Little King but a big story

Little King's Story is the result of some of the biggest names in Japanese gaming, known collectively as the Six Samurai coming together and working on a single project. The Six Samurai consists of Hideo Minaba, Yoshiro Kimura, Norkizu Yasunaga, Kazuyuki Kurashima, Yasuhuiro Wada. The listed names represent some of the greatest in the Japanese games industry working on titles such as Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII and Harvest Moon.

Looks can be deceiving...

At first glance Little King's Story on Nintendo Wii looks nothing more than an Animal Crossing clone, a replica of a successful franchise. But when you start scratching the surface and delve deeper, you will find a game that moves past the basics that Animal Crossing does so well and offers you a great deal more.

The story of Little King's Story revolves around Corobo, a shy young boy who doesn’t have many friends. Whilst in the woods he finds a strange crown. After placing the crown on his head, Howzer the Bull Knight appears and tells Corobo that he is now King of the Village. Returning to his village as King, Corobo is determined to turn his quiet village into a mighty kingdom. The objective behind Little King's Story is similar to Animal Crossing in that you need to improve your town, but that is where the similarities end.

Little King's Story on Nintendo Wii is a combination of real-time strategy, life simulation and adventure game, that complement each other, rather than compete. And despite the mixture of game types featured, the control scheme is unbelievably basic. You do use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, but you won’t need to worry about waggling the Remote or pointing at the screen. The control scheme used in Little King's Story is for simplicity and enjoyment, allowing you to focus on the game itself.

Hail to the King

Little King's Story eases you in with a basic mission to begin with, finding money to build a place to train the town’s people. This mission helps you familiarise yourself with the town and learn the very easy control scheme. Once you’ve found the money, you go to Howzer and select the building you want. He will then tell you to go to sleep and this is how it will be throughout the game. You ask for something to be built, and you’re told to go to sleep. The first profession open to you is the noble farming profession. The farmer is a versatile character to have in you entourage as he can dig, fight and harvest.

But you will need more than the farmer to succeed in your quest to make your village a grand kingdom; you will need soldiers for defending your kingdom, hunters for food, carpenters to make bridges, cooks to…well cook. In total there are 20 job titles, each with its own weakness and strength. Little King's Story is all about delegation rather than you actually doing it yourself. After all you are the King, why should you dig holes?

The farmers help drive your economy forward at the beginning of the game. Once they have earned you some gold you can get the next building project underway; the Town Square. This is an essential build as it will open up a lot of opportunities. The town square has a suggestion box where villagers can let you know what they think of you and the village and also offer you quests. The letters all go to Howzer so you’ll need to go to him to find out if there are any new quests available.

A good King will have a plan

As Little King's Story progresses, you will be able to take more of your subjects with you when you go on missions, but you must try and decide the right combination of who you should take. If you’re going to a previously unexplored region, it would be best to take more soldiers than carpenters, as carpenters don’t fight. If you have the right group with you then you will be able to overcome anything that gets in your way.

There are other things to take into consideration when you venture forth in search of new kingdoms, like the time of day, whether your soldiers are all fighting fit and if the group you have are happy in there respective job. Yes job satisfaction is apparent in Little King's Story. If you employ Bob as a soldier, but he would rather be a farmer, he will go into combat half-hearted. So always make sure that your people are doing what they want, providing that job is available.

If you are out at night your group will be tired and as a result, work slower than they should. To keep your soldiers, and you, healthy look out for steam vents in the ground. Some of these will have Fountains where you and your group can jump into to regain health. If you or your group do get hurt, you don’t actually show cuts or bruises, you will age. This clever little feature is there, partly for comic value, but also so you can see who is in desperate need of attention. If a soldier is hurt he will no longer wear his helmet but instead have grey hair and be slightly slower than every one else.

Its little touches like that that make this game a joy to play. And the little touches don’t stop there. As you walk around the forests in your kingdom, you’ll notice squirrels, birds and other wildlife just going about there business and all the trees sway in the breeze. Also when you disband the group following you, they won’t just mill about, they do have jobs to do. Soldiers will return to their guard towers and farmers will return to their farming. It may not sound like much, but these little features will pull you into Little King's Story that much more.

The promise of the Little King

To be honest with you, I could have covered so much more in this preview: boss fights, the diversity of the other kingdoms, the enemies you will meet, the princesses that you will need to rescue and much more … I just didn’t want to ruin the game for you. I will say this, if you have played, or are playing, Animal Crossing or MySims, and you’re finding them a little unfulfilling then keep your eye on Little King's Story.

Little King's Story on Nintendo Wii is shaping up very nicely; it is a game that I am really looking forward to. It never overstretches it’s capabilities but in the same breath it is packed to bursting point with activities and quests for you to do and could be one of the rising stars of 2009.

Preview by: Tom "Bull Knight" Daly
Preview Published:20.02.09