Reconnoitering Cute Knight Kingdom
I bought Cute Knight Kingdom the other night. Good thing I'm all secure in my masculinity and stuff like that. Because - like the original Cute Knight - I gotta admit it's good.

I don't know if I'll ever get to the point where I can run through an entire game in 90 minutes or so like I did in the original. Maybe it's just my inexperience, but games in Cute Knight Kingdom seem to be a bit ... meatier. Still not super-long, mind you - maybe 2x the time to cover three years? Again, I played through Cute Knight / Cute Knight Deluxe many, many times and felt I had much of it "down." I'm still learning the ropes of CKK.

Yeah, there are butterfly silhouettes in the inventory screen. Hey, Hanako, maybe you can add a "beard" option or something for us guys, with an alternate inventory screen with sword imagery or something? Still, while the game is targeted more for players of the feminine persuasion (er, excuse me, Georgina maintains that it's really targeted for an audience of HERSELF, and leaves that open to interpretation beyond as to who might enjoy it beyond that), there's a lot to like here for any player.

Okay - for those new to the whole Cute Knight thing... this is a game that borrows ideas from life-sim type games (especially Princess Maker) and old-school RPGs. You play a girl who has three years to seek out her destiny. Now, nevermind the fact that nobody has their destiny fully figured out at 21 (or 51) - this is fantasy we're talking about here. So your goals are to:

1. Survive and become self-sufficient (at least in Kingdom you can always go back home to your adopted parent's home to crash for free)
2. Don't give up on your dreams and hope (represented by the "dream" statistic, which increases with success, but decreases with failure and fatigue --- I think)
3. Work and educate yourself to improve your ability to succeed in endeavors
4. Seek out life experiences (story arcs) that may guide you towards a particular destiny

The game ends with failure (if you let your Dream score fall to zero), at the culmination of a storyline goal, or at the end of three years. The ending is based on events or on your character's combination of skills and stats at the end of three years. There's no glass ceiling in Cute Knight Kingdom - while I've not verified it, it looks like you can even become queen over all the land. That's a pretty sweet advancement opportunity.

The Cute Knight series (can you call two games plus an enhanced version a "series?") also includes the "Sin" statistic. This is a big deal for those of us who like to choose a life of monster-bashing and dungeon-exploring. Killing living creatures - especially sentient ones - or engaging in unscrupulous activities in the game increases your Sin rating. There are ways of bringing it down as well. So far, I haven't seen how Sin limits your options in Cute Knight Kingdom yet - but in the first game, it was a pretty significant factor if it got too high (and the "best" ending - along with certain other story opportunities and career options - was only available if you took a walk on the dark side).

Cute Knight Kingdom really expands on Cute Knight's gameplay. It offers significantly more breadth of opportunities, with several towns and locations to explore, multiple dungeons, more job options, and what appears to be a metric buttload of crafting and cooking options. And I've stumbled into a few more general "side-quests" as well. There seems to be a bit more depth as well, particularly as success in training and jobs is now a more interactive experience, as you can choose to sacrifice health or spell points to exert yourself or apply extra concentration to tasks. This can be tricky, as in at least one location (a frontier town), the only beds available were less-than-ideal at the local military barracks, which actually cost you stamina points (and corresponding maximum health) in addition to the 10 gp per night to stay there. While very capitalist of the military to offer them, that sure doesn't convince me that choosing military service is an option I want to pursue with my happy-go-lucky farmhand-turned-dungeon-explorer, Katrina.

I still have a lot of exploring to do. The game's got a lot to it, and though a lot of the activities are repetitive, there seems to be a lot to do and find in this game. And it's definitely not for everybody. It is very "life-sim" heavy, so if you are more of a kick-the-door-in type of RPG fan, it might not be as appealing. It's also very open-ended and relies upon a bunch of smaller story threads rather than a single epic story arc. And - well - it's cute. Just in case the name didn't give that away.

Since playing the first Cute Knight, I have discovered the Persona titles, which also perform a mash-up of Life Sim and RPG. Cute Knight Kingdom is heavier on the life sim, lighter on the RPG, and much more open-ended than the Persona games. I'm not sure which mix I prefer more. But I am finding this RPG "sub-genre" to be really, really addictive and fun. I want more, please.

I have added Cute Knight Kingdom to the Rampant Games store*, and I invite you to give the demo a try. Many of us in the U.S. are enjoying an extended weekend as of tomorrow, so it's a perfect opportunity. The demo only lets you go for six months into your career - pretty much up to the point where things are finally starting to get hopping and you can "get ahead" in life and choosing jobs and training based on where you want to take the Knight, instead of what you need to do to afford anything. It's a good taste of the game overall, though unfortunately it's also (IMO) the most difficult and least exciting phase of the game. But it's still fun, and gives you a good taste of what's in store.

You can check it out here:

Download Cute Knight Kingdom at Rampant Games!

As always, have fun! And let me know what you think.

(*And I was exhausted and half-asleep when I did it, so please contact me if there's anything awry).

Labels: Cute Knight, Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:14 AM (Permalink)