Royal Frontier Review (PC)

fair
key review info
  • Game: Royal Frontier
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: No
  • Reviewed on:
Royal Frontier key art

Ghazan has enough action points for one fireball, which means I mash a key as fast as possible to deliver the maximum damage to the targeted enemy. It does not kill him, but my next character can. But I chose to have Roman heal the mage, who might have trouble with the other two enemies, while fighter Rodric stuns a goblin. I use well-timed button presses to parry all incoming attacks during the enemy turn. And now I need to choose whether I want to focus all my own actions on attacks or if I am better off finishing one enemy, stunning another again, and accepting that one will attack my party.

Royal Frontier is developed by Woblyware, with Ratalaika Games in charge of publishing. I played the game on the PC, via Steam. It is also available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The experience mixes active time combat with rogue elements and a light layer of role-playing.

The narrative setup is very standard: a group of heroes needs to move through the wild to reach New Haven and their new lives. Initially, the party includes Rodric, the straight fighter, Roman, the healer, and Ghazan, the mage. A further three can be unlocked via gameplay to add some variety. Regardless of the three chosen they need to travel via nodes and survive for 45 days if they want to reach their goal.

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Doing that is not an easy task but it’s mechanically simple. The map features three parallel tracks, filled with encounters. The player chooses which one to travel with and needs to deal with the nodes, one at a time, to make progress. There are towns to visit, vendors to pick up items from, mysterious nodes with unknown situations.

But most of the nodes in Royal Frontier are battles. The three player characters line up on one side, the enemies on the other. But the game has no hexes and no movement. A character can spend a turn attacking, launching a special ability, or using an item. Once all three do that, the enemy side does the same. The battle ends when one group no longer has hit points. So far, it’s pretty boring, with limited space for actual tactics. It’s important to use special abilities at the right time and items if you have them.

To add spice, all combat moves have an active timer component or a QTE. A classic sword attack becomes more damaging when the player presses a button at the right time. A parry takes some of the sting out of enemy assaults, again powered by a QTE. Hammer a key while launching a spell to make it more destructive. This kind of concept would be good if there was more variety when it came to possible actions, or if getting it right would deliver a big bonus. But almost perfect QTEs are a requirement for good progression, especially when taking on a boss character for the first time.

When the player party is wiped, the game evaluates performance and opens up new options. As noted, there are characters to unlock, but blessings are more important. Gamers pick three at a time, from an ever-expanding set, and some combinations are very powerful.

Royal Frontier needs more options to add variety, like the blessings or new characters, to be engaging. And it needs to find ways to make the active time combat feel like more than a chore. Constantly pressing the same button to parry or boost an attack is just not a good mechanic.

Potential players need to know that on the PC the game lacks any support for the mouse. Doing everything via keyboard becomes annoying quickly, so pick the game up on consoles if you like the mechanics. Royal Frontier was clearly created using limited resources, so the old-school pixelated look is a good fit. The gameplay is never deep enough that lack of visual detail becomes a problem, and the universe is small enough that the lack of character does not hurt it much. The music starts off relatively interesting but is so repetitive that I suggest players find their favorite survival and adventuring soundtracks to replace it as soon as possible.

Royal Frontier
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The Good

  • Some rogue-elements
  • Boss enemy design
  • Retro presentation

The Bad

  • Boring combat
  • Quick Time Event driven
  • Limited narrative

Conclusion

Royal Frontier is a simple game that can serve as an introduction to the rogue space but does not have the unique or interesting elements of the best of its genre. Combat is interesting at first but becomes rote very quickly. Unlocking new blessings does not feel important or cool enough to keep players engaged.

But this could still be a slightly fun rogue and combat experience if it weren’t for the QTEs. They cannot be avoided, add little to the gameplay, and make everything take a lot more time than it should. Rogue Frontier understands what makes its chosen genre interesting for players but fails to introduce any unique mechanics of its own.

Review code provided by the publisher.

story 5
gameplay 6
concept 8
graphics 8
audio 7
multiplayer 0
final rating 6.5
Editor's review
fair
 
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Royal Frontier screenshots (21 Images)

Royal Frontier key art
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