Can you help to restore the kingdom to its former glory? Learn more about this fun tactical RPG in our Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs – Royal Edition review!

 

Pixelated Milk took Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs to Kickstarter back in 2015, securing over $90,000 in funding from over 2,700 backers on the platform. The game was originally planned for PC, but the campaign managed to reach a stretch goal at $60,000 for bringing the game to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. After a lot of hard work, the game also managed to find its way to the Nintendo Switch as Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs – Royal Edition, giving Switch owners the base game and all additional content in one go.

In Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs – Royal Edition, you play as hero Kay. After your father has passed away, you end up inheriting a kingdom in a land far, far away. The twist for this one is that Ascalia – the kingdom you’ve inherited – has, unfortunately, fallen into hard times, and is drowning in debt. The Furtive Union is the one ready to collect on what is owed, as you have inherited all the monetary obligations that go along with now being the ruler of Ascalia. As a young adventurer and heir to House Loren, the hero, his two sisters and their bodyguard embark on an adventure to find some precious loot and other ancient and expensive stuff that can help to bring the kingdom back to its former glory.

 

Before you dive into this adventure, you can customize your playthrough by selecting between three different difficulty options. There’s Story Mode in which you won’t have much trouble completing each of the game’s chapters since enemies deal less damage, and you can even skip battles if needed. Normal is the regular adventure that offers a good challenge without overwhelming you. And then, there’s Nightmare in which the damage your party members receive in battle is considerably increased, and you will need to complete more demanding objectives to complete a chapter.

Once you get started, you will realize that story cutscenes are fully voice acted, which is certainly a nice touch. Kay is a bit of a mess and not much of a hero at the start of the game. His sister Gwendolyn thinks of herself as royalty and behaves thusly. Elaine, on the other hand, is a bit peppier and has a joyful vibe. As for bodyguard Griffith, he’s what you’d expect if you would think of a big and strong knight who will stop at nothing to keep his master and his family members safe.

 

Battles are of the strategy RPG variety, so you will be taking turns with your foes as you plan your movement and attack actions, making the most of your abilities and strengths as you try to outsmart your enemies. You will get your first taste of battle early in the game as you set out to clean up the castle, only to run into a group of orange rat-like creatures with a pair of extra arms, which are led by a rather large green one that packs a punch.

You’ll get to use your movement points to move, and you can continue to move around the battle area as long as you have some points left. You can only do one action for each turn, so you’ll need to decide if you want to use a skill or an item. Each of the skills at your disposal have different ranges and effects, and you better pay attention to these elements since you need to maximize their potential or else you’ll end up defeated in battle. Your health can’t be recovered during battle, which is why shields are very important. Shields are reduced when you receive damage before your health takes a hit, so be sure to keep your shields up at all times!

Something else to consider are Authority Points. These will go into a pool that all party members will share, and you can use them to activate your Blitz skill, which allows a character to take another action in its current turn. If you want to activate the Ultimate skills of your party member, then you’re going to have to spend two Authority Points to activate an Ultimate skill. These two change how you approach things in battle as you can end up using them at just the right time to be able to turn the tide of battle.

 

Regalia reminded me a bit of the Atelier series from Gust since once the game gets going, you will be tasked with using your time wisely. You’ll interact with the people in town and complete Kingdom Quests – which show the debt collector that the kingdom has growth potential and you’ll, therefore, be able to repay the debt, as well as Story Quests, as needed. Every time you move between locations, days will start to go by. And when you enter a dungeon, a set number of days will be consumed based on the overall size of said dungeon. Each year in the game is going to be nine months long, each month has four weeks, and each week has seven days, so do plan accordingly.

As for dungeons, each of them will have different types of nodes for you to explore. There are Adventure nodes in which you will take on some text-based quests for which you can be rewarded. As the name suggests, Combat nodes will include battles with the enemies of that area. Camp nodes are small areas where you can obtain Personal Bond points with the characters in your party, revive party members that have been knocked out in battle, as well as save your overall progress.

An interesting element is that you won’t be grinding for experience points for each of your party members. Instead, the experience points go to the party as a whole, which means that unlike other strategy RPG – or just RPG in general – no party member will ever be left behind. Each character does have its own damage, health, accuracy, dodge, initiative, moment, physical and elemental resistance and other stats that will go up, and these can and should be boosted with the weapons and trinkets equipped by each character. There are also perks that you can use to customize your experience, so be sure to pay attention to those as well! The higher your party level, the more perk slots you will unlock, so you’ll be able to mix and match to find the right combination.

While the game does offer a gameplay settings menu, it has a big red sign with the words “Warning!” in a bright yellow color that jumps at you. The warning message itself states that the game has been balanced by taking into consideration the default values currently presented and that changing any of them might lead to imbalanced battles, so you should change things at your own risk. This makes sense since there are dials for changing how much damage is dealt by party members, how much damage is received by party members or to disable dodging for the enemies you face.

Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs – Royal Edition is a must-have for strategy RPG fans. It features a light-hearted story with great voice acting, solid gameplay mechanics, and a ton of content to enjoy. You’ll spend dozens of hours playing this one as you learn more about what happened to the kingdom, how you can fix things, and who will rise to join your cause. Other than how you’ll be seeing the “loading” screen a lot during your time with the game – an issue that is mitigated a bit by having some of the game’s story relayed in messages presented during said moments, along with some extra tips to help you in your adventure – there is not much to complain about this one.

Disclaimer
This Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs – Royal Edition review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Klabater.