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Hello folks, this is my time of “Import Gaming Insanity”. I’ve purchased and received so many imports in the last few months that I just had to spread around the message to my fellow Saturn gamers. Before I actually go in depth into the review, maybe I should mention that my Japanese isn’t up to par (I can only read the Chinese characters), so there may be a few story elements that I say are so, but could be wrong due to my limitations in the language, so please bear up with me. By the way, after hours of play I discovered that little knowledge of the language is actually needed to advance far into the game. Okay, on with the review.

Story and game premise...
First of all, what the heck is Next King? Well, in all essence, it’s quite different from any other game I’ve played before. It’s a game set off in a far off land, I believe called Peachland(?), where the current king is getting old, but since he has no direct descendant, he is offering the throne to one of four possible men. That’s where you, the player comes in. You get to choose from four possible “princes”: a short magician type of guy, a long haired charming kind of guy , a wandering warrior type of guy, and the last one just seems like an idiot or joke character--reminds me of Dan from SF Alpha! As you can tell, each may have their own possible strengths and weaknesses. Now, here’s the fun part: to compete for the throne, you must actually gain prominence among the fair maidens of the land--that is, you must charm many young women who all have some sort of ties with the current king. There are 10 different girls (did I count right?), each with different professions and backgrounds, and each with different tastes to male friends. For instance, there’s this one nerdy wizard girl who doesn’t like fighters as much, so you best try to strut off your intelligence to gain her friendship. Yes... this is somewhat of a girlfriend simulator, but I wouldn’t call it a pure girlfriend simulator. I would say it is more of a “playa” or “mack” simulator, as you have to woe many women at once.

Doing so is not quite as easy as it sounds. Gameplay takes place in two formats: City wandering mode, and what I would like to call “adventure mode” (I’m sure it has a different name). In the city wandering mode, you basically stroll around the capitol, visiting the various girls (they each own a shop), try to increase your stats (trust me, you need elements like strength and intelligence to survive later) and flirt with the girls. Timing is crucial though; if you flirt with a girl and she obviously doesn’t have any interest in you, you waste a turn. There are certain tactics you must employ, like bear gifts for her first, and you even have to be careful with this, because you know how girls are very picky about gifts. Sometimes, the girls will leave their shops and come visit you! What is neat is that this game is set on a calendar date system--that is, days will pass by, and so will months. But don’t let time get the best of you, after all, all of these girls have birthdays, and if you forget to give them a gift...

The second mode is the “adventure mode”. Every now and then, you will have the opportunity to go out and do some exploring, but you won’t go alone. One of the girls will accompany you (it depends on who likes you the most), and so will the other princes and their dates as well. You will explore wacked out places, like eerie caves and deserted towers and the such. In this mode, you can actually find items and gifts (treasure chests are left behind everywhere!), and fight against enemies (yes, even eerie caves have the usual bunch of baddies like skeletons). By the way, you can’t die. If you face an enema and lose, well, you get sent back a few spaces, and your date will lose some love for you after seeing how wimpy you are. All of these places have a “check point”, where the objective is to try to get there as quickly as possible. Usually these places have other characters waiting there, like soothsayers and fortunetellers, and giving them gifts will help you with your relationship to the girls (sounds weird, but that’s how it is). After this, you must try to make it to the exit as quickly as possible as well. After all, you are trying to show your date that “We’re the best couple, so we can definitely beat the other couples to it!”. To really show off, you can even fight the other couples if you encounter them. Maybe I should have explained all this in the gameplay section... oh well.

So... how ‘bout some ratings now?

Graphics: 8/10
Very nice and colorful graphics. Yet nothing extraordinary. The city and adventure modes remind me a lot of Albert Odyssey. Characters are drawn in SD (big heads, small bodies) like most RPGs except in the closeup screenshots. The many closeups of the actual ladies and various other characters are all drawn very nicely in the traditional anime style, but they do not move very much (just blink and mouths open and close). The battle scenes are also done in SD. By the way, this game doesn’t have as much FMV as I thought. There is the opening sequence (nicely done Cinepak) and the rest of the FMV are the introduction (or farewell) sequences of each girl.

Music: 8/10
Nicely orchestrated BGM. All of it is PCM, though, but it still sounds great, and doesn’t get too redundant like some of the other sims out there.

