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My first FromSoftware game wasn’t a Souls game. Nay, I was introduced to their particular brand of old-school gaming through King’s Field. King’s Field II, to be exact. At a time when consoles relied on traditional JRPGs, King’s Field II and its lack of handholding, 3D open world and unrelenting difficulty were a breath of fresh air.
It was hard as nails, cheap as hell and unapologetic about it. It didn’t care if it was unfair, and it didn’t care if it was insanely tough. If you couldn’t cut it, there’s the door.
It was a strange experience, to be sure. I’d never played a game back then that didn’t care if the player didn’t like it. Instead of the game bending over backwards to suit the player, the player had to improve their skills to survive in the game’s world. Needless to say, the King’s Field games (and even Eternal Ring on the PS2) weren’t to everybody’s liking.
But I loved them.
I hated that FromSoftware never came back to King’s Field (perhaps in the future?), but Queen’s Domain immediately caught my interest when I saw that it was pretty much a homage to the series.
Could this finally be the modern King’s Field I was waiting for?
What is Queen’s Domain?
Queen’s Domain is a 3D open-world RPG played entirely in first person. It’s developed by Freshly Baked Games LLC and published by Future Friends Games. It’s currently available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.
Our review code was provided by Future Friends Games! Thanks so much!
Queen’s Domain starts off with a simple premise. An ancient, evil queen is reawakened, and her revival has created upheaval across the land. The dead rise, animals go loco and all sorts of disasters happen. The king goes off to stop the queen but goes missing, along with his loyal knights. It’s up to you (the prince) to find daddy and pick up where he left off.
Like most Souls-like games, the lore in Queen’s Domain isn’t told through regular storytelling. Apart from the lore dump in the intro, you put together bits and pieces through notes you find, item descriptions and even lore entries in the bestiary. While there are NPCs you’ll encounter in the game, most of them inevitably die after a bit of exposition.
It gets a bit predictable, to be honest, but hey… I don’t think anybody’s going to be playing Queen’s Domain solely for its plot.
Fortunately, the story isn’t really the reason you’d want to play Queen’s Domain. Its appeal lies elsewhere, and that’s where its King’s Field roots become immediately apparent.
When I said that it takes a lover of King’s Field (or Eternal Ring, if you’re a fan of that one) to enjoy Queen’s Domain, it wasn’t hyperbole. That’s because it takes all the hardcore elements of a Souls-like (unforgiving difficulty, lack of a checkpoint system, plodding combat) and then shoves them into a first-person viewpoint.
Think of it as Skyrim, if it were a Dark Souls game.
You explore a huge open world, level up by gaining XP from killing enemies and slowly build up your gear from exploration finds. Like old-school RPGs, you don’t get to assign stat points to your liking; it’s all done behind the scenes by the game itself. Yeah, it takes away some customisation, but I don’t mind that much since there aren’t a ton of stats to keep track of.
I mean, combat is pretty much all physical, with magic barely an option. In fact, you can’t even cast spells on your own. You can only use magic if the weapon you’re using has a magic skill. The game’s focus on mostly melee combat might turn some people off, but if you’re a King’s Field veteran, you should be familiar with it.
That focus changes a bit in the last third of the game though. That’s when you get access to energy cells, which powers some melee weapons…and guns! A machine gun, a shotgun, a rocket launcher (with a rocket punch secondary attack!), a laser and more! It’s awesome!
Guns are a bit underpowered initially, and the energy cell recharges slow…but as you get more energy cells and expand your capacity, the slow recharge (which can be quickened with an item you can equip) matters less. The rocket launcher for example can one shot (or at the very least, massively damage) most foes when it’s fully upgraded and you have some levels (I’m level 86 right now) under your belt.
I do have to mention that Puwema’s Blessed Orb club is a MUST for anybody, though. Its healing-over-time magic skill is very handy no matter where you are in the game. So are the Blood Moon hammer and the Vampiric Scimitar. Being able to heal yourself with the damage you deal?
Yes please!
Oh, the regeneration necklace is a must too!
That helps you avoid relying too much on items, allowing you to conserve them for real emergencies instead. And that’s another thing I appreciate about the game’s approach to weapons.
