GamerNode: Reviews - Little King's Story

Little King's Story

• Little King's Story
• Wii
• Cing
• Xseed
• July 21st, 2009

Maybe Little King's Story should have been rated M by the ESRB, because it is through mature eyes that Cing and Xseed's unique strategy adventure was certainly meant to be viewed. Behind the childlike veneer of bright, cutesy graphics, classical music, and simple gameplay mechanics lies a sophisticated game about imperialism, authority, greed, excess, self-loathing, gender roles, and other social dynamics. This game is not for children, as its colorful store-shelf appearance may suggest to consumers, but it is a highly playable and very enjoyable experience for more discerning Wii owners.

In Little King's Story, the player assumes the role of a new king in a strange, whimsical, fairytale land. The main goal is to expand the kingdom of Alpoko by amassing citizens, training each in one of many different occupations, and using them to venture into uncharted territories and conquer the eight other kings in the world. This foreign policy is of course heavily influenced by the king's ambitious advisor, who at times during cutscene conversation will slip and hint at his selfish motivation. The king's imperialistic goal is at once described as both "world unification" and the much less flowery "world domination." Either way, the player's objective is the same -- explore and take over the entire world.

Gameplay is reminiscent of titles like Pikmin and Overlord, where the player directly controls a single leader and issues simple commands to the small entourage that trails like a group of ducklings. Little King's Story adds depth to this premise by combining more traditional real-time strategy components with the basic charge-or-retreat mechanics of those games. Players will collect items throughout the land by defeating enemies or searching through various aspects of the environment (pots, holes, fallen logs, stones, etc.), and then take them to the castle to be exchanged for money. The king can use this money to initiate "Kingdom Plans," which are mostly projects to build citizen-generating residences or job-training facilities that will convert the "carefree adult" base units into specific job classes. Other kingdom plans include power-ups that improve citizen health, increase the size of the king's "Royal Guard," or allow the group to be arranged in different formations in the field.

The game features nearly 20 unique job classes, ranging from the hole-digging farmer to highly specialized units like the wizard and doctor. Each job is vital to the king's campaign -- carpenters build bridges, miners break through stone, lumberjacks cut down trees, soldiers fight battles... -- and he can take only a set number with him each time he ventures outside the kingdom's borders, so the Royal Guard will constantly change throughout the adventure, consisting of different combinations of citizens all the time.

The citizens of Alpoko all have names, personalities, and individual lives that play second fiddle to the will of the king. These folks may cultivate friendships with one another, fall in love, marry, have children, and even mourn the deaths of other members of their personal social circles (based on the communities in which they live and the members of the Royal Guard teams they are parts of). This is quite different from similar games, where the nameless peons seem to be entirely expendable, and players feel no connection with what is essentially just another group of tools. Here, players learn their citizens' names, watch relationships flourish, and may even feel some remorse when they die.

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