Oh, Little King, I was so excited for you. Months before you came out, I was ready to hand over my cash in exchange for your kingdom. Then on the long-awaited day of your commencement, I truly understood what it was to be lord and master of a realm, and it was tedious. That may be unfair. I mean, it was tedious, but of course it was going to be. As a king, you oversee everything in the kingdom. As it turns out, that's a long list.
Little King's Story is a real time strategy game, in which you play a young boy named Corobo who found a magic crown that gives him control of the kingdom, Alpoko. At first, everyone is a "lazy citizen" but, with Corobo's excellent leadership skills, soon most of the townspeople have jobs. To start, you'll make people farmers or diggers and you'll explore a small area, finding a variety of items which are automatically exchanged for money. You can then use the money to build new buildings, expand your kingdom, and, soon, upgrade your ever-growing population to become soldiers, archers, chefs, lumberjacks, and the list goes on. After you defeat the King of the close-neighboring Oni monsters, you can expand your realm to a much larger area. Then the game marvelously opens up to a gigantic world, in which you'll encounter many more monsters and lands, all for the purpose of conquering them and completely ruling the world. An idea which is always encouraged by your Lieutenant, Howser.
This all sounds well and good, but there are too many things that can be improved. For instance, each upgrade or new building requires a tremendous amount of money, which can only be earned by continuously going over explored land and gathering every little thing you can. Sure, each king gives you a large bonus after they're defeated, but it's nowhere near as much as you'll need if you want to fill your city. This means, of course, that you don't have to fill your kingdom with everything possible, but can pick and choose the things which are necessary for your current undertaking. Like spending money to make chefs, if you're up against giant chickens, or holding back on upgrading how many people can follow you into the world, if you easily overcome each monster. So, depending on your personal tastes, this can also be seen as a positive because it makes the game more strategy based. You'll need to choose what kind of upgrade to get for the best outcome.
Other than that small gripe, there are two major problems with this game. First is the way the game controls. If you're not already selecting the kind of citizen you want, you'll need to cycle through every different type of person with you until you find the one that fits. This isn't a problem when you want to dig a hold for a spring or chop a piece of wood, but if you're getting attacked then you're going to need to send out those soldiers and archers. To do that, you just may need to go through the farmers, builders, miners, chefs, and lumberjacks before you find them, and then all over again if you'll cycling too rapidly. And even then, there is no Wii pointer to make this an easy task. You have to send your followers out along a short, blue, dotted line, which is supposed to be an accurate way of accomplishing goals, but is almost entirely unhelpful when trying to decide where your people go.
It would be nice if it was possible to assign certain groups to the D-pad and then use the Wii remote to send them at something specific, much like the play style of Overlord: Dark Legend, which has the same minion-based gameplay, but does it in a much more streamlined way. It got to the point that I would just bring out one type, the archers or soldiers, when I went up against a boss, which is fine, but most of the game is exploring the land, for which you'll need a multitude of followers. And even later, when doing anything, I would just send out everyone who was with me to get the job done since most people can do any job at least a little. The ones that can't do the assigned task would run back to Corobo's side, so all my warriors would come back when told to build a bridge and all my farmers would return when ordered to fight. But the point remains, failing to utilize the Wii and it's motion controls was a big mistake.
The second mistake this game makes is assuming people always want to go out collecting every little thing. I cannot tell you how many pieces of wood I've chopped or holes I've dug. It's just ridiculously boring. There were times when starting up this game that I would dread it because I knew had to spend a couple hours just gathering little things before I could buy that new land or building. No game should ever make you dread playing it - unless it's out of fear for some incredible boss which is just too epic to even conceive of defeating. It honestly felt more to me like a chore to play this game than it did a fun experience. It's like a poor man's childish Monster Hunter Tri. But then, with Monster Hunter, at least you know that you're in for a long and arduous journey.
Little King's Story is a real time strategy game, in which you play a young boy named Corobo who found a magic crown that gives him control of the kingdom, Alpoko. At first, everyone is a "lazy citizen" but, with Corobo's excellent leadership skills, soon most of the townspeople have jobs. To start, you'll make people farmers or diggers and you'll explore a small area, finding a variety of items which are automatically exchanged for money. You can then use the money to build new buildings, expand your kingdom, and, soon, upgrade your ever-growing population to become soldiers, archers, chefs, lumberjacks, and the list goes on. After you defeat the King of the close-neighboring Oni monsters, you can expand your realm to a much larger area. Then the game marvelously opens up to a gigantic world, in which you'll encounter many more monsters and lands, all for the purpose of conquering them and completely ruling the world. An idea which is always encouraged by your Lieutenant, Howser.
This all sounds well and good, but there are too many things that can be improved. For instance, each upgrade or new building requires a tremendous amount of money, which can only be earned by continuously going over explored land and gathering every little thing you can. Sure, each king gives you a large bonus after they're defeated, but it's nowhere near as much as you'll need if you want to fill your city. This means, of course, that you don't have to fill your kingdom with everything possible, but can pick and choose the things which are necessary for your current undertaking. Like spending money to make chefs, if you're up against giant chickens, or holding back on upgrading how many people can follow you into the world, if you easily overcome each monster. So, depending on your personal tastes, this can also be seen as a positive because it makes the game more strategy based. You'll need to choose what kind of upgrade to get for the best outcome.
Other than that small gripe, there are two major problems with this game. First is the way the game controls. If you're not already selecting the kind of citizen you want, you'll need to cycle through every different type of person with you until you find the one that fits. This isn't a problem when you want to dig a hold for a spring or chop a piece of wood, but if you're getting attacked then you're going to need to send out those soldiers and archers. To do that, you just may need to go through the farmers, builders, miners, chefs, and lumberjacks before you find them, and then all over again if you'll cycling too rapidly. And even then, there is no Wii pointer to make this an easy task. You have to send your followers out along a short, blue, dotted line, which is supposed to be an accurate way of accomplishing goals, but is almost entirely unhelpful when trying to decide where your people go.
It would be nice if it was possible to assign certain groups to the D-pad and then use the Wii remote to send them at something specific, much like the play style of Overlord: Dark Legend, which has the same minion-based gameplay, but does it in a much more streamlined way. It got to the point that I would just bring out one type, the archers or soldiers, when I went up against a boss, which is fine, but most of the game is exploring the land, for which you'll need a multitude of followers. And even later, when doing anything, I would just send out everyone who was with me to get the job done since most people can do any job at least a little. The ones that can't do the assigned task would run back to Corobo's side, so all my warriors would come back when told to build a bridge and all my farmers would return when ordered to fight. But the point remains, failing to utilize the Wii and it's motion controls was a big mistake.
The second mistake this game makes is assuming people always want to go out collecting every little thing. I cannot tell you how many pieces of wood I've chopped or holes I've dug. It's just ridiculously boring. There were times when starting up this game that I would dread it because I knew had to spend a couple hours just gathering little things before I could buy that new land or building. No game should ever make you dread playing it - unless it's out of fear for some incredible boss which is just too epic to even conceive of defeating. It honestly felt more to me like a chore to play this game than it did a fun experience. It's like a poor man's childish Monster Hunter Tri. But then, with Monster Hunter, at least you know that you're in for a long and arduous journey.
3/5 Average Score! Not Too Bad! Not Too Good!
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