One day after much grinding in the netherworld of Disgaea, I found Plume a cameo DLC characters to add to the game. An energetic and beloved princess from an alternate world called the Schwert Kingdom, Plume displays amazing prowess in battle, and also commands armies. The Battle Princess uses her sword to vanquish countless monsters that exist within the continent of Weltecs. After she was included in the DLC for Disgaea D2, It was announced that her own game from NISA called Battle Princess of Arcadias was getting an English release. This game is a side scrolling platform available on PS3 with a mixture of fighting mixed with strategic battle commands (whilst fighting too).
You can have up to three generals to lead your battle, each with their own weapon prowess. Plume dons her sword and is the strongest, you have her steward Lats who can use bow and arrow and the mysterious and super cute Yuni who uses magic to begin with. Later on you acquire more story characters with different fighting attributes.
Changing fighting elements is also available: you can make new weapons with items or pick them along the way when monsters drop treasure. You have a limited number of times you can power up certain weapons, ie make the attack higher or give water elements. Making it about luck finding an awesome sword or having to grind certain locations to find items to make a better weapon.
It took me some time to beat my first army battle, as my army was at a low level. The game doesn’t explain that in this flat 2D town you can upgrade your armies too. So, If my warriors want to level up I can level them up to the same level as Plume, likewise for archers and Lats and Yuni with mages. You also will have to use your generals more often and use tactics to win. If your team gets overwhelmed and close to defeat, you can retreat to save your brigade, but, I always fight to the death!
The battles are normally prompted from the map screen where you pick a location and enter a fight area or there is an ‘!’ which means an event is waiting. You can mess about in the side plots and grind and it won’t affect the story.
Battle Princess of Arcadias does the NISA brand justice with beautifully animated (water colour?) artwork. You can enjoy the Character models in personal conversations outside battles. The story line can get generic at times with the usual tropes like whenever anything goes wrong or when monsters start popping up from no where but starts off fairly interesting when Plume is summoned by her brother, the king, who is currently cursed and stuck as a goose.
Her happy go lucky nature irritates most but also turns on some of the more perverse characters. You can really see fine details in the background and voice acting. It’s all Japanese with English subtitles so need to fear. However if the voices aren’t to your taste you can skip scenes and get to the task at hand. Out of all the characters, I liked Plume so much I even cosplayed as her.
Review Summary
Being a Disgaea series fan I went to he game as something new with no real idea what it would be like and was pleased with the outcome. I got something different but having the same quirky humour. However, after mastering the armies and battles I quickly found myself playing it for hours on end. Battle Princess of Arcadias is by no means a simple game nor easy it provides a great challenge for platform players. Remember to save whenever your on the map !