I still haven’t finished Queen’s Domain; something I generally force myself to do before writing a review/analysis for a game. I think many reviewers would mimic this sentiment, at least in part. Wanting to get a substantial way through a game before reviewing it seems the sensible thing to do, as you want to accurately represent the game in its entirety when writing for your audience. As more and more games come out, less and less time can be spent just meandering through games, especially as a reviewer. Many games streamline themselves for this exact reason.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake just released on the 5th of this month and one of the main complaints seems to be that many stress points have been flattened, simplified, streamlined. The bridge to Hyrule no longer goes up at night. You can now run to make progress across the map quicker. Many keys in dungeons have been removed to make rooms optional rather than necessary for progression. There’s even a new item that lets you summon a shop-keep to buy items from anywhere, including inside dungeons. All of this in the name of making the experience easier to play, easier to get through, faster to complete, less “confusing”.
The Business Scrub Seed, a new item in OoT Remake that lets you summon a shop-keep throughout the game, including in dungeons.
Queen’s Domain, released only 6 days prior to the aforementioned example, looks at all of the streamlining done to gaming in the last 30 years and says “Be damned!”
At first I struggled with this. I, a reviewer myself, wanted to be able to write about this game quickly. I had a very busy month of playing demo after demo after demo for Next Fest and trying to scramble to write about them. Queen’s Domain reminded me that was stupid. This whole thing is stupid.
“Be damned!” I say as well.
Be damned all this rushing. Be damned all this struggling to complete things so we can run off to gobble up the next lukewarm product. Be damned this spirit of consumerism. I want art. I want things that emulate life. Life isn’t easy, it isn’t streamlined, and god dammit, it isn’t fair either. I don’t want something that enables me to turn my brain off for the next four hours because I’m depressed. I want something that begs - no - demands that I pay attention and care about every single movement, every item, every enemy.
Queen’s Domain is that experience.
At first this is a pain point, especially when you’re used to so many modern gaming experiences. Queen’s Domain washes you up on shore with nothing but your name. Lucky for you, your name means a lot and it gets you a single rusty sword. From here it’s on you to methodically tread through the mud with your single dog-shit weapon that can barely kill a single bug and persevere. Every encounter nets you EXP for both your weapon and your character; which means that, while you suck rocks at the beginning of the game, you are getting exponentially stronger with every single attack. And with each enemy killed you get one step closer to unexplored territory, which means new items.
Finding consumables, money, weapons, and new gear is like coming down the stairs on Christmas morning to see all the magnificent things Santa left under the tree for you. A new weapon could mean new damage types, an essential mechanic for dealing damage to enemies, and it most certainly means a new move set. The move sets for weapons may be the best thing about Queen’s Domain (behind the exploration, I suppose, debatably). Each and every weapon has a unique move set, with light and heavy attacks. Oftentimes a weapon’s heavy attack has some sort of movement tech behind it.
Take, for example, the Caestus - one of the first weapons you can buy from the shop. The Caestus’ heavy is an uppercut that sends you flying into the air. That’s massive in this game! Now you have a completely new way to not only approach enemies/combat encounters, but you also have a new way to navigate around the map; and navigating the map is imperative. Every corner of this sprawling map has something new to discover, some new item to pick up, a new enemy to encounter, a secret entrance you didn’t notice at first, a pickup that permanently improves your character, and so on and so forth.
The fellow explorer in all of us is heavily rewarded in Queen’s Domain, even if it’s a simple consumable, because everything matters in Queen’s Domain.
And I don’t just mean every item matters, either, though that is still true. Every single move you make in Queen’s Domain matters. There are massive falls you can stumble into that completely change where you are on the map and what you’re able to accomplish. There are enemies that can body you if you let them get too many hits in. Groups of enemies easily overwhelm, so kiting enemies slowly and taking them out one-by-one is imperative. Money is extremely scarce so you have to choose what to buy and choose it wisely. Saves only happen at save stations, also extremely scarce, forcing you to decide when to push forward versus when to return and save the game; lest you lose all your progress since you last saved (including all items and level-ups).
All of this culminates into a very methodical experience where you must simply exist in this world. It’s not about rushing through it, you cannot. Every corner must be searched. Every view must be experienced. Every enemy must be killed. Every item must be used. Every step must count.
Does that mean all of it is perfect? Absolutely by no means. There are plenty of things in Queen’s Domain that I personally don’t like. Too many enemies in extremely small arenas, bosses with mechanics I detest, specific map design feeling uninspired or confused, lack of NPCs and storyline progress; just to name a few. But, and I say this a lot so bear with me, life isn’t perfect so why should art be? Perfection means sanitization. Streamlined. Flat. Boring. Art should be messy, wild; just like life. There are, of course, things to be said about tweaking a game to be more fun than friction, which is also something I talk about a lot, but I think Queen’s Domain does enough to be fun that the friction introduced in some less-than-perfect segments is excusable at worst and interesting to experience and figure out how to circumvent at best.
This brings me to my main point about Queen’s Domain and how I find it to emulate life - something I said near the beginning of this write-up. Life is messy. Life is annoying as fuck and it often throws a lot of unfair challenges your way that, honestly, you shouldn’t even have to deal with. But what is the point in complaining about it? Instead, use it as an opportunity to learn.
Every single time Queen’s Domain would throw an annoying problem my way, there wasn’t really any way around it other than to use my brain to tackle the problem head-on and in the most painless way possible. These pain points forced me to use all the knowledge I gained and all the resources at my disposal to get through them and, when I keep seeing games remove any type of struggle I could have (and no, a massive health bar on a boss that won’t stop swinging is not what I’m talking about here) I found these pain points to be things I wound up enjoying when the quiet moments of Queen’s Domain would surface.
A map I had to think about rather than a giant flat plain like most open world games. A boss with annoying moves I had to really consider how to win against with my whole kit rather than a boss I simply had to eye-frame every single attack before swinging my sword. Everything about this experience, from the fun to the friction, I adore. Not because it’s perfect, but because it simply is. It isn’t meant to be consumed quickly, nor is it meant to be this grandiose experience every single person must see or else, it just is. Like life. There’s great moments, bad moments, agonizing moments, things you wish you could change, moments you wish you could live in forever, places you wish you could see again for the first time or never again.
To me, Queen’s Domain is the anti-reviewer game. It just wants to be. It shouldn’t have a score assigned to it, it can’t be rushed through to pump out a review in a timely manner, and it doesn’t have some deep, meaningful hidden message that shocks and awes the artist in all of us. It’s simply beautiful, astonishingly fun, and should be experienced yourself. At a time where I needed the reminder to slow down Queen’s Domain was that for me.
Honestly, so was Danchi Days; another wonderful, methodical, meandering sort of game. Vastly different from Queen’s Domain, but much more similar than you’d think when looking at the two side-by-side.
Check out Queen’s Domain and take your time with it. Don’t rush the beginning, just find joy in the mundane task of killing the same three bugs over and over and you’ll thank me, I promise.
**Disclosure: A key was provided for this review**