After (and due to) an amusing misunderstanding, I ended up finishing Princess Waltz fairly recently. I mostly persisted because it was apparently noted as the greatest thing since Fate/stay Night, and I'm perfectly willing to play an indecent game if it has a decent story (and a skip button). It really wasn't that great, though. I think it was probably because it was closer to a kinetic novel than a dating sim or more dynamic visual novel. The two big surprises seemed a bit forced. There wasn't that much of a good romantic element, I think; not all of the pairings really "clicked" for me, per se, and if you think of how all the blood relations actually tie together, things get...rather weird. The princess of Wisley kinda jumps into the story out of nowhere without adequate build-up (a couple of appearances) for the last couple chapters (with another "twist" anyone could see coming, and all the characterization of any background character), and she never gets any revealed characterization unless you follow her route for the last two chapters. I did kind of like Liesel's and Liliana's characterizations because you can see how they progress throughout the story, though; I'm a bit ambivalent towards the whole "sheltered lily androphobe" archetype of Suzushiro (not to mention the obvious "lolicon bait" element there), and Angela might have worked if she had interacted with the main characters a bit more in the first half of the story, even if it was through battle, instead of just getting shunted aside for training. I mean, it is pretty blatantly a straightforward shounen story, and that kind of story element is rather common in the genre. That actually probably the most fundamental reason it never clicked for me. I just don't bother with that genre very often, comparatively speaking, unless I get ambushed as with Nanoha.

On that note, I should continue playing Princess Debut, which was the actual game I was looking for originally. As astonishing as it may be, Viennese waltzes are actually a bit difficult, especially if you have no innate sense of rhythm.