Little Kings Story
Little King’s Story is an original single player simulation Role-Playing Game (RPG) designed and developed by some of the most respected names in the gaming industry. Featuring the efforts of Yasuhiro Wada (creator: Harvest Moon), Hideo Minaba (Art Director: Final Fantasy XII), and Youichi Kawaguchi (Main Programmer: Dragon Quest VIII), Little King’s Story combines life-simulation, real-time strategy, and adventure elements along with an enchanting storyline to offer a new and unique gaming experience on the Wii platform.
Lead your subjects as king.
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Plan all aspects of your rule.
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Engage in a variety of quests.
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Story
Once upon a time there was a young boy named Corobo. He was a shy, withdrawn boy with few friends. One day while wandering the forest near his village he came across a crown infused with a mysterious power; the power to charm any person and make them follow any order. No sooner has Corobo placed the crown upon his head than an adventurer, the bull-knight Howzer, appears. Howzer informs Corobo that he is now the king of his town and that it is his responsibility to become the best king ever. With that Corobo returns to his village and with the assistance of Howzer and two other newly discovered royal advisors, begins his efforts to turn his sleepy little hamlet into the best kingdom ever.
Gameplay
A blend of RPG, simulation and light Real Time Strategy gameplay, the action in Little King’s Story is all about improving your skill level and those of your followers as a means of gaining wealth and territory, which will in turn benefit the overall health of your subjects and your status as king. As players enter their humble town after finding their crown, they are assisted by their advisors, especially Howzer, in taking on missions in the immediate area of town. With the success of each, as well as activities like farming and natural resources development, they will gain wealth in the form of in-game currency called ‘Bol.’ Once an essential infrastructure has been established in town a suggestion box is set up through which in-game characters can make quest suggestions to supplement those of your advisors. During quests players in the role of young King Corobo can control multiple subjects of his kingdom who follow and serve based on your kingly status. These subjects have different professions which come in handy in specific as well as general quest scenarios and should be chosen wisely. Additional training facilities can be constructed to retrain existing subjects as well as those that are added to your kingdom as it prospers and eventually needs to expand into surrounding territories.
The world of Little King’s Story is expansive and set on many levels. Although each level contains multiple possible boss battles, progression through the game levels always requires the defeat of a substantial boss. Battles become more intense as you set out to conquer the lands that surround your kingdom, although these are never too overbearing due to the game’s easy to alter difficulty settings. As these campaigns against neighboring kingdoms proceed you are kept aware of the health and happiness of your subjects at home and that of your troops via an information bar at the top left, as well as a ticker scrolling across the screen. Balance their needs with the needs of an expanding kingdom and you may indeed become the best king ever.
Key Features
- High Production Values – An original game built from the ground up for the Wii by a seasoned development team.
- Accessible Controls – Give commands and control your townspeople to a wide variety of tasks with ease.
- People Power – Have your townspeople dig for treasures, build new buildings, and break obstacles to access new areas – all in the name of bettering your kingdom.
- Distinct and Lively Villagers – Each NPC (Non-Playable Character) in your village is unique with individual likes, dislikes, and personal memories which evolve based on their daily experiences.
- Multiple Sub-quests – Any good king puts the welfare of his subjects before himself, so help your villagers by accepting some of their requests.
- Expand Your Kingdom – Unite the surrounding rival kingdoms under your flag to become the best king in the world.
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great reason to own a Wii
Despite the incredible sales of the Wii system, great games have been few and far between. And great games not made by Nintendo are even less common.
Now, with the release of Little King’s Story, Wii owners have a fantastic third party exclusive. Possibly the best overall game released this year, and likely the best third party game released this far for the Wii. The game plays like a blend of Pikmin and My Life as a King, with a humorous, if wacky, story, and enough content to please most hardcore gamers. You, as the Little King, take control of your followers, each of whom has a certain occupation that provides abilities ranging from combat abilities to digging to climbing trees. Using these followers, the Little King must conquer the other kingdoms, uniting them under his rule.
Other reviews have described, in-depth, the gameplay and attention to detail that make the game shine. While I think the game is phenomenal and should be a purchase for all Wii owners, I’ll be brief and just point out a few things that stood out for me. First, the music in fantastic. I’ve seen complaints regarding it’s ‘recycled’ nature, and simply don’t understand – the score is excellent, varied, and the music fits the game extremely well. Second, the incredible attention to detail. The kingdom really comes alive as it develops, with people going about their business and animals walking around. Citizens seem to converse with each other and little things happen all the time that really pull you into the game. Finally, the learning curve of the game is near perfect. I never felt over or underwhelmed with the amount of content the game threw at me. I always had somewhere to go and something to buy. Several quests to choose from at all times. These are just a few things the game has to offer; either things I hadn’t seen addressed elsewhere or that, IMO, were good enough to cover again.
The game has a few flaws, although I haven’t found them to detract much from the overall package. The awkward save system is, well, awkward. Somewhat inconvenient, and I’ve had to replay a good amount of days due to forgetting to save. The various menus are well done, but there are a few inconsistencies that could use some work (the map/quest status screens could have been better, as could the method for equipping items). The pathfinding AI of your followers is pretty poor, leading to citizens becoming trapped behind fences and staircases. And finally, the graphics are pretty muddy; I’ve had difficulty making out the identity of items (or seeing which citizens I had in my crew) at times.
