I’ve been playing Steal Princess, a Japanese import-title for the Nintendo DS and while I would really like to finish it, I’m stuck at a particular level.
Steal What?
A little bit of background for the game. From my understanding (and a total lack of Japanese language mastery), you play as a rather pretty thief. The game world is divided into several locales (ala Super Mario 3) and each locale has several levels (or areas).
Each level is a mini-dungeon of sorts which takes place in isometric 3D. The objective is simple, retrieve the key to unlock the door in each level (so that you can proceed with the next level), obtain precious stones along the way and try not to get killed.
Tricky
The game does sound simple but it does throw a few curve balls at the player. Firstly, the key is not always visible and is sometimes being carried by an enemy. Killing an enemy sounds straightfoward by just grabbing a sword and slashing, but only some swords are effective against certain opponents!
Opponents are divided by colour and while blue coloured swords are effective against blue opponents, they are practically useless against red opponents. Like the key, some swords can only be retrieve by killing an opponent.
Princess does an Indy
Aiding the thief around a level is a handy whip. The whip can be used to grab hold and spin opponents around, leaving them in a daze, or to grab hold onto points to reach certain parts of a level unreachable by just jumping.
Graphics wise, the game borrows abit of a look from the Final Fantasy games, not that I’m complaining. Those games are some of the prettiest on the console. There are a number of static cut scenes to go through but even if you do not understand Japanese, you should be able to play the game with no too much trouble.
Steal Princess: Touzoku Oujo is currently available at Play-Asia. Click here for purchase details.
