Grand Kingdom Review

Unlike most genres, there tends to be many different ways to handle an RPG. Be it something like chess, turn based combat, lanes, action or whatever, many games offer a different take on how it should be. Grand Kingdom offers its own take, along with a lot of uncertainty, mechanics, elements and more. With so much going on, is it a dream come true for RPG fans or an overly complex nightmare?

Grand Kingdom starts with a random squad of mercenaries joining an elite guild and their journey from newcomers to respected members. Sadly, this means the story is filled with predictable elements and obvious clichés. There is a rival of sorts, you get the most special person to look over your tasks, etc. There isn’t much to say about the story, outside of its unusual way of addressing the player.

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Similar to a number of other games, Grand Kingdom addresses comments and quests to their leader (you), but also does so by having the characters’ stare at you too. It’s a bit unusual, maybe even a little off-putting, though it isn’t terrible common.

In either case, Grand Kingdom’s main draw is the gameplay. After you finish the tutorial, which is fairly exposition heavy, you get to make your squad. You start with a couple of classes and as you progress you’ll unlock more. Each class does a specific thing and fulfills certain roles you need in an RPG. These include a healer, range, tank and so forth.

The great thing about Grand Kingdom is that there are a lot of options. Each character goes about their things differently, with a number of color schemes, accessories, voices and more you can customize. Once your team is set up, you can change the formation, add flags and other things that boost stats or offer defense and then you’re ready to start your adventure.

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The way Grand Kingdom works is simple. You start on a board, have a finite number of moves, some sort of objective and you need to get from point A to B within those moves. Along the way there are hidden passages, enemies, traps, more. If you want to be successful in Grand Kingdom then you need to pick your battles and be aware of where you start one from.

Say you see a cannon on the field, then certain spaces are within firing range. Starting a battle there will limit your usable space, making the fight harder. Likewise, you can get friendly defense items too and they will punish the enemy for staying within certain areas.

As you start to get into the combat, it’s an interesting take on the standard turn based genre.  In Grand Kingdom you have multiple lanes where enemies can confront each other. From there, things like position and how you go about attacking will determine how effective you’re. For instance, throwing the medic’s poison too close to an ally will cause it to hit them instead of a target in front of them. Another is how you actually attack.

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Instead of just doing a move or set of attacks, characters like the fighter has a couple of attacks that lead into an uppercut. This will usually launch the enemy, with the option to follow up. Successfully continuing the attack sequence requires you to time out your strike. Hitting them before they hit the ground will offer you the next attack, where as missing will end their turn and they’ll block. Most of the characters have moves like this, making the combat way more engaging than your typical RPG.

The nice thing about this system and more is that Grand Kingdom supports a lot of different playstyles. The diverse classes offer different ways to go about handling a situation, with the various missions asking different things of you. Sometimes you need to collect an item, kill a person, take over a place or you can just freely explore, collect materials or defeat your enemies.

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One of the big aspects to Grand Kingdom is the PVP mode. Here you fight for a nation, gain reputation and other such things. The mode itself is fun, but it’s generally just a harder version of the base story. For those not interested in PVP, there is ample content to play offline, though you’ll be missing out on some things if you do.

Verdict

Grand Kingdom is an interesting RPG with a cute art style. Not only is there a robust character creation system, the combat is deep and interesting enough to keep most people interested. Sure the story is a little underwhelming and PVP won’t be for everyone, but unless a deep story is a dealbreaker or you don’t ever want to experience the PVP stuff, it’s a solid choice for RPG fans.

[Editor’s Note: Grand Kingdom was reviewed on PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]