Together Retro: Beat-'Em-Ups

[noiseredux]

sort of on-topic... I find the whole Nicalis crossover stuff interesting, so it caught my attention that Code Of Princess is getting a re-release this year on Switch. As I dude who recently played through Guardian Heroes and found it pretty-but-meh, would I feel the same way about Code Of Princess? Probably, right?

[dsheinem]

sort of on-topic... I find the whole Nicalis crossover stuff interesting, so it caught my attention that Code Of Princess is getting a re-release this year on Switch. As I dude who recently played through Guardian Heroes and found it pretty-but-meh, would I feel the same way about Code Of Princess? Probably, right?

I think you'd like Code of Princess more

[Exhuminator]

sAs I dude who recently played through Guardian Heroes and found it pretty-but-meh, would I feel the same way about Code Of Princess?

I beat Code of Princess on 3DS back in 2016, rated it a 7/10. I liked it a tad more than Guardian Heroes. These were my thoughts at the time:

Code of Princess is a medieval fantasy beat 'em up, with very light RPG elements sprinkled on top. It tells the story of a scantily dressed princess and her rag tag acquaintances-in-arms, as they attempt to defeat an evil queen and her legion of possessed soldiers and monsters. You can fight through the main campaign as the princess Solange, or as a few of her fellow fighters. Playing as the other characters doesn't change the story though, it only gives you access to their new moves.

As you battle you will find new status altering equipment on the field, and have the ability to buy new gear from a shop owner. To handle the occasional difficulty spikes during the campaign, optional quests are available to grind for experience and equipment. You will have to carefully manage your equipment, and level up wisely, to handle some of the harder main campaign quests. Luckily quests rarely last longer than three minutes before you beat them, making Code of Princess well designed for portable sessions.

It should be noted that Code of Princess is a short game, easily beatable in under four hours. On top of that, the gameplay itself is very shallow, this is a button-mashing beat 'em up for sure. Graphically Code of Princess is decent with excellent sprite animation, but the 3D effect isn't particularly engaging. The music is nothing memorable, but the voice acting is consistently above average and there's a lot of it. (Except for Allegro who has an insanely annoying voice.) Once you finish Code of Princess, I doubt you'll feel the urge to replay the game as a different character other than Solange, considering nothing really changes if you do.

If you're a fan of goofy characters and silly plots, scantily clad heroines, and simple beat 'em up fun, I'd recommend Code of Princess. If you're expecting the RPG side of the equation to hold any weight though, you'll be disappointed. There just isn't enough code in this princess for that.

[noiseredux]

^thank you, helpful. It sounds like something I *could* enjoy, but not so sure I'll rush right out to get a copy.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I think Code of Princess is fun, but way worse than Guardian Heroes.

It's super-easy, repetitive, with button-mashing combat.

Levels are very short, some take like 30 seconds to complete. Levels can be repeated and the game encourages grinding.

The plane-hopping element is present.

Cute characters but no compelling reason to play as anyone besides the princess.

[Exhuminator]

Cute characters but no compelling reason to play as anyone besides the princess.

I'd wager the sole compelling reason to play is because of the princess.

But I'm just a simple man like that.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Well...I just beat Double Dragon 3. I took a. It of a break, thought through my strategies for the last level, and knocked it out pretty easily on my first attempt. I wil write about it more in the games beaten thread, but for now, I’ll just note that it is far-and-away the weakest game in the arcade Double Dragon trilogy.

[Curry-Time]

Cute characters but no compelling reason to play as anyone besides the princess.

coughcoughZozocoughcough

I didn't like Guardian Heroes too much when I played it with a friend (with multiple endings, too), so I didn't like Code of Princess too much either. I always appreciate Treasure's commitment to breaking genre conventions, but the plane system just feels restrictive to me in a traditional beat-em-up. Code also feels really slow to me.

[marurun]

Welcome, curry-time! Better late to a discussion than never

I always have to speak up to defend Guardian Heroes. I think the plane system was necessary to allow the game to be as precise as it was with all the special move inputs for attacks and spells, as well as to make blocking work well. It also enables the advanced juggling system in the game.

[Sarge]

Yeah, doing the plane system clearly helps with making the game feel more like a tournament fighter. I'm okay with it. I'm not sure I've ever legit beaten the game, though. My brother has, though.