Penny - Punching princess review - Nintendo switch + ps vita - The best kind of pay to win?

Penny Punching Princess is set in a world that’s filled to the brim with monsters, dragons, skeleton people, you know, typical rpg stuff. The major thing that sets it apart, though, is the dynamic between them. You’d think that with monsters like these only the strongest survive and you’d be right UNTIL a hero came and changed all of that. NOW the ones with the most money are at the top of the food chain. The world has adopted capitalism and that was the root of the problem here. Princess, the main character, a former princess whose name is apparently Princess, is PISSED ALL of the time because she has lost her kingdom, her dad, and the rest of her family at the hands of the worst kind of evil, a money-lending company the Dragoloan family. I enjoyed this twist to the typical fantasy RPG formula. Money is usually a factor but this game takes it to the next level. I’m pretty sure this is the 1st game wherein a pay to win mechanic is a GOOD thing. It’s refreshing. Obviously, not REAL money, but, my point still stands. Beyond that, this game has a fun cast of characters. You have your loyal servant Sebastian, a beetle with a big mouth and absolutely no backbone, AND another playable character Isabelle, Princess’s zombie relative who smells terrible and can’t use the calculator. & arguably the most important supporting character, Zenigami, the God of Money, he’s a cat that has a lot of power in this capitalistic world. So much so that HE’S the one that gifts Princess with the mysterious calculator that affords her the power to bribe literally anyone and pretty much anything. Which brings me to the gameplay. The gameplay at face value is a 2d top down action rpg, meaning the combat is a kin to a beat’m up but there’s also a leveling system for Princess’s attributes, there’s armor upgrades, each armor has its own stats and special moves. Stuff you’ll be very familiar with if you’re a fan of action RPGs. The major differentiator here, is the calculator. As I said before, this calculator gives you the power to bribe most things in the world. All you do is pay a set fee that varies depending on the payee. All of these things give you different advantages. You can bribe enemies which both removes them from the battlefield AND affords you their abilities. Some enemies have physical attacks, some have special attacks, some have healing abilities. Beyond that you can bribe the environment. This includes stage hazards, healing panels, and secret areas. All of this costs gold, a commodity that is reasonably easy enough to get your hands on, especially when you consider how powerful it is in the context of the gameplay. This doesn’t mean it’s a cakewalk, though. Money management is very much so a thing. You’ll find yourself debating whether it’s worth spending gold on bribing an enemy, or bribing the hazards around it to make fighting it with normal attacks more manageable. This mechanic isn’t without its flaws though. I found myself frustrated when playing in console mode on Switch, which is a shame because the game looks great on a TV, but the entry method for bribing is too much of a hassle to deal with with button controls. I’d recommend playing this game almost entirely in handheld mode in touch screen mode. Even then I found myself frustrated in hectic moments with a group of bribable things being too close. I can’t begin to tell you how often I meant to bribe a healing enemy but ended up bribing a skeleton or something like that. Bribing goes beyond each individual level, as well. The enemies you bribe also serve as a material of sorts to craft better armor with new stats, attacks, and abilities. Beyond that, in your kingdom, which is the hub where you can apply any upgrades, craft armor, change out abilities, do tutorials and the like, you use enemies you bribe to open up facilities that require more citizens Aside from the bribing, the calculator gets the ability to heal, do massive special attacks, obtain gold, even reverse game overs through what are called “Money Miracles." I feel this is a better usage case for the calculator because you’re not required to be AS precise but some may see value in the annoyance I found with the regular calculator abilities. I know some people see clunky mechanics as being part of a game’s challenge after all. In summary, I enjoyed my time with Penny Punching Princess, the satirical view of capitalism mixing into the gameplay is a nice touch, the beat-’em-up combat is solid, the characters are charming, the announcers voice acting is nice, and the game ramps up well as you go on. I just wish there was a more intuitive way to use the calculator. The current setup felt clunky to me and ultimately ended up being my only glaring gripe with the game. To keep things consistent with Logan’s rating system from his Cuphead review (because numbers are dumb and too absolute for our tastes) I’d have to slot a rating in between “stupid for not getting” and “meh, I’d wait on it”… Let’s call it, Worth playing if you like what you see.” If you don’t feel the main problem I talked about in the calculator system is a deal breaker, Penny Punching Princess is definitely a game I’d recommend getting when it’s released in the US on April 3rd, or in Europe on March 30th.