Kingdom's Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster

Pros: - gorgeous spritework - consistently pleasant music and sfx - boss fights are fun - enemies are very consistent and the gameplay rewards skill* Cons: - class balance is abysmal, with zipangu and wizard trivializing the entire game - the gameplay loop gets old fast - the controls are weirdly stiff for an action platformer - material drop rates are a little too stingy for seeds and gems - the city building aspect feels undercooked - lots of reused assets One thing worth mentioning outright is that almost all of the character, area, npc, and monster designs are taken directly from Kingdom's Return - Again! (もっと！ぼくらのキングダム), an older mobile game that Inti Creates made and operated around 2012. Worth noting is that that game had an additional 2 classes that this game doesn't, and both male and female variants for each class. That game also had equipment and a large variety of consumable items that this game lacks entirely. It seems like a lot of assets are also recycled from that game entirely, including material sprites, npc cut-ins, and the splash screens at the end of every mission. As far as the class balancing issue goes, it's extremely disappointing to see how mediocre alchemist and imperial are compared to the other two. Zipangu has an invincible dash that lets you just dash through most attacks in the game, and wizard becomes a one-button class once you unlock the lightning spear skill, since it's a full screen attack that can't miss. In comparison, the imperial's damage is very lackluster and it has poor sp recovery despite how expensive its skills are. Alchemist is probably the worst class in the game, no contest. Its main mechanic is lobbing potions that have an arc that's just large enough to be annoying to use, only 2 of its chemical shots are any good, and its skills are all either impractical to use in stages because of their cost or useless for boss fights because of their very low hitboxes. Boss fights are especially bad for alchemist too, because their entire gimmick is applying status effects, and it becomes harder to inflict statuses on bosses the more times they're used, so their dps during boss fights keeps dropping the longer you spend on it, when every other class has fairly even dps the entire time. The city building gameplay is basically pointless outside of being required for the true ending. Your castle of choice at the start of the game doesn't actually matter despite each castle type having a different area of coverage for stat bonuses. In theory, constructing buildings within the highlighted zone gives you stat bonuses for your character and gives you reason to plan out your city design and manage resources. In reality, there's a hard limit on how many buildings you can gain stats from, and the stat gains themselves are negligible. Even by the end of the game, you can only gain stats from a total of 12 buildings despite there being room for more than twice as many in the city map. The only people who will notice a tangible difference from the stats gained through construction during the actual gameplay will be either speedrunners who will just plonk down 12 level 3 attack boosting buildings, or unskilled players who will need more defensive buildings to make up for their lack of ability. Ultimately it's a very half baked system despite being narratively important and marketed like a bigger portion of the game than it is. I've been an Inti Creates fan for a long time, and it's disappointing to see this mediocre display. The difference in quality between, for example, Majogami and this game is stark, since that game has very tight and responsive controls and very well designed stages and boss fights. In comparison, this game feels like an indie game from a new studio and not the work of a 30 year old company with more than 60 titles under their belt. I get that it's probably a side project made by a B team, but it's just not worth full price. If you really want to get it, wait for a sale. Unfortunately $15 is just too much for how mediocre the game is overall. I really wanted to like this game, and I was looking forward to it since it was announced, but I genuinely cannot recommend it.