Another plus point is that you do not outgrow your weapons. While they do have their own power stat, all of the game’s weapons are comparable to each other. It’s your character’s attack power that mostly influences your damage-dealing prowess, so you can still be lugging around a weapon you found at the beginning of the game and have it remain useful in later dungeons.
Oh, your sense of direction better be spot on too…because there is no map. Not a full screen one, or even a mini auto-map. You don’t want to get lost? Better get to mapping mentally inside your brain while you explore. You might think it’s overkill for a modern game…but this is Queen’s Domain, so it’s not.
You need to remember…while Queen’s Domain released in 2026, this is a game that’s mired in the past and wears its inspiration like a badge of honor. It’s an old school affectation and one that I feel really suits the game. It’s just another throwback feature.
Would I have appreciated a map? Maybe. Did it affect my enjoyment with the game? Nope.
Of course, being inspired by King’s Field doesn’t mean Queen’s Domain is content with simply recreating its predecessor’s design philosophy. It does introduce some modern conveniences and clever additions of its own.
One of the best ideas comes in the form of evolvable weapons. All weapons gain XP and levels as you use them, raising their attack power as you make them stronger. Certain weapons, though, evolve at Level 10 (which is also the level cap for regular weapons), gaining a whole new look, more power and a magic attack.
The game doesn’t tell you which weapons can evolve (of course, did you expect otherwise?), but the safe bet is that every ‘rusty’ weapon variant can turn into a magnificent beast if you take the time to level it up. The downside is that these ‘rusty’ pre-evolution weapons are inherently shitty, so gaining XP for them becomes a bit of a chore in later areas because enemies are strong while you do pathetic damage with them.
The solution is, of course, to travel to the lower-level areas (whether by teleportation or magic consumables) and grind there for a bit. I honestly think this could’ve been made much more streamlined by the developers.
They already allow you to equip three different weapons at once, so perhaps they could’ve tweaked the gameplay a bit so that even equipped (but unused) weapons gain some XP while you’re using other weapons. It doesn’t have to be a ton, perhaps even 50% or lower, but it would help level them up without breaking your exploration flow or temporarily handicapping you with lower attack power until they’ve levelled up.
Of course, levelling up your weapons is only part of the equation. You’ll also need to pay attention to what you’re using them against.
In a neat twist, the game has three main damage types: pierce, impact and slash. Some enemies have resistances (some to multiple types), so you’ll always want to have one of each type of weapon handy to keep your DPS up. There are also unlisted damage types (such as flame or splash damage) that come with special weapons.
Combat is a bit too slow for my taste, though.
I know the developers are going for the slow, ponderous pace of the King’s Field games (which are even slower-paced than Dark Souls), but there’s such a thing as too slow, especially when it all depends on the power bar. The more power you have built up when you swing, the greater the damage. That means you’ll always want to attack with a full bar for optimal damage, unless your opponent is nearly dead.
The whole issue here is that the power bar builds up sooooooooo slowly, and a single swing depletes it.
Doesn’t matter if it’s a dagger, a staff or a sword. Your hero can hold a freaking greatsword in one hand indefinitely, while running nonstop, but a single swing is all it takes for his power bar to go kaput.
How is that not insane? Not in a good way, mind you.
Combat takes on an even slower feel because you do not want to swing when the power meter is full. Yes, you do the most damage at that point… for an uncharged hit. To deliver a charged hit, you need to hold your attack button (I’m using a PS5 DualSense controller, so it’s the R2 trigger) so that it fills up the whole length of your power bar before you attack.
To its credit, you can buffer in a charged blow while your power bar is recovering, but it always adds an extra millisecond or two because your charge meter’s fill rate will always lag a teeny bit behind your power recovery. A millisecond might not sound like much, but over the course of thousands, tens of thousands… hell, hundreds of thousands of swings? That is a lot of time wasted.
Because of this, you spend an inordinate amount of time just dancing around your enemies. Circle-strafing, backpedalling… whatever works. King’s Field was like this, but never to this punishing extent. It’s just a waste of time because combat is frequent! I mean, enemies respawn every time you rest (or after a certain amount of time has passed), for goodness’ sake.
