Nippon Ichi Software’s upcoming side-scrolling, “petit princess” beat-em-up Battle Princess of Arcadia’s September 26 release in Japan on the PlayStation 3 is out, and 4Gamer have shared a preview of the game.
In their latest video showcasing the various fights players can get into, we get confirmation that Plume doesn’t need to be the lead character all the time, with Kalos the lancer seen leading the charge in one map battle. There’s also some visual confirmation that yes, players can also swap between characters mid-fight. This will probably be how players can grind character levels up as they fight across the continent of Weltecs to protect princess Plume’s kingdom of Schwert.
During battle, smacking foes raises the SP (We assume that means Skill Points) gauge. A full gauge lets players unleash a special attack—which can be either the three-man massive finisher move or just a single character’s special attack. It’s worth noting that all three characters don’t have to be full. In the video, only Plume’s gauge was maxxed out when she called in her teammates to finish off some icy foes.
Battle Princess also includes portions of battle which involve your side’s army. In army-vs-army “Raging Brawl” conflicts, we’ve previously mentioned how players will select different branches of their army to fight in the background while foreground players beat on their own set of enemies. The video shows off how players will get intel beforehand allowing them to better pick their troop types – commanded by one of your allied commanders. Spear Corps troops, for instance, do best against archers, fair better against gunners and mages and are particularly susceptible to troops carrying around Final Fantasy Cloud’s Buster Sword.
Pitting the right type of troops against the other will show, with the big numbered tickers showing remaining troops for both sides’ chosen army gradually going down as they duke it out. Doing well in the foreground fight—by quickly beating up foes or cutting off the enemy leader’s head—grants morale boosts which can then be used to unleash each army’s special attacks. It’ll also be possible to tactically get troops to swap in and out.
Hyper Melee mode Boss battles are also shown off in the video, with Plume fighting against a gigantic red dragon. Unlike the main portion of the game, where it’s just three commanders versus a bevy of random enemies, here it’s Plume’s entire army pitching in to help. Admittedly, they’re mostly cannon-fodder, going down in a single hit, but they can do mega damage too when their own morale gauge gets filled and the bosses—called Ancient Weapons—shields go down. A quick button-mashing mini-game lets players unleash “Ultimate Arts” skills which are separate from a character’s own special attack gauge.
