Queen’s Crown

Even the noblest of quests breaks down into little endeavours.

Although most role-playing games task you with saving the world from impending doom, Queen’s Crown is more concerned with bombarding you with a flood of menial tasks - collecting items, delivering packages, helping elderly residents cross broken bridges.

There’s still a grand objective behind all this community service, but you can take a half-hour slice of gameplay from practically any portion of the game and it's sure to be dominated by inconspicuous errand-running.

To be fair, you’re never short on things to do. Although, there's never a lack of assignments, it's easy to lose track of your active tasks. The sheer volume of quests quickly becomes overwhelming, especially given their mundane nature.

It’s a shame because Queen’s Crown is exemplary in nearly every other regard. The old skool 2D visuals are as achingly gorgeous as ever, looking every inch like the best SNES game you never played.

The real-time battle interface is pleasing as well. Attacking is a matter of tapping a virtual button on the screen. In many cases, you don’t even need to worry about which direction you’re facing because your character automatically targets the nearest enemy.

Four weapons are available to our runaway royal: the sword offers speed at the expense of strength, while the mace is the exact opposite. The spear gives you greater reach and can be utilised in a powerful dashing attack, while the bow and arrow allows you to take out enemies from a distance.

In typical RPG fashion, felling foes grants you experience, and when you advance a level you can assign points to your core attributes. You also pick up potions, armour, and cash during your travels, all of which come in handy.

The game’s underhanded in-game save system is worth mention, too. The game auto-saves at various checkpoints, but these are few and far between. You can manually force a save by entering the relevant menu, which is something you should do often.

When you fall in battle, Queen’s Crown rather sneakily offers you the ability to resurrect your character using in-app purchases. As repulsive as it seems, forward-planning can avoid the need to resort to such wallet-empting temptations.

The in-app money-making schemes don’t end there, though: you’re also able to use real-world currency to purchase rare items. This policy doesn’t sit particularly well with me given the game's premium price point.

Even if you put aside this rather obnoxious profiteering, Queen’s Crown isn’t entirely recommended.

It’s a shame that the game is dominated by a cascade of seemingly random and disassociated tasks, because the building blocks are in place for a truly mesmerising experience. Granted, the English translation could do with a bit of spit and polish – it’s peppered with spelling and grammatical errors – but the rest of the package is of high quality.

If you can overlook the often infuriating lack of focus, error-strewn dialogue, and naughty in-app payment system, then Queen’s Crown can entertain. It’s a shame that so much hard work is undermined by a storyline propped up by fetch-quests and pointless tasks.