Product Info

Platform

Switch, Vita

Publisher

NIS America, Inc.

Developer

Nippon Ichi Software

Genre

Action, Beat-'em-up, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

915.07 MB

Release Date (NA)

Apr 3, 2018

Release Date (JP)

Nov 24, 2016

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

Walmart

GameStop

NIS America, Inc.

eShop

In a world where capitalism has taken hold and money is power, Penny-Punching Princess strikes an odd chord, mixing today’s environment with NIS humor, to make for a challenging, often funny, top-down action RPG.

A Princess and Her Revenge

Inspired by the look of 16-bit visuals, Penny-Punching Princess is a colorful, top-down action RPG about the Princess, and who looks to avenge her father against the Dragoloan family ten years after a debt-related illness killed him. Controlling the Princess, and later in thee story, Isabella, while accompanied by her butler, a stag beetle named Sebastian, she sets out with nothing else but the prospect of money. Money rules this world, and the more one has, the stronger and more respected one is.

Penny-Punching Princess is structured around three major segments: the well-voiced and often laugh-out-loud story, the base area where the Princess gains strength and power, and the top-down sometimes frantic action. This resembles the Disgaea series of games very closely, which is certainly not a bad way to go.

Prepare to Laugh

The story sections, which play out at the beginning and the end of an action segment, feature static 2D images of all involved characters and are fully voiced. The voice-overs are top notch, and the story is one that could only come from the masterminds at NIS. There is the option to skip the dialog right from the start and get to the action, but the voice-overs are well worth sticking around for. Once the scene is played out, the action will begin.

Top-Down, Packing a Punch

The top-down action gameplay is very reminiscent of the top-down Zelda style. Instead of being able to free roam around a map, though, you are restricted to the size of the current battle map.  However, this does allow for a small bit of exploration, which rewards the player that looks in every nook and cranny for items. While exploring the small map, you will also encounter areas that trigger a battle sequence. During these battles, barriers are placed to block the path and the Princess must find a way defeat the enemies to proceed.  

Sounds simple, but the Princess has no weapon to equip and fights with bare knuckles, punching her way through her enemies. Fortunately, she can also turn the tables and bribe her opponents to fight for her. Remember, might and strength no longer matter; wealth is what matters. And it’s not just limited to enemies; she can even bribe traps that would otherwise do her harm!  Every bribe costs money though, but money is plentiful in this game. It is found in chests, after defeating an opponent, and when enemies are in ‘Break’ status. When an enemy is in Break, spinning the right Joy-Con stick when close will cause money to rain from the enemy. The break point is located on the enemies health bar, adding a layer of strategy to maximize profits and damage.

A Good Old Fashioned Bribe

Bribing an enemy involves the use of the calculator, which is received early in the game. Each enemy has a price, and paying that price not only captures the enemy, it also grants the Princess two or three uses of the enemy’s attack. This is quite helpful in defeating some of the much stronger enemies that are far too strong to punch. The Princess can also capture and make use of the traps in battle, causing a great amount of damage to her opponents. However, using the calculator generally leaves the Princess open for an attack, so thought must be put into its use.  The calculator has a short cooldown, so capturing all that is seen is difficult, without plenty of advanced planning.

Once the Princess has cleared the enemies in the battle, the barriers put into place at the start of the battle are removed and the Princess once more can explore the area. There are multiple battles per mission in different areas of the map, with each fight graded on a letter scale, where S is the best grade. Once the win conditions of the mission are met, the grade of all battles are shown, and an overall grade is issued for the map. Another fantastic cutscene will play, and then the Princess is back at her base.

Home Is Where the Wealth Is

The Princess’s base is the basic home area of the game. This menu-driven area is where the player can choose the mission to play, see which monsters have been captured, equip armor, and use skill points to strengthen the Princess, helping in future fights.  Powering up the Princess involves the use of Zenigami Statues found during missions and captured enemies to forge armor and statues, so be sure to capture as many as possible. The option to save and load your game appears here, as well as various game options.

The Worthiness of This Princess

Penny-Punching Princess provides a great amount of replayability, as each mission can be replayed any number of times to capture more monsters, find a missed treasure, or to get a better grade. Backtracking and replaying previous missions is required to create stronger armor to proceed, so be prepared for a bit of grinding to capture enough monsters. The music fits each environment and scene well, from the melodic piano to hard guitar riffs perfectly matches each setting of this game.

While some may be turned off by the amount of grinding and somewhat repetitive gameplay, a story this hilarious, gameplay very tight, and the difficulty curve puuuurfect, Penny-Punching Princess is very worthy of a 4.5 out of 5.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by NIS America, Inc. for this review.