Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

Code of Princess takes concepts from JRPGs:
- Plucky teenage heroes that must save the world
- Giant swords
- Quirky sidekicks
- Busty, scantly clad women
- Androgynous boys
and mixes in combo-driven combat against 5-20 bad guys at once that's basically side-scrolling 2D that's more Street Fighter than Devil May Cry.

Each level has you fighting a group of bad guys + a boss. The better you do (quicker you kill them, less damage you take) the better loot and experience you get. The main storyline is strictly some dialog and movie segments that send you to the next fight. You can control any one of several of the protagonists, choose their equipment as you gain new stuff, and you can redo any battle (to grind, basically). There's no exploring, crafting, or any dialog choices, so it's definitely not heavy on RPG -- just basic loot grabbing and some control over your level up stat boosts.

Everything is well done -- the 3D is OK, more Paper Mario than anything too immersive. But the graphics mix 3D models with a lot of traditional 2D elements. Visuals have decent detail and color -- nothing too spectacular.

Audio is also... fine... there's a fair amount of voice-over work throughout that's pretty well done. Music is nothing too memorable.

Overall, it's an OK game if you like those combo-based many-enemy action battles and only light RPG elements. But for me, it got too repetitive too soon, and the other bits (story, visuals, etc.) weren't special enough to keep me going more than a few hours.