Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess
By Marc Saltzman,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Mature action with traps, sexually risqué content.
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Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess
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What’s It About?
DECEPTION IV: THE NIGHTMARE PRINCESS might be considered a more comprehensive "Game of the Year" edition of 2014's Deception IV: Blood Ties. You play as the devil's beautiful daughters, Laegrinna and Velguirie, who must inflict pain, suffering, and humiliation on characters to help resurrect their imprisoned father. Featuring new characters, story lines, quests, and modes, the game has you strategically place traps in a level to cause harm, often with props that border on the ridiculous -- including a giant exploding toilet bowl, a basketball net, a hospital gurney, a rocking horse, pumpkins, and more. This game adds more than 180 traps and new stages, including an amusement park and a medieval castle.
Is It Any Good?
This is not your run-of-the-mill action game -- in a good way. In Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess, the devil's daughters can't inflict pain on the victims, so you must lay out traps to do your dirty work for you. Because of this, you must think through the effect of the trap, and the chain reaction that will ensue, and line up well-placed items to continue the carnage. Since many of these traps are ridiculous, it's also humorous to watch how they play out and the combo points you rack up as a result. The new story line adds more than 100 quests, so there's a lot more meat on this game than the one it's based on, Deception IV: Blood Ties. Plus, all the original quests are here, along with more traps and better production values now that it's on PlayStation 4 (though overall, the graphics aren't worth writing home about).
Gamers who like something a bit different (nay, quirky) and action that requires some brains along with brawn will no doubt find this Japanese import a fun and bizarre ride on their PlayStation console of choice. That said, if you already own Deception IV: Blood Ties and want the extra content (which is great), perhaps wait until the price drops to $10 or $20.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Parents can talk about violence in media such as Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess. Does the game really need to use brutal traps or violence? Would gameplay be better or worse if it didn't include these mechanics?
Talk about playing evil characters. What's so appealing about playing villains? Is there something that makes them work better than heroes?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation Vita
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Tecmo KOEI
- Release date: July 27, 2015
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: M for Blood, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Last updated: October 5, 2021
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