Jankenpon Hero preview: how well can rock, paper, scissors help you save a kidnapped princess?

Rock, paper, scissor is quite the childhood game. An RPG where you go on a quest to save your kidnapped princess, on the other hand, is not quite that. Yet putting both together gives you a marvellous little casual game that Toge Productions proudly calls Jankenpon Hero.

An alpha build of Jankenpon Hero was showcased at Casual Connect Asia 2014, which finally let us experience what Toge Productions co-founder and CEO, Kris Antoni, had been talking about.

(See: Toge Productions sneaks us a peek of new game: Jankenpon Hero)

Players do battle against monsters through best-of-three rounds of rock, paper, scissors. Completely beating a best-of-three round results in damage to the monster; making a mistake sees the monster attacking you instead. It takes several rounds of attack before a monster dies, after which your character will trot along the field for a bit before encountering yet another foe.

There are approximately ten monsters in each field level, with terrains that will change as you get closer to finding the kidnapped princess. However Toge Productions has said that the number of monsters in each level is subject to change as development progresses (the game is still in early alpha).

Jankenpon Hero will also feature a versus mode with local multiplayer. Two players will face off against the same foe on the same screen, and the first player to submit the right inputs against the foe will score a hit against his opponent.

(See: Get a look at the most promising game in development at Casual Connect Asia 2014, Trigger Princess)

More intriguing is the “lucky bout” mode, where players will fight against each other, in good old rock, paper, scissors style, but blind. This means you won’t be able to see what moves your opponent is picking, much like real-life rock, paper, scissors. Incidentally, “janken” is the Japanese word for the same game.

It will be some time before Jankenpon Hero hits the mobile app stores, but you can try out an early alpha flash build here: