I recently received Little King’s Story in the mail from Gamefly and took what was intended to be a small peek at it. Since then, the game has engrossed me during much of my free time for the last day or two. The game was developed by Cing and produced by Marvelous Entertainment. Something many gamers will notice, however, is that it was executive produced by Yasuhiro Wada, the man who designed the Harvest Moon series. There are some similarities between the two intellectual properties, but enough differences to make Little King’s Story a unique experience.
Graphics
Graphically, the game is on par with just about any other Wii title (not counting the dime-a-dozen Petz and Babyz shovelware). There is a playful, storybook style to all of the character and environmental designs that really gives the game a lot of personality. During play, everything is portrayed in an isometric 3/4 view which you can rotate to get a better view of your surroundings. Cutscenes are fully stylized affairs with a sort of watercolor brushstroke effect, giving the animations the quality of being handpainted. All things considered, this is a graphically unique and memorable experience.
Gameplay
The gameplay here is very similar to games like Overlord in which you direct your underlings to do all of the work for you instead of being personally involved. Your citizens can acquire various different jobs for accomplishing different tasks such as treasure hunting, constructing new objects, and fighting enemies. Based on who you take with you out into the world, you can accomplish a variety of tasks in your adventures.
The overall goal is to expand your kingdom and make your citizens happy. The variety of citizens’ jobs allows for many different methods for earning the money required to accomplish your goal. While maintaining the humble, rags-to-riches aesthetic of Harvest Moon, Little King’s Story brings it into a much larger scale in effective fashion.
Story
The main character is a lonely boy who stumbles upon a magical crown while chasing after some pesky rats who interrupted his playtime. Upon putting on the crown, he finds himself ruler of a small village with a cabinet of three advisers. There is some very charming and effective narrative at work here. Between the cute, painterly cutscenes and hearing the various concerns of your vassals and citizens, there is a strong connection built between the player and the kingdom.
Overall, the hours that I have spent with Little King’s Story have been exceptionally entertaining. If you’re looking for a game to play when you just want to relax and wind down for a while, I can already highly recommend this title. Whether or not it is a rental or a purchase remains to be seen, so “caveat emptor” until I release my final verdict.
