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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
For the Masochistic Gamer, February 21, 2009
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
Pros:
+Cute adorable prinnies!
+Good music
+Beautiful game
+Simple gameplay concepts
Cons:
-Unusually difficult game to the point of frustration. The game's elements all come together and blend really well, but dying over and over again through what can mostly be considered trial and error makes what is a very fun game somewhat more frustrating
Prinnies, if you don't know, come from a cult classic SRPG by Nippon Ichi called Disgaea. They've become quite iconic in the series for providing humor and their constant use of the word "Dood". What they're probably best known for, however, is being those little penguins that when tossed at the enemy... explode.
Prinny: Can I Really Be a Hero? is not a Strategy RPG. It is a side scrolling platformer, in which you are on a quest to create the ultimate dessert. If the quest itself seems dumb... well, you haven't exactly played a Disgaea game, which is not known for having deep enriching stories. They're mostly known for having ridiculous premises and their humor. That is exactly what you get from Prinny.
Let us talk about what Prinny does right. The first is simple, it's a beautiful looking game. There are vibrant, colorful environments and backgrounds throughout each level. You'll recognize a few Disgaea characters and enemies as well. It's quite nice to see this kind of detail in a 2D platformer. The game also sounds incredibly good. There are some surprisingly catchy tunes. The voice acting is not exactly strong, but it isn't like nails on a chalk board either. It just needs a bit more emotion than what it gives you from time to time.
When it comes down to the gameplay Prinny has simple basic concepts. Like any platformer you'll jump a lot. But you've also got standard blade attacks as well as a ground stomp to take on your enemies with. There's not much more to the gameplay than this, but there doesn't have to be. It's simple to learn but difficult to master... really really difficult to master.
As you begin your adventure you are given 1000 lives. This is not a joke: 1000 lives from the start. Surely a game must be crazy to give you 1000 lives, right? Well, this is where Prinny's big problem comes in. The game is designed so that you'll die. A lot. Make no mistake, Prinny is an incredibly challenging (and frustrating) gaming experience. Most of it comes from level design and the jumping mechanic. If you remember what it was like to play Ghost n' Goblins or the old school Castlevania games, you have an idea of how jumping will feel in this game. The difference is that timing is much more important than in those games. In fact, aside from bosses, the majority of your deaths might come from jumping. The first time you might not think it's such a big deal. But after missing a jump more than 20 times (which can and probably will happen) it becomes quite frustrating. You can double jump, but the problem will still persist. You can't change direction once you begin jumping. It sounds like something that wouldn't be a big issue, but it's actually a huge one. Even worse is that after dying several times from missing or having the wrong timing with a jump... your reward just might be another very frustrating and unreasonable test in jumping. The good news is that there are a lot of checkpoints.
Another aspect which really contributes to the difficulty level are the boss fights. For the most part it's all about pattern recognition. But this means a lot of trial and error goes into defeating a boss. You'll learn their pattern eventually, but it might be after dying 25 times or so. After a while dying... becomes repetitive.
Normally, difficulty is a very good thing in a game. Gamers have been complaining about games being too simple lately. Prinny is the antithesis to simplicity, but for the wrong reasons. It's difficulty, for the most part, comes through design. But missing a jump more than twenty times or having to die at a boss more than twenty times just to learn how to do it is a bit excessive. The game in and of itself isn't very long, but you'll see that by the time you get to the end, you might have lost half your lives (and remember you begin with 1000 lives!). You'll definitely feel good if you can slug through the entire adventure, but it hardly seems worth the trouble to do so.
However, for what it's worth, the game is fun. But it would've been more fun if it weren't quite this difficult. The amount of death you'll run into can elevate from a simple "whoops" to sometimes wanting to throw your PSP across the room. In short, it's a fun game, but not if you're going to be frustrated easily by what could largely be considered meaningless deaths.
Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? is by no means a bad game. You just might have a lot of fun with it. But for the easily frustrated it can be a test in patience as much as it is a test in skill. If you're a die-hard Disgaea fan or a die-hard Platformer, you just might enjoy this one.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finnally dood., February 19, 2009
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I've been waiting for another good platformer for a good long while and this one certainly delivers, it's tough, it's fun, it's funny and has some great art. It really has some nostalgic value since it's a very traditional platformer in many ways but it still brings a lot to the table.
The craziest part is you get a thousand lives, that's 1,000 prinny lives to get the job done. There's two difficulty modes, one you get 4 hits before you blow up and die, the hard mode you get one hit and you blow up, though in both modes you have 1,000 lives to complete the game. There's a good amount of Disgaea comedy to it, you'll hear dood more than probably all 3 disgaea games combined, but it's just a hilarious adventure.
I'm about half way through and it's really a great game, it's hard and frustrating at times but the game is so much fun and is so well done so it makes it worth it. I had purchased this direct from Rosenqueen and it came with a sound track, a prinny plush and a PSP prinny case, something you can't beat for a fan of the disgaea series / turn based strat games
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe 'Insanely Great', but also 'Greatly Insane', March 8, 2009
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
For those of you not familiar, "Prinnies" are the penguin-like servants of the main characters in Disgaea. Disgaea is a turn-based fantasy game (and a strange one at that), but this game is a side-scrolling platformer.
In "Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?", you take control of an army of 1,000 Prinnies, one at a time (your "lives" to beat the game). You have a standard arsenal of attacks: up close your Prinny will use his sword, he can jump up over bad guys and "butt-bash" them to stun them, and from a distance he can leap and fling infinite sword-blades, slowly dropping back to earth. An interesting touch is that using this jumping special attack will cause the 2-D realm to pivot and give you a momentary 3-D view of the action. This doesn't do you any good; it's just for effect. Prinnies can also grab onto ledges and haul themselves up, but they don't appear capable of lowering themselves down.
Unfortunately, despite bright colors, silly dialogue, and lots of eccentric cuteness, there are some gameplay problems that keep this game from really being great. There's lag when turning around or stunning, getting the timing of jumps can be very difficult, and the double-jumps, while very high, are also very hard to control. It's really easy to get yourself knocked off a cliff, and worse still, getting hit can make you "bounce" and go off an edge. The addition of "bomb" attacks is cute: you can pick up a cartoon bomb and throw it. However, it's easy to drop it, and even have it explode in your hands. Most of the time you play this game, you'll find yourself knowing what you want to happen, having your timing perfect, but then watching it fail to execute. It can get very frustrating, and I've had to take the gameplay in small doses so as not to get too aggravated.
The copy of "Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?" that I received came in a box containing the standard plastic PSP game case, a booklet, the UMD of course, and also a CD of the soundtrack, complete with colorful cartoons and Japanese text in the liner notes. I don't recommend the game for children, and I do recommend that interested teens or adults have good twitch reflexes, and lots of patience.
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