Rhaposdy II Ballad of the Little Princess Gameplay Preview – The musical adventure returns

Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess takes place after some years have passed following the events of the first Rhapsody game. You play as Kururu, the daughter of Cornet, as she ventures forth to find a dashing prince of her own.

Now I didn’t manage to play the first Rhapsody game, although it was on my wanted list way back in Playstation 1 era (it was a hard to find the game back then). Somebody did drop by my stream and mention that the first Rhapsody game was a turn based tactical role playing game whereas this second game is more of a traditional turn based RPG (thanks keif).

I have no frame of reference to compare the second Rhapsody game but from what I have played I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ballad of the Little Princess is a very charming and silly adventure with a narrative that feels very structured and easy to understand.

Even though the game came out during what I consider the peak of classic Japanese RPGs, it actually breaks from the standard formula in a way that I find endearing. When I think of older JRPGs, I usually think of ten hour introduction sequences with tutorials, convoluted (but amazing in my opinion) plot lines, and anywhere from sixty to a hundred hours grinding to 100% the game. I don’t mean any of this to be demeaning by the way, I used to be a very big fan of the genre to the point that I would only play these types of games and the Playstation 1 was my favorite console.

Rhapsody II does away with a lot this and instead presents itself with a very easy to follow structure. The game is divided into acts and each act takes around an hour to two hours to complete. You can spend more time to collect all the puppets or power level if you wanted to but otherwise the acts are nice and concise.

Each act has a clear beginning, usually with Kururu escaping her castle to go out on an adventure with her childhood friends Crea and Randy. Kururu always manages to get herself into some shenanigans, intersected by random musical bits. Yes you read that correctly, the game frequently breaks into musical routines; the game is a musical adventure after all. As a side note, while the voice acted lines of dialogue do have an English dub option, the musical routines are all in Japanese.

While the game does have the traditional element of very frequent random combat encounters, the levels themselves are usually short and it’s very easy to get overpowered in this game. With only an hour of grinding, I got to the point where my party was taking zero damage. It wasn’t technically zero damage but just below one and the game rounded it to zero for the display. The point is that the combat is very forgiving and you don’t need to spend tens of hours grinding to beat a section.

The combat sections are usually bookended by cut scenes setting the premise of the act and ending with some sort of conclusion so it’s very easy to follow along with what is going on. Each act usually focuses on one simple plot point, like Kururu going out to get some ice cream in Act 2. Let’s just say Kururu will never look at ice cream the same ever again and neither will I.

The combat is pretty straight forward and easy to grasp. Each character has their basic attack and a set of special attacks that use health points. You can also assign up to three puppets to each character. The puppets give a stat boost as well as access to spells that cost money to use. This creates an interesting balance of having to use health or money to do more damage but the combat is a bit more on the shallow side so it never really gets complicated.

You obtain puppets by interacting with people and/or puppets in the world or by defeating enemies in combat. There’s a random chance an enemy might turn into a puppet and join your party and this is where I spent most of the time grinding since I’m a completionist and I wanted every single puppet.

As for the story, it’s very silly and lighthearted. It manages to capture the feeling of those wholesome Saturday morning cartoons. Knowing anime, even the most wholesome of plot lines can turn dark and depressing but Rhapsody II manages to keep a spirit of levity in every aspect for the most part.

As an example of humor that always gets to me, Crea is a little girl that pulls out a massive handgun and quips “say no to violence” while blasting the enemies to kingdom come. Rhapsody is full of tiny moments like that.

Overall, Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess is a classic JRPG with a structure that’s easy to understand and with gameplay that minimizes tedium while focusing on the smooth delivery of narrative. It’s an enjoyable lighthearted romp for fans of classic RPGs.

Additional Info

Steam Store Page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2002870/Rhapsody_II_Ballad_of_the_Little_Princess/
Review Score: 90% positive with a total of 11 reviews as of this writing (09/12/23)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, Inc., Engine Software BV
Publisher: NIS America, Inc.
Release Date: Aug 29, 2023
MSRP: $24.99

Time spent: 7.2 hours
Achievement Score: 3/21 (currently on Act 3)