[h1] 무너진 왕국을 부흥시켜라 [/h1] 우리들의 킹덤은 무너진 왕국을 부흥시키고 세계를 구한다는 용사물에 가까운 게임이다. 기존의 인티크리에이츠에서 나온 게임들이랑은 스타일이 약간 다른데, 기존의 인티크리에이츠가 건볼트와 같은 액션 플랫폼게임을 냈다면 이번에는 그것과는 다르게 rpg스타일의 게임을 들고 왔다. 기존의 rpg와 차별점이 있다면 각각의 스테이지를 클리어하고 얻은 소재로 왕국의 건물들을 새로 지을 수 있는데, 어떤 건물을 짓느냐에 따라서 추가적인 스테이터스가 올라가게된다. 생각보다 특이한 시스템을 가지고 있어서 예구를 했는데 솔직히 말하면 굉장히 아쉬웠던 게임이다. 우선 아트를 정말 잘 뽑아줬는데, 그 아트들을 매력적으로 사용을 하지는 못한 것 같다. 조금 더 스토리 라인을 탄탄하게 해서 여러 컷신들을 보여줬다면 굉장히 좋았을 것 같다. 지금도 아트가 훌륭한데 스토리도 짧다보니 컷신 같은게 생각보다 적었고, 플레이어 클래스에 대한 컷신도 따로 존재하지 않아 아쉬웠다. 제일 아쉬웠던 것은 바로 게임플레이인데... 특정 건물을 지어 스테이터스를 올린다는 점에서는 나름 참신한 소재라고 생각했지만 플레이가 굉장히 지루하다. 게임의 전체적인 메커니즘이 의뢰를 받는다 -> 스테이지를 클리어한다 -> 건물을 짓는다 이것이 반복되며, 스테이지도 단발성 스테이지를 여러 번 깨야해서 스토리를 진행할 수록 지루함이 점점 강해졌다. 마지막 도전과제 작업에는 특정 소재들을 모아야하는데, 그 드랍률이 생각보다 높지도 않아서 지루한 스테이지를 반복적으로 플레이 하는게 억지 플탐늘리기식인 느낌이 많이 들었다. 요약하면 전체적으로 매우 아쉬운 게임이다. 이게 원래 기존 ip를 활용해서 만든 게임이라고는 하지만 조금 더 스토리라인이라던가 스테이지 부분을 탄탄하게 만들어서 출시했으면 어땠을까 하는 생각이든다. 물론 지금의 게임이 19800원으로 그렇게 비싼편은 아니지만, '카드 앙 시엘'의 세계관에 우리들의 킹덤이 있고 그저 이 ip를 활용해서 억지로 게임을 만든듯한 느낌이 들었기 때문... 심지어 이 캐릭터들중에는 마녀가미에도 등장하는데 이 점을 이용해서 조금 더 스토리라인을 깊게 만들었으면 더 괜찮지 않았을까 하는 생각이든다. 정말로 아트 디자인에 비해 매우 아쉬운 게임이라 생각된다....

What this game need: - Remove battle result for each segment in the dungeon. A pop up on the top is enough. - Skip the introduction when continuing the segment in the dungeon (think of old games like Metal Slug). - Coop mode up to 4 players: Increase monster health and number in progress. - Skill balance: For example: Imperial Knight have little skill fighting air unit. Meanwhile, Witch can dash and use Lightning Bolt+ to cheese the whole map. - Item balance: 1% hp/sp is powerful, but it depends on luck. Make nameless dungeon has high chance to drop these items, and vice versa for main dungeon, to force player to explore more. - Items that can be used is terrible since it makes you vulnerable for 2-3 seconds. Remove those animation we don't need it. - Building is okay, but decoration should give some bonus, and dismantle should give 75% resource back to modify as the game runs. - Boss Rush mode. - Survive mode. (Best with coop) I give recommendation (for Ekoro) but the game needs to improve more.

Unfortunately this game stinks. The story is boring and thin, the time to kill is all jacked up, the character gameplay is not very good, and the town building is far to basic to be interesting. The game starts you off with the town and gives you a tutorial for building and you learn to build and make roads that touch buildings and the outer wall of the buildable areas for buffs. You build a home base which allows you to get upgrades based on building positioning in certain fields. Each building gives different stats and you can raise your crit chance, damage, etc. you can also renovate the buildings to level them up for greater boost. There are 4 classes to play and you can switch between them. The main girl knight character plays the best. She does good damage, has counters, and a moveset which is pretty fluid. The witch girl has an extremely weak ranged attack which does very little damage but does close to double damage when charged. She has very weak defense. The alchemist has a weird flask ability where he tossed the flash and it hits at a specific point in range. He has some crazy good skills like the mad puppet summon which does as much damage as the witch by itself and with the upgraded version twice as much. When you accept missions from the HUD you set out and there is a short over world map where you can move around and find chest and fight enemies and multiple dungeons. There are named dungeons and nameless dungeons. The named dungeons have bosses at the end whereas the nameless ones don't and appear to be more varied. Ultimately if they tweaked the time to kill to make it less of a slog it would be a much better game because it is so repetitive and uninteresting in the combat and town building. Imo other inticreate games like dragon marked for death are much better for a similar grind if that is what you were going for. I wanted a grind but I wanted it to be fun and interesting which unfortunately this isn't.

