“Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you Fool! […] You aren’t nearly through this adventure yet.”
– Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit
Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) is a Japanese video game developer and publisher that was founded in 1991. They develop mostly role-playing games and have grown significantly since their founding. NIS America was founded in 2003 to bring their games to North America. In 2007, NIS America expanded to publish games in other regions around the globe, including Europe and Australia. Their latest,The Cruel King and the Great Hero, is an RPG/adventure game with turn-based combat that is available on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
Not everyone wants to go out on an adventure, beat up monsters, and be home by sundown. I personally would rather be playing the adventure in a nice cold room with a bag of SunChips and a refreshing glass of ice cold water. However, Yuu, the main protagonist of The Cruel King and the Great Hero, is a child who would rather go out into the world and defeat monsters while on a grand adventure. In this colorful handcrafted world, Nippon Ichi Software tells the story of Yuu’s adventure to do one thing: Help those in need. Oddly enough the creatures in need are also monsters who have become good. Yuu also must try to keep the good monsters on the right path while also stopping bad ones from continuing to hurt their new reputation.
The 8-bit Review
Narrative: 6/10
One of my favorite things about video games is being transported to a new world and learning about its lore. The Cruel King and the Great Hero has a world inhabited by monsters, both good and bad. Some time ago the evil Demon King burned down villages and terrorized humans. A great hero fought him and won but was mortally wounded. He entrusted the new ruler, The Dragon King, with his child named Yuu. Many years later and the Dragon King is trying to keep order while setting a good example for the young girl. Yuu is determined to become a great hero like her father and begins training with only a wooden stick and a dented pot on her head. Soon enough, Yuu wants to go out on her own adventure and help the good monsters of the village. Her journey sends her to dazzling crystal caves, snowy mountain tops, and honey-covered forests. Unknown to Yuu, the Dragon King is always watching and helping her from the shadows.
The narrative in The Cruel King and the Great Hero is serviceable, meaning that it lacks a twist that you couldn’t see coming. Cutscenes in the game are narrated by Japanese voice actress Reina Kondo who does an excellent job changing the tone of her voice for different characters and emotions. The translated text appears on-screen so that you can read along if you do not speak Japanese. During gameplay there isn’t a narrator, but I found myself matching the tone and style in my head in which she would speak. There are a lot of fun characters you will interact with, and some will give you side missions, pieces of lore, or directions. The game is divided into several chapters, each having a main plot to follow and a handful of side missions to accept. With each mission you complete, you’ll earn shells and usually an item. Shells act as the currency for the game and can be used to purchase consumables or equipment. As you journey through each section of the game, you will sometimes have an ally join you. The first character who joins your party is a yellow snow fox named Rocky. He can unearth buried objects in the open world and is a fast attacking character. After you are done with Rocky’s section, you’ll meet two other allies with unique skills and abilities to help Yuu continue her journey. These allies will level up, improve their stats, and receive new skills just like Yuu.
I did like the story but wasn’t blown away by anything in particular. It follows a simple story-telling method, which could tie into the story-book aesthetic, that made it easy to predict where the plot would go. I enjoyed talking with the characters who gave side quests as each one had fun personalities and short stories to tell. One of my favorite series of side quests involves two factions, the sheep and the wolves, who keep stealing from each other. Yuu talks to the leaders who seem stuck in their ways, but the monsters under them want to be friends with some already hanging out in the village. The mission has a satisfying ending and the dialogue presented throughout was charming. Every so often the written dialogue would not fit its speech bubble, this seemed to happen more often towards the end of the game and caused some lines to be unreadable.
Gameplay: 4/10
There are two main elements at play in The Cruel King and the Great Hero and both of them fall short of expectations: the open world and the combat. There are three main stats in the game you’ll need to pay attention to: stamina, energy, and speed. All of these will automatically be raised when you level up after earning enough experience points (or XP). Unfortunately, you cannot see how close you or your allies are to the next level. At times I would heal my party towards the end of the battle only to level up after defeating the final enemy in the group which would automatically heal everyone. Although buying healing items is not expensive, this still causes the battle to last a bit longer. Stamina is your health statistic determining how much damage Yuu can take before fainting. Fainting will take you back to the main menu and you’ll have to retry from your last save.
