Code of Princess Review

Posted By Shaun K. about 8 months, 1 week ago

Code of Princess Review

Code of Princess is a self-professed spiritual sequel of sorts to the 1996 SEGA Saturn title Guardian Heroes, a title considered by many to be one of the best games to ever grace that doomed system. I however never owned the Saturn, nor did I ever play Guardian Heroes, so any judgment of mine in regards to Code of Princess will have to be done upon its own merits. And in that regard I can honestly say this: as a fan of both the action-RPG and the beat ‘em up genres, Code of Princess is one of the best titles in either genre that I have played in sometime. It completely raises the bar for what either genre can be and is a title that will appeal to a wide swath of 3DS owners for any number of reasons.

The plot of Code of Princess consists of fairly typical fantasy-anime boilerplate (albeit with a comedic bent that is itself not completely unheard of) but oh my, the devil really is in the details in this case. This is a game that never takes itself too seriously and the localization does a brilliant job of capturing that. Atlus deserves a great deal of credit for the obvious care and effort they put into translating CoP and it really pays off for this release. Characters and moments that could have potentially come across as cliché or annoying instead end being both genuinely laugh-out-loud funny and remarkably engaging. There is strong comedic writing overall and more than once the game left me in such stiches that I had to stop playing for a few moments while I got control of myself. The characters in the game are particularly noteworthy: with plenty of big hams and loony lovelies filling the proceedings and players will want to stick with Code of Princess as much to see what crazy thing comes out of their mouths next as anything else.

Overall the game’s story flows nicely in a manner that resembles nothing so much as a season of an above-average anime. Indeed, the very thing that Code of Princess brings to mind for me more than anything else on the story front is a season of The Slayers anime. And seeing as how Slayers remains one of my all-time favorite anime series, I consider that no small praise indeed. It is not the deepest tale and while a lot of the events where played for mostly comedic effect, the story did what it needed to do. Admittedly I did see a lot of the various beats and developments coming but then I have watched a LOT of anime in my day. Besides, as I said earlier, it is all in the execution. The story even features a couple of diverging path in the latter half of the game to serve as another nice touch. Ultimately what I would say about Code of Princess’ story is this: it serves as a compelling, if light and silly, reason in and of itself to make ones way through the single player campaign, which in the end is about all one can reasonably ask.

Choice quote from the game #1: The stance of the sheer disregard for other people’s feelings of the Territorial Alpha-Goldfish!

Moving on, CoP’s gameplay is just as good as its story/writing thanks to the games brilliant combining of aspects of fighting games, beat ‘em ups, and action-RPGs into one delightful 2D whole. There are aspects of the game that will remind players of titles like Scott Pilgrim and Castle Crashers, but Code of Princess goes far deeper with its RPG elements than these titles among other things. In CoP, gameplay revolves around battles that take place on a series of 2D fields that feature anywhere from three to four separate plains, à la certain SNK fighters, that players can move between at any time with the press of a button. Beyond just helping to open the level ups some, moving between plains also acts an important way for players to avoid enemy attacks or to get out of nasty situations such as being surrounded on both sides by baddies.

Players pick from a variable number of selectable characters (more on that shortly) before heading into battle via a system that owes as much to fighting games as it does beat ‘em ups. Each character has their own set of moves and while the motions to perform said moves are the same across characters, the actual results could not be more different. Of the game’s seven main characters, no two fight the same and all have distinct regular attacks, movement speeds, and even jumping abilities. The game really does do an excellent job of noticeably differentiating its characters which in turn increases the overall replay value of Code of Princess immensely for reasons that will become clearer a little further down the review.

Choice Quote #2: “Your lips say, ‘Maybe’… But your eyes say, ‘Sure. Why Not! He seems adequately fetching!’”

Another design choice that also extends the life of the game is the fact that each character can grow in strength across 150 plus levels. Gaining levels allocates players between two and five points to distribute across eight different stats that in turn can dramatically impact their effectiveness in battle in a variety of ways. It is a fairly standard action-RPG approach to leveling in other words but combined with gameplay that is like a smarter, more complex take on the beat ‘em up genre and you are left with something special indeed. Leveling really does matter in the game and players will get slaughtered in many of the CoP’s optional side missions if they are not of a sufficiently high level. Thankfully the game’s story mode is more forgiving and only twice in the course of the mode’s approximately five hour length did I have to stop and grind for a bit in order to succeed and proceed through the game.

