The background story behind Pirate Princess is relatively simple at first, but it becomes more convoluted as the game unfolds. You start out as the daughter of a rich man who has gone missing. Your mother threatens to send you off to a polishing school so you forge your father’s signature and make off with a boat to find him. Along the way you find out your father has been taken hostage by a nefarious pirate and you have to work your way up to get him back. There’s more to the story, of course, but I won’t be giving any more away.
When I first opened up the game it popped up in this little window. I was surprised. I had expected it to take up the full screen and at first I was seriously annoyed. It felt like I was squinting to try and make out more than was being shown. After a while the small window actually proved to be quite useful for those of us that have this horrid habit of multitasking. I could have the game open, three of my messengers, and whatever else I happened to be working on right at that moment and not miss anything. The game itself also proved to be very good for being able to just get up and walk away if needed. Unless you are in a battle or moving from one point to the other on the map you are able to do what you need to do and then come back to the game when you’re ready.
The artwork in the game is very, very simple. That does seem to go along with the casual feel of the game, but after a while it starts to look rather washed out. The colors are dull and lifeless. For those of us who are easily distracted and captivated by pretty, shiny things this game definitely lacks ‘oompf’. The font for the quests also managed to irk my nerves. It’s a lovely font, and I do enjoy it when it’s used sparingly, but having to read it over and over made my eyes hurt. The makers of the game could have chosen to use that font for some things, but one that was much easier to read for the bulk. That would have made me much happier.
You are able to choose which difficulty setting to play the game, and fighting in the game is purely an intellectual feat. You are given nine letters and it is your job to come up with words from those letters in order to do damage to the other ship. I’d recommend not playing the game on hard if you aren’t quite fully awake yet. I did get my butt kicked a few times doing that. It’s a challenge to find different words, but if you are good at games like Scrabble you’d probably enjoy this one. One thing that is very different about this game than most other games is you are fighting your opponent in real time rather than turn based. It adds a certain rush to the battle.
In battle there are a few tricks you can pull. There is a way to repair your ship, lower your enemy’s defense, steal letters, and a variety of other things. The harder bosses actually do require a bit of strategy when fighting them. One of my favorite things is when you use a “pirate word” the word does more damage. Words like “rum”, “mate”, “ship” and such do an enormous amount of damage to the enemy ship, and it helps to get you into the pirate mindset. Makes me feel like plundering some booty. Arr.
Your character (Lucy) does gain experience, and you are able to get certain abilities the higher your level. You can also put points into various stats such as defense and attack. If you find that a certain fight is too difficult, you are able to head over to any of the various other ships that pop up along your route to gain experience. There were times that I actually did have to do that. That was another surprising feature about the game; it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
Since I am the type of person that likes to get totally immersed in a game and play it for hours on end, this was not my favorite game. There just wasn’t enough meat to it to warrant getting lost in it. For someone who prefers a game that you can play for a bit and then walk away from, this is a relatively good choice. It has good points and bad points. It wasn’t my favorite ‘casual’ game, but it wasn’t my least favorite either. I suppose it gave me more of a lukewarm feeling than a “Holy bajeesus! I need to play that again!” feeling. For a game that doesn’t really claim to be anything more than it is, it’s pretty good. Would I play it again? Maybe if I was looking for a way to kill some time. It wouldn’t be one I would play just because I wanted to play.
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Kiss Rating: Totally platonic, but still kinda nice.
Publisher: MoonPod
Developer: MoonPod
Release Date: 11/18/2009
Platforms: PC
Played On: PC
