Queen's Wish: The Conqueror

Review

Starting a new game, you’ll need to create and name your royal character. There are six options to choose from in order to create your character. The options are Body, Sex (Yes Please!), Face, Hair Style, Hair Colour and Extra Details. Once you’ve created your character, the next thing to do is choose the game’s difficulty. You have four options to choose from: Casual (an easier experience and for new gamers to fantasy role-playing games), Normal (game becomes harder as you progress), Veteran (for experienced players, foes will do more damage and harder to kill) and Torment (the ultimate challenge, foes have more abilities, health, do more damage, as well as your spells and abilities can damage your own characters). After you’ve decided on the game’s difficulty, the game will start.

You play as [Insert Your Character’s Name Here] the youngest son of Queen Sharyn III. You have an older brother, Prince Sutter, who is to be King one day. You also have a sister, Princess Delia, who is Queen Sharyn’s sage and most trusted advisor. You, however, don’t have such a role and have been living a life of decadence. This is about to change; you awake to find your sister standing by your door with a reassuring expression upon her face. She says that she’s sorry for disturbing you and that it’s almost noon.

From here you will have some options to reply to your sister, after which your sister tells you that Mother wishes to see you immediately in the throne room. You ask what Mother wants but your sister says she has no clue. You will have options to reply to her in trying to find out what’s going on. Once you’ve dragged yourself out of your pit, you must make your way to the throne room. There will be some pop-up windows which will help to explain what to do as you progress, such as opening doors, boxes, combat, etcetera. As you make your way to the throne room, still groggy from just waking up, you come across your brother, Prince Sutter. He’ll teach you how to equip and use items from chests and then how combat works, preparing you for what is to come. 

Upon reaching the throne room, the Queen ushers you forward and explains it’s time for us to speak. Queen Sharyn explains that you will go to Sacramentum, where you’ll take command of what is left of the colony, rebuilding the forts, raising an army and reclaiming the lands that they have lost. After speaking with the Queen, you head to a portal, which will take you to Sacramentum. Sacramentum is an island continent; the Haven lands occupy the centre, with Ukat nation to the west, the nation of Vol to the south and the final nation of Ahriel to the east.

Travelling by the portal will save you three month’s or so of travelling by sea. You really don’t want to go, and think that you’ll be able to come home at any point using the portal. This isn’t the case though; you’ll only be able to come home once you’ve rebuilt and have all the nations back under the empire’s control. You will be able to speak with the Queen, however, as well as your brother and sister through the portal at various times for help and guidance. Prince Sutter and Princess Delia will offer you some information before you depart through the portal to Sacramentum. Once in Sacramentum, you need to visit Chief Miranda so that you can get permission to start the rebuilding of the forts.

You will need to talk with other characters, and you can do this by selecting them, then a window will open with various options depending on the character. Not all characters you come across will engage you in chat, but the main characters in the story will do (although you may gain some basic hints of information from those characters you can’t talk with). You can find information on what you must do next, get advice on the current area’s situation, resources required etcetera.

Chief Maranda will also give you information on your next missions as you complete them. Using resources you find and collect, such as Wood and Stone, you can then repair the run-down forts. Within the forts you’ll find building foundations, and in front of these are some small stone pillars. You can rebuild these buildings by selecting the stone pillars and having the right resources. Once you’ve rebuilt a building you can then buy and place a shop in that building. You can also buy other things like chests, chairs, tables, paintings, runes bookshelves etcetera to kit your places out.

To start with you must build a Smithy and Apothecary; you do this by selecting the Building button in the bottom left corner of the screen (normally what you’ll see here is your combat options when away from base). Then selecting the “Plus” button to buy the required building. Once you have your Smithy and Apothecary you need to return and enter one of the buildings you’ve repaired. Once inside you can then select the “Place A Shop” button (next to buy a shop); select the shop you wish to place and then position it within the building wherever you like. You can only place a shop on a wooden floor, and they can’t obstruct stairs or doorways. Once your shops are built, you’ll be able to take advantage of them. Rebuilding shops at the other nations’ forts will allow you to gain better equipment, potions etcetera. Other shops you can buy consist of Carpenters, Weavers, Mills, Distilleries, Bakery, Guard Towers, all of which will help you bring back the good old days of all the nations and back under the control of the Empire of Haven.

Combat is initiated as you move within range of an enemy, and you can switch to combat mode and back at any time. In combat mode you’ll be able to move each character in your group individually and use them to attack. A character may have two main weapons, a melee weapon and bow which you can switch between as you need. Using a bow, you must be at least one square away from your enemy, but you can attack from afar. If you’re up close and personal, then you’ll need to use your melee weapons. Each of the characters has their own abilities alongside their main weapons; using these abilities will cost you some magic points. Along the bottom of the screen are twenty-three Quick Use buttons where you can select and place any abilities you currently have for each of your characters for quick and easy access while in battle. Once you have defeated the enemy before you, you can then exit combat mode situated in the bottom left corner of the screen.

You have three characters by your side, and you can change the order in which they’ll have their turn. Your group and the ordering within it are indicated in the top left of the screen. Besides your portrait are two coloured columns; these are your Health and Abilities. At the side of those is a Question Mark and Satchel; selecting the Question Mark will reveal information on that character, such as their level, experience, evasion, resists and bonuses. Here you will also find four Skill Tabs: Combat, Magic, Support and Cultural.  Any skill points you collect as you progress can be used to customise your characters. The Combat and Magic skills have three tiers, unlocking these tiers will allow you to use better armour, weapons and arcane items. The Satchel is your inventory, where you’ll store any weapons, armour, runes.  Items such as wood, stone, and other resources aren’t stored here but are stored with the rest of your resources collected so far.

On the main menu screen, you’ll find Start New Game, Load Game, Instructions, Settings, Medals, Credits and Quit. New and Load Game are obvious, and Instructions will help you with information on how to play the game and what things do. There are quite a few categories covering everything about the game, such as Helpful Hints, Getting Started, Theft and Equipping, Inventory Window, Combat, Action Points. Everything is here to help you should you find yourself in a pickle, unsure how to do something. Medals displays any achievement you’ve currently unlocked.

In the Settings you’ll find options for Gameplay Settings (Difficulty, Walk Animation, Scrolling Speed, Warning Before Pause in Combat, Arrow Keys, Auto Scroll Terrain View While Walk), Graphics and Game Window Size (Resolution and Window Size, Graphics Extra Details and Game Area Size), Sound Settings (Sound Volume and Background Sounds). Also here is Set Keyboard Shortcuts , where you’ll be able to customise the keyboard shortcuts to your own preference should you wish too.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!