Features

App Army Assemble: My Majesty

The king is dead. Long live the king?

App Army Assemble: My Majesty
|
iOS
| My Majesty

Remember Reigns? So you should - it only came out a few weeks ago, and was an interesting combination of Tinder and management sims. My Majesty is not Reigns, but it's also a very mobile friendly management sim in which you play the role of a king.

The focus is very much still on making key decisions, though in this instance they revolve around desperately trying to keep the six factions happy, solving kingdom-wide issues like the plague and great fires, and winning wars.

If you liked the Dictator series of games that regularly pop up on the App Store charts, you'll feel right at home here. It's pretty much a reskin of those with Robin Hood in it.

The full PG review will surface shortly but, in the meantime, our hardened bunch of experts in the App Army have sprung up to offer their thoughts on this king maker.

Randy Hope

In My Majesty, you're given a string of situations which you solve by selecting from multiple choices, and see what happens to your citizenry as a result.

Your decision will affect several of the eight groups inhabiting your world. They may become angry or sad as a result, and even revolt. You can't please everyone though so there's a classic balancing act happening.

With a lot of coins and some real life money you can invest in your infrastructure, and make the coins come faster.

The writing can be witty, but it's unclear who this is meant for. It seems specifically aimed at RPG fans but there isn't enough depth to keep those types of players coming back. Forsooth! Within a half hour I was ready to move on.

Laura Egri

You play as a king and have to rule over your people, keeping them happy. The visuals are colourful - almost cardlike - and the gameplay is easy to pick up and play.

It involves granting audience to the various groups in your kingdom, solving a bunch of different requests and problems. It reminds me of Reigns.

Each of your choices has a serious impact on the outcome, and you're striving for balance to keep everyone happy, remain in charge, and to keep your treasury stocked. It's impossible to please everyone though.

One of the things I really like are the entertaining animations but unfortunately, even those can't stop it from becoming repetitive. It's worth a try but I'm not sure the funny and quirky outcomes are enough to keep you on the throne.

Oksana Ryan

You play as a king trying to please six factions. They take it in turns making demands and you have to make one of two choices which will either please or upset the faction. You'll then lose or gain popularity with the remaining factions, which can lead to rebellion or a conspiracy.

You start with what seems like a shed load of money but when each choice or rebellion costs from 100,000 coins, it rapidly vanishes. You have a tax generator where coins are constantly gathered, or you can watch a video for 100,000 coins, buy jewels with real money, or just wait overnight for your currency to replenish. Either way, it'll soon disappear.

There's no real action to this game, it's a simple case of clicking one of multiple choices. Some of the requests are amusing though, and you'll watch as a castle is built as the game progresses. It's fine to while away half an hour or so - great for the train journey home.

Aaron Carey

This is clearly well polished, with great graphics and sound, nice animations and slick presentation all around. However, it basically feels like you're playing a roulette wheel. All the odds are stacked against you in an effort to make you spend money on the game's premium currency.

There's no real game here. At first you think you're balancing resources but with each decision you make you upset a faction, and considering the way the game is balanced it's only a matter of time before you run out of favour with a faction or two and it's open rebellion.

It ruins any sense of progression and there's no real strategy. It really doesn't matter which decision you make, it's just like a giant casino skillfully getting you to part with cash.

Tom Clark

I truly want to love this game but it's lacking something I just can't put my finger on. After you play through it a time or two it just gets old and forgettable. The graphics are good and the idea is there, it just doesn't have the replay factor it needs to keep you engaged for long.

Honestly, I can't believe this got released in the App store today. The developers need to give it a long hard look and see what they can add. It has great potential but desperately needs further development.

Kainen Ryan

In My Majesty, you're asked questions about your Kingdom and the factions in it and, depending on what your answer is you increase or decrease your favour with several factions. The idea is to try and juggle this so you don't lose all of your favour with any of them.

The problem is, it only becomes fun when you do just that and they start revolting. Then you can slap them in irons and cart them away.

Ultimately, it does get a bit boring and there isn't a great deal of gameplay here which is sad. I can see what the aim was but it's just not making me want to go back for more.

Glenn Goldberg

The king is dead. Long live the king. You've just stepped into the shoes of a medieval ruler of a fictitious kingdom and your job is to keep everyone satisfied.

You're given six factions to work with, each with its own motivations. They give you a situation and you must choose which of the two outcomes you think is best. The tough part is that your choices can be more far reaching than you believe.

The problem is, after a few playthroughs you begin to notice the flaws. Each choice costs you coins, which don't replenish fast enough to make much of a difference.

You can buy more coins with the gems you earn, but you earn them so slowly that this doesn't help much either. Then you realise that you can buy currency with real money the curtain is drawn back. That's when you see this game for what it truly is - a cash machine for the creator.

The problem is that the core mechanic isn't engaging enough to kindle my desire to spend real money on it. I really wanted to like it, but it didn't keep me engaged long enough to build a devotion to it. The monetisation was just a little too obvious for me.

The App Army is Pocket Gamer's very own community of mobile game experts. Each week, we provide them with a bunch of free codes and early access to the hottest upcoming games so they can provide their thoughts in features like this. We also host regular community-driven events with them in mind, like the Mobcrush stream, tournaments, and multiplayer evenings. To join, simply follow this link to the page on Facebook and request access. We'll get you in right away!
Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, lively Chris is up for anything - including running Steel Media! (Madman!)