NIS America is back with another storybook adventure! In 2019, we were treated to a unique game, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (review here). It’s 2022 and we’re back with a new storybook adventure, The Cruel King and the Great Hero! Now, if you thought you knew what you were getting into here, you’re likely mistaken. Liar Princess was at its heart, a puzzle game. Rather than following in the footsteps of the last game however, NIS decided to turn Cruel King into a storybook RPG instead. The art style is the same, the story elements have the same vibe, but gameplay is entirely different.
You play Yuu, the daughter of the Great Hero. She has been raised by the Demon King after her father perished and her goodness is infectious to his entire world. The Demon King is helping Yuu to become a Great Hero like her father and as Yuu, you must (Yuu must?) help the monsters in the Demon King’s realm in order to become a hero. You’re a young girl though, so the Demon King covertly helps from behind the scenes to keep you safe from harm. It’s a heartwarming story with some surprising twists and follows Liar Princess nicely.
This is very much a traditional turn-based RPG though, and you’ll find that the pacing is quite slow. Cruel King has one of the slowest walking mechanics this side of an old-school 16 bit RPG and the random encounter rate is fairly high. Often while walking through various dungeons you can almost feel an attack coming and you just want to move faster.
Combat consists of attacks, defense, and special abilities, which you earn by levelling up. Eventually you’ll also acquire some companions, though they don’t stick around forever at first. Rocky the ice fox is possibly one of the cutest characters in any game ever and there should be a plushy of him. It’s almost criminal that there isn’t one! Each companion has an accompanying story that fulfills the chapter you’re currently on. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to go back later and use their special abilities to grab things you missed in the dungeons though!
Combat isn’t particularly deep either, though mastery of your special abilities is key to survival as the difficulty curve rises faster than your levels. As an aside, it’s incredibly bizarre that every time you confirm your actions within a battle, the game scrolls “Battle Start” across the screen. It’s weird and distracting and it would be fantastic if they’d patch that out, as well as adding a high-speed mechanic to fix the pacing of some areas.
In fact, the game starts off solo and quite challenging until your fist companion shows up and then takes more bumps in difficulty a few chapters later. Find the right balance and you’ll do ok, but don’t skimp out on buying gear and tons of healing items since you don’t have any sort of heal spell! Run low and you’re in trouble. Fortunately, you’ve also got magic crumbs to help you warp back to the monster village and stock up on necessary supplies. Sadly, it’s a long walk back when you do. And just wait until you get to some of the bosses and they rake you over the coals because you’re unprepared for their power level after fighting comparatively weak enemies!
In addition to the main game, your secondary job is to help all the monsters having problems around the kingdom. This results in a variety of quests which Yuu can participate in and has you wandering all over the place on fetch quests and the like. In addition to adding depth to the game’s backstory, these often allow you to acquire a range of special items that are otherwise unavailable and generally useful. The side quests are definitely a time suck, but at the same time they add a lot to the game, so for optional gameplay, they’re a nice bonus.
Putting aside the straightforward and rather slowly-paced combat, the place where The Cruel King and the Great Hero really shines is in audio and visual design. The light, fun music perfectly complements the gorgeous, hand-drawn artwork that makes the game feel like an actual storybook come to life. The artwork is unique and endearing and even the monsters are fantastic in their surreal cuteness. The artists for Cruel King have outdone themselves in every aspect of design and the unique storybook cinema sequences and even the pencil drawings feel like they are alive even with only static imagery. Backgrounds in the dungeons are incredibly intricate, with tiny animals and monsters zipping out in the periphery and a robust foreground that adds depth to every area. Cruel King simply oozes personality with every step and it’s almost as overwhelming as it is delightful! The soundtrack is equally fantastic, but with the length of some areas, some of the fun, bouncy music can become a bit repetitive.
The Cruel King and the Great Hero isn’t a deep game. The entire main story will take you maybe 15 or so hours and it is well worth your time. If you are a psychotic completionist, the game will take you much, much longer, since grinding every character to max level is painstaking at best and traumatically tedious as worst, but for the average player, a 15-18 hour story will have you more than satisfied.
All in all, you’re getting a very standard RPG with a slightly unexpected difficulty curve and a moderately irritating encounter rate with The Cruel King and the Great Hero. Fortunately, that average RPG is wrapped in an utterly and undeniably adorable package with an interesting storyline and some of the best game artwork every to have graced a screen and all for $30. The game is an artistic masterpiece and the characters are undeniably interesting, more than making up for some of the shortcomings of the game. If you’re in the market for a straightforward RPG without all the bells and whistles and you’re partial to the presentation style, The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a must-buy adventure that’s perfectly suited to young and old alike!
This review is based on a digital copy of The Cruel King and the Great Hero provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent on both. The Cruel King and the Great Hero is also available on Playstation 4.