Monarchy Review

Sometimes, a smooth blend of simplicity and complexity is all you need to have a good game. And more often than not, these games come from indie developers. Games with a simple premise often offer engaging gameplay that surpasses AAA games.

A small 2D side-scrolling platformer, Monarchy, has been developed and published by Brain Seal Entertainment, an Indie game studio. In this fascinating game, you take control of a King or a Queen atop a horse and establish a kingdom. With not too much guidance, you are left to your own devices and a bunch of visual cues to help you survive the nights.

Monarchy is a game, first and foremost, about learning. You begin in the game's introduction section, where you don't have much to go on. The tutorial's super simple presentation enhances the game's simplistic nature. You might have trouble understanding the tutorials themselves because they have no words. Instead, Monarchy offers excellent, well-put-together pictures that show you what to do and how to do it.

The game's controls are also great, needing you only to use the WASD keys along with the occasional shift key for sprinting with your horse. For everything else, WASD does all. A & D keys, or alternatively, the arrow keys, can be used to move, while the up and down keys are used to place structures, drop coins, or otherwise use them.

Monarchy's gameplay loop revolves around this. You find coins, build structures, and expand, while at night, you have to protect your lands from bandits, knights, and such. The gameplay loop is pretty ingenious and simple, all the while being intriguing.

It has a lot of 'one more turn' connotations behind it, where you just want to play on for one more in-game day or night and end things there, only actually to get to that stage and wish to continue for just another night.

The game offers three scenarios or modes, each with its own objectives and charm. They have similar premises, but the way you go about doing your tasks is different. Without going too much into it, the scenarios are The Bandit Lands, The Siege, and The Winter Knight. You progress in each scenario differently from the others, and the final objectives remain different.

Each scenario's objectives remain shrouded and hidden behind context clues and visual cues. You really are thrown into the meat grinder without anyone to help you or look out for you. It is really reminiscent of the first few hours of Terraria, where you have no idea what you're doing and even less of an idea of what everything is.

When you load any of the scenarios, the beginning is simple and similar. You, the king or queen, sit atop a horse. This horse is deceptively slow in the sense that it is not as fast as you expect it'd be, so you must really watch out. 

You are accompanied by an archer, the game's main basic infantry unit. For much of the early game, this will be the only unit you'll have under your direct command. Even then, the archer is limited in what they can do.

They follow you around at a slightly slower speed than the horse and shoot at enemies or wildlife nearby. The archer isn't super accurate, so don't rely on it to mop up enemies. Speaking of wildlife, you begin in the middle of a forest, likely close to a stone structure with a sundial on top. The game really starts as an adventure game.

This is not interactable and serves to mark the days that have passed. Edging left or right, you may notice a few structures hidden behind trees or a chest or two lying around. These chests give you the game's main and pretty much only resource, gold. 

See, in Monarchy, you have incredibly limited resources and a tight pocket as well. This is meant literally, as you can see how much gold you have in the top left corner; presumably, these are your coffers. 

You can only have as much gold as you can hold in them, with any more being dropped into the bucket, falling off and disappearing. For certain missions and progressions, you will gain a few different other resources that you can put into your pockets, but they are rare and extremely far in between.

As you explore, you'll come across a clearing; you should probably set up camp as soon as you can, as when night comes, so do the enemies. In Monarchy, the enemies usually and mostly come in waves of attacks during the night, and the day-night cycle is pretty fast, making you run against the clock. These waves start weak, letting you min-max your way to survive, but as you progress through the game, these attacks start to come with armored units and siege rams.

Once you set up your base, you will be given access to a few other structures, and a cart will arrive, carrying with it your first builder and a citizen. The cart will arrive every day-night cycle as long as you have given it one gold. After doing so, you can either task it to bring in more gold or a citizen. During the early game, you'll probably have a larger focus on bringing in more people as the ways to secure gold are widespread.

Once you set up the first few structures, like the builder's hut and the archery range, these are just terms we've made since the game adorably refuses to use any words. After building two sets of walls on either side, you'll probably have just enough time to recruit an archer and prepare to fend off the first night. All of that should be relatively easy, given the enemies you encounter are fewer in number.

As the sun rises, you'll take off to more exploration. You can try to hunt for deer, who annoyingly run away, or roosters and other small animals that are easier to kill. Of course, you don't get your hands dirty as the monarch. It is your attending archer that does all the hard work. You might even find a few badly made tents or a myriad of other structures. These tents have some homeless people that you can recruit into being citizens by dropping a coin.

These other structures are integral to progression, and their benefits are unknown until you invest some gold in them. As you return for the night, you might be able to build the obelisk, which gives you the game's only tech tree. This tech tree provides a choice between two options, and both options are, naturally, pictures, so you might just be left grasping what they do exactly. Don't worry, though; they are pretty simple to figure out.

As the nights and days draw on, you'll spend your time expanding by cutting down trees and exploring and upgrading your walls and main structure. You will also unlock newer buildings that do things ranging from farming to earn gold to spawning new citizens every time you put some gold into them.

Later on, you'll have a keep, stone walls, and siege engines of your own, and you'll even get to expand your retinue to more units. This should make the game's attempts clearer. You will make mistakes, and you will fail to understand things. That is honestly a part of the experience. You'll find the structures and collect gold to really see what they do. Some provide bonuses, and others give you gold or resources that are essential to upgrades.

The game does a remarkable job at balancing the resource management, strategic, and time management elements, all the while keeping things simple and entertaining. The gameplay can also be described as being easy to learn and hard to master. The later nights can really ramp up in difficulty and catch you off guard if you don't remain vigilant.

All the levels are unique and have their own stories, all relying on visuals to tell them. And all of them succeed in doing so. The stories themselves are shrouded in mystery. All of the unique structures you encounter are fun, and none of them are bad or useless.

Again, despite being a deceptively complex game, its execution is simple. You need to be adaptable and think things out, but you can also enjoy a minds-off approach, at least to a certain extent. However, the game can get a bit repetitive due to its simplistic nature.

The game's visuals are great, and the art style is brilliant when tied with the gameplay. The art style meshes well with the side-scrolling medium. The scenery is expansive and well done, and the spirits of the people are adorable, even the baddies! The various visual elements that help tell the story are amazing, and the little things make the game a much greater experience.

The way the builders wave at you or how the game turns darker when you enter the forest—all of these play a role in making the experience atmospheric and fun. Monarchy doesn't really compare to Kingdoms except for being based on the same premise; it is its own thing, and it does that very well.

Monarchy is a finely crafted game that does everything right in its ability to combine strategic gameplay with incredible design, both in terms of art and gameplay. It offers delightful visuals, captivating mechanics, a well-balanced difficulty, and an array of mysteries and non-linear progression. Regardless of whether you're a strategy enthusiast or just seeking an enjoyable experience as a newcomer, Monarchy is sure to entertain.