In the roguelike Royal Frontier, players assemble a three-class party to defend a caravan on its adventure to New Haven. Three maps depict the forty-five-day-long adventure, each map being a fifteen-day-long journey each offering three different travelling path options for the player to choose from with a boss match at the end of each map.
Initially, you start off with three heroes available to you; a mage with a powerful fire attack but low defense; the healer with a very low attack but the ability to heal; and a knight with a stun ability and a fairly decent defense. You’ll be able to equip weapons and outfits that increase the attack or defense of each of the heroes once obtained. However, to unlock the three other heroes you need to reach certain in-game milestones, such as surviving twenty-five days and defeating certain bosses.
At the start of each round (day), you go first and the enemy second. Players can choose to attack, use an item or activate an ability with each of their heroes per turn. You can’t control which hero you can use first, which makes some choices a bit difficult if you were hoping to use an ability to increase attack power. A reflex-based mechanic requiring you to press a specific button offers extra perks as well, on your turn, it will increase the success of the option you selected, and in your enemy’s turn allow for an attack to be blocked that reduces the damage taken.
Items for the chest are collected throughout the player’s journey or obtained from a shop if you had one on your path, items obtainable include bombs to deal damage to an enemy, magic scrolls with various abilities such as stunning an enemy or reducing their attacking power or a consumable potion to restore your power or health and many more. The abilities are used with power points and each hero has their own unique ability. As you progress and level up during your journey you unlock further abilities for the heroes.
Each day brings on a different type of interaction, which are mostly combat based, you’ll, however, encounter different scenarios like a chest filled with treasure, villages with inns that restores a small amount of the heroes’ health if you rest or power if you pick the option to drink the night away, additional boss fights and more. Your path choice is rather important and one of only a few strategic moves within the game. Each playthrough will not be the same as the paths you can select are different each time, with the enemies, rewards, and boss fights offering a twist of what can start to feel a bit repetitive after a few attempts to reach the promised land.
After each ‘day’ you successfully conquered, the heroes’ health and power level do not reset, unfortunately. Items purchased, scrolls obtained and abilities of fellow heroes are vital to reach the next map or to even just survive the next combat encountered. After each round, you are presented with randomized perks such as slight increases in defense and attacks, or a slight increase in the max power or health values of the heroes. The enemies also become stronger as you progress, some with the ability to heal themselves or their fellow warriors, or multiple attacks. Often even early on the high damage taken compared to the health level of the enemies felt that the combat was a bit unfair and often more a matter of luck than a strategy to survive another day.
As with most grindy roguelikes, all progress is lost when defeated, apart from any skills or characters unlocked. Player experience points earned will still be awarded and you continue to level up. Although, unlocked heroes and blessings don’t offer much of a difference to the gameplay.
The art-style overall is cute and pleasing with the characters expressions changing making it a fair bit humorous, the background art doesn’t offer a variety. The soundtrack fits the style perfectly and the sound effects were subtle but interesting enough for me, to not want to turn it off after a few rounds.
For those interested in the achievements or trophies, this is a fairly easy, under two-hour completion, after all, Ratalaika is well known for easy achievement games. Royal Frontier was published by Ratalaika and developed by Woblyware and released on the 18th of March 2022.
Royal Frontier is available now on PC, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch.