Sega Nerds

Review: Beggar Prince

Posted by George. Filed under George, Retro, Review. Tagged with Beggar Prince, Genesis, Mega Drive.

Beggar Prince is a English translated version of a Taiwanese RPG, released over 10 years ago on the Sega Genesis, but we have finally received this lost gem thanks to Super Fighter Team.  Was this game worth the wait?

Hit the jump and find out.
Packaging…

The first thing that struck me as original, about this game, was the packaging. This is pretty much a homebrew title, so you’d expect low budget packaging.  Well I’m glad to say, this is not the case.

It seems that Super Fighter Team went all out.  Looking through the game case reminded me how much better the packaging on the Sega Genesis was compared to that of the Super Nintendo. The game comes in a plastic case like all the other ones released in the early 90’s and comes with a 27 page full color booklet. Most publishers now (including Sega) print black and white booklets, so its refreshing.

The game comes in a clamshell cartridge with a nice label for the game placed on it. The cover art was different than other art I saw for the cover. I’m assuming its because this version of the game is the second (or third?) printing.

The only thing I can say negative about the packaging is the transparent plastic that houses the cover sleeve is too smooth, compared to other Genesis games officially released.  It just has a different sort of texture.

I know this is just me being picky, but I’m a Sega Nerd. The packaging gives you a flash back to the past when you were a kid and had to convince your mother that buying you Sonic The Hedgehog 3 was a good investment.

Graphics and Sound…

This game looks excellent, I’m rather surprised. I expected to look ok, but not this good. The game features some pretty nice effects when you use spells. No FMV (not that the Genesis couldn’t do it mind you) but some nice effects that you’d expect in a 16 bit RPG.

The graphics are so good that I think it rivals Sega’s Phantasy Star series on the Genesis. The music on the other hand was rather repetitive, though I did expected this. Most Genesis games had repetitive music and it’s now (sort of) painful, since we are all used to having huge soundtracks, in the modern age of technology.  And I didn’t find the music in the game to be all that outstanding either.

Story…

The game’s story isn’t original and it won’t blow minds away. The game is based on the classic tale “The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Tawin but with a twist.

You play as Prince Steven who is taking Magic classes but is bored of living as a Prince. So he decides to escape and explore the city, while he is running he runs into a beggar that looks just like him. He convinces him to switch clothing and roles for the day, so he can explore the city without the interruption of the guards.

After he switches he finds out people treat beggars like ass, so he decides to go back to his former life. I guess its a lesson, you don’t know how good you had it till its gone. When he arrives the guards need prove that hes the prince, so they send him on a fetch quest.

After this short quest you find out that Cat Minister is trying to turn the whole town into cats. I always say not to trust a furry. But he does have a nice mustache, so awesome. He holds the fake Prince and King captives, the only hope to saving the Kingdom of Shatt is you.

Gameplay…

Regardless of some questionable decisions within the game, I still find it solid for the most part. The magic is set up as your average elements that everyone should know. Light defeats dark, water defeats fire, and wind defeats earth.

The game also has random encounters as fights, but I knew this going in. But I know some people out there don’t like this in their RPGs. I have no problem with it.

The fighting is done through a stamina bar, when you do a move it drains down and magic drains it quickly too. So you have to choose wisely what you do so you won’t use up your stamina. The game doesn’t auto level like most old RPGs, meaning if you go into a area that you are not ready for, chances are that your ass will be handed to you. One thing that I found happening was being low on health a lot, so its a relieve when you find a water fountain in a dungeon.

Conclusion…

I find this game to have its moments of fun, but also moments of frustration. In the end, its a fun RPG and bringing out my Genesis from my closet was great fun.  Having a Genesis game come out with packaging this good is (very) rare . I only hope that Super Fighter Team decide to bring out other releases to the Genesis. I’ll also be looking forward to Zaku.

The game features some interesting monsters, big land scape, and excellent graphics. I only wish the team would have redone most of the music for the game. The game comes in 32 meg cartridge. This might not be impressive today, but back in the early 90’s this was a big deal in the fanboy wars!

You have to give it up to Super Fighter Team for the good translation and localization of this title. I hope they continue to put this much effort in their packaging for future games.

Rating: 7/10 – Very Good

Make sure you support Super Fighter Team by snatching up your own copy of Beggar Prince at their website. The new version is improved, fixing some glitches the previous games had and now working on more devices. This includes Nomad, 32X, CDX, X’Eye, Laseractive, and etc. With an estimated 900 copies circulating, thats reason enough to own this game.

[Images: Super Fighter Team]