The Cruel King and the Great Hero

[Peklo]

Official site
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RPGs of the near future count among their numbers works like Elden Ring, Triangle Strategy, Monark and whatever else that sneaks into the release lists. While some of these games will undoubtedly be good, most of them are going to hit a tone of drudgery in violence and "serious" drama through whatever aesthetic they subscribe to, and too much of that will have anyone reaching for a change of pace. Nippon Ichi's The Cruel King and the Great Hero has the potential to be that palate cleanser, even if amidst more than one high-profile genre peer I anticipate it will be drowned out by comparison upon its release for PS4 and Switch in the beginning of March. I'm choosing to prioritize it above most other things come that time, on the strength of its premise, concepts and standout execution of the same.

It's not like the game arrives without precedent, either. Though known for their rampant franchising of their biggest hits, there exists a side of NIS that takes risks and tries new things with unproven concepts and fresh creative perspectives. It's what brought about works like htoL#NiQ and Yomawari, and it's what resulted in 2018's The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince, this game's antecedent. Both are primarily driven creatively by and serve as a vehicle for the talents of Sayaka Oda (who is interviewed here), a creative force at NIS whose aspirations of becoming a picture book author have found fulfillment in the games she now makes and what kind of stories and worlds she is interested in portraying. You could compare her aesthetic to others, but in this medium in particular it has few analogues and is about as enthralling at a glance as anything ever seen. Her handiwork is extensive and exhaustive as it touches everything the game is from the characters to the backgrounds and their individual details and animations, realized in painstaking pen and watercolour art. This is not a project that could exist as a result of something other than the personal passion at the center of it, fueling all the rest of the development work and direction around it.

I am excited for this game because it appears to go all-in on its central premise of a child's make-believe adventures, looked over and secretly aided by her worrywart dragon foster father--theming so adorable it's almost painful, setting up whatever bittersweet developments that may occur. It's not a game that's attempted to be sold as a grand epic or a systems-oriented challenge to overcome, but rather an invitation to learn more about its world and its denizens through the mechanics of play that exist more in service of character and narrative than anything else. At this point, I believe in its aesthetic and ethos and how it seems to convey them, and really hope it finds the audience it's asking for with those qualities.

 

[q 3]

I loved Liar Princess - as a game it's a bit janky, but the aesthetics are sublime and the narrative did a great job of capturing the cruelty of traditional fairy tales but with just enough sweet to balance the bitter. Looking forward to this.

 

[q 3]

Gosh, this is charming as heck! I'm most surprised to find that it's a traditional turn-based RPG, with the hero starting out on her own Dragon Quest 1 style but evidently getting companions in the future. Quite a change from Liar Princess' lite puzzle platforming. So far it seems a bit easy and handholdy but that could change soon.

The voice acting is all done by a single person who is basically narrating from a storybook, including different voices for each character. No dub, sadly.

Biggest charm point: the hero's first skill is a fire sword attack - but the game points out to you that it's actually her dragon dad (who's secretly keeping an eye on her) providing the fire, and please it would be nice of you not to tell her and spoil her fun.

I love the aesthetics. It looks and sounds delightful. It's very pleasant so far but I am increasingly certain that it's going to make me cry a lot.

 

[Peklo]

It might be the cutest game ever made. Zero caveats to what that might convey too--everything's just good about it.

There's a very good game loop where developing Yuu as an aspirant hero involves talking to the monster villagers, which you'll want to do because gosh have you seen them, and then those Acts of Kindness (sidequests) reward you with further dialogue and an exclusive spendable currency that unlocks the art collection under its dedicated menu tab. They are not just contextless pieces of concept art, but basically design sheets on a given subject as if ripped out of some artbook on the game that might or might not exist, complete with translated developer-oriented design notes. I'm looking forward to unlocking them as much as the individual narratives themselves.

