Treasure is a company that has achieved legendary status due to its many unique games. One of said games is Guardian Heroes. To give a brief summary: it was a beat ’em up that was released on Sega Saturn. I didn’t get the chance to play this masterpiece until I got it on Xbox 360, and I fell in love with it. Even now, I still play from time to time. Fast forward several years, and we have among us Code of Princess EX: an upgraded port of the 2012 3DS release. I mentioned Guardian Heroes because Code of Princess feels to me like a spiritual successor of said game. Code of Princess EX shares similarities with Guardian Heroes, but it is not a carbon copy of it. Ultimately what’s important is that Code of Princess EX is a beast on its own.
Code of Princess EX history is pretty straightforward. You take the role of Princess Solange Blanchefleur. She is on the run because the people of her kingdom rioted against the royal family due to the rumors that the suddenly increase in monster attacks is their fault. Her father the king tells her to run away and to take the legendary sword DeLuxcalibur in order to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. “Take care Code of Princess,” were the king last words.
One thing that you have to take into consideration is while the story seems serious and foreboding disaster as you play, you start to wonder if they will save the world. The cast of characters has a lot of quirkiness, and their sometimes laidback approach is unbecoming of the heroes they are supposed to be. For example, the heroine Solange and her “dress” is ridiculous, and the fact that “it was the only one she had” will surely raise some eyebrows. The fact that a slender body like hers can manipulate a massive sword like DeLuxcalibur left me speechless. The first time I played the game, I seriously thought she was male (I went as far as to think that it was the male lead). Oh boy was I wrong. If you’re familiar with Japanese culture, you might know what is a “Magical Girl”( if not think Sailor Moon kind of character), so I thought that Allegro was one, using a very elfy outfit with even knee high boots and shorts. You are hard pressed to make assumptions here. I even felt like Rintaro Okabe from Steins Gate giving a description of Lukako, or Zozo a necromancer/zombie that in one scene she said that she had certain parts that were from a male. This quirkiness and overall nonsense click and is sure to make you laugh a lot. I know I did.
The controls B and A are used for weak and strong attacks. You can use skills by simple input combinations like Down Down A or B (A being the strong) with X you can use Burst. Burst is a powered up state that uses MP and decreases automatically as you are in that state. In said state, your attack power is increased and can use skills freely without any cool down. T balance the game, you can only use it three times per stage (or if you have a special item more than that). L and R are for blocking, but if used in combination with Up or Down, you can change lanes, which is a really good tactic. If you are being overwhelmed by enemy numbers, you can just switch lanes to give you fighting room, or if you are raining down pain in a boss and the coward switch lanes, you can follow for the kill. It is a good way to keep battles dynamic. The Y button is the most interesting part of the control scheme, since Y acts as a lock on. The lock on is really useful because besides helping you focus on a single enemy. It also doubles the damage the locked on enemy receives, so you can finish really quickly even the strongest enemies (even more if you combine it with Burst). If I compare the speed in which attacks come in EX with the 3DS version, I can see that the speed in EX has been improved. In the 3DS version, attacks and specials felt slow and sluggish. In EX, attacks and specials come out faster so this is a welcome addition, since on the previous version your attacks could be easily interrupted due to how slow they were. Even without using specials, you can mash your way to victory.
The graphics also got a massive overhaul. They look more crisp and detailed. Even the animated cut scenes look great. The character animations are more fluid. Jiggle physics were improve. In any case, on TV or handheld mode, the game plays, looks, and feels great.
Playing alone is fun, but it sometimes can become repetitive (as expected with beat ’em up games). However, this is where you can pull out a joycon and play in local coop. Between two players is more fun (just me and my kid). There is also a VS mode to fight against another player.
Character wise is where it gets really fun and chaotic. Remember that I mentioned Guardian Heroes? In GH, whenever you finished a stage, besides experience points, you unlocked characters to use aside from the main characters. It was possible to beat the game with a boss character or with a cannon fodder one (GH also had a VS mode). In Code of Princess EX, the same thing happens after passing each stage. You are awarded experience points and gold (sometimes even a item), but you also unlock characters to use in all game modes (except Story mode). It is a nice change of pace since you can replay stages using a zombie, a wasp, a green slime if you are feeling adventurous, or with a dragon if you are feeling smug. This brings a breath of fresh air to the game. In VS mode, can you imagine how a slime would fare against a dragon? There are also online VS and cooperative play, so there are options if you don’t have anyone close to play (I had a few VS battles and a couple of coop plays and was good, but it took a while to get connected).
The music is really good and can get you pumped up, especially on boss battles. Overall, the EX is represented by improved graphics, smooth game play and online game play. So, this is the definitive Code of Princess EXperience.
Bottom Line: Code of Princess EX is a really fun game. I believe that is the spiritual successor of Guardian Heroes, but adding its own flavor to the formula. The story is overall nonsensical fun, and there is a lot of content for single and multiplayer. I definitely would give it a try, since this is the way ports should be done.