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

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.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the beautiful watercolour-pencil style of the cute, humorous cutscenes (we published the trailers a while back) – and how well they transitioned immediately into the brightly-coloured game world. I watched as a wacky looking old knight came riding up on a cute, bulbous cow (yes, it was the much-revered Harvest Moon cow) in his search for the true king.

Corobo then discovers a crown, suddenly prompting his friends to prostrate in homage. Next thing you know, you’re in a throne room, and as you start the game as a level one “rookie” king, your mailbox soon fills up with all sorts of mundane requests, like getting rid of a red mushroom that’s annoying the townsfolk, or filling in a mysterious hole behind someone’s house.

In the scene I watched, the charming, fancily-mustachioed Bull Knight explained to Corobo that the neighbouring lands are under siege by Oni devils and under the rulership of false kings, which, of course, it falls to you to rally your folk to deal with. Any time you want to know the state of your kingdom or what needs doing, you return to your throne.

But, of course, you’re the King, so you don’t have to do this dirty work yourself. Waving your sceptre at townspeople will recruit them to your aid – you can have a few or up to a throng of fifty following you from place to place, ready to do your bidding. Many townsfolk will have different specialties; for example, a team of carpenters will build something when instructed much faster and more efficiently than a group of regular individuals.

You can often earn respect by completing these quests; the more renowned you are as a ruler, the more people will obey you. And your obedient subjects are not just faceless nobodies. They’ve got HP and attack points, can gain in abilities, and will even show their relationship status – given enough time, your townspeople will marry and propagate. If you don’t treat them well, though, if you battle too recklessly or work them too hard, they can permanently die, and as their King, you’ll have to attend their funerals. That could be very interesting.

What I saw was mostly exposition and early stages of play, but this is a title I’ll personally watch with enthusiasm, because life-sim/adventure hybrids rate pretty high up among my favourite genres.

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

Shh. You had us at “umm”.

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.
Essentially you play the role of a small boy who is made King of the land. And you now have to govern said land by bossing your subjects around. Sounds simple (which is the point, the game’s setting and art style being heavily influenced by European fairy tales), and plays simple, but again, that’s the point: Kimura says the main objective of the game was to make a title that could be enjoyed by the whole family, which isn’t exactly common for a strategy game.

Players take control of the King. Personally. You move the little guy around the screen and he serves as the personification of your orders, telling villagers to build things, follow him, attack monsters, etc. This not only gives the player direct involvement in the game (it’s “similar to an RPG, where your character grows stronger and more effective”), but removes the need for menu screens, something the development team thought was necessary.

That’s about where the concrete information dries up. The game is only 30% done, despite over a year of conceptual design and six months of development time, so a lot of things are still up in the air, including whether the King will age/grow and just how the control scheme will take advantage of the Wii Remote. Calm breaths waggle haters: Kimura promises that they “don’t want people shaking the Wii Remote just for the sake of it”.

Project O is a Wii exclusive, as Kimura believes the 360 is “too much of a hardcore system”, while he “doesn’t really like the PS3″, as it’s too difficult and expensive to develop for. That and the Wii is played by all ages in Japan, bringing it into line with their vision for a strategy game for the family. It’s due in Japan around Spring 2008, with a Western release promised soon after.

王様気分を満喫!!　『王様物語』[Famitsu]