Energy is expended during combat to use skills which can be powerful attacks, special abilities, or unique tactics. Skills like the fire sword, which is a single strike that deals more damage than a regular attack, cost more energy. Other skills like hiding to make your character more difficult to hit add status effects and require less energy. Status effects appear above your character and each one has a different meaning. Some examples of status effects are a wing to show that your character is harder to hit, a group of small stars to show that a character is stunned, and a drop of sweat that reveals when a character is out of energy. You regain one energy each turn so using skills at the correct time is crucial.
Finally, speed determines your attack order during an encounter. The higher your speed statistic the more quickly you can attack in battle. Having a high speed stat is crucial later in the game when enemy attacks inflict more damage or harsh status effects. Another issue I have with the combat is not having a visual showing the order of battle. Although this is not a requirement for Turn-Based games it does help a lot to show the order in which enemies or allies will attack when figuring out strategies. In general, using an item will always be done first, then smaller enemies will attack, and finally larger enemies. At times I noticed an inconsistency with this order which caused frustration, especially when this caused an ally or Yuu to faint. Having some sort of visual in the corner of the screen to show the order would improve the combat and help with executing strategies more effectively.
As stated before, The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a turn-based RPG. This game utilizes random encounters to begin combat; the enemies do not appear on-screen when you are journeying across the map so it is almost impossible to avoid them. To help with this the developers made the map a series of rectangles of various sizes connected by doorways. Each area has specific enemy types and configurations that do not change. Knowing exactly what configuration you will get in each area of the map trivializes combat and you’ll begin to find yourself going through the motions with each encounter.
This is a problem that only worsens through the game when having to retread through the same areas multiple times, both for main story objectives and side missions. I didn’t want to avoid combat completely through these areas because I needed the XP to keep up with the level of the enemies. The not-so-random enemy configurations combined with the linear side-scrolling map design started becoming a relentless slow-paced grind very early on. I felt myself becoming bored of the repetitiveness of encounters and dreaded going through certain areas.
A tactic you can employ during battle is guarding. When a character is guarding the damage they take from an attack is cut in half and they will also regain twice the amount of energy. You can also try to run away from an encounter. How many enemies are in the battle and what level they are determines whether you can run away or not. If you run away from battle Yuu and her allies will not gain any XP or money. There is another tactic that is a lot like something you would do in Undertale. By using the release skill you can try and let an enemy with low health go. Doing this allows the battle to last less time and can net you some extra goodies. Once you are at a high enough level Yuu will be able to run instead of walk through areas. This will decrease the number of encounters while also allowing you to travel the map a little bit faster. To run you simply have to move your joystick all the way to the right or left but this doesn’t always work. I think that having a dedicated run button could have made this less tedious.
Unfortunately, there is not much replayability in The Cruel King and the Great Hero because there is no new game plus or other reason to go back through it. I dread the idea of running back through the areas in the game fighting the same enemies, leveling up from scratch, and redoing side missions. Most, if not all, of the side missions are simple fetch quests that can have you going back through entire areas to pick up an item or defeat a specific enemy. I did find the dialogue fun and engaging but the missions themselves were not enjoyable to do. I don’t see myself returning to this game in the future.
Visuals: 8/10
The hand-crafted world of The Cruel King and the Great Hero is very pleasant to look at. The game has a storybook aesthetic that takes its artistic inspiration from the Little Golden Books. Beautifully drawn backgrounds surround Yuu as she travels through various locations like a deep lush forest, a cold snowy mountain top, a damp crystal cave, and, my personal favorite, a golden underground cavern dripping with honey.
