Update: July 31, 2008
«©NCSX» When Satan steals a boatload of treasure, someone's gotta steal it right back from the big galoot. Enter Anis, the "Steal Princess" who's brunette, not-really-royal, and light-fingered. Anise has a dominatrix-pirate vibe about her since she wields a whip and wears an eye-patch.
At the outset of the adventure, Satan's castle is shown with a purple glow emanating from it. Inside, Anis is at work, moving towards the treasure room with jumping action, a bomb, and stealth. A big boulder however forces her onto an underground river which washes her away. Although she didn't steal any treasure, she did gain a pixie companion by the name of Kukuri who appears over her like a purplish orb. Other interlopers into Satan's lair weren't so lucky.
News of her adventure travels far and eventually reaches the ears of the King. He approaches her one day with a request to rescue his son, the Prince, who's trapped in a very small cage inside Satan's castle. The prince may be seen at the beginning of the game guarded by two sentries as Anis is getting washed away by the river.
Anis eventually decides to accept the King's request and travels the land, fights monsters, levels up, and collects new weapons in a bid to save the hapless royal and attempt to rob Satan himself once again. Anis' whip may be used as a grappling rope to swing across chasms as well as a lasso to grab enemies and toss them to the ground. Her companion Kukuri wears a purple dress and boots which match her purple hair but her utility isn't evident in the early levels of the adventure. The game system features weapons that suffer from wear and tear, simple puzzles, and varying levels of terrain which offer attack advantages.
View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.
Relevant Link(s):
Shining Force III Scenario 1
Region-Free
Japanese NDS games may be played on North American and European NDS handhelds. There is no region-coding on Nintendo DS game cards.
NCS Game Notes
» Anis' adventure begins on Hammer Island which is shown on the top screen. Only one area of the map is available for exploration at the outset of the game but the other locales may be unlocked sequentially by completing the first area and subsequent locations.
» Control is handed through the D-pad or by touching a location on the touch screen. To jump, press the "B" button while the "A" button attacks. The "Y" button is used to pick up or drop items. In the first stage, you'll get a key which is used to open the lock to the northwest of the level. To open the box, hold the key overhead and just run into the lock. The key will be inserted automatically and the gateway to the right will be opened. Area completed.
» The first few stages are exceedingly simple to conquer but they'll scale up in difficulty as Anis makes her way through the game. The second stage is similar to the first one but crates are introduced which may be broken to reveal goodies inside and there are three enemy henchmen instead of one in the first stage. The third stage introduces swords that have different colored outlines. The enemy which wields the axe can only be damaged by the yellow sword. Kill him and you'll get the key to unlock the door. On the fourth stage, you'll learn how to tap on shimmering spheres so that Anis flicks out her whip and uses them to swing and scale heights. On the fifth stage, a lever is smacked to break open a crate and the sixth stage pits Anis against a huge wolf. It's not very formidable however and you'll just have to run circles around it and smack it about 8 times. It'll release a key that opens up the gate.
» Things get slightly more complicated in the seventh stage. Anis only has her whip in the beginning and the walls are too high to scale. The solution is to use the whip to grab one of the enemies and position it near the wall at the end of the stage. Anis can then step on top of the dizzied enemy and scale the wall to the other side. She can then pick up the sword to break down the three crates blocking the way to the gate and dispatch the enemies. The eighth stage gives Anis a metal shield which can be used to bash obstacles and bounce bubbles back at their shooters. In one of the later stages, Ania can use her whip to latch onto flying creatures and use them to reach higher platforms.
» Between each level, Anis and Kukuri will hold a short conversation that moves the story along.
» Climax developed the game for Marvelous under the supervision of Yoshifumi Hashimoto who recently worked on Valhalla Knights for the PSP. Climax developed a number of adventure games for Sega back in the day including Land Stalker, Dark Saviour, and the Shining Force games. Players who've enjoyed those earlier titles will find the format in Steal Princess familiar. The view is from an overhead isometric perspective and battles are fought in realtime with simple commands. Control over Anis is handled directly so we'd classify Steal Princess as an action-RPG that doesn't rely on menus to move and attack. All control is handled directly by the gamer.
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