The bestiary, in the cast of creatures themselves and the monsterpedia detailing them, also rank as some of the best I've seen--wonderful conceptually, excellently animated, delightfully described. Yuu can survey her foes in battle, leading to them hinting at their respective weakness through errant thoughts and the like, which when applied stun the opposition for a few turns--you can use this to either gain the advantage, or allow the enemy to flee in their weakened state. There is a collectable medal in an internal achievement system vein for allowing every enemy type to flee battle, eventually, but it can also be just an interesting little puzzle to figure out--weaknesses are highly contextual and sometimes require specific party members to trigger, and mercy never hurt anyone. This is not a mechanically intensive RPG in most ways, but it does a lot to contextualize the battles to be as near the charm level as all the rest of it.

 

[Violentvixen]

Well, this is wishlisted now. I loved Liar Princess and the Blind Prince and am excited for more of that style.

 

[q 3]

I will admit the game has a bit too much friction for me to unreservedly love it (maps and battles should either be shorter or faster, and on Switch the menus are laggy), but I do still love it with reservations. It's probably not the intended reading but it's hard for me not to read some heavy queer subtext in the relationship between dragon dad and hero dad. Like dragon dad isn't just a dad, he's basically a still-somewhat-grieving widower. Also I get the distinct sense that Sayaka Oda played Undertale because there's some definite influence there.

Also a note re difficulty, it's not going down as one of history's toughest RPGs but I did panic a little bit when I found it has mimics and even got a game over. Thank goodness for autosaves!

 

[Peklo]

Yeah. The technical performance on Switch is just awful, which for games with 2D visuals I'm much more sensitive to than otherwise. That coupled with the very, very slow and repetitive dungeon layouts and pace in contrast to how interesting they are to navigate and the battle system to interact with (not very, for long periods) are unquestionably the game's major areas of faltering. Everything else is really lovely--one of my favourite bits with the setting and aesthetic is that it's got like the least sexually dimorphic anthromorphs I've seen in anything across the cast, bearing only the smallest gender signifiers between them.

 

[conchobhar]

I didn't say anything when the topic was first posted, but that trailer immediately and absolutely sold me on the game, so I jumped on it as soon as it came out. I was surprised to discover it was an RPG! From the trailer, I had assumed it would be a cinematic platformer. That wasn't not a dealbreaker or anything (I got over it pretty quick), just unexpected.

Anyway, I'm really enjoy it so far. It really nails the feeling of a storybook, so gentle and sweet and earnest. Having the entire game voiced by a single actor, who puts on a different voice to represent each character, is clever and totally sells the game's conceit. I was a little worried the whole aesthetic might be a bit twee, but I don't think that's the case at all; it's just effortlessly and endlessly charming.

I definitely agree that the game can be plodding, though. Playing it for long periods is really draining; for better or worse it really demands to be taken slow.

 

[Peklo]

Finished. It stays consistently what it is from the start; an RPG where its greatest weakness might be its very nature as an RPG--the design facilitating those elements simply cannot hold for the length of time demanded here, which is surprisingly long if you seek to do all that seems narratively meaningful to do, as no "filler" really exists if interacting with the cast is what you're interested in. Most of that length is held up by the gigantic dungeon hallways, the backtracking required through them, and the frequent encounter rate even with mitigating item effects ostensibly clearing out the fodder.

It's a shame, because when put into a position of being able to forget about this enforced grind for the moments that you can, it is nothing but a sweetly told and supremely confident story both tonally and aesthetically; practically beyond reproach in all that it goes on to discuss and how it approaches those topics. Like, as gay trash this is obviously a reading that comes built-in to an extent with me, but I don't think it's a stretch at all to consider one of the long and central sidestory chains in this to involve the reconciling of an estranged lesbian couple, who of course comprise of a sheep and a wolf--one of the game's ending beats if this narrative is followed through on is their lovey-dovey date night amongst all the other concluding festivities.

