My Life As a King brings us a new approach to the series when switching from Action-RPG to Simulation genre.
Setting its background right after the first version on GameCube, MLAK brings gamers a familiar environment. Now that the miasma surrounding the world has dissolved, everybody can move around freely. You will play the role of King Leo, the new governer who is setting out to find his father, King Epitav. After a long journey, he sets foot on a remote land - a gift from the father for him to build up a new kingdom.
Though the story adjoins the previous game, game play of MLAK is a total surprise. Action-Role Playing factors have given up their place for Simulation genre. To be more particular, you can forget the glorious battles to settle down on developing and operating your new kingdom, a task of equal challenge. Hence, after moments of surprise, you have to choose a name for the future city. And what kind of city is it without citizens? Then the first task is to build Small Houses, the most basic building that allows gathering people. Each of them will be occupied by 2 people and contributes an amount of 10 gil per day. The method of construction in MLAK is strange: by using Architek ability of the giant crystal in the middle of the area, King Leo only has to stand in front of the signified site and summon characters with Chime to complete the building. From gamer's point of view, this task is done by a slight shake of Wii Remote. As in tradition of the console, MLAK supports up to 4 control modes: Wii Remote, WiiRemote + Nunchuck, Classic Controller and GameCube game pad. Though the difference is small, WiiRemote + Nunchuck seems to be the best choice since players can easily control Leo and at the same time exploit sensor to call for Chime faster.
Constructing will gradually exhaust elementite resource and once it's used up, you can't build anything else before gaining more of it. This is where Adventurers come to the scene. They are units recruited from your people to undertake the task of exploring nearby caves. There are 23 caves of different levels and you can appoint your force there to battle the bosses and acquire the elementite. These quests are posted on the notice board by Leo himself, in addition, a particular adventure can be chosen for a specific quest. Besides, adventures will automatically take on works that you can not do on your own. With a stable income of resource, there are a variety of buildings to construct. Spacious House are for prominent citizens with high income. The Bakery and the Emporium helps raise the morale attribute of residents, an important element in upgrading your kingdom. Fountain Park and Bullentin Park are where weary Adventures take a rest and heal up before new assignments. Weapon Shop, Armor Shop and Item Shop will provide equipment for Adventures. The emperor can also finance these shops so that they can research for more advanced gears. Training Hall, Gaming Hall, White Mage Temple and Black Mage Academy are specialized in studying superior skills of certain jobs... There are many types of building, so you should carefully arrange them to form a city both beautiful and easy to operate. A small RPG factor still remains in MLAK: your adventures belong to one of four jobs: Warrior, Thief, White Mage and Black Mage, depending on their attributes. Forming a squad of 4 adventures is also possible in Tavern; they will gradually increase in level after fulfilling their quests.
After mastering the basic game play, you can focus on developing and operating your kingdom. The time in game simulates real life, and Leo's daily routine starts with browsing finance and quest reports of the previous days and announce assignments for the day. After that, you can continue constructing new building and sponsoring the shops. Each day in game last only 3 minutes so you have to be hasty. Drastic changes in game play brings about new interests but also results in losing some successful features of prior versions. An example is the co-op mode supporting up to 4 players in exultant battles. However, with online service, gamers have the right to expect some kind of "touring" mode that allows other players to visit their kingdom, or reporting new records of finish the game in smallest amount of time ect... In fact, the only service MLAK supports is downloading new upgrade patches that you have to pay for. These will unlock 3 new races Lilty, Selkie and Yuke along with new caves and levels of buildings. What a wise strategy!
Though the capacity of MLAK excluding patches is only 287 blocks (about 43 MB), but game still can impress us with its graphics. It's not on a par with Super Mario Galaxy, but the lovely looking of King Leo, Chime or Hugh Yurg can easily gain player's favour. Your country appears more and more splendid and vivid after a while thanks to the variety of building types. Some special effects while raising a new contruction are welcome. However, the "kingdom" is actually only one city, as a result, the number of character, monster and boss models is limited. Unfortunately, sound part is so poor when there are only three background tracks. Sound effect is only acceptable and characters lack human voice play. It's predictable in a game of such humble capacity.
With a turning-point in game play and a new publishing method, MLAK deserves a rubric in Wii history. Hopefully, with following success, Wiiware will catch up with Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Store.