Fat Princess Adventures Review: Gives you cake, and you get to eat it too

Written by Allen

December 23, 2015

Screenshot 2015-12-14 13.15.32

Check out our review for the new Fat Princess Adventures.

Back in 2009 Fat Princess was released and surprised everyone by giving us a very entertaining and colorful multiplayer capture-the-flag experience. It continued to expand with new game modes and features, these developments made this unique and quirky experience win our hearts. Six years later we’ve been teased by another release and with a much bigger world and what looks like a full-on campaign, called Fat Princess Adventures. With its recent release, we shall see if the game gives us yet another tickle to our sweet tooth.

Screenshot 2015-12-14 13.20.00

Production (4 / 5)

Good

  • Very bright and active graphics
  • Alluring aesthetics

Bad

  • Sound could use some work
  • Visceral effects during combat can be better

For those of you who’ve grown accustomed to rather neutral looking landscapes with gritty colors all around, say hello to a new world full of bright and striking colors. One might even consider the palettes to be almost ‘tasty’ with how eye-catching they have managed to make the game look. I can’t really discern if the game was running at 30 or 60 fps but I would say that the animations look smooth and doesn’t seem to skip frames at all, so it’s safe to say it runs smoothly on the PS4. Unfortunately sound could use a bit of work as the theme was more or less forgettable for me, in fact I would say some parts could have used more sound entirely, like during combat. You don’t really hear much of a swish or a strike when swinging your sword or waving your wand. So it can get difficult to tell if you actually did something to your enemy or not. So to sum it up, while it was visually pleasing, I believe it could use more work since the combat doesn’t feel as solid not because the mechanics were faulty, but the feedback on what you see and hear doesn’t seem to reflect what happened very well. And combat is what you’ll be doing for maybe 80% of the game, so it’s a bit of an issue.

Screenshot 2015-12-14 13.14.04

Mechanics (4.5 / 5)

Good

  • Dungeon raiding action rpg format
  • Easy to understand system
  • Responsive controls
  • Freely changing between classes can keep things interesting
  • Invites and rewards exploration of each map

Bad

  • Lacking an ability to navigate the maps easily
  • A little difficult to sense if you did something right or not

Fat Princess Adventures takes you through the lands of Great Bitten and does so in what I would recognize as a very traditional Action RPG format. System-wise I would say much of the game plays like Diablo 3, talking to people to clear quests, upgrade gear or buy items. The system of how you upgrade your stats, gear is easy to understand along with its control scheme. Your character doesn’t lag at all when it comes to responding to what you want it to do, which I commend. Not entirely, original but interesting enough with the game is how it’ll allow you to freely switch between classes at check points. Thanks to that you don’t end up with the thoughts of ‘I should have gone with a wizard’ when the next opponent proves to be difficult on a melee skirmish. You get to upgrade and keep settings for each class you have on your character so while it can get tedious to be setting up 4 characters it pays off well when you want to change it up between boss fights and exploring various locations of Great Bitten.

Considering the size of each area, exploration is one thing you’d like to be doing whenever you get to new map as the game rewards you quite well for it. You might find a new enemy, a new path or a chest that may contain handy loot. One thing I’d like to have in the game though would be an overview map to make exploration a little easier since it’s I ended up getting lost a few times, even around the starting town.

Screenshot 2015-12-14 13.14.18

Writing (4 / 5)

Good

  • Very witty and cute
  • Typical plot line with self-aware tone keeps things pleasant and funny
  • Everyone has a script you’d like to hear at least once

Bad

  • Voices are charming, but can get old

Bits of humor is something you’ll find no shortage of in Fat Princess Adventures. Whether making jokes that only adults might get or little puns with food are sure to get a bit of a giggle out of you every now and then. The game even makes silent nods towards things we everyone uses these days like twitter or instagram. The script made for each person you talk to seems to have been written with a bit of self-awareness in mind, keeping your conversations and tone pretty light-hearted. It makes you want to talk to everyone at least once. All this makes for a rather refreshing experience despite a typical plot line.

Voice acting I would say is kind of a 50/50. They do ham it up a bit and can get old if you hear the battle lines too much but I believe I enjoyed it more often than not. This is probably due to the sheer amount of voice clips they put in for every character. It really feels like they put a lot of work on making content feel plentiful and it makes exploring the world that much more enjoyable.

Screenshot 2015-12-14 13.14.03

Features (4.5 / 5)

Good

  • Playable as single player or as multiplayer
  • Can go online or do couch co-op, max 4 players
  • Customization Options for character design and build
  • 4 classes

Bad

  • Match finding may need some refining

The world of Fat Princess adventures can be experienced in three separate ways, you can either play it solo, with friends via couch co-op, or by going online and joining others or vice-versa. The difficulty level you pick locks which players you can play with so that hurts the ease of online play a bit. But the chaos that ensues when you get 4 people in can be quite a sight to see. You may run into a traditional party featuring all 4 classes, but the most hilarious one I had was when I was in a party of all archers. Mixing and matching parties with the Warrior, Wizard, Archer and Engineer classes is something players would probably want to experiment with time and time again.

As part of traditional features in online play, you can customize your characters with presets available at the start and further customize it options bought through in-game currency. Just to clarify, you don’t buy any of this with cash, you earn it in-game. Picking between male and female, customizing a bit of the color and how you’ll style your head is amusing enough. The voices you get to pick from are quite commendable with its quality as well.

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Over-All (5 / 5)

Good

  • Refreshing old school action RPG format with Fat Princess humor
  • Packs a lot of gameplay and content for 20 USD
  • Multiple ways to play the game, fine to do as a party, solo or go online
  • G rated experience
  • No microtransactions

Bad

  • Sometimes may feel like a grind

Some may say that once you’ve seen an isometric action-RPG you’ve probably seen them all. And I’d say the makers behind Fat Princess Adventures knows this well and doesn’t try to hide it. Instead of trying to focus on trying to be different, they’ve gone with what they know works and gives a game that’s honest with itself and gives you a refreshing flavor of fun.

While I would have appreciated a better visceral experience during combat, and how I felt that some combat situations felt like they were just tacked on to fill the map, the issue feels rather small when you look at the entirety of the game. Honestly it gives you a lot of value for a price of 20 USD, many publishers would give you maybe less for a full priced game.

Santa Monica Studios and Fun Bits Interactive has done a splendid job of giving us a refreshing Action RPG experience with Fat Princess Adventures. Like cake, layered with features that allow for solo and online play, good aesthetics that makes the game look great, plenty of content to play through, and the simplicity of play making it a game playable for anyone is the cherry on top. All-in-all, a delectable treat that may leave you asking for seconds.

 

Score: 4.5 / 5

Fat Princess Adventures on the Playstation 4 is available at the PlayStation Store.

 

Disclaimer: I didn’t produce the images on this article, I used the trailer for these. The review copy didn’t allow us to record anything so I resorted to this. Thanks for understanding.
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