Fat Princess Adventures

About the Game

Game:Fat Princess Adventures
Genre: Action RPG, Hack and SLash, Action Adventure
Consoles: PS4
Published:Sony
Developers: Santa Monica Studio, Fun Bits Interactive
Released: December 2015

In 2009 Santa Monica Studio developed a new IP called Fat Princess. The game was an online multiplayer experience where two team would fight each other in a very unique spin of the famous Capture the flag mode found in many famous FPS games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch others. Fat Princess was a succesfull game of its time which had a loyal fan base. The idea was simple, two teams of 16 players had to steal the princess from the other team and carry her over to their side. Each player was playing a different medival theme class. Mage, Archer, Knight, assassin etc. The players could feed the enemy princess cakes in order to make her fat with the goal of giving the opposing team a hard time carrying ger over. The team who carried their princess back to their castle wins.

In 2015 the same developers partnered up into making a different experience based on the same universe. Fat Princess Adventures was then born and once again publised from Sony as a playstation exclusive. Unfortunately this game did not meet the expectation of the crown. Most of the critiques called the game Mid and the overall fans ratings of the game find themselves in the same page. Some even went out of their way to call the game un-original and un-ispiring which are the 2 opposite commends of what the original game was.

Story of the Game

The story takes place in a far imaginary kingdom called Titania which is filled with sweets. Two kingdoms whose Kings do not see eye to eye were joined together because of their two girls. The two princesses were childhood friends and till this day they love meeting each other and play. They even go as far as to approach an area called the black forest. One day the Evil Queen Bidder Sweet decided that she had enough and wanted to get rid of everything sweet found in Titania. She was also scheming plans on how to capture the two princesess as part of her plan. The act of the Queen made the two kings decide to go on War. At this point our Character Hero, arrives at the shores of the bitter sweet land with the goal of defeating the goblins and rescuing the princess.

The adventurer at first saves one of the Princesses and is then task to go search for any clues that can help us find the other princess. The adventurer travels to the black forest and follows different clues in order to find the second princess and the secret lair of Queen Bidder. The hero will eventually find that and then proceed to save the second princess who reveals that the evil Queens plans on destroying Titania are in this room and the two will have to report as soon as possible back to the kingdom in order to stop the queen and be prepare for war.

Thoughts on the story

I personally never found myself invested in the plot of the game. Fair enough it had some funny moments but when it came down to the overall plot it wasnt something unique. I personaly believe the game's plot shines only when its being goofy. The heroes are on one sided without any progression on their character. The same applies to all the enemies and side characters. All are unoriginal, one sided and dont have a unique personality. The only main thing to be appreciate is its humor, as some jokes stick to the landing.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Fat Princess Adventures is what you get when you create a Diablo-like game for kids.
Fat princess and Fat princess Adventures are two different games. One is an online game with multiple teams fighting in a capture the flag like mode and the second one is a dungeon crawler. Before the game begins, the players get to create and customize their adventurer through a character cutsomization menu. The players get to change some parts of their adventurer and also their Personality. The personality change will affect the way your hero interacts in cutscenes and the overall in game dialog options. I made my character EMO and let me say this, his reactions and sentences were hilarious. Aside from personality, the players can change the gender, the hair(Style Color), skin color, beard, eyes and accessories.

The player can choose one of 4 classes.

Warrior: A hero who uses Shield and Sword in close combat
Mage: A hero specializing in Magic
Archer: A hero using his bow and arrow in long range attacks
Engineer: A hero who carries a major hammer to use in close range.

You don't have to worry about the class you choose as the players are free to change their class at any moment. When visiting a quick save/fast travel location the player can tap a button and change their class to the one they prefer. When playing the game, the players unlock different weapons and armor for every class and re stored in the class's menu. The main drawback is powering up items. For example, a player might go through the game as a mage for most of the time. This will result to them most likely having the stats of the stuff buffed in order to keep up with the enemies. Swapping class will result on the stuff being useless/un-usable and will also result to the player using an underpowered weapon. There is not an option to remove the buffs from one weapon to another.
The heroes of the tale

The game places the hero in a big map where they re free to manuver in a 3D environment. When moving around the player can come across different enemmies and chests. Just like any dungeon crawler, the players will usually move around trying to find the right path to follow. Going the wrong way might reward the players with chests containning items or a dead end forcing them to go back. The enemies will run towards the heroes in order to kill em. The chests on the other hand are slightly more complex. Some chests will open imidietly where as other will require a specific class or a specific type of weapon/ attack. For example some chest might require the fire element to open otherwise they wont budge. The same can be told using bombs, lightning and others.

