{"id":12221,"date":"2014-08-13T00:01:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T00:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12221"},"modified":"2014-08-04T23:26:36","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T23:26:36","slug":"battle-princess-of-arcadias-ps3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/13\/battle-princess-of-arcadias-ps3\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Princess of Arcadias (PS3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PRINCESS_BOX\"<\/a>The Kingdom of Arcadias was being ravaged by warring armies, until one day the princess of the land took up the sword and led her people to victory.\u00a0 From then on she was known as the Battle Princess.\u00a0 Now the kingdom is being plagued again by opposing armies, and they\u2019ve unleashed new living weapon monsters, too!\u00a0 And what\u2019s worse, the king of the land has been turned into a talking goose!\u00a0 So now once again the Battle Princess must take up arms and lead her people to triumph in this download-only 2-D side-scrolling action game for PS3.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think with a name like Battle Princess, the main character of this game would look all strong and tough.\u00a0 But nope, every character in this game looks like they belong in a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon.\u00a0 But that\u2019s OK, it\u2019s part of the game\u2019s anime inspired charm.\u00a0 There are three main gameplay modes: 2-D action stages, boss sieges, and skirmishes.<\/p>\n

The 2-D action stages are the most fun.\u00a0 You run and jump left to right while slashing enemies with your sword.\u00a0 You can also use items on the fly like healing potions, or press the shoulder buttons to switch characters.\u00a0 The friends and allies you make during the game can join your three-person party in battles, and you can switch to them when your energy runs low or if you need to use their special weapon skills like archery or magic.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you\u2019ll have to defeat a huge monster in the boss siege stages.\u00a0 You control your characters similar to the 2-D action stages, but you won\u2019t be able to defeat these behemoths on your own.\u00a0 But here you also have command over an army, and dish out orders via a menu similar to the one you fiddle with to use items.\u00a0 So you can give orders for them to defend and attack when the time is right.\u00a0 Whittle down the monster\u2019s shield and wail on them when their defenses break.\u00a0 But be careful as the monsters pack a punch and can defeat a whole army with just a few blows.<\/p>\n

The last mode is skirmish battles between your army and another.\u00a0 They play out like the boss siege stages where you give commands to your army via a menu, and you can watch the battles in the background.\u00a0 Sometimes you\u2019ll have fight soldiers one-on-one if they make it to your station, though.\u00a0 Switch out your troops when their health and morale are low and when you need a squadron that\u2019s stronger.\u00a0 Whoever defeats the other army first is the winner.<\/p>\n

Between battles you can visit the town and castle to buy items and upgrade your weapons and armor.\u00a0 You can also train and level up your brigade and talk to your friends to gather info on the next quest.\u00a0 The game has some problems, though.\u00a0 The boss sieges and skirmishes are too hard and confusing since you have to fiddle with another menu to give commands as you play.\u00a0 Some of the boss battles feel way too hard and unbalanced, plus upgrading your weapons is needlessly confusing, too.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve liked the game a lot more if it were just the 2-D action stages.\u00a0 Sometimes less is more.\u00a0 However, even though they didn\u2019t make this game, Battle Princess feels and looks similar to some of VanillaWare\u2019s titles like Odin Sphere or Dragon\u2019s Crown.\u00a0 So if you enjoyed those games, you might like this one, too.<\/p>\n

\"PRINCESS_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Battle Princess of Arcadias is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes, and Mild Language.\u00a0 Even though you hack and slash enemies with swords and magic, they just fall over and disappear when defeated.\u00a0 Most of the suggestive themes and mild language are in the text only.\u00a0 Reading skill is needed, as they didn\u2019t bother localizing this game outside of the text, so the voices are still all in Japanese.\u00a0 Really the best reason why this game is better for older gamers is the high difficulty level and learning curve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kingdom of Arcadias was being ravaged by warring armies, until one day the princess of the land took up the sword and led her people to victory.\u00a0 From then on she was known as the Battle Princess.\u00a0 Now the kingdom is being plagued again by opposing armies, and they\u2019ve unleashed new living weapon monsters, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12221"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12224,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions\/12224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}