In each area there is a looming figure in the background, the Dragon King can be seen constantly watching and cheering on Yuu. In secret, he’ll interact with her during combat, lighting her sword on fire for one of her skills. In the open world when Yuu has a boulder in her path, he will destroy it with a blast of fire as her sword touches the stone. Things like this add to the overall charm of the game and give you a sense of the world.
Uniqueness: 4/10
Unfortunately, The Cruel King and the Great Hero doesn’t do anything that I haven’t seen in a turn-based RPG before. I loved learning about the world and exploring the different areas but nothing that I ran into was foreign to me. The art style is reminiscent of The Banner Saga and the combat doesn’t have anything I haven’t seen before which makes it feel barebones. Having The Dragon King follow Yuu around in each area while secretly interacting with her is the most unique part of the game’s mechanics. Where the game shines is in the monster designs, they are wonderful and present some fun concepts that I really enjoyed. There are half-bear, half-bee creatures covered in honey, round frogs with flowers on top of their heads, rabbits holding carrots as weapons, baby dragons sleeping in bubbles, and so many more. I would have liked to see this level of imagination with other aspects of the game too like giving the combat more flair or having a fun visual when Yuu runs.
Audio: 7/10
The soundtrack for The Cruel King and the Great Hero is really well done. Each area you travel to has specific songs that add to the overall vibe of the game. The music combines orchestral arrangements with a whimsical style to craft the perfect sound for Yuu’s travels. Sound effects in the game are similar in tone: when you defeat a racoon they let out a comedic squeak. Noises from attacks sound weighty and fit the character perfectly. I wish there were a few more tracks like the final boss fight that combine the orchestral score with more modern electronic instruments but I understand saving that for the grand finale.
Challenge: 3/10
Difficulty cannot be easily measured but personally, I found the game to be fairly easy. Besides from a few boss fights mixed in I found the combat to be overly simple which caused the game to be easier than I feel the developers meant for it to be. The overabundance of shells that you receive and the ability to hold as many healing items as you can buy caused the difficulty to not be a factor. Even during the final section of the game, I found myself able to heal fully in any situation and hold out against tougher enemies. During my playthrough, I only had one ‘game over’ which was midway through. I would also like to reiterate that the enemy combinations are not random for each area which also trivializes encounters in general.
Accessibility: 6/10
As stated before, The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a simple game that has a limited amount of challenge but this can also be a positive aspect. Having the game be more simplistic in areas opens the door for a younger audience to enjoy the game. It’s very easy to pick up and learn how to play. I was able to quickly learn the concepts and ideas presented early on. With this in mind, I would have liked more descriptions for status effects, this would make it easier for a younger audience to understand what each symbol means and ways to counteract them. In general, The Cruel King and the Great Hero would be a great experience for someone learning how to play turn-based games. While it doesn’t build on the combat or exploration, you can become more comfortable with the basics of the genre.
Personal: 4/10
All in all, I had a mixed time while playing The Cruel King and the Great Hero. I enjoyed the story and dialogue a lot, with its cast of colorful characters each with unique personalities. The narration and visuals mixed very well with the overall story-book aesthetic. I really enjoyed the design of the monsters and liked the idea of The Dragon King being ever-present watching over Yuu. The combat and exploration are very basic and missing some quality of life features that would improve the experience like a dedicated run button and a visual to show the order that characters will attack in during combat. I found the exploration to be sluggish and the random encounters needed to have more variety. A younger audience or someone learning how to play a game in this genre may find more enjoyment with The Cruel King and the Great Hero. The themes and features may resonate with them more along with the more simplistic combat and exploration.
Thank you to Nippon Ichi Software and NIS America for providing a copy of The Cruel King and the Great Hero for this review!
Aggregated Score: 5.2
YemmytheFerret (Yemmy) is a podcast host for shows like Ferret6r4, Fubar Ferret, and Film Freakz. He is also a variety streamer on Twitch who currently lives in Ohio. He plays a bit of everything but loves platformers, shooters, and action RPG’s. Favorite Game: Banjo-Kazooie.
