Penny-Punching Princess is a Beat 'em Up published and developed by Nippon Ichi Software. It was released on the Play Station Vita in Japan on November 2016, and on the Vita and Nintendo Switch in Europe on March 30, 2018 and North America on April 3, 2018.
The game takes place in a world where money is the dominant force. As long as one has enough money, nothing can stand in their way.(so, ours?)
The Player Character is a princess of a kingdom whose king died under crippling debt to the Dragoloan mob. Armed with a pair of golden gauntlets and a magical calculator, she sets off on a quest for revenge to destroy Dragoloan and its minions once and for all.
The Princess' calculator is the main gimmick of the game. By beating up enemies and taking their gold, the player can bribe enemies and capture them without a fight. If the calculator is used on a trap, the Princess can take control of it and use it against the enemy.
Tropes present in Penny-Punching Princess:
- Alliterative Title: Penny-Punching Princess.
- Break Meter: When an enemy's HP is brought down to a certain level, it is stunned for a few seconds and you can obtain extra coins by tapping on it (or rotating the right stick if playing the Switch version in Button Mode). Some of the larger enemies, such as the Red Dragons, have multiple Break points.
- Cast from Money: The "Coin Miracle" function on the calculator is dependent on how much money you spend to use it. Putting more money into the calculator gives you a better chance of beneficial effects.
- Continuing is Painful: If you get a Game Over and continue on a stage with more than one map, you'll restart at the checkpoint with all the money you've earned up to that point, but your end-of-level rank will be set to "D" (the lowest possible) regardless of how well you did in the battle sections.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: While almost anything can be bribed to work for you if you pay them, the end-of-chapter bosses (referred to as "Dragoloan Execs") are immune to bribery.
- Every Man Has His Price: As long as the Princess has enough money to do so, she can bribe enemies and traps into not attacking her, or even reverse a Game Over.
- Extremity Extremist: Despite also wearing sabatons, the Princess never kicks with them (befitting the game's title).
- Gameplay Grading: After each section, you're given a grade from D, C, B, A to S depending on how much money you extract from monsters.
- Henpecked Husband: While Zenigami is the God of Capitalism, his spending habits are controlled by his wife and he is not happy about it.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sebastian takes a bullet for the Princess and dies, wishing that he could see her smile one last time. Luckily, Isabella bites into him, bringing back to life as a zombie.
- I Am Not Weasel: Sebastian, the Princess' beetle butler, has to keep reminding Dragoloan's goons that he is not a cockroach.
- Item Crafting: By bribing monsters and traps, the Princess can put them to work to craft armor for obtaining new action skills, or Zenigami statues to increase her skill points and upgrade her abilities.
- Large Ham: Michael McConnohie is the game's only voice actor, providing the game's narration. However, with him chewing up scenes left and right, especially whenever he has to put on an over-the-top Southern Belle voice for the Princess, there probably isn't enough room in that game for any other voice actor to join him.
- Loan Shark: The Dragoloan family sets itself up as this, but it's actually a fantastic version of The Mafia who amasses its impossibly large war chest through intimidation and scams.
- Maneki Neko: The money god Zenigami appears as one of these. As do his wife and son.
- Perpetual Frowner: The Princess, who almost never speaks and always appears with Angry Eyebrows and a permanent scowl. Sebastian is disappointed by this because he says she used to have a beautiful smile.
- Piñata Enemy: Dragon Eggs, who rush toward you and have low HP and defense. Defeating one causes the egg to drop up to 500 G.
- Pun-Based Title: The title is a play on the term "penny pincher".
- Rolling Attack: One ability upgrade gives the Princess the ability to roll into a ball and tackle an enemy by holding down the Dodge button. The longer the button is held down, the farther she flies.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Capitalism is the law of the land. As long as one has enough money to do so, they can topple any obstacle regardless of age, gender, or status.
- Speaking Simlish: How everyone speaks, consisting of nothing but gibberish. The only character that speaks English (or Japanese if you switch it) is the game's narrator.
- Spikes of Doom: These show up in Chapter 2 as a cheap trap. They don't cause much damage to the Princess by themselves, but they retract and "spike up" very quickly compared to other traps.
- Some Dexterity Required: Trying to use the calculator can be cumbersome because you have to worry about enemies Zerg Rushing you while you decide on your target for bribery.
- When She Smiles: Both Sebastian and Isabella lament that the Princess had traded her angelic smile for a permanent scowl as part of her journey for vengeance and wish desperately for it to return. After having achieved vengeance and resolving her issues with Zenigami and his wife, the wrinkle on her brow disappears and she's finally allowed to smile again and it is indeed beautiful.
