Fat Princess Beta Impressions

The Fat Princess beta has begun, and I happen to have got an invite. Sadly I did not have to eat cake to get in, but simply needed to fill out a boring application.

Fat Princess is a downloadable title that will be exclusive to the Playstation Network. The game as you figure revolves around fat princesses. Using cel-shading and a 3d environment, Fat Princess feels much like a medieval twist of capture the flag, where your princess is the flag. Action is very much a part of the game, as you will be able to choose from 5 classes and attack the other team to save your princess. The game features up to 32-players online, and is very much a multiplayer-centric game.

Starting the game you are presented with a humorous menu, giving you the choice to “Play with Others” or “Play with Yourself”. Also included is a leaderboard, and a character editor. The leaderboard is worth noting, because it brings back an old-school style of scoring where it will go by your “best of” stats from a single game. So if you are strapped on time you are able to compete using skill rather than time. The character editor brings out the life in the game, entitled “Get Fabulous”. Your character has a fairly stout, short body with an enormous head. Make fun of me, but characters made right look adorable. You are given the option to edit hairstyle, skin, and eye color. There are quite a few styles that are locked as well. There is an option for voice gender (both high pitched) but it doesn’t really make sense as it’s hard to make a female-looking character.

There are shaping up to be four modes in the game, including Rescue The Princess, Team Deathmatch, Snatch ‘n Grab (straight-up Capture the Flag), and Invasion (Tower Capturing).

Rescue The Princess and Team Deathmatch are the only modes playable in the beta, with Rescue The Princess being the main attraction. Team Deathmatch is what you would guess it to be, but rather than a kill count the game incorporates a pool of lives for each team. Run out of lives and your team will lose the game. That slight alteration makes the game mode a ton of fun, as you find yourself caring about each life you use to play more strategically.

The featured mode is Rescue The Princess. The mode plays like CTF, but instead of defending your princess, she is in the other team’s base and vice versa. Teams must rescue their own princess and place her on their throne, as well as defend the enemy’s princess in their base. A bar is displayed at the top of the screen, showing the red tower on the left, and a blue one on the right. Inside the tower it will show the other team’s princess behind bars. This bar is helpful to gauge quickly where on the map the princess is. When a princess is stolen, the icon will begin moving across the bar towards the other team’s base.

Once a team rescues their princess, they must also still have the enemies princess. A hollow circle will then appear and once it has rotated around once the game will be won. If the enemy princess is taken or the team’s princess stolen, the timer will be reset. Sounds simple, right? I guess I forgot to mention that each princess is a hungry glutton.

Once the game begins, you are instantly spawned inside your team’s base. You will be unarmed, and useless to your team until you pick a class. In order to change your class, placed around the base are machines for each class. These machines dispense hats, that you must pick up and carry to the machine to change into that class. Your life is displayed on the top-center of the screen by a certain number of hearts. Your number of hearts is dependent on what class you are. A warrior has 6 hearts, whereas a worker has 4.

You are able to target objects, and other players by holding the L1 button. It is necessary to do so, otherwise you will not be able to attack efficiently. Displayed above your target will be a single heart with a face on it. The heart will be green at full health, go down to red and eventually turn gray. It’s a humorous touch that also helps to gauge your enemies’ health.

There are 5 classes in Fat Princess; Warrior, Ranger, Mage, Priest and the Worker. Each class has their uses, but ultimately it comes down to doing damage, healing (priest), and the Worker. The Worker has by far the most vital job, as he can upgrade classes’ machines, and build important structures.

This is where the strategy for the game comes into play. If a team is negligent with their upgrades, it will lose them the game.

Placed around the map are trees and rocks. The Worker must gather these materials, and bring them back to the base and then place them in any machine to add to the team’s total. Once enough is acquired, the Worker may upgrade a classes’ machine, or build a structure. The class upgrade is a 1 time upgrade that gives a second ability to each class. The upgrade functions more as another “weapon” choice for the class, and is switchable by the triangle button. The upgrades only affect this, and have no affect on health or strength of the weapons.

The warrior begins with a sword and shield, and will then gain a two handed weapon that is able to deal more damage, but loses the defense of the shield. The ranger gains a rifle that is able to hit multiple targets rather than his starting bow. The priest is able to heal, and holding L1 will create an area of effect that will heal multiple allies. The priest’s alternate mode is a shadow priest, so to speak. Targeting enemies, the priest’s beam will slowly eat away their life, and the area of effect will hurt them as well. The mage has fire and ice capabilities. Targeting single enemies will either light them on fire over time, or freeze them with ice. The mage also has an area of effect with both spells. The worker starts out with an axe to gather materials, and then gains throwable bombs to defend himself.

Placed around the map are pieces of cake. Big fat pieces that you will pick up and stuff down the throat of your enemy’s princess. Every few pieces the princess will increase in size, making it more difficult for the other team to carry her away. The princess will only grow 2-3 times, and if left unfed will decrease in size. Only one player may grab the princess, but others may assist and attach themselves to the player to boost their speed.

The beta only included one map, but more will be included at launch. “Black Forest” is a symmetrical map giving each team a formidable castle. Separated by a lake, 2 bridges connect to a center island where a large portion of battle will occur. There are other little islands in the water, but swimming in the water gives periodic damage.

The game is visually appealing, using vibrant colors and a distinct red versus blue scheme to set you straight. Simply pressing select brings up a beautiful hand-drawn map on a scroll that shows in real-time the placement of all players, both princesses, and controlled towers. Players on the map are marked by a faceless head with the hat of their class worn. If someone dies while you have the map open they will turn into a skull. Your character may move around with the map open, (holding it in his hands, which looks awesome) making it a very nice touch. It’s a very simple touch, but it looks so great that I find myself just opening it up and watching the battle from the map.

Overall the game is a lot of fun, but it has it’s share of problems. The game’s humor is there, featuring a funny announcer, and clever names for AI teammates (i.e. Solid Cake, Cake Eater).

The game is a breath of fresh air if you need a break from playing bigger titles, but there is definitely strategy involved. It will not be a game that will last you hours upon hours, but when you do play you will need to do a little bit of thinking.

You must play as a team and work together, or you will die. It is rare that you will be able to win in a 1v2 battle against competent players. That being said, it is a minor gripe as it’s hard to distinguish your whole team, when you are playing with 32 players. It is very much a team game, and you will die often. Do not expect to live for longer than 5 minutes unless you have a priest healing you.

The game’s focus is entirely multi-player, offering solely maps and game modes; there is no story. That being said, you will want to play this online as the AI is not helpful in any way. The computer will converge at the middle of the map, and fight the other team, leaving you to try and save the princess all by yourself. It’s highly frustrating, because there are often a certain number of AI players defending the castle that will all kill you in a matter of seconds.

There is some slowdown in large battles, but it did not last for very long. Online there seemed to be a bug where both princesses would mysteriously disappear from the map, which occurred nearly every game and ended the game. The game would also put you into an empty game if the player hosting left.

Like I said, the game is a lot of fun, but still has some kinks to work out. It’s definitely a game that you should look forward to playing, and a great exclusive for the PSN.