YMMV / Ikemen Prince

• Genius Bonus: The Theme Naming of the game's four countries make a lot more sense with some knowledge concerning each of the minerals they're named for.
  • The main setting is named after rhodolite, a type of garnet known for its reddish-pink color. Its name comes from the Greek "rhodon", meaning "rose-like", which ties into its rose motif.
  • Rhodolite's main ally is the eastern country of Benitoite, a nation with a lot of maritime trade that allows it to be more advanced than the other countries. In real life, benitoite is a blue barium discovered in and named for the San Benito River in California, a bustling state that provides the majority of the US' port trade.
  • The southern country of Jade has a combination of abundant resources and good legal policies that gave rise to great prosperity, which jade symbolizes in Chinese culture.
  • Obsidian lies to the west of Rhodolite. An aggressive military state without many resources, they aim to eventually claim Rhodolite as their own. Aside from obsidian's famous black color, the mineral has traditionally been used to fashion weapons such as knives and arrowheads.
• Spiritual Successor: To Midnight Cinderella, an older Cybird otome game also featuring a commoner girl being suddenly elevated to a position in which she has to choose a prince to rule the kingdom while a threatening nation looms in the background.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Ask any character for their opinion on the previous king of Rhodolite and their answers will oscillate between toothless criticism and outright sympathy if not genuine admiration. This is despite the fact that he was an absent father and a confirmed abuser who sexually assaulted at least three women. The fact that the story insists on framing him as a good man who was ruined by love until he became a 'fallen beast' can be extremely difficult to stomach.
• Values Dissonance: Perhaps deliberate, but the game's insistence on the importance of class stratification and necessity of an absolute monarchy may rub modern players the wrong way. It's made even worse by the fact that the game both implicitly and explicitly acknowledges the fact that the system is inherently flawed, yet those who express dissatisfaction are typically cast as traitors working to undermine Rhodolite from within or using democracy as a podium for selfish personal goals.

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