"Where were you a decade ago?"

It is difficult to discuss the quality of Beggar Prince without placing it within the proper context. It is a Japanese-styled turn-based RPG for the Sega Genesis originally developed in the late '90s. This is important in realizing that this is not a wholly new game, but rather a port of a Chinese game carefully translated and domestically released in 2006, long after the death of the Genesis console from a retail standpoint. The inevitable question is whether this is just an anachronistic curiosity or a quality game that can stand alone on its own merits... let's rock.

Story: The story of Beggar Prince is of a similar quality to a mid-'80s Saturday morning cartoon. It's a little far-fetched, but adequately sets a valid premise for the game based around the story of the Prince and the Pauper. There are few twists or turns, and those that exist are fairly predictable. The translation, while clearly editorialized, entertainingly relates the story through conversation with NPCs. Beggar Prince rarely deviates from its primary storyline, featuring almost no subplots, yet maintains enough focus to keep a player involved long enough to complete that story.

Rating: 5

Graphics: This game does more to impress with its town graphics than in any other aspect of the game. It has a solid amount of detail, blowing away most Genesis offerings in the same genre, and colorful environments of a broad variety. The animation, though, leaves a bit to be desired, as the enemies (most of whom are palette swaps) share between them only a few different attack animations, and those have only a few frames of animation themselves. The main character's spells, though, do have some neat effects added in. The character dialogue portraits also look very nice, and add some personality to the NPCs with their facial expressions.

Rating: 8

Sound: The music in this game is appropriate enough not to take you out of the game, but is entirely forgettable as a body of work. There are no truly memorable hooks or songs that really add much to the overall experience, but they don't detract, and are thus acceptable if inoffensive.

Rating: 5

Control/Gameplay: Beggar Prince features an overhead perspective 2D RPG with all of the standard controls native to that genre. Menus are easily navigable, movement is responsive, and the challenge excellently proportionate. A player never really has to stop to build levels, and boss fights sans such building are challenging and involving. The negatives include the game graphically glitching and sometimes freezing when a random encounters as the character is exiting a screen, animation glitching with the final wand weapon's second level attack, and little variation in enemy weak points, which never really forces the player to utilize the vast majority of the inventory. The item list is small but at least not littered with pointless items, but weapons are automatically equipped, meaning that if you find them out of order, you're stuck with the weaker weapon. Be thorough in your exploration or you might regret it. The battle system is somewhat unique in comparison to its contemporaries, using an action point system for both the player and the monsters, meaning that the monsters and you get the same number of attacks regardless of how many enemies there are. It becomes very relevant as to which monsters to eliminate first in order to remove their stronger attacks from the mix.

Rating: 6

Overall Rating: The Sega Genesis simply does not offer the selection of RPGs that the SNES does, and this game does nothing to change that fact. It is, though, an upper-tier RPG amongst its peers on the system, and remains engaging throughout its quest. It is a curiosity... but is also a quality game that fans of RPGs from the era should consider if they feel like this particular form has been lost to time, as it faithfully represents that genre in an entertaining way.

Score: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/07