Like reading a book, most online slots pay when matching symbols land left to right across the reels. Few deviate from this normal way of things, though developer Pragmatic Play has proven themselves bold enough to go against the grain. We saw this in the pay anywhere antics of Sweet Bonanza, an Xmas version, and more recently in Gates of Olympus. Prepare to witness it again in an anime/manga themed game titled Starlight Princess, which utilises a similar pay mechanic. It might sound like a relation of Play'n GO's classic Moon Princess, but Starlight Princess is a pure Pragmatic Play production, being a straight clone of Gates of Olympus.
It's always tempting to compare any anime/manga type game to Moon Princess, yet this one does look very close. A box displays the current sequence of cascading wins on the left, while on the right, we have the wide-eyed Starlight Princess flapping her wings in mid-air. Even the dancey soundtrack is similar, though Starlight Princess' is the more banging tune. In the middle of the screen lies the 6-reel, 5-row game panel, covered in Moon Princess-esque symbols, while the screen's periphery displays clouds, a moon, stars, a tower. It's all very dreamy, very fantasy, catering pretty well for anyone into this style.
Starlight Princess runs on the same engine that powered Gates of Olympus, so a similar set of numbers and stats are generated as before. This means a default RTP value of 96.5%, though lookout for the less generous versions running at 95.51% or even 94.50%. As before, volatility is high; Pragmatic Play has officially rated it 5 out of 5, identical to the previous one, but higher than the original Sweet Bonanza. A wide range of stakes are available catering to most gamblers, starting at 20 p/c, rising to $/€100 per spin, and like the other two, the Ante Bet feature is available as well.
What makes these sorts of Pragmatic Play games differ from the norm is they do not use paylines. In a plot twist, all pay symbols are like scatter symbols in that they pay from anywhere. As long as at least 8 matching symbols are in view, coins are coming your way. The first five pay symbols are gems of various shapes, followed by four symbols with stars, moons, hearts, and suns imprinted on them. Payout values when at least 12 of the four higher value symbols land ranges from 12 to 50 times the stake. Starlight Princess does use wild symbols - that could have made things messy.
So no wilds, but Starlight Princess does come with a tumble feature, multiplier symbols, free spins, and the aforementioned ante bet. Starting with the tumble feature, after winning combinations have been paid, all winning symbols disappear from the grid. The remaining symbols drop to the bottom of the screen, and empty positions are replaced with symbols above them. Tumbling continues until no more winning combinations appear, with no limit to their number.
Green, blue, pink, and orange winged heart symbols are the multiplier symbols present on all reels. Multiplier symbols hit randomly during all spins or from tumbles. Whenever one lands, it takes a random value from x2 to x500. When the tumbling sequence ends, the values of all multiplier symbols on the screen are added up and applied to the total win to calculate a final prize value.
When 4 or more scatter symbols land anywhere on the screen, 15 free spins are awarded. During free spins, whenever a multiplier symbol lands on a winning spin, its value is added to a total multiplier displayed on the upper left side. For the duration of free spins, whenever any new multiplier symbol hits and results in a win, the total multiplier value is also added to multiply the win. During the round, if 3 or more scatters land, +5 additional free spins are awarded.
Lastly, players can activate the Ante Bet, increasing the stake by 25%. Doing so doubles the chance of triggering free spins.
Unless you are hardcore into shojo manga, Starlight Princess doesn't hugely impress. There are no major concerns, it's just that since it's a clone of Gates of Olympus, there's little left over to warrant much investigation. If you've played the previous games in the range, you'll have basically seen it all before. There aren't even a few lines of backstory to give Starlight Princess some personality. Unless that is you really get a kick out of the theme. In which case, the amiable, wide-eyed princess might well float your boat with her magic wand inducing free spins and enthusiastic shoutouts.
Not everyone's played Gates of Olympus, after all, and some players are probably into the princess, fairy, anime thing, so Starlight Princess might delight. Paying in all positions is a relatively uncommon way to cobble wins together, gelling with cascades and multipliers quite well. It wasn't unusual for a round of free spins to plod along doing nothing, then completely flip after one good spin accumulates a useful win multiplier. Not always, of course, yet when you've built a sizeable multiplier, you can get pretty antsy, waiting for the chance to unleash it.
Accumulated multipliers made all the difference to the outcome of free spins, as you'd imagine. Building a good one early could snowball into a decent result, which was satisfying. Like Gates of Olympus, Starlight Princess doesn't dangle some massively unachievable max win figure like the +20k of Sweet Bonanza. Starlight Princess keeps it more realistic, sticking with Pragmatic Plays usual win cap at the moment of 5,000x the bet.
From a gameplay perspective, Starlight Princess doesn't do anything Gates of Olympus didn't already provide. Still, if you're mad for manga and keen on some pay anywhere action, this is possibly the only option out there that combines the two.
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