Everything RIGHT & WRONG with Kingdom Two Crowns ...

[Orionis]

Kingdom Two Crowns – An in-depth review

I fell in love with Kingdom New Lands despite its flaws and could hardly wait for Kingdom Two Crows to come out. Now that I've played it a fair bit, I am left quite disappointed and as of right now cannot recommend this game.

The Good:

+ Beautiful visuals and ambiance
+ Unique and pleasant music
+ VERY addictive game concept

The Bad:

- The beginning.
Starting a new game, you are greeted by the most minimalistic of menus and no way to customize ANYTHING before the actual campaign starts. There isn't even an accept button for which mode you want to play. Stay too long on one logo and it starts automatically. Unnecessary and frustrating.

- Options menu.
I don't know if other players have experienced this too, but full screen isn't working for me. If I enable it in the (very meager) options menu, it covers only a third of my monitor with huge black sides left and right. There is also no option to zoom in anymore. It stays at 6x and no more arrows are visible to change it.

- More options menu.
I just recently discovered this, but in the few moments while loading up a new game you can use the down arrow to flip through your monarch's visuals options RANDOMLY. Hover too long on a design and again, it is logged in automatically, no time to consider. After that, it is done. NEVER AGAIN are you able to change how you look in game. There is simply NO OPTION in the menu. It is something so simple and to be expected in 2018 to have even the most basic character selection screen, especially in an RPG. Yet Kingdom is stuck in the Middle-Ages, literally.

- Even more options menu.
Almost the same thing goes for your coat of arms (called blazon) which is visible as a flag on your main building and influences the colors your monarch and your knights display. NOWHERE in the entire game is explained how this works. There is the tiniest box in the menu with three dots in it and the words "Set Blazon" next to it. THAT'S IT.
And it's not like you can enter a color in it and call it a day. OH, no no no noOOOooo! You have to write a VERY SPECIFIC kind of phrase into the box or it simply won't work. Fyi, it's a main color, a design + color and an animal + that color. And does it tell you anywhere how to use it or what colors and designs and animals are available? …. NO! You have to look it up on a game Wiki. This is simply unacceptable!

- The new griffin mount.
Two minor gripes here. First, its wings. They are all kinds of anatomically wrong. Every bird creature has its longest feathers in the front, as is seen when the griffin opens its wings to blow back the greed. But this is not the case while riding. The front part needs to be flipped upside down to be accurate (longest feathers closest to the ground) and not flap in the wind like trailing a piece of fabric. And second, I was very disappointed that the griffin can't fly (or hover fly) even short distances.

- For the love of pixels, let us undo things!
Moving on to gameplay stuff, one of the most aggravating things is not being able to take coins or chores back. Accidentally hit the down arrow next to the wrong tree and oops, you just destroyed one tree too many, thus obliterating the vagrant camp. (AAAAAHHHHHH !!!) There NEEDS to be some way to undo things. The arrow up key would do just fine! (Also, being able to undo walls - for a price - would be very much appreciated.)

- Forests.
In a similar fashion, forest clearing is a pain. Sometimes you don't WANT to clear a stretch of forest, as it produces deer and houses vagrants and the merchant. But in order to build a wall beyond the forest there a. needs to already be a natural clearing (which is very rare and rarely in a convenient place) or b. you need to raze the forest to the ground from the edge inward. WHY? Why can't I let my workers start chopping IN the forest BEHIND the vagrant camp? I'd do so at my own peril, knowing that if I send him too far or too late, he'll be greed fodder. BUT GIVE US THE CHOICE to select any tree, not just a few in the front.

- Winter.
It was promised to be fixed/improved in an update come January, but as of now it is two things, boring and frustrating. Only pike men are able to generate gold in winter apart from your bank reserve's interest and there are no pike men in Shogun mode. WHY? If Europeans can go ice-fishing, why can't Asians?
Also, throwing your scythes AWAY into the river come winter!? EXCUSE ME!? Those cost 4 gold each! The first time I saw this in New Lands I almost choked on my tea. And it hasn't changed in Two Crowns. WHY? Why can't they leave their scythes at the farms at least to be picked up again in spring? Or let them transform their scythes into fishing rods for winter? Store the blades and attach some string and bait. (I'd even be willing to buy those for two gold). There is no rhyme or reason for throwing away perfectly good farm tools, whether it be in the real world or in game.

- Time and Seasons
The current system of how many days you've spent on any given island and how many days overall is very confusing. As it appears, the amount of greed gets bigger irrespective of which island you are on. Accidentally leave an island the day before autumn and travel to a new island you could be faced with enormous hordes of greed pouring in while you still struggle to build up your new kingdom from wood palisades and scraping together enough archers, not to mention knights or even getting up a bakery to attract vagrants otherwise unreachable behind enemy lines. Welcome to being stuck between an empty purse and a cold place. Very uncomfortable. Again, there is no way of telling in-game when seasons change, except for subtle visual hints as they are happening, not before. And apparently seasons get longer, the longer you stay on an island? Or simply longer each year? Still kinda fuzzy on that one, but the wiki says so and either option MAKES NO SENSE. A year is always the same length! And IF we would want harder circumstances to challenge ourselves, why not let us set a specific length for each season in the options menu. Again, give us the choice.