Speaking of the game’s modes, Code of Princess has both single and multiplayer gameplay and in the case of the former, the action comes in three varieties: Campaign, Free Play, and Bonus Missions. Campaign is the game’s name for story mode and players are limited to a choice of four characters when making their way through it. Beating this mode unlocks the rest of the game’s content (including levels and playable characters) and it is here that the game really opens up. Free Play lets players tackle any of the story missions sans cutscenes while Bonus Missions feature the levels from the story mode but add new objectives, enemies, and shorter time limits (story/free play missions generally grant players a twenty minute time limit and not once did I come close to running out; Bonus Missions by comparison can shrink that time to as little as three or four minutes and I definitely struggled in some missions with that restriction) among other variables. Additionally, a number of optional bosses can be found within the Bonus Missions and the difficulty level here can get really high before all is said and done. Those looking for a challenge will certainly find it in the Bonus Missions and overall they act as a good balance to generally less harsh Campaign mode.

Choice Quote #3: “I am Dios Diablos Distille. Angel of Death, Destruction, and Awkward Social Situations.”

Another aspect that separates Campaign from Free Play and Bonus Mission is the fact that the latter allows players to choose from any of the game’s 50 plus playable characters (which includes regular enemies, bosses, and even NPCs). All of these characters can be leveled just like the main eight and they can then even been taken online for further use. Admittedly some of these characters (the playable NPCs in particular) are less effective than others and it is clear that a number only exist for laughs or to give players an extra high level of challenge but there at least twenty or so vastly different playable characters who can legitimately be effectively employed in battle. And these range from your regular assortment of humans to oversized golems to giant dragons that fill the whole screen. So while the Campaign Mode in Code of Princess will only likely run players around four to six hours the first time around, the game has potentially dozens upon dozens of hours of more gameplay available for those prepared to really dig into the game.

Unfortunately the fact that I received an early review copy of this title means that I was unable to really give the game’s multiplayer side a workout. Still, I was able to scope it out enough to lay out the basics here. Multiplayer, which is fully available both locally and online, comes in both co-op and versus iterations. Co-op lets between two to four players tackle both free-play and bonus missions and there are even a number of multiplayer only bonus missions for groups to tackle. Versus meanwhile appears to be surprisingly extensive and includes features more akin to what one would expect from a fighting game than a beat ‘em up. There are three variations of versus play: Ranked, Free Play, and Ultimate and all allow for two, three, and four player bouts. Ranked is self-explanatory and plays into the game’s online leaderboards while Free Play is just for fun with no risk or reward attached. Players are however restricted to pre-loaded versions of all of the game’s playable characters for these modes but on the bright side even characters not unlocked for use yet in single player are available from the word go.

The camera can pull out or closer depending on the situation.

Ultimate is where things get really interesting as it lets players bring their custom characters from the aforementioned single player mode and they are even free to load them out via the game’s extensive equipment system in any way they like. Once I have actually been able to give multiplayer the time it deserves I will update this part of the review and my overall verdict accordingly as necessary. Provided the game’s net code holds up though and based off the strength of the main game, I could easily see this becoming a long term favorite for any number of people out there.

On the production side of things, Code of Princess features visuals that are just plain gorgeous, with big, well animated sprites for enemies and good guys alike (which makes sense seeing as all the enemies in game can be unlocked for additional use by players). Backgrounds are equally good looking and filled with plenty of little details plus the multi-planar nature of the game means that the 3D effect tends to really shine when turned on. I have to emphasis just how good the animation in this game are; more than once during an in-game cutscene, CoP relied on a little gesture here or movement there to convey emotion or sell a joke and all to great effect. The developers deserve a lot of credit for the painstaking work that went into letting this diverse set of personalities come to life at times without even needing to say a word, When it is time to talk however, CoP benefits from a strong English cast composed of some familiar Atlus standbys from games like the Persona series. It is lively cast that for the most part keeps the energy high and sells the jokes well. Furthermore, CoP’s soundtrack rounds out the game’s aural side with a strong mix of lighter fare and more epic tunes.

The sprites in the game look even better in motion.

Taken as a whole, Code of Princess is one of the best designed and flat-out fun games to grace the 3DS in sometime. While its individual elements might feel familiar when taken individually, the mix that the game employs leads to a greater whole that is almost transcendent in the way that it reinvents the beat ‘em up by way of the action-RPG. I feel like this is the most relevant that the former genre has felt in years and that finally a way forward for a type of game that seemed to have left its best days behind it has appeared. Combine this with gorgeous visuals, a strong and humorous story, and the long-term potential of the game’s online functionality and you have a title that is a must own for all but the most ardent action-RPG/beat ‘em up detractors. Code of Princess is a truly unique and memorable experience for the 3DS that has the potential to be one of the big sleeper hits for the system this year. Once again gamers in the US owe Atlus a debt of gratitude for not only bringing a superior game over to these shores, but for giving it the first rate treatment it deserves.

A review copy of this game was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review. The reviewer spent approximately twenty hours playing the game and completed its main campaign.

Also, feel free to follow the reviewer on Twitter @bigred_13 please if you feel so inclined.