Ahead of the Game - Princess' Cadet is surprisingly strategic space combat across a fully voiced narrative
Weaponised waifus in space
- Fully voiced dialogue
- Customisable ships and modules
- Varied fleet skills and traits
It's all about space combat and strategic micromanaging in this week's Ahead of the Game series, where we tell you about a new mobile endeavour that's playable in one form or another despite its unofficial launch.
I've never really been a fan of 4X strategy on mobile, mainly because my eyes tend to glaze over once all the micromanaging is introduced. In Princess' Cadet, however, there's enough eye candy to keep my interest piqued, and that's largely thanks to its extensive lore and fully voiced dialogue.
The production value is the first thing that caught my attention here - the loading screen and intro alone already tell you that it's not haphazardly slapped together willy-nilly. There's a proper narrative, varied characters, and deeply customisable ships, components, parts, and other what-have-yous to tinker around with. And, of course, since it's a gacha, there's a lineup of lovely ladies to pull from the summons pool to build your squad as well.
Combat isn't something I'm entirely used to at all, despite having played a few RTS games myself. You essentially command entire fleets based on their commanding officer, and each one will have its own skill and specialty depending on its fleet type. That's where the strategy comes into play, but still, you can always toggle the Auto button if you're confident enough in your setups before deployment.
Given that dialogue lines are all fully voiced, it certainly adds a refreshing twist to what otherwise might be a pretty dull match. Some voiced bits can be annoying at times, though, but that might be a "me" problem rather than anything else.
So, how do you play Princess' Cadet?
It's currently in early access on Google Play, so you can give it a go if you're keen on testing it out. Some of the lines for the characters are hilarious placeholders too, so you might recruit someone who'll tell you they're supposed to tell you "something about myself here".Oh, and you'll get 9,999,999 units of every currency as a playtester, by the way, so it's gacha galore until the official build launches!
