(By Paige)
Penny Punching Princess is a top-down 2D brawler by Nippon Ichi Software for the PS Vita and Nintendo Switch.
It’s available as a physical game in the US for $39,99, but Europe only got a download version for 39,99 GBP. Here’s our review based on a Vita review code.
Money is power. Money is justice.
It follows the story of the Princess who lost her family, her kingdom, her people to money. The Dragonloan Family manipulated the King into making bad investments and he died in “debt hell”. This hardened the Princess and now with her bug butler Sebastian she’s out for revenge.
The Princess’s move set consists of a light punch, heavy punch, push back attack, large push back, a roll dodge and hidden skill uses. Hitting enemies can enter them into a BREAK state which enables you to get more money out of them. There are two control methods, touch or button and given the calculator feature I recommend touch controls.
Must Be Funny
Prior to starting her journey the god of money, Zenigami, gave her a special calculator which gives us the key feature of this game, bribery. The Princess can bribe both monsters and relics (traps) by entering their price on the calculator and choosing them. Bribing a monster turns it into an item with a few uses. Bribing a relic, disables it and allows you to turn it on the monsters and damage them. If you bribe something before taking all it’s uses it is simply out of commission. The exception to this is the healing spring and the money gate. Most monsters are simply an attack however, life man heals you when used. Button controls have an auto target option to fill the calculator to a target’s price but it can be tricky to get the right one.
Fighting monsters refills the calculator and hidden skill gauges. This means it’s important to pay attention to and prioritise who and/or what you want to bribe. The Princess learns to use Coin Miracles which are random buffs made by entering whatever amount you choose into the calculator.
What’s That Smell?
Part-way through the game you unlock a second playable character. Isabella is the sister of the Princess’s late mother, she is also a zombie. Her attacks are similar but have a farther reach. She can still bribe enemies and use them by using an autofill radar. This however uses the Skull Gauge which can also be used to make explosives. I found her more fun to use.
In A Capitalist World
Not only is bribery needed to get through the levels intact but you can sacrifice your recruits to craft new armor or Zenigami statues. The money left over at the end of the level carries home to your castle for this purpose. However this means that every level starts with 0g so you don’t bribe your way through it all.
You acquire different hidden skills with different pieces of armor, and skill points with the Zenigami statues. Monsters, relics and remaining gold chests are shown on the side of the level select screen.
Zenigami statues are hidden in the golden chests which are found either by exploring or participating in an EX-Battle. Skill points and armor are the only ways for to improve. If you’re having trouble progressing, retreading to create new armor and Zenigami statues is a must.
Even A Lvl 1 Pleb
As with most brawlers, this game is more difficult than most modern games, even from the first chapter. The Princess has no lives, so the checkpoints are only at the start of each floor. This occurs even on a boss level, meaning that if you die you will have to go through a few battles to get back to it.
Most of the boss battles revolve around bribing the relics as that deals the most damage and avoiding/hitting the smaller monsters to get more money as the Princess cannot bribe Executives.
Each level also has a rating system that tallies up after each battle and totals for the mission score. I don’t really care much for scoring but when retreading levels to collect monsters it’s nice to rush through to get a better score.
My 2c
Penny Punching Princess is a challenging game. Monsters and relics, cluster the screen, largely to incentivise use of the calculator. The levels themselves (not counting boss levels), are fairly short not counting any deaths. There are some frame rate issues, that seem to be a bit random as it has happened to me early on, and then sometimes not at all in some areas you might expect it.
I found the soundtrack pleasant. I like the mixed art style with pixel characters, as it is cute, colourful and not trying to falsely emulate some particular era. The dialogue is also charming with running gags, and talking monsters in each level.
While the game has a lot going for it, the difficulty can feel cheap, as if to intentionally pad out the game. That said, some gamers will enjoy that it’s hard even from the first chapter. Asides from the introduction of Isabella halfway through, the game doesn’t change the mechanics or add anything different. This game doesn’t have auto-save so don’t forget that, this isn’t a game anyone wants to lose their progress in!
If you’re up for a challenge featuring a furrowed-brow Princess and her cute zombie Auntie then I’d say go for it.
Penny Punching Princess for the Playstation Vita scores a 6.5/10
A money focused game were the difficulty is “cheap”
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