It's on the lower end of my recommendations, mainly because this is a fun enough game, very casual with 4 different characters with unique styles to play as, a kingdom to build with a few unique concepts to it in terms of what they do but I could see it being a lot more than it ended up being, if ya just want a semi long game where you don't really need to think all that much it's fun and simple enough for a single run through, if ya fancy playing the other characters maybe three more times but I can't say I was invested enough for that personally dood. So in depth time! Kingdom's return has you play as a "hero" in a peaceful era working with a fairy to return a kingdom to it's former glory! As it's time has been taken from it and left in ruins, you can choose from a knight, samurai, mage/sorceress and an alchemist to play as, (I played as the alchemist because cool glasses and chemicals that go boom always sits well with me) you'll adventure through a few lands taking on requests and getting materials for the kingdom dood! Quests are usually a basic affair, accept them, go to an overworld where your sprite moves along to find the dungeon and fight/avoid the enemy icons, there are usually three-four dungeons in each place, some are unique, others are bossless versions of a dungeon that can have some nice stuff and a higher chance of chest/reward rooms, you can carry up to four extra items ranging from healing and buff items to accessories with some decent effects as long as you carry them and are sold off for more money after you beat the quest sadly dood. Combat has you move freely from left to right of the screen, typically you always start on the left in dungeons but in icon battles you could start left or worse yet the middle, which as an alchemist is noooot fun, you have a basic attack, two special attacks that cosy meter, four skills you can learn from a skill tree that cost a lot more meter but are more useful or damaging among other handy effects, a dash and a block oh and a jump I guess too lol dood Enemy variety is kind of very...reskin like sadly, there's a decent few mind you but you'll find more than a few copies just with different looks of enemies you've faced, that said they do a great job of changing them up enough to at least feel different to fight, dungeons also have unique quirks to them that can impede or even help in battle, that said the game could do with not having the win screen for each floor go on so long like it's a turn based victory screen all the time, it killed the pacing and got kind of annoying after a while sadly for just showing EXP and money earned dood. So we talked about dungeons but what about home base? So at home base you start off choosing from four castles, they all have a unique look but also range, what range you ask? Range of effect that boosts other buildings you build as long as it's touching the cool glowy part it shows but what effects do buildings have you ask? Well actually this is one of the fun redeeming qualities of the game to me, you can build various buildings, of which you get more options for as time goes on to boost your stats, connect the castle and buildings together for more stat boosts! Connect the road to the end of the map and even more stat boosts!!! It's a fun little builder idea I super wish they worked more on but it's not a huge game so I can get why not dood. The music is fine and bosses unlike enemies are pretty darn awesome to fight, go in unprepared and underlevelled and you will probably eat dirt even with the really powerful healing items you have, with some brutal attack patterns at times and high damage, your health will quickly lower, even when blocking which you at times should make sure to do dood. The story is just okay too, it's again very basic all around, typical of Inti it's a semi serious thing with a comedic reason we shall say, you'll see if ya get it dood. And that's really it, this game honestly reminds me of flamefrit, another inti game ironically where I feel what let's it down is all the potential it has but they kind of just make it feel like a demo of something bigger, it's a fine, fun game but you feel like it could have been so much more and the DLC is just skins rather than characters which is also a shame, even if it was cool playing as GV XD if it goes on a good sale? It's an okay enough time I can suggest it but I wouldn't bust my account for this one I'll say dood. Thank you for reading and if you buy I hope you super enjoy what the game has to offer dood! ^-^7

It took around two hours for me to go: "Wait, is this it?" and yeah, that was it. The mission structure got me really excited at first since it's similar to Dragon Marked for Death, but the combat is shallow, there is no equipment or upgrade system aside from a simple talent tree ,and the city building aspect is negligible. It's a real kick in the balls to place down an armor and weapon shop into my town only to realize I can't interact with them in any sort of way, the buildings are just there for the sake of giving you extra stats.

