This week I’ve started playing Prinny: Can I really be the hero? for PSP. It’s every bit what I’d expected it to be: Old school side-scrolling action with the fun artistic style of the Disgaea games.

Aside from Nippon Ichi’s popular visual style, the one feature in the game that I found a relief was the quality its voice acting. Video game voice acting is always hit or miss, with the vast majority coming from the latter. In Prinny, the voice characterizations are not only appropriate, but well-emoted. The scarved prinny’s voice reminds me of Dr. Tran, which is hilariously fitting given the emotional state that comes with the prinny lifestyle.

I’d love to do a full-scale review for Prinny, but I really don’t know how far I’ll be able to get into it. The word I’ve been hearing is true; this game is hard. In every aspect of the game, I’ve often thought to myself, “This would be perfect if they would just change one thing!”

Most of my complaints come from the stiff controls. They play very similarly to classic arcade-style platformers, like Ghosts ‘n Goblins. So unless you’re a master of that game, prepare yourself for some yelling. You can only jump straight up or diagonally, with no ability to alter your direction once in the air. You’re only hope is through the double-jump, but with many areas requiring precise movement, don’t count on it as a safety net.

As the game progresses, more situations arise where there’s only one solution to advance through an area. It becomes a puzzle to solve, then a matter of memorizing the pattern of moves to maneuver through a level. This type of gameplay is similar to how shoot-em-ups are designed; a trial & error repetition until the player figures out the correct pattern. Then it becomes less of a challenge and more of an exercised routine.

While I find that suits the “shmup” genre, I prefer a little more room for creativity in platform games. The challenge I find fun in approaching a puzzle comes from engineering as many solutions as possible. Inspiring creativity, I find, brings more personal satisfaction when beating a game than simply memorizing a pre-determined pattern.

That is, for level design. Boss battles, on the other hand, I tend to lean toward the opposite. Levels are puzzles of navigation; collectively one massive puzzle while actually a composite of mini-puzzles. Boss battles are more like one large, self-contained puzzle of exploitation. Once you figure out the boss’s attack pattern and weakness, you take advantage of them to win the battle.

All this is not to say that Prinny is a poorly designed game. In fact, I maintain that it’s thoroughly enjoyable, despite the bouts of frustration. It just presents the type of challenge that is greater than those with limited play time or fleeting attention span can afford. I was never very good at Ghosts ‘n Goblins, even in the (*sigh*) heyday of my youth. Though I can at least see the characters of the Disgaea universe doing a better job at keeping my attention.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.