Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? (PSP)

Prinny

Nippon Ichi Software

Review by Anthony

Phew. Okay, Nippon Ichi decided to stray from their general format of strategy RPGs with quirky characters and instead decided to punish their fans a bit. Not with a bad game, but with a game so difficult that it’s unquestionably landed in my top three most difficult games I’ve played in the last ten years, nestled gently alongside Ikaruga and The Dark Spire. This time, we’re working with a surprisingly good and enjoyable platformer that also happens to be scrotum-grindingly difficult.

Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero? is akin to fanservice in that it stars a sidekick-like character from its Disgaea franchise and is filled to the brim with references to its games. The gameplay is pure 2-D Platformer though, sending you through stages full of obstacles, enemies, harrowing jumps, and challenging bosses. The good news is with few exceptions, you can probably grin and bear the difficulty on account of the game’s reference-laden charm and satisfying “I finally beat it!” game mechanics.

What’s good:

- In a fashion very uncharacteristic of Nippon Ichi titles, the graphics and graphical design of the stages and characters are actually quite excellent. Backgrounds of stages look especially gorgeous, the sprites of enemies and bosses are well animated, and the game itself sports a nice bright, clean look to it in contrast to the muddy and grainy look of its PS2 titles.

- In a fashion completely characteristic of Nippon Ichi titles, the music is just fantastic and the characters all have excellent voice acting. There are numerous songs in the game, and many are spectacular, with some even having tunes that sound like they’re inspired by other Nippon Ichi soundtracks. With almost all dialogue voice acted, they did a great job of bringing life to the characters and even the minor bosses.

- In another fashion characteristic of their franchises, Prinny is full of laugh-out-loud moments both in the dialog between characters and their numerous encyclopedia entries on items and enemies throughout the game. As you might expect from a game about exploding sinner-penguins tasked to make a special dessert, it never really takes itself serious in the slightest.

- Despite the difficulty inherent in the game, the actual gameplay design is pretty shrewdly simple and deep at the same time. Prinny can jump, attack, pound the ground, pick up objects, dash/become invincible after charging and sometimes ride in special vehicles. That doesn’t sound like much, but there are plenty of nuances in how one can coordinate jumps, attacks, and ground-pounds to navigate the world. There are few truly unique gimmicks between levels, but they’re designed differently enough that it still remains fresh through its simplicity.
- They added an option where you can restart your game from the beginning with all the items/stage completion information you’ve collected at any time. This is a nice feature on two accounts: it allows you to play all 36 iterations of the regular stages without having to constantly redo the difficult final stages, and it gives an option to practice a different variety of stages before attempting to beat the game.

- The Boss fights in the game are pretty dang cool. They vary nicely between huge lumbering beasts and absurdly quick characters, and will inevitably lead to your doom numerous times. They’re very satisfying to take down though, and there’s a pretty good number of them stuffed into the game as well.

- I appreciated the fact that you could collect “records” that allowed you to select the background music of your stages. Especially for the more difficult stages, it was nice being able to listen to a tune you really enjoy.

What’s neutral:
- Prinny caters to an extremely limited audience. Prinnies themselves are very recognizable mascots, but only to people who’ve played the Disgaea franchise. And considering many of those gamers are RPG fans, throwing a platformer into the fray, much less an extremely difficult platformer is kind of a risky venture.

- Prinny’s difficulty is both a blessing and a curse. On the good side, this is a game that really makes you work. You’ll have to work hard to assess your situation and how to overcome certain obstacles, and it can be extremely satisfying to make it to the exit or take down a crazily difficult boss. The included bonus area of the Martial Tower is such a deviously hard and long level that it’s difficult not to marvel at their ability to design stages. On the bad side, the difficulty also borders on unfair at times. Prinny can take a few hits unless you’re on Hard mode, but considering certain enemies/projectiles can fly onto the screen without audio cues, and ground-pounding can sometimes eject a hidden bonus enemy from the ground that can immediately kill you if you’re in the wrong spot, absorbing a few hits won’t make up for the challenge inherent. Further, the final boss is absurdly difficult, easily being the hardest final boss I’ve played in any game, ever. It requires a ton of time spent learning a long string of pattern recognition, and multiple minutes of absolutely furious button-mashing mixed with perilous dodging. Wow.

- I’ve seen talk of the game having “bad” or “imprecise” controls and I really don’t see that. It’s a tricky system to learn, but it’s not the control’s fault. The only aspects I found odd is that you can’t attack while carrying an object, and instead have to hit a specific “throw” button to get rid of it. Also sometimes if you fall near the bottom of the screen, it won’t let you jump back up even if you normally could. Minor concerns overall.

What’s bad:

- While I’m sure making a brand new game outside of their usual genres was difficult, there’s just no reason for a $39.99 retail price on the game. That’s simply too high, especially considering...

- The replay value in the game takes a serious hit. Although collection aspects and bonus stages can add a lot to the game, there’s no getting around the fact that a single playthrough can run as little as 5-8 hours. In my case, I beat the game, played all 36 iterations of the normal stages, collected enough lucky dolls to beat the Martial Tower and Etna, and also played through the entirety of the included Asagi Mode. My total time in the game was still a little less than 20 hours though. Considering I did almost everything the game had to offer aside from obsessive collection aspects, that’s not a particularly good amount of time for a game that retails more than average.

- Similar to that point, the fact that three extra Download-only stages are available at a cost is kind of a raw deal considering how expensive the game is to begin with. No thanks, guys.

I don’t have much else to say here. Nippon Ichi proved here that they can successfully spread their wings into other genres; it makes me wonder what they’re capable of and what they may attempt in the future. Prinny is a funny, pretty, entertaining, extremely challenging, but short and overpriced adventure.