You might ask, What is this, a retro review site?  Nay I say.  There is reason for this review of a PSN game that came out six months ago.  The game launched with some…issues, and a patch was quickly released to address most of them and threw in a free map to boot.  On January 21^st, the most recent patch, 1.04, was released, so this review is as much of a Here’s-the-current-state-of-this-game-post-patch-1.04 as it is a straight out review.

     Let’s start back at the beginning.  Launch day.  Fat Princess was an eagerly awaited day one purchase for me.  I was enamored with the art style and I loved the idea of a multiplayer capture the flag game that didn’t take itself too seriously that I could hop in and out of at will.  Then release day hit and I grabbed Fat Princess and I played it and I loved it.  After a few days however, the problems that the game had started to become more apparent.  Some of these issues still persist post 1.04, and some of them have been addressed.

     The major issue that this game has suffered from since launch is the tendency of matches to stagnate.  The back and forth tug of war style gameplay can be exciting when it happens occasionally.  It is fun to rush into a castle, steal the princess, and make it halfway back to yours before being stopped and a minute later stopping a princess thief from leaving your castle.  In theory this is fun, but the issue lies in the fact that almost EVERY match plays out this way.  It’s as if the game is so well balanced that no one can tip that balance to win.  The result is that individual matches can drag on long past the point where the struggle loses its excitement.

     While this can be incredibly frustrating, I don’t think it fundamentally breaks the game.  I’ve seen repeatedly where the stalemates have been broken or prevented by small teams of people working together.  It is quite a sight to behold when a small group of 4-5 people stay close together and breach a back entrance, grab the princess, and then leave with everyone not carrying the princess assisting the thief by speeding up the group.  When people work together, it doesn’t take very many people to shift the balance.  The problem is that most people are just hacking away wildly in the game without a plan or a goal.  Hopefully over time people will become more proficient at storming the castle and this problem will fade.  The issue is exacerbated by the fact that there is no party system in Fat Princess.  This makes it much harder than it should be to get a group of friends and try to be that small well coordinated group.  I’m sorry, but in an online only game (which this practically is despite the single player), that absence is quite a letdown and in my opinion, is one of the only things this game needs to reach its full potential.

     A number of other smaller issues also rear their head in Fat Princess such as the seemingly ambiguous experience system that plays out in the background keeping track of your progression.  The lack of a clear level up ranking system and the ability to lose levels seemingly at random because you can’t see the numbers behind the scenes removes that one-more-game mentality.  Maybe this is a good thing as it allows me to drop in and drop out more easily, but it undeniably would cause me to play more if I could track my progression.  This is due to the fact that initially, the game used an average rank over the previous ten games played as the way of generating your rank which allowed for fluctuations.  Thankfully this was removed in patch 1.03 and a persistent level up system was implemented, though it still is not readily apparent.

     Despite the aforementioned issues that plague this game, there are so many things to love that I continue to play Fat Princess.  I hope you don’t read the above paragraphs and think I am overly down on this game.  There are aspects that irk me, but I thoroughly enjoy Fat Princess and continue to play it much more than most downloadable games I have purchased.  The art style, as I mentioned, is quite inviting.  The colors are varied and bright, the designs are lively, cartoony, and inventive,  and the universe genuinely brings a smile to my face.  How can you not like bringing a vial of magic potion to the other team and turning a group of people into squawking chickens?  You can’t.  I like being in the Fat Princess world and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

     The various classes that you can play as seem to be well balanced and offer a variety of play styles with each class having an upgraded form unlocking new weapons or more tactical options.  You can play any way you want; from bomber to healer and with combat ranging from an axe and shield to flaming arrows and freeze spell magic.  Even if you choose the healer, you will still be raking in points and won’t get shafted like you would in a lot of games.  Between the class variety and upgrades, there is a lot of depth here, and having played almost 20 hours of Fat Princess, I still haven’t mastered most of the classes yet.  Even cutting down trees and mining minerals is rewarding.

     The maps are well balanced and are well designed as well allowing safe easy to defend castles, multileveled action, and specific chokepoints to focus the mayhem.  Minerals are often mined in disputed territories allowing for miners to live more dangerously than the loggers.  Especially with the new maps, there is quite a variety of locales and layouts.  The two free maps that have been provided should be commended.  They constitute more free content than I ever expected to see, and I’m not sure why more (or any) content isn’t available for purchase because adding additional content will increase the play options and can help to offset some of the previously mentioned issues.

     In addition to two welcome free maps, a host of smaller changes were made in 1.03 and 1.04 including a balanced team requirement and bonuses for the losing team, an actual continual level up system instead of a ten game average (that can’t go down), more comprehensive and working online leader boards, numerous small bug fixes, and extensive character balancing.   This was mostly found in patch 1.03 with 1.04 just making a couple changes and adding the second free map.

     With the newest update, Titan Studios has given up another map and some more incentive to continue stuffing cake in our princess’s mouths.  The game still needs some work as it seems to alternate between frustrating and charming while I’m playing.  Perhaps some of the rumored content including new classes such as ninjas and pirates will come with abilities that can help break those stalemates.  New maps are wonderful additions, but what they do with 1.05 could make this good game great.