Sega Genesis owners rejoice! Long have you envied the Super Nintendo's vast catalogue of quality RPGs while you have attempted to enjoy disappointments like Sword of Vermilion and Phantasy Star 3, but at last your time has come. Soon, your favorite console will see the release of Beggar Prince, a title that holds its own with even the best 16-bit role playing adventures!
No, you didn't just fall through a rift in time, and this is not an article from a 1992 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment Magazine. Later this year, Super Fighter Team in conjunction with OlderGames Development & Publishing is set to release Beggar Prince, the first commercially-sold Sega Genesis cartridge to be published in the United States in seven years.
Beggar Prince tells the tale of Steven, spoiled prince of the kingdom of Shatt, who has grown bored of his privileged status. One day he decides to escape his castle and switch clothes with a street beggar for a day of freedom among the commoners. Little does the prince know that the evil Cat Minister will use his absence as an opportunity to usurp control of Shatt. Barred from entering his own castle due to no one believing his royal heritage, Steven embarks on a quest to prove his identity and take his rightful place as heir to the throne.
Beggar Prince was originally released as Xin Qi Gai Wang Zi, a Taiwanese Sega Genesis title published in 1996. Super Fighter Team has worked with the game's original developers, C&E Inc, to give the game a full English translation and American release. We played an early version of the cart that had some bugs in it, but found the game to be an enjoyable throwback to the gloriously simple 16-bit days, before RPGs became bogged down with Materia Junction Spheres and other such needless complexities.
Gameplay in Beggar Prince is typical of what one would expect from early Japanese-style RPGs -- there are towns to visit, people to talk to, and randomly-encountered enemies to defeat. Beggar Prince, however, manages to distill these elements to create a more simplistic RPG experience than even the original Dragon Warrior has to offer. The game doesn't even have a money system; all useable items are looted from treasure chests, and all weapons and armor are automatically equipped upon discovery. Fortunately, this simplicity works in the game's favor, allowing the player to better focus on exploration and plot, rather than item organization and stat micromanagement.
The battle system is original and well implemented. To even the odds against the hordes he will face alone, the prince is granted several moves in battle before his enemies are allowed to attack. The number of moves you're allowed to make is represented by a meter that drains in degrees determined by the power of the attacks or spells used. After your meter is empty, the enemies get their turn, with their attacks being similarly constrained by a meter that is shared among the group.
Graphically, Beggar Prince is really quite nice-looking in comparison to other Genesis RPGs. The console's limited color palette is hardly an issue here, with some locations looking more like they were rendered using the Super Nintendo's superior hardware. The entire game has a look and feel to it that is most similar to the original release of Lunar: The Silver Star on the Sega CD. Details like the short, squat character sprites, the portraits that display during dialogue sequences, and your character's brisk walking speed will evoke fond memories in fans of Lunar, who will probably find a lot to like in Beggar Prince.
In the vein of Working Designs' take on Lunar, an attempt has been made to spice up Beggar Prince's dialogue for its English translation. The result is hit or miss; while the translated dialogue is entirely readable and free of grammatical errors, certain sections are overdramatic to the point of being hilarious. You'll shake your head at lines like "The pain I feel stems from deep down in my heart," and "The sight of your predicament sent me into a rage!" Intentionally amusing or not, though, the dialogue always provides an incentive to keep playing, if only to hear what the next dumbass villager is going to say.
Occasionally goofy dialogue isn't the game's only problem. About five minutes of Beggar Prince's music will convince you that none of the game's programmers gave a damn about sound design. The dungeon music in particular is an awful, instantly grating tune that becomes intolerable even before you get halfway through the first cave. You'll be missing nothing by muting the game and playing something -- anything -- else as background music instead.
These problems, along with some occasional gameplay repetition -- even the prince himself balks at the idea of going on yet another fetch quest at one point -- keep Beggar Prince from being as great as it could be. Otherwise, it's a solid adventure that will please RPG fans nostalgic for the 16-bit days of yore.
Rating: 4 of 5
