Kings Bounty Armoured Princess - My personal short review

from Elemental Forums

Its been a year since the release of Kings Bounty and now the sequel Kings Bounty Armoured Princess is here.

 

Kings Bounty is a mix of Heroes of Might and Magic and a RPG game (yes, I know that its inspired by an old game called Kings Bounty that predates Heroes). In both Kings Bounty games you control a hero that preforms quests and explore land mainly by doing lots and lots of fighting. The fights are turnbased and a lot like in Heroes of Might and Magic. The fights are longer and more complex though, and thus more rewarding. You can play as a warrior, paladin or mage.

Slowly you get access to more and more areas to explore and there is a background story unfolding. I must say that I dont care much about reading all the text in the game and I mostly just read the part that says what I have to do. In the game you will find runes that you spend on a skill tree divided into magic, mind and might (related to mage, paladin and warrior).

What is new in Armoured Princess.

1. You now have a pet dragon instead of the box thingie in the first game. The do perform mostly the same, although the dragon is a very nice touch. He is extremely important in my game as a warrior and often do up to 50% of the killing.

2. In the quest descriptions there are now often picture of the offender that you (probably) have to kill. Great touch!

3. You can now have a follower that gives bonuses

4. You get rewards (medals) for different tasks (like 10 battles without a loss) and these gives bonuses as well

5. Travel between areas is easier, you no longer have to find a portal in the sea. Now you just bring up the travel map and click on destination. One strange thing is that the travel map and the normal ingame map is not connected and I was looking at the game map for a long time without finding out how to travel. I actually had to ask in the forum before the told me about a small button in the lower right corner of the game. Bad UI or I am getting old.

 

These new touches are all good in my opinion. Since I loved Kings Bounty, I strongly recommend that people buy Kings Bounty Armoured Princes (it is a stand alone game, not an upgrade). The graphics are great and the game is quality all around. My score is 9/10!

38,318 views 11 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I remember seeing this game, thinking it looked interesting.  I'll definitely have to check it out now!

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Yes, thanks. This one is on my list to acquire. I liked the previous game, King's Bounty Legends, but it had its tedious points. I did play a bit of the demo. I must play with that cute little dragon!

I think there is also a mod that makes party creatures and henchmen have bottomless supplies at the vendor. This I think is some kind of divine right!

KBL was incredibly well done, a lot of hand drawn art, really attractive. Very esthetic, very geek. Maybe a bit over the head of someone like me used to "americanized" games? I'm playing a bit of KBL now ... off and on.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm currently playing KBAP as well, and I'll quietly update the original review with a few observations, if I may. :)

1: Very 'chibi' - like dragon. Cute as a button. And quite powerful, yes; the rage system is an interesting mechanic.

3: Yees... well, that's not that new, in KBL you had a wife. Now you are a girl who can have one of several guys as .. 'companion'. Not sure if that's a big difference, except you don't get to make babies as far as I know.

4: The accomplishments thing is a nice touch, and makes sense in-game as well.

5: Kind of agree - I didn't have to ask anywhere, there's a small steering wheel on the minimap that activates 'navigation', it's real easy and works great, but you need to actually spot the darnthing. (Or read the manual). Still, that form of travelling is a HUGE improvement on the original.

And for the new points:

The new story is a ltitle more serious. Some of the humor of the original is missing, which is a bit of a downer for me - even if the humor was rather weird, it was fun. It has, possibly, shifted from a RPG spoof focus to a girl-as-hero thing, without making too much of a deal out of it.

A lot of things from KBL is reused - much of the units and even music is the same. The maps, areas, buildings,  etc. are entirely new though; there is enough new but I wouldn't mind seeing a few more changes.

On the local 1c KBAP forum, I posted a link to the official game info thread - if you jump in blind you are likely to hit a brick wall after a while, and that will make it annoying, so I do recomment you check the island toughness order, or you might well jump to a deathtrap. The difficulty is a bit messy; I found normal quite hard, but easy WAAAAY too easy.

Rerading this it seems a bit negative... I'm not. It's a game I like a lot. I do believe that if you like this kind of game you'll love it. :D

 

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Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

You got some valid points there. I will replay (mage or paladin) on harder difficulty after I finish on normal (warrior). I dont mind reusing units and such. Yesterday I met (killed) some Shamans. I relived nightmares about those dancing axes. In Kings Bounty I used them a lot in my own army.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

I got this game based on recs from this board, and this game is, like, awesome.   Yay, now I get to go back!!   Score one for unofficial reviews!

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Hahaha I never knew they re did Kings bounty! I played that On DoS when I was younger, and despite the massive technical limitations (all sounds came from the PCs Boot speaker, and by all sounds I mean beep beep beep) it was still very good. Ima have to look into this one. Thanks mate!

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

I've gotten to the first major boss fight in King's Bounty, but I REALLY want to start playing AP instead. Is the first game needed in order to understand the story of Armored Princess?

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Some people eat KEBAP instead of playing it. ;P

Seriously though that sounds kind of interesting. Guess I'll check it out...

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting ShaunMK, reply 8
I've gotten to the first major boss fight in King's Bounty, but I REALLY want to start playing AP instead. Is the first game needed in order to understand the story of Armored Princess?

 

You dont have to play the first game to understand the second. Still Armored Princess is slightly more difficult. I think the main reason for this is the new medals that you can earn. If you dont focus on them a bit, but just play as the first game then you are missing important boosts from the medals.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

KBL is an excellent game. Wonderful artwork, genuinely excellent game. I got the demo for Armored Princess but all the new stuff just did not grab me. Stuck in my rut, I guess. If I'm going to play, KBL still runs.