Moero Downhill Night Type R offers all the typical elements of a Japanese dating sim – extensive conversation trees and a lot of well executed art – plus attempted interactive 3D video segments and an innovative time-based element that could easily be pilfered and used to help improve many other conversation-based games.

Princess Waltz is a very text-intensive visual novel with a dash of eroticism. Most of the text is thankfully accompanied by Japanese voice-overs except for dialogue that originates from the omniscient narrator and Arata himself. Most of the battles that don’t involve you require you actually use your noggin to visualize the frantic pace with the assistance 6th grade level vocabulary descriptions.

The story is charming, the characters are glistening, the card battles are fun but, unfortunately, all of its strong points are marred by the fact that this game progresses at the pace of a stepped on grandpa snail….