The game's combat is very simple. The player has one buttons that is used to attack and one button in order to defent themselves. Tapping the attack button and moving forward is the main way of fighting. There are ways to combine attacks with jumbing and other mechanicks in order to perform different type of attack. The defence button can block an attack but at the same time attack by punching using the shield. Classes that do not have a shield, usually have secondary attacks. For example mages attack with long range attacks and use a defensive freeze attack in the place of defense. Engineers on the other hand cannot use their hammers defensively so they re throwing bombs and explosives instead. Killing enemies drops weapons, coins, items and cakes. Weapons as explained before are things that the players can use for each class. Coins be spend to upgrade gear or purchase items. Cakes on the other hand are more special. Each time the player consumes a cake they gain their lives back. If the cake was not a slice but a full one, all their live will be gain. If the player continues to consume cake even when their HP is full they will transform into Fat Giants. When they re fat giants they slap the enemies or they ground stomp. During that state they take less damage and hit for more. After transforming they have a small timee limit before going back to normal. Items re small things like bombs or key items that the players can pick up and throw to their enemies. There is friendly fire so do be carefull. Last but not least the players have their ultimate Berserk/Rage mode where they dont get as big and fat like Fat mode but they do get bigger in size. During that state, the heroes get to hit enemies for double the power and dont get as much damaged.
The heroes of the tale

Even though the game is not based in online battles, it does offer Multiplayer mode. Up to four players of any class can join forces together and proceed through the adventure. During coop, the items are shared within the party members except key items(needed for upgrades). There is friendly damage using items(not mellee attacks) which means the game will have alot of trolling or accidental deaths. Any hero fallen can be quick rezed during combat. If the fallen ally's timer runs out the rest of the group should find a save location where they will be ressurected them. If all the party members die at the same time they ll get the game over screen and will be placed to the last save location they visited. Cutscenes during story mode can be triggered by any member and their avatar will be the one appearring on the scene. Online players can join any lobby unless its private. The owner of the lobby can kick any unwanted member. A powered up user will be scaled down to the level of the current party.

Sound and Graphics

The game has a new upgraded art style that looks nice for the game. It doesnt differ that much from its prequel but it does make the universe and its characters stand out. The chibi cartoonish art style looks nice and it even hides the gore element despite having blood left and right. The game has in game cutscenes and even include CGI cutscenes in specific scenes. Every time a main objective is completed, a book with hand drawn art depicting a picture of a hero will appear and the main plot will be narrowed by a narrator or the voice actors themselves. Its also worth mentioning that each area is designed uniquely based on their location. From different areas filled with chocolate bars, macaroons etc to others looking spooky and gloomy.
The sound department on the other hand is not somehting unique but something that adds to it's appealng. The fact that each mood of the character adds different audio files is very commentable. The voice actors have done a decent job on voice acting the characters. The narrator adds his own elements when narrating and the princesses interacting with each other is also good. Don't get me wrong, there is not any # standout performance BUT the do a good job for the game and its goofinesss.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion Fat Princess Adventure is a decent game. The story is the typical "I am an evil overlord who wants to bring darkness to this kingdom". The characters of the game have this bizzare childinsh-cartoonish attidute towards any matter which fair enough works for its content. Both Visual and audio department are very good for the type of game which only adds to its charm. The gameplay is dangeon crawling with RPG elements and offers up to four unique classes. Each class has it's own unique style which differs from one another. Defeating enemies drops different items which the players can collect and use during battle or to boost their stats. The game does have a couple of things to do after finishing the game such as trying to open all the chest and doing all the side quest from the civilians. The best way to play the game is definetely through Co-op as experiencing it with a friend is more enjoyable and offers more fun times.

On the other hand the game is nowhere near it's predecessor as what made this universe beloved was its online competitiveness and NOT its story telling. Despite all that the story is a mid scenario with some funny moments. If the humor doesnt earned your interest then this game is not for you. Unfortunately it is not long and cannot keep you invested into it. The gameplay is simple for everyone to enjoy, however its lack of complexity and the little ammount of skills makes the gameplay repetitive which is not what you want when playing a dungeon crawler game which is by itself reperirive.