Fxxx Me Royally!! Horny Magical Princess is an 18+ otome game about a magical princess named Marie—who soon takes on the Japanese pseudonym Marika—traveling to Earth in search of the ideal husband. Marika’s homeland differs from Earth not only in its magical nature, but also in its openness about sexuality, with young adults being downright encouraged to sleep around as much as possible. Marika soon narrows down her romantic prospects to two cute college students, Kaoru and Ryuusei, but has to overcome some of the difficulties posed by this major cultural difference in getting to know them and planning her future. And it turns out the plotline of the game really isn’t nearly as sex-focused as you’d expect either, with plenty of time dedicated to Marika and the guys just hanging out and learning about each other’s wildly varying backgrounds. Read on for more of my thoughts on Marika’s adventures!

I had been really excited for the release of this translation ever since it was announced. Not only is it by the same developers as the excellent Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, but it was also brought to the English-speaking world by the same translator, Verde, whose work I’ve praised before for its especially funny and natural dialogue as well as all-around good quality. On top of that, it sets itself apart from the majority of other translated Japanese visual novels I’ve read by including sexual content written from a female character’s perspective—specifically, a confident bisexual female protagonist who can have casual relationships with several characters at once. It even totally gender-flips the typical eroge trope of “all virgin heroines”; instead, both of Marika’s male love interests are inexperienced and initially intimidated by how forward and sexually aggressive she is. And there’s also a three-way route? Sign me the fxxx up!

However, I didn’t always feel like the game used the concept to its full potential. With a title like that, I was expecting a whole lot of porn—or at least some raunchy comedy—but a fair amount of the story is simple slice-of-life that could have fit into to any other average otome game. It’s cute enough if you like the characters and enjoy that kind of thing, but I was expecting Fxxx Me Royally to be a lot more unique. I was also pretty disappointed by the end of the common route, which suddenly throws in some drama involving an attempted rapist villain that really brings the whole light-hearted mood down. It felt like the developers might have been going for a nice message about the importance of consent there, but then they also turn around and undermine it with some uncomfortable victim-blaming; Marika gets rescued from the villain before he manages to do much to seriously hurt her, but her right-hand woman Sanae scolds her for “falling for his tricks.” All-around not my favourite part of the story!

But aside from that one uncomfortable scene, the rest of Fxxx Me Royally is a pretty good read. I really liked all the art, which includes several alternate outfits for the sprites, and some very cute chibi CGs for funny moments. The h-scenes may be much fewer and farther between than I had expected, but they’re cute and well-written when they happen. And one thing I really appreciated was that Kaoru and Ryuusei always remain close friends with each other, as well as with Marika, even in routes where she chooses one of them over the other. No jealousy drama in this one! I also liked that Sanae has a side route, even if I would have liked it to be a bit longer. The same goes for the threesome route, but it’s also very sweet and funny, and I was happy to see it included.

All in all, I would recommend Fxxx Me Royally if you’re interested in a slice of life otome game with a supernatural twist and a fun and confident protagonist. It wasn’t exactly the game I had imagined, but I hope that it sees some success that might encourage developers and localizers to bring more 18+ otome games to the English-speaking world in the future. I’d love to read some more VNs with the same sex-positive tone, and with representation of more bisexual women like Marika. I’d go hang out with her in her magical kingdom any day.