Developed by Artefacts Studio and published by Nacon, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is the latest entry into the ever-growing genre that is roleplaying, turn based strategy games. There have been many great entries over the last year, so how does Crown Wars: The Black Prince stack up against the competition and is it worth your hard-earned money.
In this dark fantasy medieval world, Crown Wars: The Black Prince, we travel back to the 14th Century France and revisit the 100 years war. Your reputation and house have fallen and it’s your task to restore that.
Whichever house you choose will have an impact on what battles you can fight. There are 4 houses to choose from, each of which gives different starting perks. For example, if you choose House Villantin then you’ll start with an extra Flayer (archer), better bows and consumables that suit that class.
After the tutorial you take shelter at a Domain which is owned by a close friend of your family and, after completing the next story mission, the game really starts to open up and show its true colours. In your Domain there are 6 areas to upgrade, all of which contribute to raising the level of your Great Hall. For people who like to rush through the story, I’d advise you to not to in this case as upgrading your Great Hall unlocks the ability to take 5 and then 6 companions in your squad, as well as being able to send an extra squad to battles.
Upgrading your Domain is controlled by 4 main resources; Gold, Steel, Leather and Wood. You can obtain these resources by fighting in extra battles before tackling the main story – again, sorry to the speedsters but doing these extra battles can be vital towards being successful in battles. Turn-based strategy games are notorious for sudden difficulty spikes and it’s no different here. This time though you can do something about it!
A big reason that people are put off by this genre of games is the difficulty spikes. People often don’t finish the game as you don’t feel equipped to fight off the difficulty spike. They wipe, retry it once or twice, then give up. This is where Crown Wars: The Black Prince can hold its head high for those that might otherwise struggle. Before attempting the main story missions there are rotating side missions, all of which give you those precious resources and more importantly, experience for your fighters. So, if you don’t mind grinding for resources and experience you can easily find yourself prepared for what’s ahead,
The way companions heal and die is slightly tweaked here and I can’t decide if it’s a good or bad thing. On the world map, once you’re past the tutorials you have the ability to fast forward by a day. If one of your companions was injured during your last mission, they’ll either need to rest a certain amount of days or spend time in the Chapel to mend their wounds if they fell in battle. Depending on which of the three difficulties you chose, a companion can only fall in battle a set number of times before being lost forever. So, unless you’re recklessly charging into battles you can just skip enough time so your squad is fully healed before sending them out again. Going into each battle with full health is obviously ideal but it does take away that conundrum of taking one of your better units at half health and having to tread carefully so you don’t lose them.
Another reason people can be put off is the way buildings and weapons are upgraded. II remember when first playing XCOM back in 2012 and as much as I was enjoying it, the construction of buildings and upgrades for weapons was my least favourite part. Thankfully in Crown Wars: The Black Prince this process is not complicated. Once you’ve unlocked them you just need to collect the resources needed to improve the building you want. Whether it’s being able to unlock more schematics for weapons and armor or more space for prisoners, with the ability to skip forward days you can make sure you’re not only levelled up but also geared up for the upcoming missions.
The main areas that let Crown Wars: The Black Prince down can be on the battlefield; I experienced a number of FPS drops during combat and the camera angles can often be awkward. During battles your characters can perform executions but they were sometimes blocked by other units standing in the way of the camera angle. Navigating the battlefields themselves can also be frustrating at times, it can be hard to find the tile you want or even click on an enemy. Whilst exploring the maps you can sometimes venture into buildings, but the camera angles don’t really favor this as it’s often difficult to click on the tile you want to. I’d also advise using the quick resume feature as my game crashed a couple of times, however the game does a good auto save feature so you won’t lose much – if any – progress if you want to risk it.
The combat itself was enjoyable enough, although if you grind enough then it can feel a bit ‘samey’. The battlefields do have an open-ish feel to them and you can prepare ambushes to put your units in favorable positions. Do be careful though as the AI are intelligent – if you lay down caltrops or set the ground on fire, they won’t just run through them do get to you so make sure you have all angles considered and don’t leave your ‘softer’ units exposed!
The only other negative worth mentioning is the lack of other game modes. Now, don’t get me wrong the campaign is meaty and in my opinion is worth the price at launch (£44.99 in the UK for the standard edition), but having experienced skirmishes and online multiplayer in other games in the genre, Crown Wars: The Black Prince could have used these modes to ensure players came back once the main game had been completed or even to dabble in them if they didn’t feel like progressing the story.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a game to start your love affair with tactical turn-based games, Crown Wars: The Black Prince is as good a choice as any thanks to the way healing and upgrades work. Despite a few flaws, I had a great time with Crown Wars: The Black Prince.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