Overall, Little King’s Story is a fantastic, huge game and should be played by anyone with a Wii. The game really transcends genres and the final product is a shining example of what good gameplay is worth and what can be accomplished despite the technological limitations of the Wii.
4 Stars Fun game that is a little hard and repetitive.
I got this game because I am interested in games where you have to build up your city and you are in charge of everything. After reading numerous reviews, I felt like I was promised that much and more in this game.
The game starts with you being crowned king of a country and you have to work to build it up and give people jobs, and have them join your army. What the reviews didn’t tell me was that this game was kind of hard. Now, it may not be hard for gamers, but for someone like me, who doesn’t really play video games, who got the wii because it was more family friendly it was hard.
There were points in the game where I had no idea what I was meant to be doing (no real help in the game, took me researching online to find answers). The game is also very repetitive, with you having to do the same things over and over again to raise money.
Also, make sure you save the game frequently. I didn’t realize how important that was until I died 3 hours into playing the game and had to start all the way at the beginning again!
All in all, this game was fun, cute and an enjoyable way to pass the time.
5 Stars Little King’s Story Rocks
This game is like a combo of Harvest moon only with a better sense of humor, and Pikmin, only with funnier fighting. Get it if you like either.
5 Stars Awesome Strategy/Role Playing Game for the WIi
This game is awesome for the Wii and the most fun I have had on the Wii in awhile! I really enjoyed Rune Factory for the Wii but like this game even better (although this game is shorter than Rune Factory). This game does not get overbearing with micromanaging like Rune Factory did. I like that I can choose where I want to go, what I want to do, and which of my citizens I would like to take with me. The main bosses in this game actually go a step beyond your typical hack and slash. For example one game will have you answering trivia questions by sending your followers to the correct answer (of about 7 choices). Another game will is figuring out where the boss is hiding on the world-like map from the clues he gives (kind-of like Carmen San Diego). They even have one that is like a pinball game. These sort of varieties of battles make the game enjoyable to play even after playing it for 10-20 hours and help lower the monotony in a game. It also has a nice learning curve in the game to help introduce new things in the game slowly instead of all at once. The game also makes jokes and references to other things, like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I hope they keep making games like this for the Wii and it makes me glad I bought one.
There are some minor problems with the game (like occasional bad camera angles), but nothing to stop you from enjoying a top notch product. This game is definitely a must have for people looking for a good strategy/role playing game for the Wii.
4 Stars So close to greatness… yet so far
I have been looking forward to this game since this time last year. Now that I have it in my hands I find that despite my anticipation for this game I was still surprised with this game. It wasn’t at all what I expected which for me its rare to be surprised by how the game plays (its usually just a matter of how well). The simple reason is: you just can’t sum up this game in a review/preview so I won’t try. What I will say is that despite being pleasantly surprised by this game I found myself increasingly aware of just how close it came to all-time greatness… but missed.
There are some weird/bad choices which hurt the pure joy of this game which I was made painfully aware of thanks to an TERRIBLE save/load system. BEWARE! IT is very easy to erase/save over your game… my GF saved over my first game because even when you start a new game it takes you strait to the last created save and you can easily delete saves by simply pressing Z twice while in the load screen (which I also did). So, by having to restart the game twice do to a terribly designed save system (I just don’t understand how these things make it past testing) I had the ability to fully realize the reach of the game and where it falls short.
This game has so much more depth than you might realize and building up your kingdom is so fun that it becomes very disappointing that you can’t do certain things. I wish your people did more on their own or anything at all. I wish you could assign people daily tasks, which wouldn’t be necessary for all players but just a good way to get through the game more quickly if you are a skilled player. Which reminds me, in some ways this games punishes you for being a thorough. For instance when you make citizens get a job class there is a random element to how much life they receive, but since that is the only random element I find it unacceptable to settle for anything other than full possible health which i spend hours obtaining by reloading saves (until my save gets erased. They should have just had everyone come out with the same health or at least have different things like attack strength which balanced this out.
A great game should be playable by players of any skill level with good gamers capable of achieving more such as a record of no deaths, however this game simply makes it frustrating by adding no skill elements to the equation such as the life thing mentioned above which has the result of simply being easier to not care if your people die (which it doesn’t really matter). However don’t think this is game is easy either… its not! I have to beat every boss for my GF because the actiony part of the game is not for her at all which reminds me: its too bad there is no pointer functionality in the wii-mote it could really go a LONG way in this game. Also considering the way my GF lieks to play the game it reminds me of something else they could/have should have done: make the treasure finding more extensive without requiring battle.
All that said its still a very good game and for anyone who likes Pikmin or Overlord you will like this game a lot. The story is great… the cut scenes are fantastic and despite being unbelievably adorable its not just a kids game. Like I said in the title: this game is very close to greatness but also very far ( I wish I could give it a 3.5)
Buy/More Info
