Princess Tale Review

A Royal Adventure

Move over, Mario—Princesses are saving themselves! Princess Tale is an idle RPG that has a cast of quirky princesses to collect and train. Korean developer Gamepub took an already successful game and brightened it up into a cutesy anime-style money maker. This title may be a close copy of a popular AFK RPG, but it still holds merit.

As stated, Princess Tale is an idle RPG. More RPG than idle, the main feature is the battle system that will unlock other features and princesses along the way. Daily challenges and rewards help players create a team that can power through the waves of enemies. You can acquire tokens that allow you to get random princesses or use rainbow crystals. These crystals can be collected from completing quests or bought with real money. During the beginning of the game, these crystals are easier to get without spending money.

The storyline doesn’t seem to be too important for gameplay. It’s there and you can read through many character backgrounds, but it doesn’t stop your progress through the game. Basically, you need to create a team of princesses that will defeat the evil queen, Cromynong. Your first encounter with her ends in defeat as you are told you aren’t strong enough yet. Princesses across the land have been bewitched and monsters are attacking people everywhere. Before each mission, you can read a small story that explains what is going on.

Battle Poses

Battles in Princess Tale could at times be fun to watch, but more often than not they were repetitive and boring. With the ability to turn on auto-battle, you don’t have to do anything but observe. This could be improved greatly if the speed could be increased more than just double. It’s not turn based like many other RPGS. Instead, it seems like a free-for-all. Both your team and the enemies rush each other and attack; traveling around while the fight is going on. There is a timer for each battle, but I never saw it reach zero. As your characters fight, they will gain SP and will unleash their special moves. This is where character choice is important. Some characters will have powerful multi-target attacks while others can heal or buff your team. Characters all have classes and elements. Certain elements will be stronger against others, but so far, I haven’t noticed a real difference. Taking note of an enemy’s element might be required when enemies are more challenging. Having a well-balanced team goes a long way into deciding the outcome of matches.

Throne Down

Princess Tale has an intricate main menu screen that has a lot going on at once. The anime-style designs make everything bright and lively. The main menu might feel busy at first, but it quickly becomes easy to follow. Most interesting is that you can see the chapters in the background. As you compete each portion, you will see your character marker move towards the end.

On the main menu screen of the game, your team will fight little monsters that will drop coins. The rewards from this will collect in a small chest that you can collect at any time. This is the idle aspect of the game. Having rewards pile up for your next play is a great way to help players when they get stuck in the main part of the game.

Princess Tale’s other features all relate back to the welfare of your team. As you progress through the chapters, buildings will unlock on the map. One allows you to combine extra characters together to increase their rank. This title offers the usual Japanese ranking system where the highest tier is S rank. Combining a couple “A” rank characters together can give you an “A+” rank. Doing this can lead to having the highest level for that character. This is a good way of clearing out your inventory of duplicates you get from drawing character cards.

Happily Ever After

Princess Tale seems like a great RPG adventure game with many features. However, it also has all the makings of a MMO that demands you unload cash to advance. Random character lotteries make this apparent. Especially since the developers state that players get an increase in rainbow crystals for the first week they play the game. Meaning that after the first week, they won’t be getting them as much as before. The lotteries make it harder for players to get the character they want. Even if you get it, you might get a lackluster lower tier and will need more to upgrade it.

Overall, Princess Tale is very straightforward. Saccharine anime-style design with many quirky princesses to collect to defeat enemies in automatized battles. Obsessive team building with endless levels to complete with other features merely overwhelming new players. This is a casual title that can entertain briefly while allowing you to advance quickly without much effort.