Marvellous' upcoming Little King's Story for the Wii looks brilliant. A delightful fairy-tale aesthetic, gameplay that promises to be a hands-on version of The Settlers and cow knights? All exciting stuff. Made even more exciting by the announcement today of one of your rival kingdoms in the game. Which is...the Kingdom of the Drunkards. Led by King Duvroc, he "wishes for everyone in the world to be happy" and "thinks it's Mardi Gras all year round". Duvroc has a daughter, Princess Bouquet. She loves science. And is trapped in a pot. Once you beat Duvroc, "the princess will appear from inside the pot". Can't wait.

Pre-E3 2008: Little King's Story [IGN]

We've heard Xseed is publishing Marvellous' Little King's Story on the Wii this Winter (you can stop calling it "Project O" now), and between the gorgeous art style, charming look and the somewhat Harvest Moon-influenced gameplay blend of real-time strategy, adventure and RPG, there's a lot to clasp our hands in hopeful anticipation about.

Wait, there's more: The all-star team behind the game includes Yasuhiro Wada (Harvest Moon), Yoshiro Kimura (HM & Chulip), Youichi Kawaguchi (Dragon Quest VIII) AND Hideo Minaba, art director for FFXII.

I got to see an early demo of the kingmaking of little Corobo, the shy boy who the player must nurture into a wise and strong ruler.

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It's been announced at Nintendo's Fall Conference that Square Enix will be releasing a kooky spin-off of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles on the Wii. How is that kooky? Two reasons: one, it's a Wii Ware exclusive. So it's download-only. Second is that it sounds like it has a definite strategy vibe to it, with the player building and governing their own land. Sounds interesting. And different! At least one thing's old-fashioned Squeenix, though. The name. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Small King and the Promised Country. Ungh. Should be out in Japan in March, with Project O comparisons to follow soon after.

Nintendo Fall Conference Live Blog [Gemaga]
Nintendo Fall Conference Live Blog [Famitsu]

While chatting about Project O with producer Yoshiro Kimura at TGS, the topic of the game's art design came up. For a Japanese game, it's got a very Western aesthetic. Which is not accidental! The game's art style is designed to match the tone of the story: they want the game to feel like a Western fairy tale, so it has to look like one too.

Marvellous Entertainment weren't going to let us leave TGS without a parting gift: these screens for upcoming Wii Strategy/RPG/thing Project O. Enjoy them at your own pace at home, on the go, alone or with friends. There's 12 in all, so hit the gallery for the rest.

The second in the collectible series of 2, this Project O video... is really something. "I'm Apricot...umm...will you make me your queen?"

Shh. You had us at "umm".

Project O night continues! Earlier today, Luke got the pleasure of being the first Western journalist to see the newly dubbed Project O trailer, and now we're sharing it with you. Because what the world really needs is more knights riding cows. Go Poncho!

We just got to speak with Yoshiro Kimura, producer at Marvellous and man at the helm of their super-group Wii title, Project O (reports of the game being named King's Story are apparently premature, Kimura saying "no, that's not its name, we're still working on a name"). Which was largely exciting, as I'm largely excited about this game, even more so since he then said we the first Western journalists in to check it out.

Earlier comparisons, a lot of them based on the production team's pedigree from the Harvest Moon, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series, seemed to suggest the game was a a strategy title, a nice blend of Harvest Moon, Pikmin and Black & White. Those are... close, especially Black & White, but think more along the lines of The Settlers than the other two and you'll be getting warm.

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Yesterday, all we had on Project O King's Story was a handful of concept sketches and an armful of hopes and dreams. Today? Screenshots. Loads of screenshots. All from Famitsu, all featuring many small people and many blades of green, green grass. Looks cute. Like, Pikmin and Settlers got together and made puffy-cheeked babies kind of cute.

Bit hard not to get excited over Project O. Yasuhiro Wada (Harvest Moon), Yoshiro Kimura (HM & Chulip), Youichi Kawaguchi (Dragon Quest VIII) AND Hideo Minaba (art design for FF XII)? Oh my. My knees, they're trembling. Anyways, the game's coming along nicely, and even has a real name now! King's Story. Which fits, since you play the King, whose job is to roam the land giving jobs/orders to people, who will then just go off and do them. Think Black & White, but more cuddly, more adorable.
Project-O Officially Named King's Story [1UP]