| Maynard_Tool said: damn noname, u r really pushing people into getting that game -.- what is so amazing about it??? i've heard something about LKS but never really pay attention to it. |
Do you like fun? Do you like awesomeness? Do you like fun and awesomeness? Then boy do I have a game for you!
Read on!
*WARNING, WARNING!* Long post with a bunch of info follows! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!
http://wii.ign.com/articles/886/886872p1.html
We played and liked the DS adventure game Hotel Dusk despite some of its pacing shortcomings, but we're really looking forward to developer Cing's next project, Little King's Story. The Wii-exclusive title, which sports a beautiful storybook visual style, thrusts players into the role of a child king named Korobo who must order his subjects around, presumably to keep the city functioning. The experience has been described to IGN as one part RPG and another part life simulator. To learn more about the concept, American publisher Xseed provides us with a little information about the gameplay process, as well as some of the characters and jobs that help fill the experience.
Punish the Mysterious Kings and Save the Princesses
Almost sounds like the tale powering the next Mario game, but there's much more to Little King's Story than that. Yes, you are a newly received king and you do have your own kingdom, but yours is hardly the only one. There are apparently seven total kingdoms in the world, including the Kingdom of the Drunks. Sounds like a fun spot to us. All of the kings boast different personalities, some more colorful than others. As you begin the game, each of the kings will try to taunt and challenge you, the goal being to squash you before you can become too powerful. But if you can survive, your power will grow and you may eventually even defeat their kingdoms, each of which houses a beautiful princess. Here's one such king and princess:
Kingdom of Drunkards
King Duvroc (tentative)
He is the king of the Kingdom of Drunkards that wishes for everyone in the world to be happy. He's 48-years-old and thinks it's Mardi Gras all year round.
Princess Bouquet
King Duvroc's daughter. She is a hardworker that loves science and analyzing things. For some reason, she is trapped inside a pot. After you defeat Duvroc, the princess will appear from inside the pot.
Summary of Jobs and lifestyle
Each and every one of your citizens has a name, their own lives, and their own jobs. You have to be able to divide up your resources well as the king. Just watching your citizens live their lives can be fun and is a special feature of Little King's Story. Korobo can order his minions to create roads and build structures. They are vital to the building your kingdom. They each have their own names, live their own lives, and have their own personalities. As the king, you must understand to distribute your resources accordingly.
Manage your Human Resources
The citizens have their own personalities, as shown by their different life cycles. Their lives are also preset so you must prepare yourself for some sad partings in the future. Be sure you know what each job's strong points and weaknesses are before ordering them around. New citizens without jobs are called carefree adults. They have no jobs, but they can still fight (just don't count on them being effective). You might be able to have them get a job if you satisfy certain conditions.
Here are some job examples.
Grunt Soldier
A job that is good at combat at close range. But as their names suggest, they're grunts at the bottom. They're not that strong so it's pretty common for them to have trouble with certain enemies.
Regular Carpenter
A job that can do construction of buildings and roads. These crucial citizens will be the ones that build the basic environment of your kingdom. Work can be done more efficiently if you have more of them. Just as their name suggests, their skill is "regular." Maybe you can find expert artisans somewhere.
Hardworking Peasant
A job aimed towards cultivation. They are good at digging ditches so be sure to take them with you if you find any holes during your travels.
Animal Hunter
A job good at long range combat. They will support the other people fighting in the front lines. Animal Hunters train with their bow and arrows in their free time.
All Citizens have a Life Cycle
The world of Little King's Story is sensitive to time. The evenings will have sunsets and it'll get pitch black at night and each citizen will be doing things in accordance to their daily schedule. There are also events specific to the time of day.
Monsters
In the world of Little King's Story, strange monsters will interfere with the citizens' regular lives. Unless you order your citizens to kill the monsters, you won't be able to conquer the world. Here are two such monsters:
Monster 01
An annoying monster that pecks the citizens to death with its hard beaks.
Monster 02
Monster that swings it's large cutting sword slashing the citizens away. It's face will flip upside-down to show it's emotions.
http://kotaku.com/5019293/king-me-with-feeling-checking-out-little-kings-story
We've heard Xseed is publishing Marvelous' Little King's Story on the Wii this Winter (you can stop calling it "Project O" now), and between the gorgeous art style, charming look and the somewhat Harvest Moon-influenced gameplay blend of real-time strategy, adventure and RPG, there's a lot to clasp our hands in hopeful anticipation about.
Wait, there's more: The all-star team behind the game includes Yasuhiro Wada (Harvest Moon), Yoshiro Kimura (HM & Chulip), Youichi Kawaguchi (Dragon Quest VIII) AND Hideo Minaba, art director for FFXII.
I got to see an early demo of the kingmaking of little Corobo, the shy boy who the player must nurture into a wise and strong ruler.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the beautiful watercolor-pencil style of the cute, humorous cutscenes (we published the trailers a while back here) - and how well they transitioned immediately into the brightly-colored game world. I watched as a wacky looking old knight came riding up on a cute, bulbous cow (yes, it was the much-revered Harvest Moon cow) in his search for the true king.
Corobo then discovers a crown, suddenly prompting his friends to prostrate in homage. Next thing you know, you're in a throne room, and as you start the game as a level one "rookie" king, your mailbox soon fills up with all sorts of mundane requests, like getting rid of a red mushroom that's annoying the townsfolk, or filling in a mysterious hole behind someone's house.
