Magical Stock Princess

Magical Stock Princess is a little RPG Maker MV game by Ifcats, a colorful short arcade adventure with rpg elements. Ok, since this game is short and simple, let's get straight to the point: the peasants are starving, and it's all Gulamesh the Devourer's fault. But Princess Stock is determined to collect as much food as possible for her peasants and defeat the bad guy!
As you probably expect we play as the Princess, in this little big adventure divided in two sections: arcade and adventure, that are both entered by the main map, a long single road reminiscent of the old arcade games.

The arcade parts are a sort of Quix (and its clones), an old game where you have to reveal a picture while avoiding enemies. Unlike Quix, you do not need to draw lines but just walk on the tiles that hide the drawing to reveal it... and what is this? But some kind of dish of course! A cake, spaghetti, burgers, fruits or something like that, it's a game about food, remember that!
Like in the old Quix, our alter ego, the princess in this case, is totally harmless, so the best thing to do is avoiding the monsters. Make no mistake, in the beginning this is every easy since there will be snakes, that are slow and do not care about us, and zombies and other undeads that will pursue the princess but are extremely slow! Later there will be other critters that can jump or run very fast, that will be extremely more dangerous (and expect the big bad Gulamesh to ebe the ultimate test!).
Luckily the princess is quite tough and she has three lives, that are automatically restored after completing each level, but don't think this will be always easy, since there will be some surprises here and there.


Oooh this looks delicious! But that wolf is hungry for Princess' meat! (yes, only ONE opponent here but a tough one!)

Then there are the adventuring parts that alternates the arcade sections. Here you may probably expect to meet some people to talk to, find some useful items and save your game, and more or less this is the case. I mean, these parts are really mini quests where you need to solve in order to be able to save, and this means for example finding the person who stole the save point. But pay attention because failing the mini-quest can sometimes lead to the impossibility to save or even to a game over, so... are you going to risk?
Besides save points and the related quests you can find a lot of extras, like the possibility to change the princess' appearance or finding secrets and items. Oh and remember that there are three different endings and a special bad ending, so it's clear that some actions will affect the final part of the game (but it also depends on your performance and how much food you will collect)!

Graphically the game is simple (maps are small, but this is not a game about exploration!) but very cute. Unlike another version of the game that I saw on youtube, this uses the same facesets but not the Rtp tilesets and charsets, and instead is built using the Time Fantasy retro rpg graphics that are, in my opinion, extremely beautiful and cute. I absolutely love them and are far better than the Rtp used in the other version!
Music is nice but the best part are surely the writing, there are lots of gags and puns or silly situations and interactions (for example you will meet a fairy in each town, but only the first will save your game, and one of the others will remark that she is NOT a save point!).
The weird blend of various aspects, arcade with light puzzles and rpg elements works very well in this little parodistic and lighthearted adventure.


Uhm... now, who will be the thief? We only get one chance to catch him!

Final Verdict
Ok, I think I explained the game without spoiling the fun of the discovery, learning what are the different endings and situations that Princess Stock will face in this epic adventure about foodstuffs (I admit, playing this game made me hungry!). My only complaint is just the fact that it's a really short game thay you can probably play until you have witnessed all that there is to see (there are no random events, nor it's a big game, anyway it's pleasant if you take it for what it is: a pleasant little diversion)
In the end Magical Stock Princess is a pretty cool casual game that has some nice replayability. And it's totally free! So yeah, recommended!