Villordsutch reviews Fat Princess Adventures…
From the outside of Fat Princess Adventures this franchise may appear to be some child-like, XX Chromosome game and any elder gents out there may think this game isn’t for them. You couldn’t be more wrong!
Yes you’re in a world of Fat Princesses and Cake and everything has practically a saccharine sweet cake-like name, and you need to take out an evil Queen in Great Bitten (there’s another one), but all of this humour comes with some serious tongue-in-cheek placement. This is the equivalent of watching something like Shrek as a parent with your child – you’re laughing at jokes they’re not supposed to get. Clearly I’m getting ahead of myself here as I’ve not started reviewing the actual gameplay, but I wanted to instantly destroy the cover you may have already judged this game on.
With Fat Princess Adventures we have at it roots a rather basic hack and slash game, and while this may sound unbelievably glib, above ground – where it’s in bloom – we have something rather splendid. You create a character from forthright to emo in attitude, then you stride into this quest filled world initially to rescue the rather delicate princesses with a fondness for calories. The methods of attack are Attack, Jump, Push Back; along with this you can on occasion pick up bombs, rainbow drops and potions and throw those at enemies (or accidentally at your companions) but your initial three moves are all you have. Your choice of character – Warrior, Mage, Archer or Engineer – depends on how these three actions respond. Personally I’m a huge fan of the Warrior so I get normal sword attack, jump sword attack and shield bash and that’s it, and to be truthful within this game that’s all you really need.
You would think that with a simple fighting system the game would be a breeze, and for the most part with some smart blocks you can keep the hordes of enemies back to get out virtually undamaged. If you do suffer any damage most mobs drop slices of cake to replenish your energy, or make you rather obese for a short amount of time to do some serious damage. You can also accumulate your awesome-sauce but laying down the beats, this doubles your damage for a short amount of time. However, these minor mobs don’t compare in any way to the end of level bosses. Each have their own specific way to be taken down and you need to really keep on yourself alert to work out the mechanics of the fight.
There is a rather brilliant multiplayer aspect of this game – not only locally so you can get family members and friends to jump on to help you defeat end of level bosses – but you can set you game to “Open Mode” so random PlayStation players can drop in too. Just the other night I was having a nightmare on one level and in falls a Level 20 who helped me eradicate the room! The other rather excellent aspect about the multiplayer feature is you don’t need to worry about Ninja Looters. For those unsure what a Ninja Looter is, it’s when you and your party spends a large amount of time killing a creature for a certain piece of loot and when that object drops, a swine runs in, grabs it, then logs off. Here within Fat Princess Adventures when anyone picks up a piece of loot everyone gets it.
Fat Princess Adventures is – as said before – filled with humour, from quests including the likes of Papers Please, which initially seems to be a diplomatic mission before you discover after killing Dook of Charmyn it’s actual toilet roll; then we have a wink to Eddie Izzard with a “Cake or Death” boss fight and also along the way you come across the dreaded Vegan Pirates. Not only this but your character male or female is extremely chatty and you’ll often be caught off guard and blurt out a sudden laugh due to their one-liners. On top of this we have our narrator who at one point dubbed me a “Noob!” upon dying!
On initial glance, the graphics border on the cute, sweet and overly-lovely. We have podgy princesses, knights with saucepans for helmets and baby-faced goblins. However swing your sword and this world rapidly becomes crimson; blood drips the walls as you massacre hordes upon hordes of enemies just for the chance of seeing gold coin to upgrade your gear. Gold seems to be scarce as you start upgrading gear, and I recommend you start smashing everything up and checking every corner for chests (you will find on your travels locked chests which all require a different elemental effect to unlock). There is the odd issue with the graphics like a fuzzy black shadow under some plants, and during a fight around Lady of the Lake level the screen went blue as if I fell through the world then after five seconds or so snapped back to my character; other than this I’ve come across nothing else to spoil the look of the game.
Fat Princess Adventures is quite frankly excellent! If you’re stuck for a game to buy today I recommend that you pick this one up now.
Cons
– Gold is at a premium from mobs it seems
– Weapon upgrades can expensive (see Gold is at a premium)
– Occasionally graphic bugs
Pros
+ Excellent humour throughout
+ Extremely easy to pick up and very enjoyable to play
+ Great mechanics in the Boss fights
Rating 9/10
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published January 29, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
