- Excellent party game with friends
- High replayability and dynamic narrative
- Engaging betrayal and intrigue mechanics
- Limited playability for small groups
- Shallow and repetitive gameplay
- Monarch role imbalance
Emotions
Players are highly satisfied with the game's social and party-game aspects, especially when playing with friends or large groups. The unique blend of genres, engaging narrative, clever writing, and replayability contribute significantly to this positive experience. The game's overall quality, value for money, and committed community also enhance player satisfaction.
Frustration primarily stems from the difficulty in finding enough players to start a game, as well as the lack of solo play options or AI bots. Technical issues like bugs, crashes, and poor UI/controller support also contribute. Players express frustration with limited agency, repetitive roles (especially the King), and game balance issues that can make progression difficult or unfair.
Disappointment arises when the game fails to meet expectations, particularly regarding its suitability as a party game or the depth of its gameplay. Players are disappointed by the lack of solo play, matchmaking, or localization options, which can render the game unplayable for some. Issues like perceived lack of value, reliance on luck, and abandoned development also lead to disappointment.
Players enjoy the game for its fun factor, especially in group settings, and its ability to create engaging social interactions and stories. The game's interesting concept, ease of learning, and replayability contribute to a highly enjoyable experience. The humorous and absurd situations that arise during gameplay, particularly when playing with friends, are a significant source of enjoyment.
Excitement is generated by the game's chaotic and engaging gameplay, particularly the backstabbing mechanics and the ability to roleplay with friends. The unique blend of strategy and intrigue, evolving storylines, and the potential for impactful decisions keep players excited. The game's quality and its ability to provide new, unique, and often hilarious experiences with large groups also fuel excitement.
Verdict
Mixed
Summary
Positive 74% ¡ Negative 26%. Score: 26 / 100
Positives:
- The game is highly praised as an incredibly fun and engaging party game, especially when played with a large group of friends. Its accessibility, ease of learning, and unique social dynamics make it ideal for gatherings, both in-person and online via platforms like Discord, with only one person needing to own the game.
- The game offers significant replayability due to its dynamic and unpredictable narrative. Each playthrough presents different scenarios, choices, and outcomes, ensuring that no two sessions are the same and keeping players engaged over time.
- A core appeal of the game lies in its mechanics that encourage strategic backstabbing, betrayals, and political intrigue among players. This creates humorous and dramatic scenarios, fostering conflict and scheming that lead to memorable moments.
- Players appreciate the game's charming and consistent art style, which features colorful character designs and effective backgrounds. The light-hearted visuals complement the game's humorous tone and contribute to an overall appealing presentation.
- The game is frequently compared to popular social deduction and party games like Jackbox and Crusader Kings, but is noted for being more complex and supporting a larger number of players. It offers a unique blend of chaotic comedy, political intrigue, and collaborative storytelling.
Negatives:
- The game is primarily designed for large groups and streamers, making it difficult for solo players or small friend groups to enjoy. Many players found the 'party game' advertising misleading, as it requires individual devices and often a large audience for optimal experience, leading to accessibility issues and a lack of traditional couch co-op functionality.
- Players found the gameplay to be confusing, repetitive, and lacking depth, with limited player interaction and an over-reliance on text. The game's core mechanics and events quickly become stale, leading to a lack of replayability and overall engagement.
- There are significant balance issues concerning the Monarch role, with some players finding it too difficult and others too powerful. The inability to transfer the Monarch role and the disproportionate power of the Monarch's ambition compared to noble schemes contribute to an unbalanced experience, especially in smaller groups.
- The game lacks depth in noble objectives and incentives for faction cooperation, leading to passive gameplay for non-hosting players. There's a missed opportunity for social deduction and hidden goals, which would enhance strategic interaction.
- A significant portion of the game's outcomes are determined by random number generation (RNG) and event occurrences, rather than player strategy. This makes it difficult for players to influence their goals or win consistently, leading to frustration and a feeling of unfairness.
Gameplay:
- The game is designed as a multiplayer party experience, supporting a wide range of players from 4 up to thousands, especially when integrated with Twitch. Only the host needs to purchase the game, as other players can join for free via a web browser or Twitch chat, making it highly accessible for group play.
- The core gameplay revolves around one player acting as the Monarch, managing a kingdom, and making decisions, while other players act as Nobles with their own agendas and victory conditions. Nobles can support, oppose, or even rebel against the Monarch, creating a dynamic political simulation.
- A central mechanic is the council voting system, where Nobles vote on the Monarch's proposals and random events. The Monarch has tools to influence votes, and Nobles must strategically vote to benefit their faction's goals, sometimes cooperating and sometimes opposing each other.
- The game features a rich narrative driven by player choices, with numerous dynamic events and a large number of possible endings. Gameplay progresses through council votes, where decisions have continuous and unpredictable consequences on the kingdom's fate.
- Players who purchase the game gain additional customization options for their character's appearance and family crest. This provides a benefit for game owners beyond just hosting capabilities.
Performance:
- Multiple players reported critical issues such as game crashes and problems during launch. These severe technical problems significantly hinder the ability to play the game, indicating a need for urgent stability improvements.
- Player feedback on PC requirements is contradictory, with some stating low requirements and others decent. This suggests a lack of clarity or varied experiences across different hardware configurations, making it difficult to pinpoint a consistent performance profile.
Recommendations:
- Many players highly recommend the game, especially for its low price point and unique social gameplay. It's seen as a fun experience for groups, particularly those who enjoy roleplaying, strategic political maneuvering, or interactive storytelling.
- The game is not recommended for solo play or small groups of friends. Its core experience relies heavily on having a larger number of players to maximize engagement and fun, making it less suitable for intimate gatherings.
- Suggestions for improving the game experience include using screen sharing for the host, utilizing third-party translation tools, and adding an option to keep scheme and ruler goals secret.
- Some players have opted to refund the game or do not recommend it, though specific reasons are not detailed in these clusters, suggesting general dissatisfaction.
- Players should not expect a deep strategic experience from this game. It's more focused on interactive storytelling and social dynamics rather than complex strategic gameplay.
Miscellaneous:
- Many players emphasize that the game's enjoyment is heavily dependent on having a consistent group of friends to play with, often citing the minimum player requirement as a barrier. They suggest that the game needs more content and features to sustain long-term engagement for these groups.
- Players offer various suggestions for improving game mechanics, such as balancing RNG, scaling quests, adding more variety to events and character traits, and refining end-game conditions or transitions between rounds.
- The game is frequently described as being ideal for streamers and large audiences, drawing comparisons to Jackbox games due to its interactive and comedic nature. This suggests its design is well-suited for broadcast play.
- Players suggest quality-of-life improvements for game settings, including implementing hard timers for votes, hiding stats during votes, and adding pre-lobby game rules to customize experiences for different group sizes.
- Multiple reviews indicate that the game was recently part of a Humble Bundle or similar subscription, suggesting a common acquisition method for many players.