In the scene I watched, the charming, fancily-mustachioed Bull Knight explained to Corobo that the neighboring lands are under siege by Oni devils and under the rulership of false kings, which, of course, it falls to you to rally your folk to deal with. Any time you want to know the state of your kingdom or what needs doing, you return to your throne.
But, of course, you're the King, so you don't have to do this dirty work yourself. Waving your sceptre at townspeople will recruit them to your aid - you can have a few or up to a throng of fifty following you from place to place, ready to do your bidding. Many townsfolk will have different specialties; for example, a team of carpenters will build something when instructed much faster and more efficiently than a group of regular individuals.
You can often earn respect by completing these quests; the more renowned you are as a ruler, the more people will obey you. And your obedient subjects are not just faceless nobodies. They've got HP and attack points, can gain in abilities, and will even show their relationship status - given enough time, your townspeople will marry and propagate. If you don't treat them well, though, if you battle too recklessly or work them too hard, they can permanently die, and as their King, you'll have to attend their funerals. That could be very interesting.
What I saw was mostly exposition and early stages of play, but this is a title I'll personally watch with enthusiasm, because life-sim/adventure hybrids rate pretty high up among my favorite genres.
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/rpg/projecto/news.html?sid=6203106∂=rss&subj=6203106
The chaps from Rising Star Games paid us a visit recently and gave us a new look at the upcoming Wii role-playing game Little King's Story. As the name suggests, you'll assume the role of a child king in the game, with a modest kingdom at your command. As you meet your people, explore, and perform quests from them, you'll grow from strength to strength, along the way making a name for yourself in the history books.
One of the first, and possibly most important, structures you can build is a town square, for the price of 1,200,000 bol--the game's currency. Once it's built, a suggestion box allows citizens to give you new quests, such as tracking down and vanquishing a ghost cow that's causing havoc in the graveyard. You can build other structures, including guardhouses, to teach civilians to become soldiers, as well as train up other classes, including farmers and carpenters. Additionally, you can retrain any citizens if you find there are too many of one class--but at a cost of both money and time.
When you begin your epic quest, you'll have dominion over only five citizens at a time. As your empire grows and becomes more successful, you'll earn more renown, and your population will grow. Each new hut you build can accommodate two new citizens. As citizens' heath levels drop, their appearance will visibly change--their skin will age, their hair will whiten, and they'll be stripped of some armour. In addition to these visual clues, costumes will indicate what class your citizens are, which makes it easier to see at a glance what state they're in.
Little King has an uncluttered look, but there are still a few visual aids on hand. A minimap at the top of the screen shows a compass as well as resources, buildings, enemies, and other important items. Meanwhile, a separate window reveals an inventory and the status of your troops. A timer in the top left of the screen shows you what time of day it is, and unless you're on a current quest, your people will retreat to their homes at night. One cool addition is a live news ticker that gives you updates on your kingdom. Examples include "Got fungus," "Kate died," or even "Wow you must really hate your subjects" when giving them life-threatening tasks. If you have nearby citizens who are currently unassigned, they'll also tell you what they think of your leadership with approving or rude gestures.
The game has a cutesy, almost cel-shaded look, and it's hard not to draw comparisons (both in graphics and gameplay) to Animal Crossing's look and RPG elements and to Pikmin's real-time strategy gameplay. Combine that with a light, upbeat soundtrack from Kingdom Hearts composer Yoko Shimomura, and the result definitely feels suitably cute and cuddly. We spent more of our time in and around the village and heard a few festive songs composed mostly of tin-whistle and accordion melodies, but we'd expect things to get more dramatic as you head to the open road. We came across a number of enemies, including slugs and turnip monsters that disguise themselves and then attack your unsuspecting farmers. It's always wise to have a range of classes at any time so you can assign soldiers to attack, miners to dig for gold, or farmers to harvest crops.
There are seven nations that surround your kingdom, and eventually you'll need to take over those territories through armed conflict. Before you do that, however, you'll need to build bridges to allow your troops to access those lands, and we're told there will be certain criteria that you'll have to meet before unlocking the ability to defeat some leaders.
One of the boss battles we encountered was a huge frog. The noxious amphibian spewed poison, sapping the health of some of our troops, and it even gobbled some up whole. Once you defeat a boss you'll gain the territory that it inhabited, expanding your dominion. You'll also be able to earn money from prospecting for gold where you see cracks in the ground, or through digging up vegetables, cutting up woods, and more. When your battle-weary soldiers need a rest, the nearby Alpoko Springs cures bruises, sprains, poison, and "geriatrics" (the aged signs of weak health).
In our time with Little King we also encountered an amusing religious character called Kampbell, who is on a quest to build a Soup Church for the Sect of Soup. After an amusing little chat, he finished off a priestly blessing with a "ramen." Little King seems to have a good sense of humour, and with sprinklings like this we expect it will provide chuckles for all ages.
Little King's Story currently has a March release date in Europe, with releases in the US and Japan coming later in the year. It looks to be a fun addition to the Wii lineup for those who fancy making a name for themselves as a miniature monarch.
Trailers:
That, that Overlord: Dark Legend. That's what im REALLY looking forward. That's probably one of my top 5 for 2009. It looks so awesome!!!!
Psh! Little King's will be better. Same gameplay, better everything else.
*goes to sulk elsewhere*
