Tuesday, November 24, 2015

This Little King's Story Has Come to an End

It's been a great number of years since I first turned a page on Little King's Story. I Originally mentioned the cute, pikmin-esque game all the way back in 2009! Well I finally managed to beat and close the book on this game.


You start as a king in a lowly kingdom with only a few followers, but as you grow and build and conquer your kingdom gets bigger and more glorious! There are only a few townsfolk at first, but over the course of the game you'll gather well over 100, and each of them has their own unique name and can fall in love with other townsfolk. You send them into various structures you build to give them different jobs such as soldier, ranger, chef, merchant, carpenter, and so on. Some of these jobs let your townsfolk build certain things as you explore the map with them, or fight enemies, or unlock areas of the map.

Look at all those loyal followers!
There are a number of quirky enemies and some intimidating ones like dragons and giant mushrooms. Some can be killed by certain jobs faster (chickens are cooked quickly with a chef), while some enemies simply need to be beaten to pulp! The majority of the enemies are some sort of little Onii goblin demon creature thing. As you defeat enemies they'll drop loot which you can take back to your castle, cash in, and the afford to build new things in your kingdom.

The inconspicuous Onii

Watch out for those giant mushrooms! They're more terrifying than they sound!
The map is made up of a variety of neighboring kingdoms and areas. As you explore new areas and eventually encounter some crazy other kings you'll have to fight and defeat them to unite the entire map under your rule. Each king is very unique and the boss fights against them are very different and original. As you take more territory under your control you also start to experience earthquakes in the kingdom - a mysterious outside force seems to be at hand.

All the Kingdom's are ripe for the conquering! ...er, I mean, Unifying!
The storyline is fairly simple, but lighthearted. Unite the kingdoms, save the princesses, spread your glory, and investigate the nature of a devastating outside force. The king's advisers and other unique characters in the kingdom add to storytelling and some funny cut scenes and situations.


Little King's Story did have a bit of frustrating elements. Sometimes the enemies and bosses are incredibly forgiving - instant kill knockouts that kill half or nearly all of your men left me in disbelief more than a few times. Mouth agape, I simply had to make sure I never let that happen again. Targeting enemies can be painful at times especially if they're close together or near other target-able things. Lastly, making sure all your followers stay together can be a pain at times, especially through narrow areas, and sometimes people fall way behind or are lost - though using the "evade" maneuver does relieve this a little bit.


Little King's Story was a joy to play despite it's few frustrations, but this little king would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Pikmin or other games featuring unit management, exploration, and whimsy. It's time to move onto other video game pastures - next up, I think I'll take a crack at completing my Xenoblade Chronicles playthrough. :)

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