Dragon Marked For Deathのようにマルチプレイあるならまた違ったんでしょうねえ マップ往復虚無ループの現状作業ゲーです。 ビルド要素→アクトレイザーに比べるとほぼ建てるだけのお粗末仕様。 低価格路線でゲーム出しまくるのはいいですがもうちょっと記憶に残るもん作りましょうよ、インティさん。

Fun game if you like grinding. Not super deep but there's enough to keep you entertained. Try the demo and if you like it, buy a copy and play it!

実績コンプリートまで遊びました。プレイヤーキャラは「インペリアル」を選択。 目安時間 ・ノーマルエンドまで：約6時間 ・トゥルーエンドまで：約7時間 ・実績コンプリートまで：約9時間 時の妖精「カイロス」に時間を奪われて崩壊した王国を復興しつつ、カイロスを追いかけて捕まえる、というのが大まかなあらすじ。 ・ミッションを受注してフィールド・ステージへ繰り出す（2Dアクション）→ストーリー進行、レベルアップ、素材採取 ・素材を消費して 建造物を建て、王国を復興させる→各種パラメータ強化 の両輪を回してゲームが進行します。 プレイヤーキャラは性能の異なる4キャラクターから選択可能。 レベルが独立しているので上げなおしが必要にはなりますがいつでも変更可能です。 色々試しながら自分にあったキャラで遊ぶとよいでしょう。 [h2]よかった点[/h2] ・ボス戦の楽しさ 行動パターン、挙動がきっぱりと作りこんであり、回避やガードで凌いでいくのが楽しかったです。 元々同社製のゲームはボス戦が凝っているため、本作でも面目躍如といったところ。 ガードが強く、レベル制なのもあり初心者でも楽しめる作りではないかと思います。 ・ドット絵 プレイヤーキャラのアニメーション、背景ビジュアル、王国復興パートと各所のドット絵が良質。 特に、王国に関しては建築や強化でどんどん賑やかになっていくため進行に伴ったビジュアル的な楽しさがありました。 [h2]気になった点[/h2] ・微妙なテンポの悪さ アクションのモーションの固さ、宝箱を開けた際の間、各フロアごとに表示されるリザルトなど間の悪さが気になるところ。 ・淡々とした進行 進行はひたすらミッション受注してクリアしていくのがメイン。驚くほど淡々と進みます。ストーリーのうねりは少なめ。 良くも悪くも同社製の他ゲームはストーリーの味付けが濃いため、そのような展開を求めている方にとってはやや物足りないかと。 ・ステージの単調さ 各ステージ内容に関してもあまり変わり映えのない平坦な地形構成のため、単調さが目立ちました。 雑魚敵のバリエーションもそこまで多くはなく、全体的に耐久力が高く固めなのが気になるところ。 それもあり、ランダムドロップ含む素材収集のための周回はややしんどめ。 [h2]総評[/h2] テンポの悪さや単調さ等やや気になった箇所は多かったものの、トータルとしては楽しめましたので「おすすめできる」とします。 恐らく意図的にゲームスピードを落として作られていると思われますので、忙しさから離れて気楽にゆっくりとアクションを楽しみたいという方にはおすすめ。