Speaking of enemies, I actually like the enemy design in the game. They fit the look of the game, and some are very cool. I love the look of the Wheel Dancer (and her unholy shrieks) and the Pus Bag, and I wish there were more standouts, honestly. The game has a weird fascination with skeletons, with a ton of different looks for them, though they pretty much fight the same throughout the game.
Speaking of enemies, their designs might vary, but the way you deal with most of them is surprisingly similar.
Here’s how it pretty much plays out every time.
You go into close range to bait out an enemy attack, then either sidestep (by circle-strafing) or backpedal out of the way. Once the enemy commits to its attack, you step into range and unleash your own blow. Then you step away again and repeat the whole process.
Or…much, much, much later…you get access to guns and other forms of high tech weaponry. Guns don’t depend on the power meter to fire, but on energy from rechargeable energy cells. The problem here is those cells take even longer to charge than the power meter and guns drain a lot of energy per shot.
Here’s where you put the Picard facepalm picture.
It’s one step forward (introduction of guns and a way to fight that doesn’t depend on the power meter) and two steps backward (slow energy cell recharge rate and massive energy drain per shot). You’re better off just going melee with regular (or just the laser sword) weapons instead.
It sounds boring, it sounds repetitive. It is… but it also isn’t. This is combat as it was in King’s Field. It doesn’t need to change or cater to more people. This game has an idea of what it wants to be, and that includes a vision of what the combat should be… though I wouldn’t mind a few tweaks here and there.
It sounds like I totally hate the combat, but that’s actually pretty far from the truth. I love it. It’s just like King’s Field’s! I just wish it were faster. Not by a lot, just a smidge.
Combat definitely needs more movement options, too.
You can do a short thrusting dash (or air dash), but there are no side or back dodges. Some weapons have an alternate attack where you hit and jump back (mostly the spears), but why make a move that livens up combat locked to certain weapons instead of making it a basic gameplay mechanic? Another puzzling gameplay choice.
Yes, the slavish dedication to King’s Field is appreciated, but this isn’t the ’90s (or early 2000s). It’s fine to improve on the formula, guys. You don’t have to replicate the exact experience because, I’ll be honest, it hasn’t aged well. You know this; that’s why you’ve added features to Queen’s Domain that weren’t in King’s Field.
The lack of fall damage in Queen’s Domain? That’s an entirely new feature unique to the game.
In the King’s Field games, if you so much as fall from the top of a table, you’re liable to break both your legs, your arms and your spine. Here, you can fall from the sky and then walk it off without even a burp. Even falling into environmental hazards (like pits or deep water) doesn’t result in an instant Game Over (though the tough combat means that’ll still be a very familiar screen). You just respawn at the last solid footing you had, with a small slice of health taken away for being stupid and/or careless. Probably stupidly careless.
It’s a smart addition and one that I very much appreciate.
So why aren’t more combat maneuverability options among them?
Thankfully, you’re not completely helpless when it comes to dealing with enemies from a distance.
To offset this somewhat, the game also gives you throwing weapons. These recharge after use, and you’re given a whole boatload of different types. Some even inflict status debuffs like poison or paralysis. They’re very useful for ranged engagements and to whittle down enemies with massive health, but you’ll want to use them sparingly because they don’t have weapon levels to gain.
It’s a baffling omission, to be honest.
Why don’t throwing weapons have levels like the melee ones?
It’d have added yet another reason to try everything instead of just sticking with your favourite few weapons to chuck. For me, that’d be the regular throwing knives, the homing ones and the poisoned knives. I know I’d have experimented more if there were a reason to, but no throwing weapon XP?
No thanks, then… I’ll just stick to my favourites.
Like the melee weapons, you can equip three different throwing weapons at once, and they also have damage attributes, so that’s another thing to juggle. Not enough to make up for the lack of weapon XP and evolution, though.
You also have three equipment slots to manage with accessories.
These run the gamut from the usual trinkets that buff health and attack to specialised items that highlight hidden areas and light up the dark. Ironically, it’s the specialised ones that I use the most. It’s very annoying that the lantern isn’t an automatic upgrade, though, because it’s pretty much required in the game’s dark dungeons.
