King’s Bounty: Armored Princess, the sequel to King’s Bounty: The Legend, is a turn-based strategy game with a few drops of RPG. Developed by the Russian based studio Katauri Interactive and published 1C Company, the English version of game was launched on the 20th of November 2009 and ever since we haven’t stopped playing. Armed with great patience, unbelievable courage and unquestionable skill, we took on the greatest challenge the game had to offer and… failed vigorously just before the last boss. But after two months of constant struggle and bloody battles, after 1.2 million skeletons turned to dust, 398 thousand demons sent back to hell and after 471 spells cast, we now know enough to give you the most highly detailed review possible.

Many years have passed since the latest adventure and a lot of things have happened. Our previous champion has gone missing; Baal, the formerly defeated demon, has managed to rise once more from the depths of Hell and he is now turning the peaceful world of Endoria into ashes; and most important, the cute little blonde Princess Amelie has now grown into a beautiful young brunette woman with a thirst for adventure. Lacking a more suitable hero, it is she that must take the task of saving her home from total destruction, and for this she must seek aid from another world: Teana.

The classes you can choose for Amelie are the same ones from the previous installment of King’s Bounty: warrior, paladin and mage. Nevertheless they have all been subject to some adjustments when it comes to skill trees. You still gain runes to spend in these trees once every new level, but there are some new skills you need to take into consideration. Also the importance of some older skills has now been reconsidered and the difficulty of gaining and upgrading them has been adjusted accordingly. If you played King’s Bounty: The Legend, you will find these modifications to be a source of great joy or of unimaginable sorrow mostly depending on your favorite tactics and the way they have been impacted by the redesign. Either way, the skill trees remain a game element that you must tackle carefully and with patience because their importance is crucial and mistakes cannot be undone. Hopefully, in the next King’s Bounty, this issue will be resolved with the introduction of an “unlearn” feature.

The methods in which your character can gain experience and level up remain the same: defeat opposing armies and heroes, complete quests and find experience shrines. Since there still are items and skills that increase the experience gained, combat is the primary source for it. Once you level up you gain runes and leadership points. There are three types of runes corresponding to the character classes: might, mind and magic. When your character levels up, you will receive an amount of such runes – more for the class you’ve chose and less for the other two – and leadership points which determine the number of troops you can command. In the game’s previous installment you were able to choose between leadership and other stats such attack, defense, mana, etc. This choice has now been taken out of the game and we resent this because the more complex the character development system is, the greater the satisfaction of building a character that suits your play style and is also strong enough to face the game’s challenges. Taking this choice out of the equation has definitely increased the game accessibility, but in the same time decreased its appeal for more hardcore gamers. Now the only available ways to increase those stats is through artifacts (armors, weapons and jewelry) and through a handful of shrines scattered across the world. Also keep in mind you can have a traveling companion, similar to the wife from King’s Bounty: The Legend, minus the kids. The overall bonuses they give you are not spectacular, but the four extra equipment slots will make a world of difference. As soon as you are able to travel away from the original island, hurry and get yourself a nice looking bodyguard. Just remember: these guys are full of surprises so be on your guard.

Combat was not subject to many modifications: it follows the same turned based, chessboard like approach that many of you first met in Heroes of Might and Magic and some of you experienced firsthand in King’s Bounty: The Legend. Troops’ initiative decides the moment they can act during a round, attack and defense are used in calculating the damage they can inflict or negate, speed determines how much ground they can cover and morale influences attack, defense and critical chance. Depending on the troop type, there is also a wide variety of abilities they can use if you wish them to. Carefully building your army while taking into consideration all these elements is most the time the key to success.

Rage is another element you must not overlook. Unlike mana, at the beginning of a normal fight, your hero’s rage pool will register a minimum value. Rage is gained during combat by inflicting or taking damage and increases your overall critical strike chance, but more important, it allows you to summon a powerful helper, a pet dragon, to perform an action during that round. The Pet replaces the Sprits of Rage from older King’s Bounty and it can perform one ability every round from a set of a total nine. Apart from that, depending on the dragon you choose, it gives you a onetime boost to one of your stats. Again, I preferred the older version of the rage spending system simply because you could have focused on one Spirit and ignore all the others, thus enhancing only a small part of the available rage abilities: the part that suited your combat style best. Now, with the pet dragon, which as side note I must admit is one of the cutest little things I have ever seen in a video game, you can end up upgrading abilities you never actually use and basically wasting the pet’s level up point.