My World, My Way Review

My World, My Way would not exist in the fictional world it presents. The fickle princess at the heart of the story has the ability to manipulate reality, getting rid of anything that annoys her. If she were to play her own game, she'd be lucky to get 20 minutes in before willing it out of existence. The story is heavy on charm in the beginning, introducing players to the spoiled and selfish princess Elise through funny dialogue and a ridiculous premise: She wants to make herself more attractive to a prospective beau, so she becomes an adventurer. That's when the gameplay begins, and the charm dissipates.

You travel from village to village, performing dull fetch and kill quests to progress to the next town where you'll do more of the same. Tongue-in-cheek attempts to lampoon the RPG genre are littered about, but they fizzle out in the face of the game's design; just because a game pokes fun at its own generic quests and characters doesn't change the fact that players have to deal with them. A chuckle here and there doesn't make up for hours of tedium.

Elise acquires a standard selection of combat abilities, but only the Pout system stands out as particularly clever. In addition to your magic, you can use Pout Points to gain advantages like acting first in battle, getting more experience from kills, or automatically completing a quest. The idea is that Elise throws a tantrum, and the world responds by giving her what she wants. 

I'd love to see something similar to the Pout system implemented in another, better title. When you look past the mask of satirical humor this game puts on, My World, My Way is just a parade of tired mechanics orbiting a single cool concept.