Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Kingdom Two Crowns
Developer: Noio
Publisher: Raw Fury
Genre: Real-time Strategy, Action, Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: December 11, 2018
Price: $19.99
Kingdom Two Crown is a real-time strategy game presented in a gorgeous 8-bit pixel art style, with lush and detailed environment. To complement the visuals, the game has a hauntingly beautiful musical score that highlights both moments of tranquility and moments of terror. By the way, while most RTS games are done in 3D, open world-style, like the Age of Empires and Civilization games, this one is of the side-scrolling variety. Yep, a 2D side-scrolling RTS game.
So, how does a 2D side-scrolling RTS game work? For this game, quite surprisingly well. While you may think that you need to have a wide space to build your structures and buildings on, apparently, you don’t really need that. In this game, you play as a monarch who has to build a kingdom almost from scratch on an island. A ghost shows you the way to a campsite where you have to build your first city. You are shown what to do, like build your first settlement, recruit people, and build walls. You are also told to cut down trees, to expand your domain. After that, you are kind of on your own. This lack of handholding can be a bit frustrating, but it also encourages you to explore the island you are on. There are a few areas, monuments, and artifacts that can be unlocked, usually through paying a certain amount of coins. These unlockables provide upgrades, such as NPCs that will allow you to upgrade your buildings and different kinds of mounts that you can ride to make exploring the island less tedious. Coins can be earned by hunting animals or harvesting crops or cutting down trees. To do these tasks, you have to recruit vagrants often wandering around the nearby areas such as campsites or just plainly walking out in the open. You have to pay them a coin first (at the start of the game, you will be given a few coins as a startup) and then set them as either a hunter or a builder or a farmer or other jobs that you will unlock later on. The more coins you earn, the more you can upgrade your buildings and walls, which you have to do to defend your city.
All the busy work that you have to do, you have to do it during daytime, because when night time comes, your city gets attacked by monsters collectively known as the Greed. The monsters attack either side of your city, and the tenacity of their attack increases as every passing day, putting a pressure on you with the decision to either continue leveling up your city or proceed to build the boat that will allow you to visit another island. If the monsters successfully breach your walls, they will plunder your city, with the ultimate goal of knocking the crown off your head and stealing it. Once you lose your crown, your reign ends, and one of your descendants take over, but you will be back to the first island. Fortunately, you don’t lose everything, and the islands retain almost all of the enhancements that you have already put into place in your city so you don’t have to start again from scratch.
The end game is to get rid of the Geed once and for all for each island, and this requires you destroying their nest located inside a cave. You can try it as soon as you unlock the explosives but you most probably will not be successful if you don’t have the supporting units, such as knights and upgraded archers to back you up. It may be necessary to fully upgrade your kingdom before trying it, so you must have patience and plan ahead in order for you to succeed.
If you have a friend to play with, this game has a local co-op mode that will let two monarchs riding to and fro on the screen, covering more ground and thus allowing for more structures and units to be built in a shorter time. Unfortunately, there is no online multiplayer currently available, so if you don’t have a friend to play with locally, tough luck.
The game also has multiple campaigns and challenge islands to keep you interested. Currently, aside from the basic campaign, you can also choose the Shogun style, which utilized Japanese imagery and units, such as ninja, and also the Dead Lands style, which has some horror themes, and Miriam from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as a guest character. All three share the same basic gameplay, with some unique units and structures challenges thrown in. The challenge islands will have you survive them while meeting certain goals and will really test your skills.
Overall, Kingdom Two Crowns is surprisingly good, with a surprising amount of content that will keep players wanting more. It rewards those who are brave enough to explore the islands and punishes the lazy. The feedback loop is really good, which makes the gameplay very engaging, if not addicting. The RTS elements are good despite the 2D setting. The wave-based attacks of enemies are quite predictable since they only attack at night, but if you become too complacent, you will pay for it dearly, so you always have to be on your toes and make sure your kingdom is defended on both ends at all times. If you are a fan of the genre and want to try something new, this is a good game for you. Happy hunting, don’t be too greedy, and enjoy building, expanding, and defending your kingdom.
REPLY VALUE: High
PROS
- Gorgeous pixel art aesthetics
- Hauntingly beautiful soundtrack
- Minimalistic gameplay with a good feedback loop
- The different mounts provide different enhancements
- Further exploration leads to lots of “aha!” moments, but only if you really spend time with the game
- Ideal for handheld gaming
- Multiple game modes and challenges
- Local coop multiplayer makes managing your kingdom easier
CONS
- No online multiplayer
- Lacks signposting
- Grinding is quite tedious
- No option to destroy unneeded guard posts and walls
- Units cannot be ordered directly to do specific jobs
RATING: 4/5 Kings and Vagabonds
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