Regalia Of Men and Monarchs tells the story of the young Kay (or whatever you want to call him), who in spite of himself finds himself a heir to a kingdom, with attached debts to be paid. The player’s goal is clear: to restore luster to Kay’s house and his possessions. Succeeding is another matter. The title of Pixelated Milk immediately presents itself as a tribute to Final Fantasy Tactics, that is as a mix between a Japanese role-playing game and a strategic turn-based one.
The start is all narrative, made up of long dialogues that introduce the setting and explain some fundamental concepts.The tones are comedy, with Kay everything he would like to do in life except becoming a sovereign; with his sister, much more determined than him but perpetually annoyed by what surrounds her and with his servants completely devoted to the cause.
During the adventure you will unlock many other characters, each with its narrative line and, above all, with its needs and characteristics. Entered the castle faces the first fight, not even to say against giant mice. We will come back to a dedicated paragraph.
For now the important thing is that you understand how the start of the game has been largely thought of as a tutorial, complete with pop-up messages that explain the various mechanics. Carried out the first tasks and taken control of the situation, it is time to decide what to do.
CHOICES OF A BUDDING MONARCH
The possibilities available are very many and will be balanced during the game. In general we must follow some assigned objectives to continue the story, but in the middle we can decide whether to dedicate ourselves to the rebuilding of the
kingdom, or to the development of interpersonal relationships with the other characters, or even to face the mini campaigns in the surrounding territories.
The first task is self-explanatory: having obtained the necessary resources (money and materials) one can rebuild or improve one of the village structures that stands in front of the castle. The second task is instead more sibillino and should be explained in detail.
Around Kay gravitate characters with whom we must improve relationships to unlock all the skills. For example, by becoming more friends with Kay, party members improve some features and unlock extra skills, while characters that offer services, such as the classic merchant or locksmith, improve their offer.
Developing relationships is quite simple: you go to a character and choose to spend a day with him (every day you can do only one action), trying to hit him by answering his questions well, through a multiple-choice system.
Obviously we have to decide which characters we consider most useful for our strategy and dedicate ourselves in particular to them, because becoming a friend of all is not possible, at least in the short term.It should also be specified that each character has his life and to be able to spend a day must be free. For this reason Regalia provides a real calendar with their activities.
The system itself works well enough, but honestly we would have limited it to the party characters only, which makes sense to their best for a sovereign they love. Extending it to merchants and to others has weighed it down a bit too much, also tying to fidelity aspects that have little to do with economic interests: why should a merchant not sell his most fruitful goods until he trusts us?
Each box can contain a fight, an adventure and a camp. We’ll talk about fights later, about the camps that we need to say to save the game and treat the wounded in battle (as well as to watch some dialogue), while the adventures are real mini books game in which situations must be resolved. described through a multiple-choice system, which can also lead to combat.
Winning the fights and successfully overcoming the adventures you get resources spent in the castle or useful items to improve the party.
The latter is managed through a unified system: each character has its own peculiarities, but is influenced by a common card. For example, if you increase the level by selecting the power that gives 100 more life, these go to all the characters and not just one. The additional abilities of the individual are unlocked with the already described system of interpersonal relationships.
CHOICES OF A BUDDING MONARCH
The turn-based combat system (finally we got there) on grid maps created by Pixelated Milk is really well done and original, despite some problems. Let’s go in order. At the beginning of each battle
we must first position our units, following the rules dictated by the map, which may require that they be scattered, or that they all start from a single side. During his turn, each unit can move and use one of its abilities. Since, as already mentioned, every hero is different from the others,
learning to know their skills is the only way to create a party that reflects our attitudes.Life points are one of the determining factors to be taken into consideration to win, because they can not be cured in any way. Once exhausted, the characters die and are revived sleeping in a camp or returning to the castle.
