and must develop it further than their rival before a set deadline. This is done by befriending nine guardians, each one controlling a different element, and using their power to construct buildings.

One important detail: even though becoming the next queen is the ultimate objective, you can also choose to forfeit that mission if you grow close enough to a guardian for the relationship to turn romantic. In that case, Rosalia becomes the next queen, but it still doesn't feel like a bad ending, since you are the one who chose love over duty.

Beyond the improvements introduced in the first remake, Angelique Special, which added new graphics, animated cutscenes, and voice acting compared to the original Super Nintendo version, Angelique Duet also lets you play as Rosalia herself, a feature fans had been requesting since the original game.

Gameplay

The gameplay loop revolves around two main aspects: talking and going on dates with the guardians to raise their affection toward you, and developing your land by asking them to lend you their power.

Each in-game day, you can choose from a handful of activities. The main ones are interacting with the guardians, requesting their help, and visiting your land to check its progress and figure out which guardian's power is most useful at that moment. Additional options include fortune telling, either to learn more about the characters, or to cast a spell that makes two people like each other more. Later in the game, you can also cook food from ingredients your subjects give you, and gift it to the guardians.

Every activity costs energy, even just talking to a guardian or giving them a gift. So you have to think carefully about how to make the most of each day. Your energy does increase a bit over the course of the game, starting at 4 hearts and going up to 8.

Dating the guardians is a bit of trial and error. Some will flat out refuse your invitation, and the energy you spent asking is gone regardless. The chances of acceptance seem to depend on how close you already are. Guardians can also randomly show up at your house early in the morning to ask you on a date, and the advantage there is that it's a guaranteed outing, so no risk of rejection.

Speaking of dates, there are three location options: your house, a forest, and a park. Each guardian's personality determines how many affection points you earn from each location. The house and forest are safe choices for a modest but reliable gain, but the park is where you can earn the most points, if you can make it to the end.

The park date is a series of questions testing your knowledge of that guardian's tastes, their relationships with other guardians, and even the number of buildings or population in yours and your rival's lands. It can feel a little luck-based at times. For example, the final question is simply "are you tired?". Answering "yes" might trigger either "I see, let's finish the date then" or "let's go find somewhere to rest," while answering "no" might get either "good, let's continue" or "I am, though, so let's wrap up." How far you get before giving an answer the guardian dislikes can make a big difference in how many points the whole date is worth.

Developing Your Land

The other major part of the gameplay is building up your territory. You do this mainly by asking guardians to use their power on your land. Once enough of a guardian's element has been applied, a new building appears, which raises your population count. The goal is to accumulate enough buildings to reach the center of the continent. The closer you are to a guardian, the more likely they are to help you without being asked, which means no energy cost.

And of course, there's Rosalia. Your rival comes from an elite school, knows she's more than capable of winning this challenge, and is not shy about letting everyone know it. While you're raising affection and building up your land, so is she. On top of that, she can ask a guardian to siphon power from your land, which can actually destroy a building you already constructed. Fortunately, you can do the same to her.

Rosalia is there to keep a sense of urgency in the air, but honestly? Her progress is slow enough that you don't need to stress. You can play entirely at your own pace, getting to know the guardians and developing your land as you see fit. By the time I had multiple buildings up, she still didn't have a single one.

At the end of each month, the goddess evaluates your progress. Depending on your building count, she'll either increase your total energy or give you a scolding. It genuinely feels good when she says you're doing well.

Rude Guardians

One thing that did bother me a little: even after a successful park date, where the guardian wraps things up with very romantic words and walks you back to your room (just for talking; this is a game for young girls, so there isn't even a kiss!), the very next day, if you ask their opinion of you, they might say something genuinely heartbreaking, like they can't stand you. It does make it a little harder to root for them.

For Japanese Learners

Since this is a game aimed at younger girls, it's not surprising that the language isn't particularly difficult. That said, each guardian has a distinct way of speaking to help their personality come through, ranging from brash to overly formal, so you get nice exposure to different speech styles without having to wrestle with complicated vocabulary. I'd put this one on the upper beginner end of the difficulty scale.

As is typical for PS1 games, the animated cutscenes with voice acting don't have subtitles. But they're short, the dialogue is easy to follow, and you can generally work out what's being said from the context on screen.

Conclusion

Angelique is definitely not for hardcore gamers who want to optimize everything. When I started out focused purely on winning, spending as little energy as possible on anything other than asking guardians to develop my land, I found the experience shallower than it actually is. This is not a hard game, so taking the time to actually get to know the guardians while you build your territory is really the heart of it.

As the first otome game ever made, it does have a certain simplicity that shows its age, but in a charming way. It's a relaxing title that lets you take your time building friendships while you build your world. If you have even a passing interest in dating sims, seeing where the otome genre began is a worthwhile trip.