- Gems.
This new element was added as a progression system. It is a weak and very unnecessary one. Gems take up enormous space in your tiny pouch, making it very hard to operate at times. The banker does not take into account how many gems you carry, potentially giving you way too much to carry when dishing out your daily share.
Progression-wise it is only a hindrance forcing you to return to island one in order to unlock a statue, a hermit and a mount because there are no gem chests on the island. Yet WHEN you return is a very finicky thing. You need no less than NINE gems ( that's about two thirds of your pouch) to unlock everything on island one, which means you either have to redo another island so you can save up the necessary amount for the first island or you only unlock one or two things and travel back to island one a third time. This whole process is time consuming and dangerous considering the system of seasons and more greed described above. Either you screw yourself by taking too long to get to island four and five unlocking things or you leave them locked, missing out on important upgrades, thus making your gameplay harder and less satisfying. … Or the game simply wants to kill you, so you can experience the newly implemented "period of decay" in which you return as a descendant of your original ruler and build up what was lost in the meantime. Yay … such fun, much wow (eyeroll)

This is everything I can think of right now. To sum it up, this game needs a SERIOUS menu overhaul and A LOT of gameplay improvements, before it can proudly name itself a true successor to the ones who came before. Right now, it's the same game as New Lands with a new coat of paint and some additional decorations.

This is not enough, not a satisfying game experience and thus not recommended.

What do YOU think?

[Stefan]

About the menus:
Yes, I fully agree.
It's fun to figure out things without having an explanation, but those should be in the game - the menu should be easy to understand and navigate and especially not move on before you've manually accepted or even noticed an option. (don't start the game after hovering over a biome for 2 seconds or so, someone who doesn't know of the option will miss it and be frustrated, same with character selection)

About the forest:
Being able to chop any tree would solve something that I dislike about the game: it currently looks boring and sad after a while, just an ugly brown and grey area with nothing but walls. Farms make it look really nice, but having places to build those is not guaranteed, especially on the later, larger islands it's rare.
Leaving more forests or single trees in between walls would add so much to the look of the kingdom. Maybe there could be a hermit that upgrades trees to Apple trees that give coins and look even more beautiful :)

Seasons always last 16 days in this game, so you could calculate the exact timing.

About an undo function:
Destroying buildings could be solved with a hermit.
Undoing ongoing tasks is something that would save a lot of builders, but I like that it can be frustrating when things go wrong and builders get ambushed by greed. That's where the Griffin shines because it can push greed away and buy more time. Chopping trees next to a vagrant camp should probably cost 2 coins though, so it's harder to do it by accident. (maybe the same for lvl 1 walls)

About gems:
At least for my current, rather quick playstyle, hermits are mostly useless and the only thing I want to have are the Griffin, the archer buff and the builder buff. Because I can get them early, gems are just annoying afterwards and although I don't want to have them, loosing them to greed still feels really bad.
I think that it's far too easy to secure an island completely without frequent travel between islands you've already visited, so the bonus that hermits give is just too slow. Also it doesn't affect the end fight at all, because you can only take 2 knights with you.
What would be cool (in my opinion) :
1. Take the hermit that gives more knights when you upgrade a tower and build up a giant army.
2. Take the ballista hermit with you, the banker and a few builders.
3. March on the cave with that entire army
4. Push back the greed bit by bit
5. Build walls to secure your progress
6.Build ballista towers to attack and weaken enemy defenses - towers, walls, etc (using the banker to supply the needed money)
7. Once defenses are down, attack with your army and plant the bomb.

[Orionis]

Originally posted by Stefan:

About the menus:
Yes, I fully agree.
It's fun to figure out things without having an explanation, but those should be in the game - the menu should be easy to understand and navigate and especially not move on before you've manually accepted or even noticed an option. (don't start the game after hovering over a biome for 2 seconds or so, someone who doesn't know of the option will miss it and be frustrated, same with character selection)

About the forest:
Being able to chop any tree would solve something that I dislike about the game: it currently looks boring and sad after a while, just an ugly brown and grey area with nothing but walls. Farms make it look really nice, but having places to build those is not guaranteed, especially on the later, larger islands it's rare.
Leaving more forests or single trees in between walls would add so much to the look of the kingdom. Maybe there could be a hermit that upgrades trees to Apple trees that give coins and look even more beautiful :)

Seasons always last 16 days in this game, so you could calculate the exact timing.

About an undo function:
Destroying buildings could be solved with a hermit.
Undoing ongoing tasks is something that would save a lot of builders, but I like that it can be frustrating when things go wrong and builders get ambushed by greed. That's where the Griffin shines because it can push greed away and buy more time. Chopping trees next to a vagrant camp should probably cost 2 coins though, so it's harder to do it by accident. (maybe the same for lvl 1 walls)

About gems:
At least for my current, rather quick playstyle, hermits are mostly useless and the only thing I want to have are the Griffin, the archer buff and the builder buff. Because I can get them early, gems are just annoying afterwards and although I don't want to have them, loosing them to greed still feels really bad.
I think that it's far too easy to secure an island completely without frequent travel between islands you've already visited, so the bonus that hermits give is just too slow. Also it doesn't affect the end fight at all, because you can only take 2 knights with you.
What would be cool (in my opinion) :
1. Take the hermit that gives more knights when you upgrade a tower and build up a giant army.
2. Take the ballista hermit with you, the banker and a few builders.
3. March on the cave with that entire army
4. Push back the greed bit by bit
5. Build walls to secure your progress
6.Build ballista towers to attack and weaken enemy defenses - towers, walls, etc (using the banker to supply the needed money)
7. Once defenses are down, attack with your army and plant the bomb.

Thanks for the input, Stefan!