A few months back, social media was ablaze with categorizing games into one of two categories: A game was either a parkour game or a menu game. Princess Maker 2 is in many ways the quintessential menu game, played out through selecting options in a menu. However, it’s really so much more than that, a classic of Japanese PC gaming that is finding a new audience with its Regeneration release, now available for gamers on Switch as well.

Princess Maker 2 originally released in 1993, developed by anime legend Gainax, and is an early example of a “raising sim” game. You play as a famous hero who is given a child from one of the world’s gods to raise from age 10 to 18. Your primary influence is through the menus, where you choose what this child spends her time on during a given month, with each choice going over about 10 days. Your daughter will then act autonomously based on her stats, succeeding or failing at whatever task and increasing/decreasing her stats accordingly. In between months, you can go shopping, speak with people at court to increase your reputation, or speak with your daughter. You gradually raise your daughter until she reaches 18, where you get a highly customized ending based on what you prioritized and how well things went.

If this sounds like a lot to handle, it is! Princess Maker 2 is surprisingly deep and this makes things difficult to get a handle on. Every action can increase or decrease various stats, so while working on a farm might increase your stamina and strength, it also decreases your refinement stat. This makes for a balancing act of these stats, your daughter’s stress level (which increases with almost every action), and your finances, which early on feel like a constant struggle. Every class costs a significant amount of money, so often you need to have your daughter work to make money, but each job usually requires high enough stats to actually succeed enough to make money. High stress can contribute to potential sickness, your daughter becoming more delinquent, or succeeding less at a job or learning.

One of the things that I think is either make or break for this game is whether you are willing to play multiple times and accept some trial and error while playing. If you are playing completely fresh without any sort of guide, it’s incredibly unlikely that your daughter will get the best ending. My first playthrough I played this way and while things ended up pretty well, there were some noticeable issues. I was amazed at how customized the ending felt (due to my focus on the arts, my daughter became a dance instructor, but due to her lack of stamina her debut on stage flopped); everything I achieved was very hard won.

That said, this does add a lot of replayability. My second playthrough I decided to go a different route and focus on physical strength and combat, and I was surprised to find a small RPG hidden where I could send my daughter out to explore a map and fight monsters. After a couple playthroughs I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what Princess Maker 2 could offer me, and I’m sure there are many more surprises that lie in store. So while Princess Maker 2 might be difficult, this opens up replayability and discovery. There are several guides, walkthroughs, and wikis for this game, but if you’re playing for the first time I do recommend going in without looking at those, at least for your first playthrough.

My biggest gripe is the Regeneration aspect of Princess Maker 2. While I’m glad that the original game was kept mainly intact, not a lot has been added for new content or convenience features. The biggest additions for Regeneration, since the 2004 Refine remake, were a new animation opening done by Gainax, which is fun to see, an updated translation, and some updated visuals. I wish there would have been a little bit more added, especially to justify the price tag compared to Refine. Some other modern conveniences would have been nice, especially with some technical issues in the game. I was almost done with my second playthrough when the game crashed on my Switch unexpectedly, but because there was no autosave and I (foolishly) hadn’t saved that playthrough yet, I completely lost my playthrough.

That all being said, Princess Maker 2 is a game worthy of your time, if you’re interested in gaming history but also if you want something that has held up as being genuinely fun and compelling 30 years later. It’s certainly not for everyone, but as a menu game enthusiast I enjoyed myself thoroughly and will keep playing, if only so I can finally make my character into the Princess the title suggests.