The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Review

Disney may be having some trouble capturing that adolescent male demographic with their movies, but they seem to have found something with their games. After the success of Spectrobes for the DS, it's no wonder Disney has put a lot of oomph behind their latest role playing game. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a pretty solid, if just a little short, effort from first time developer Fall Line Studios. Prince Caspian is an action RPG based on the movie of the same name. It follows the story of both Caspian and the Pevensie children, who have returned to find a Narnia far different than the one they left. The game follows two plot lines: Caspian's escape from Miraz and the Pevensie's rediscovery of Narnia. Occasionally the game has the player flip the DS "book style" to read the story. Illustrations accompany each page and overall it makes for a pretty decent cutscene alternative. For the most part the scenes being skipped over are the slower, more narrative parts, but later the game does skip over some of the major battles, which is disappointing, and will likely be more so for someone that just came from watching the film. The battles that do make it into the game are the less epic fights that don't involve entire armies. Caspian and the Pevensies fight off plenty of Miraz's troops, as wells as orcs, werewolves and minotaurs. Rather than a turn-based battle system, the developers made all the battle touch screen controlled. Attacks are done by following on-screen commands. There are six class types in Prince Caspian and each one has a different touch screen attack. Players trace lines to slash with their sword, or play a bow and arrow target shooting minigame for the archery characters. Each attack time is well done and while some are definitely more fun than others, they all keep the player engaged in the battle. Through use of the forge system, players can upgrade individual characters to give them longer and more difficult minigames, which deal more damage.
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The battle system offers the player different strategic options for taking on enemies. Before an enemy attacks they glow orange, giving players an opportunity to rush in and intercept the attack (pausing the battle and zooming in for a cut scene). The recharge times for enemies and playable characters differ based on class, so choosing who attacks whom and when is crucial to avoiding unnecessary hits. In addition there are dozens of different items the player can use that do anything from deal damage to enemies to raising a character's forge level. Add on to that the team up specials that certain characters can utilize to deal devastating blows and you get a multilayered battle system not often seen in a game aimed at the younger demographic. The set up for battles is really very good, and is the highlight of the game. We wish the developers had put in a hard mode or something so that we could really test it, because Prince Caspian is a very easy game. What they do offer is a leaderboard set up (through the DGamer feature) that tracks the number of interceptions and perfect battles a player has. Getting a perfect battle against three orcs or werewolves is no simple task, and the fact that we can see how we stack up against other people online is a cool feature not often seen on the DS. It's a nice optional feature that caters to the more skilled player. The Chronicles of Narnia is a series known for its interesting characters, and thankfully the Prince Caspian game showcases them. There are over 15 playable characters in the game, and nearly every character from the film appears in some fashion. The game rarely constricts the player in party selection, so when we decided we wanted to play the game as the mouse and badger, with that Caspian jerk as backup, we were allowed to. The real fun however is switching the team up so that players can use the different skill sets and see the special attacks. All the characters earn some experience from battles, even when not in use, so it's easy to switch the team around without having a weakling party member. Outside of battles the game is not as polished or interesting. The characters are small and move pretty slow. It doesn't look nearly as good as the 3D battles, and it's a little jarring to go from kicking butt in stylized cut scenes to being a fairly undetailed speck on the screen. Much of the game is just walking from one place to another, fighting anyone who comes across the path. The main storyline is actually pretty short, and once it's completed there is nothing to do but start over. There are sidequests to complete which gets some of the characters to join the Narnia team, but they have to be completed before a certain point in the game. And while a lot of the sidequests don't affect the game at all, they are incorporated into a point system for DGamer. If players aren't interested in the DGamer function though then there is little reason for them to go through a pretty boring fetch quest experience for nothing. The idea of doing a bunch of sidequests just for achievements would be hard to recommend, except the DGamer system features in game items that players can earn. By exploring the world and doing the completing the quests players can earn costumes and accessories for their avatar. It's certainly better than just bulking a gamer score. The DGamer system itself is a neat feature that adds to the game's longevity. Players can chat locally or over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection with any players that own a copy of Prince Caspian (and later any other DGamer Disney game). There are customizable avatars that can wear costumes earned within the game, and leaderboards that track various aspects of the game like perfect battles and how many characters you've acquired.
Closing CommentsFor Fall Line Studio's first game, Prince Caspian isn’t half bad. It's clear that a lot of work went into making the battles cool, but it's a bummer that the rest of the game isn't as fun or engaging. It's a short experience, but if kids are into the DGamer stuff and want those costumes they could devote considerably more time into it, even play the game again to get some stuff they missed. I'd love to see Fall Line do an RPG aimed at an older audience, since they have a really good template for a great strategic game. At the very least the next Chronicles game should come with a mode for those of us that are too old to return to Narnia.