Queen’s Domain review

Before Dark Souls taught a generation to fear a lonely treasure chest, FromSoftware’s King’s Field series turned first-person dungeoneering into an exceedingly dangerous undertaking. With its measured swordplay, environmental traps, and enemy ambushes, success only emerged after a long succession of patience-testing stumbles. 1998’s Shadow Tower pursued a similarly inhospitable crawl while more recent efforts like 2023’s Lunacid have demonstrated how the approach is still effective, at least to us masochists.

Freshly Baked Games’ Queen’s Domain is undoubtedly part of that punishing lineage as well. Peer past the wordplay in the title and the coarse, 2K-era textures and you’ll find a title that’s refreshingly indifferent about your survival. Thankfully, the developers are nearly as neutral when it comes to being an obedient spiritual successor to King’s Field. Several new additions provide distinction from a strong interpretation of the basic framework.

Shipwrecked on a Memorable Island

At first, appreciating those ideas is difficult given the multitude of ways you can die. You wash ashore on the Isle of Neasied in search of your missing father, the king, while the awakening of Queen Siraatsu casts a shadow over your undertaking. With his expedition having failed, his comparatively ill-equipped son is left to investigate. And while the game’s premise provides some requisite motivation, the storytelling is no match for the island itself.

Arguably, Neasied is the game’s most interesting character. Its personality can swing from sunlit vegetation and crumbling masonry to the possibility of something deadly lingering in every single basement. This is a substantial adventure with dozens of hours of exploration, and there’s the persistent feeling that you’ve only scratched the surface. A lot of games give you room for exploration but Freshly Baked ensures those spaces are sufficiently detailed with memorable topography, flora, and fauna.

Scenic like Mallorca, But with a Mace in Hand

Best of all, Neasied feels cohesive and organic. Forest paths wind around ruined structures, coastal pathways provide access above water, and the compulsory crypts and caverns form complex underground lairs. You’ll stumble upon temples and an eerie library, with shortcuts returning you back to familiar sights. Occasionally, a distant ledge becomes an entrance, while a rather unassuming passage opens up to a surprisingly deep diversion.

Everything from weapons and accessories to healing supplies and stat-boosting food makes scouring the island worthwhile, while details like the placement of a skeleton provide useful clues. While you have a compass, there’s no map. As such, remembering landmarks and learning the general layout of the island become essential skills. The upside is that stumbling upon a helpful item feels satisfying. But the downside is that without any cartography, you can expect to do a lot of wandering.

Of Beasts, Books, and Backtracking

Fortunately, a wide variety of inhabitants can make these detours interesting. Altogether there are over 100 enemies, mini-bosses, and full bosses, with creature designs that grow increasingly odd the longer you persist. Early adversaries cross rodents with insects, while hopping birdlike pests provide some erratic targets. Skeleton warriors and humanoid fish extend some traditional fantasy opposition. But the island also has novelties like eye-bearing plants that fire beams from overhead positions. Later combinations include ant-and-deer hybrids and occultists carrying mechanized weapons. Bosses push things even further: the Necronomicon is a hostile floating book that transforms through several forms. As such, you’ll have to adapt rather than outlasting the terror-tome’s hulking health bar.

But let’s get back to the reasons why Neasied is so hostile. For one, the local wildlife doesn’t stay dead. Resting at a Crystal Monument restores your health but repopulates the area. But even if you don’t need to top off your HP, foes return over time. As such, backtracking requires attention, even if you think you know the route. Although this approach provides opportunities to earn experience and improve weapons, it can make looking for an overlooked passage perilous.

A Deadly Rhythm Game

Combat revolves around a stamina meter that determines the strength of each melee attack. Running also lowers it, so rushing into striking distance can leave your opening swing underpowered. Strike with a full bar and you get useful damage. But keep swinging before it recovers and your blows become weak. Holding the attack button charges a stronger strike, adding another wrinkle to the rather modest system. Really, it’s about finding a rhythm where you create an opening, land a solid hit, then reposition as you wait for your power to return.

Much of the variety is rooted in weapon selections. Pleasingly, Queen’s Domain offers 50+ melee weapons and more than 20 types of secondary throwing weapon. Your loadout gives access to three melee and three ranged selections. This proves essential because enemies have different resistances and vulnerabilities to certain weapon types. Swords are suited for the rat bugs, a spear’s piercing attacks answer the hopping chickens, and a club’s blunt force is the best offense against skeleton warriors.

Who Put Those Tiny Daggers in Your Heart? Me?

Beyond weaknesses, reach and attack motions matter too, especially when an elusive target can escape from a slow swing. Individual weapons also have special attacks, and using a weapon strengthens it over time. Consulting the bestiary and changing equipment can remove the frustration of small damage numbers. Still, the constant swapping requires patience, especially when several enemy types appear in a group.

Throwing daggers are particularly useful. Your dagger belt operates on a cooldown rather than having to buy new blades all the time. Domain’s elevated eye plants are less threatening when you can counter their beams. In fact, blade hurling can lure an enemy from a powerful group. Throwing daggers doesn’t consume stamina, so you can fill the pauses between melee swings with a bit of punishment. Their damage still scales with your current stamina, though, giving you another reason to watch that meter. And yes, daggers are used to trip remote switches, adding a nod to Nintendo’s beloved franchise.

For the Love of Things Holy

But Queen’s Domain’s biggest departure is the Holy Sword Endu, the windblade that energizes your deliberately sluggish movement. Its wind dash carries you through the air, extending jumps and letting you reach previously inaccessible platforms. Additional Wind Gems expand the number of consecutive dashes, gradually changing how you navigate the island. A broken stretch of brick becomes a possible route while a distant platform becomes something that might be worth investigating.

You have access to the dash while fighting with another equipped weapon, making Endu one of the most useful tools across your adventure. When in combat, that boost in mobility can help you clear an attacker’s reach, shift past an enemy, or jump over a ground-level shockwave. Since the dash doesn’t make you temporarily invulnerable, timing and your destination still matter. Aiming and judging jumps takes practice, but the tool provides some welcome incentive to revisit places.

Yes, Queen’s Domain makes you work to appreciate all of this. From your lackluster early equipment to the sheer amount of incoming damage, the game can feel punishing. Factor in the lack of a conventional dodge roll, limited options for blocking or parrying, and reliance on manual saving, and it’s a game that will probably teach you some tough lessons.

Of course, that’s long been the point with these first-person crawls. Largely, Domain is issuing you a consumate challenge and only patient and persistent players will make it through to the end. If you’re willing to tolerate this kind of approach, Queen’s Domain can be a rewarding continuation of King’s Field’s tradition.

Queen’s Domain was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.