Just played in a Princess Wing one-shot with @Fel-Temp-Reparatio as GM, it was a lot of fun! I played one of the premades, the Azure Cinderella build (highly mobile melee fighter), but put my own spin on it as far as the character attached to the mechanics goes. I played Serizawa Satoshi, a 17-year-old boy who had once become a Dark Heart but was rescued by a fellow Princess whom he now idolizes. He has since based his entire identity around being a Princess, and is very concerned about what that’ll mean when he gets too old to keep doing it.
We played the Yearning Wings ~Ignite Wing~ prewritten scenario, in which Satoshi was one of the two PCs who was childhood friends with Shinonome Mitsuki. That meant that his backstory came in very handy at the end, lol. It was a great time! The roleplaying structure felt exactly like an episode of an anime, and the combat was surprisingly tactical while still being short and sweet. PW is definitely meant for short, episodic play, which I was worried would make it feel too shallow, but I had a great time anyway. I think we played for about two and a half hours.
I definitely wish I’d had the brain space to make a custom build like the other players did, because I love theorycrafting and shit, but I’ve been having A Time™️ so I picked a premade to save myself some brain juice. I do worry that I contributed the least to the combat, but I think Satoshi’s relationship with Mitsuki made up for it. The other PCs had a bunch of nova turns (one of them nuked all four mobs in a single attack, leaving only the boss, it was amazing)whereas my most nova-ish turn was less damaging and more just costly to evade (which was what allowed it and subsequent attacks to hit at all, so that’s still good, just not Funny Damage Number Go Up). That’s what I get for using a premade build lol.
All in all, definitely something I’d be down to play again, but DEFINITELY with a custom-built character instead of a premade.