Fat Princess has built a PSN legacy on charm, gore, strategic action and multiplayer chaos, but the series has never seen much in the way of narrative. Does a game premised on feeding cake to a princess to prevent her being carried away need an elaborate story and background context? Perhaps not, but it’s a great excuse for developer Fun Bits to introduce a tight cooperative experience in Fat Princess Adventures.
The sequel’s story mode tasks up to four players (via drop-in, drop-out co-op) with escorting the titular royalty through rather linear levels, facing varied enemies and traps along the way. The character classes this time around are Warrior, Mage, Archer, and Engineer, and each adds a complementary flavor to the proceedings. Class-switching stations peppered around the level allow players to switch with relative ease, suiting their mood or the level’s demands.
Generally speaking, a class’s traditional nature hints at its role in Fat Princess Adventures. The Warrior’s sword and shield are great up close, while the Archer can both deal conal damage from afar and powerful backstabs. In the level I played—a straightforward romp along grassy hills and coastline—explosives required an Engineer’s touch to dismantle. Maybe I missed a few in the chaotic action, but the class-switching stations seemed to be spread fairly thin. This, combined with the camera’s boundaries acting like invisible walls to keep the party together, incentivizes keeping a balanced party throughout.
Along the way, we faced ranged attackers, melee foes, and mini-bosses alike. In the level’s earliest stretches, the princess followed along, occasionally aiding with her own attacks. As minions, we could eat cake to restore health, but consuming too much pushed us to an overstuffed state with our attacks reduced to simple melee abilities. It’s great to see Fat Princess pushed to a more prominent starring role while minions take up the cake-eating mantle. Mid-level cut scenes introduce sub-quests like fetching an item, escorting a main character, or fighting through a side area to open a path forward. These scenes are voiced and charmingly animated, pushing the endearing quality of Fat Princess to new heights.
Several RPG elements further flesh out the cooperative experience. For starters, all levels branch off from a hub world. Here, you can spend coins to upgrade weapons and armor acquired as loot in the levels. There’s no player-specificity to item loot; a Mage staff or Archer bow obtained will be available to any player who switches to the associated class. Not so with gold—it’s first-come, first-serve with coins, fostering a competitive spirit beneath the surface. Some level of character customization will also be available, with gender, armor color, and facial features among the options.
I wasn’t able to play with these options or see the hub world in my demo, but the action was nevertheless fun and engaging. Each class having two attacks and an additional charged version of each is a big step up from the original game’s single attack per class. Bosses practically begged the use of both attacks. As an Engineer, I could lob bombs at Zug the Gatecrasher and move in for a heavy hammer swing when he’d turn to face a party member. Tactical depth is far from the highlight, and I suspect most encounters won’t pose much trouble to a party on their toe. But the combination of class attacks and weapon effects should both keep gameplay interesting and carve out identities for the classes so players can pick a favorite.
There’s much and more we still don’t know about Fat Princess Adventures, including the number of cooperative levels, how the traditional Red vs. Blue multiplayer has changed, and what story the cooperative experience is actually trying to tell. PSU will have those answers and more in the coming months, but rest assured that what’s new for the series plays well and looks great. Stay tuned to find out how the competitive modes that won Fat Princess her popularity shake out.