Likewise, another pair of characters tell a story which unquestionably deals with the impending passing of an elderly and disabled gourmand, looked over by their partner until that day comes--whether that relationship is romantic or not does nothing to diminish its intimacy in the portrayal, or its impact as a depiction of grief and letting go of loved ones. All this is conveyed, when reduced to its components, via mind-numbing fetch quests tasked by a hedgehog on behalf of a lizardman, and the game's ability to weave emotionally resonant material out of what are in the moment pretty rote or even frustrating components says a lot about the degree of genuine artistry at play in the places where it really does need that support to continue to function. All told, it's a severely compromised game, a frequently dull game, but you know what? It's also a really special game. I don't regret my time spent with it, extraordinarily long as it felt at times.

 

[q 3]

Just finished it and would echo everything Peklo said. It took me a while to get through just due to all the breaks I had to take when it started getting tedious, but found it well worth it in the end. I'm definitely a sucker for RPG epilogues where you can walk around and talk to everyone. Also pleasantly shocked that we actually got to hear Wildcat sing in the end, after the game had previously just had dialogue boxes that said "♫singing♫" the first couple of times.

I'm a little curious what happens in the end if you haven't completed all the sidequests - I'm guessing it just skips the entire festival, but it'd be interesting if there were variations depending on your completion. Not that I'm likely to check. Also wondering if anything changes depending on your party for the final battle, Flora had a long talk with Arthur and I wasn't sure if that's because I brought her or if it always goes that way. I'd laugh to see Rocky's variation on that conversation. "Bark bark bark bark!" "Yes, I know, love and peace, blah blah."

Evidently there's a bug where you can complete all the sidequests but still not have enough points to unlock the entire gallery. Which is a bug that I experienced. Hopefully it gets patched.

A few protips for all you pro gamers out there, one is you'll eventually get a fast travel spot at the Dragon King's den so maybe save sidequests near that area until then and you can avoid a couple of long hikes. Relatedly I think I saved myself a few trips (especially going to the bear village which really should have had a fast travel spot) by advancing sidequests simultaneously as you can often complete multiple objectives at the same time that way. Finally fleeing combat is a free action, if you fail you can still take your turn normally so always try to escape if you don't feel like fighting. (That said there's no way I'm getting everyone to level 50 for the achievements.)

Also I have a download code for the OST which is supposedly good for a couple more uses if anyone is interested (I mean the code is supposedly good, the OST is definitely good).

 

[conchobhar]

Finished as well. I co-sign the above posts: this is a really wonderful game but definitely an imperfect one. The dungeons in this game are such a drag; there's absolutely nothing to them beyond walking forward and they're mind-numbingly long. If you changed nothing about the game other than cutting the dungeons in half, the game would be like ten times better for it. It says a lot about the game's that this isn't enough to sink it; the art style, the character designs, the writing, everything about this game is so great and absolutely carries it through any tedium. I recommend it with caveats, but without hesitation.

Also wondering if anything changes depending on your party for the final battle, Flora had a long talk with Arthur and I wasn't sure if that's because I brought her or if it always goes that way. I'd laugh to see Rocky's variation on that conversation. "Bark bark bark bark!" "Yes, I know, love and peace, blah blah."

That's funny; I had the same thought of "is this how it always goes, or does it depend on my partner?", but I took Cybat with me into the battle. So I guess the scene does change based on your partner, and now I too wonder how it goes with Rocky. I'd go and check, if not for that a) Rocky was terribly underlevelled for me and b) the final boss was long and actually a bit tough!

 

[q 3]

That's funny; I had the same thought of "is this how it always goes, or does it depend on my partner?", but I took Cybat with me into the battle. So I guess the scene does change based on your partner, and now I too wonder how it goes with Rocky. I'd go and check, if not for that a) Rocky was terribly underlevelled for me and b) the final boss was long and actually a bit tough!

I just had to check.

Spoiler: ending spoilers

Called it!

 

[conchobhar]

I just had to check.

Hahaha, that's great. Thanks for going back for it!