Sound: 9/10
Ahh... this time there is a lot of talking going on. Don’t worry, the speech is all subtitled as well (that’s how I understood much of the game). And it sounds CLEAR, so that’s what’s important. I suppose this would be an ideal game for those learning Japanese, because there is quite a lot of speech and text at the same time. Plus, some of the reactions the characters have is just plain funny.

Gameplay: 2/10 or 8/10
Okay, this could either make it or break it for some of you. Playing the game doesn’t require too much skill. In the game, you space you move is determined by ROLLING DICE. Yes, that’s right, and that’s how one turn is determined. Then, if you are fighting, the damage you or the enemy does is determined by ROLLING DICE. Okay, and gaining stats and love from the girls are determined by... well, you know by now. What could be frustrating is learning that your enemies are all rolling sixes and fives while you get pretty friggin’ low numbers. What is relieving is that you can gain more dice as you advance in the game, and then you can see who gets the last laugh. However, many may consider this almost no fun... as much of the game is basically rolling dice. I however think it’s kind of cool, I mean I heard about games like this for the Saturn and PC Engine, but this is my first time playing a game like this, and it’s a very neat experience. Basically, I don’t mind it.

Addictiveness: 9/10
I found myself playing for quite a few hours straight, letting my Saturn rest, and doing the procedure over again. It’s fun and enjoyable to hear the king report monthly that “you are doing the best”, and seeing the other princes squalor before my knees. It’s always refreshing to see all the little hearts I gain whenever I give presents or flirt with girls, and one keeps trying to advance more and more on that. What is also very nice and something that’s been missing in most RPGs/sims is CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Here you have a chance to learn about many different characters, and as you gain their trust you gain info on their background. It’s almost (but obviously not quite) like meeting people in real life. Some of the girl’s lives are touching, like one female knight who seems to always wear a ridiculous looking mask. If you talk to her enough you will realize it’s been a curse, and if you have compassion (I hope you do), you will try to help her find a way to remove the mask. Things like this make you want to stay glued on the screen more. Anyway... overall I’ve played more than 40 hours already, and it looks as though I’m still not halfway through, so it’s safe to say that this game is even lengthier than your typical RPG.

Overall: 9/10
I received this game as a gift, and I didn’t know how I would react to it at first. I mean, this was my first real “alternative” sim--not war, RPG, or strategy--and I wasn’t sure that I had enough patience to go through any game like this. This game proved me totally wrong. I mean, the language thing at first could be a slight burden, because I only knew some of the text, but after some experimenting, I learned the controls, story, and objectives of the game. Even if I have a little experience in the language, I can say that language experience isn’t really needed to actually play and enjoy the game (enjoying the storyline, however...). Once I got past the language issue, the rest of the game proved to me that these types of sims are really fun.

I haven’t played any of Bandai’s other games, but I can probably say even without playing the others that this is probably their best game (I’ve read reviews for Gundam and Macross... oiyy). It has tons of humor, even if you don’t know Japanese, good music, great graphics, cool speech, and most of all, it’s addicting as hell. Also, this game is very clean--no nudity, not even risque or busty girls--but that could be a good or bad thing depending on your Laura Croft preferences. I haven’t played a sim this refreshing since Dragon Force, though it’s a completely different type of sim. Personally, I like this slightly better because the premise is new to me--courting girls to try to get the throne.

Feminists should be wary of this game--there may be an underlying message of “using women” similar to the theme in the movie “In the Company of Men”. I mean, the objective is to become King, but how? By actually courting (and thus using) these maidens.

End note:
It is doubtful whether many of you actually will want to buy this game. It’s obscure and it’s not the standard fighter/RPG/shooter/platformer. There’s also the language issue, as most of you are probably thinking you won’t enjoy the game as much if you don’t understand it. It’s also a game that may initially tick off female gamers, since these dating sims are a “guy” thing. However, once you get past and realize it’s more than a girlfriend sim, it doesn’t matter if you are a girl, you’ll still end up enjoying the game (like my sister did).

It’s all a shame, though, because games like this are truly a treasure, but will never get released here on ANY system. I only wish that American gamers would appreciate this stuff more so it could be translated. However, I doubt that will happen anytime soon. But if there is any chance that you get to play this game, don’t forget to remember that I told you it was a pretty good piece of work.

-Phil Shen
pshen@uclink4.berkeley.edu