Monarchy Review

A game heavily based on the Kingdom series, but in my opinion too heavily while it leaves some QoL features behind. Challenging to beat, but it has no missable achievements.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: I guess around 10h or so
Estimated achievement difficulty: 6/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: Multiple times, if you die in a scenario you have to start over that scenario from the very beginning
Is there a good guide available: No
Multiplayer achievements: No, but I expected that this game is easier in co-op mode
Missable achievements: No
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

Monarchy is a lot like the Kingdom series, you are a ruler on a horse who doesn’t fight but has people who fight for you. You have archers and builders to build up your domain and defend it during the raids that happen at night time. Just like the Kingdom series it doesn’t explain much about the game mechanics and it comes down to exploring a lot yourself. This isn’t my favorite part in the Kingdom series either, but there you have the internet full of info and tips. However, Monarchy doesn’t have that yet. It is also a lot harder than the Kingdoms series, especially with the die = restart. In the Kingdoms series, you get referred back to a previous island and don’t lose it all, just parts of it.

Before I started playing this I had a some doubt. It looked way too similar to the Kingdom series, but I love that series and would welcome more games like that. So I was wondering how much it would feel the same. And there are small things different, like the limit on how much buildings you build and the objectives of the scenarios, but it also is so similar. Including having archers and builders, and later on swordsman. I would even say that the costs for doing most things are quite similar. One coin to destroy a tree, having your archers hunt on animals for coins. Sadly for me this game felt like it left behind some of the nice mechanics that make Kingdom: Two Crowns and Kingdom 80’s great but doesn’t add much to take it in a different direction.

Most of the achievements are quite easy and you’ll unlock while playing through the game. the most challenging ones will be to complete all the scenarios as they are very challenging. None of them are missable.

I give Monarchy 2,5 out of 5 stars.

This review for Monarchy was written on 4 November 2024, based on the current Steam version of the game which has 25 achievements at the time of writing this review. This information can be outdated, for example, when the developer adds or removes achievements or releases (new) DLC.