Recientemente llegó a nuestros oídos que Inti Creates iba a sacar un juego que se veía a simple vista como un plataformero lateral con diseño muy bonito. Como no forma parte en realidad de los juegos que cubrimos, nos llevamos la sorpresa de que algunos lugares lo destrozaron con la crítica, y eso si nos empujó a ver qué era lo que sucedía. Cuestión que apenas nos lo mandaron vimos por donde venía el supuesto problema, y es, para variar, otra vez los medios haciendo de las suyas. Empecemos por describir un poquito el juego, como cualquier usuario, que no tiene por qué saber nada de él al respecto, ni trasfondo, ni historia, ni propuesta, ni nada. Al entrar a «Kingdom’s Return Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster» (si, todo eso es el nombre, en lo sucesivo lo llamaremos simplemente «Kingdom´s Return») nos encontramos con un reino destruido, y nos explicarán en un buen español que las hadas y los humanos solían reunirse en este, pero que una catástrofe ha azotado el lugar, y provocó que se vayan las hadas y los aventureros no aparezcan más por el lugar. Nosotros, como somos el único aventurero saldremos con la única hada que queda a reunir materiales para reconstruir el reino y cumplir pequeñas misiones de los que poco a poco vayan estando disponibles en la taberna, sólo tomaremos de a una, así que será sencillo en ese aspecto. Eso es sin más la historia, es todo lo que necesitamos saber. El resto apenas se complementa con los pequeños carteles de solicitud que explican a donde vamos y a qué en el mapa. El formato jugable de Kingdom´s Return es tanto de City builder extremadamente básico, y de juego de plataformas lateral, como cualquier otro. Tenemos 4 clases para elegir y un pequeño árbol de habilidades de cada una. Al tocar cualquier enemigo en el mapa entramos en una pelea, como en los antiguos juegos de la serie «Maná», o el clásico «Zelda 2», que una vez resuelta se nos otorga la recompensa. Al volver tendremos un castillo en un lugar con vista isométrica, donde podremos construir calles y estructuras (muy poquitas también), PERO, lo que construimos no es para visitarlo, sino para mejorar los stats de nuestro héroe. O sea, la herrería no te dará armas, sino ataque. Por lo que es como usar la ciudad de excusa para mejorar tus atributos. Tanto la exploración como las batallas, incluso contra los jefes son muy sencillas. Es como un juego de 16 bits donde no tenemos más que salir a buscar lo necesario o lo pedido por la misión y ya. Evidentemente esto despertó mi curiosidad, ¿Cuál es la finalidad de este título? ¿Por qué saldría a la venta algo que probablemente iba a chocar con cualquier exigente que ande por ahí? ya que parece un proyecto extremadamente sencillo y fácil de hacer con personajes incluso de Card-en-Ciel. Y su precio de lanzamiento completo en Argentina es de 8,55 dólares. Incluso tiene una guía en su web oficial muy muy pequeña: https://kingdom-return.com/en/system/ Procedí entonces a investigar, y resulta que me topé con la verdad, estamos ante simplemente un juego que era de teléfonos móviles del año 2011, que salió sólo en Japón, y que le dieron un pequeño cambio a la jugabilidad para sacarlo en otras plataformas, en mi caso lo jugué en Pc. Y ahí lo comprendí todo. El juego no es en si ni siquiera una remasterización, sino que era un juego con su propio ranking en Japón, donde cualquiera que viajara en sus minutos libres (como si hoy lo hiciera con un Idle) podía mejorar su reino y mandar a los aventureros a recolectar o cumplir misiones. En este, se participa activamente en la exploración y a consecuencia de lo recolectado podrás mejorar el reino. Y es todo, es un juego súper sencillo y para pasar el rato, como lo era el original, para todas las edades. Por lo que no importa cuánto avance, el juego por supuesto que tiene un principio y final, pero su desarrollo no es más que una forma de mostrarte un pequeño pedazo de historia, de lo que fue un antiguo juego de teléfonos celulares en Japón. Con lo cuál, el factor «bueno o malo» ya va a estar en cada uno, si siente que este estilo de contenido en la industria es relevante, si les gusta la historia y la preservación, pensando en rescatar algo totalmente olvidado e imposible de disfrutar en su forma base, de manera apenas remasterizada o con muy poquitas modificaciones para no depender de una línea telefónica. De mi parte creo que es un producto muy específico, y que esta bueno tenerlo sólo como curiosidad, o para que se diviertan los más chicos con algo que no les exija mucho, y a la vez conozcan este tipo de material. Entendería perfectamente que a alguien no le guste y no lo recomiende por ser un producto que es más histórico que otra cosa, o que no venga en un pack con algo más. A mi si me parece importante que al menos existan. El caso es que en Asia están trayendo de vuelta juegos atrapados en esa época en dispositivos móviles o consolas ya inaccesibles, y desde ese punto de vista me parece algo muy bonito, aunque claro, para vender quizás la sugerencia sería tratar de sumarlo a otro producto más interesante. Tal como hacen en Yakuza con sus minijuegos. Espero que te sirva! Tanto esta reseña como muchas más las tendrás en www.cafedragon.ar Y cualquier duda siempre están activados los comentarios.