You’re pretty much forced to give up one of your favourite equipment slots to make room for it, or play the game like you’re Matt Murdock without his radar sense.
It’s not much of a choice, if you ask me… nobody wants to play a blind-man action RPG.
Right? RIGHT?! Right.
While the combat gets more right than it does wrong, the exact opposite is true for the music.
Most of the score doesn’t fit the game.
Since the game is so influenced by King’s Field, you’d expect (rightly so) that the music would be similar. That’s sadly not the case. Apart from a handful of instances (with the duck item shop theme being the best of the best), the game’s music misses the mark completely.
The score is much too upbeat, and that honestly ruins the atmosphere for me.
The King’s Field games (and Eternal Ring) were like the Dark Souls games in atmosphere just as much as they were in difficulty. There was an intense air of foreboding and helplessness. A dour, sombre tone to the whole thing, with a tinge of melancholy added in.
The tunes in Queen’s Domain sound generic, with a higher tempo and beat, and instruments that don’t come close to conveying what you, as the player, should be feeling.
I remember being creeped out as I played King’s Field because the background music was just oppressive. You were in constant danger, and you felt it through the music as much as through the fights and monsters you encountered.
I never got that feeling even once in Queen’s Domain.
I didn’t feel threatened. I didn’t feel scared. My heartbeat never rose. I didn’t feel a tinge of melancholy, longing or wonder at the environments as I wandered the island. The music just didn’t connect, and that’s a damn shame because the environments themselves are actually some of the game’s biggest strengths.
From the vertical exploration style of the Tower of Knowledge, to the disjointed islands in the Ancient World, to the dark crypts and ruins dotted around the world, there are good, interesting places to run around in pretty much everywhere you look. It is a joy to explore the game because you can pretty much go to any place you see, even the tops of ruined towers!
The fun of King’s Field (and Queen’s Domain) lies in the interconnected world. As you play, areas expand, shortcuts unlock and you discover nooks and crannies that not only lead to secrets (as expected) but to whole new areas to explore.
There’s just a joy to going into a dark hole expecting to find loot and then being tremendously surprised when that hole is actually a hidden entrance to an underground crypt, which also unexpectedly opens up a shortcut to an area you’ve previously visited! It’s just satisfying.
Fans of Dark Souls and other Souls-likes will be very familiar with this, but even though the formula isn’t new anymore, it’s still immensely satisfying when done right. Queen’s Domain does it very right. There are secrets upon secrets upon secrets. Not only does the game have multiple endings, there are optional areas to explore, optional weapons to find, even optional enemies and bosses to face!
The main game is lengthy enough, but if you’re going to see and do everything there is to do in the game? It’s going to take a whole damn while.
Even better, I truly love that some areas get new enemies as you open them up! Areas previously clear of any foes may now be populated the next time you return after advancing a bit. It’s cool!
The visuals are also cool.
The game goes for a gritty retro aesthetic that’s weird at first but grows on you. It’s like a mishmash of the visual looks of the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 eras. The pixelated look evokes a PlayStation game, but the lack of texture warping (which is honestly for the better) isn’t exactly accurate. Conversely, the character models remind me of a PlayStation 2 title with their blocky, low-polygon makeup.
There’s even a toggle in the Options to create a more aliased (jagged) look, but I prefer to turn it off for cleaner, clearer visuals. What’s super cool to a veteran of the King’s Field series, though, is the compass in the upper-right corner of the screen. It really brings me back to the King’s Field days with its similar look and animation.
One thing I’d like to see patched, though, is the crosshair.
It blends too much into the background with its greyish colour and girth. A fatter, more prominent crosshair would be much more visible when things get hectic. Hell, make it an optional thing that people can toggle on and off for those who want the original look and those who don’t!
It’s a unique look, to be sure, but I wouldn’t call it distinctive. It does make the game look like a King’s Field sequel, though. Would I have preferred a more modern look? I’m honestly divided on this, but I do know I’d want a more distinctive look for a Queen’s Domain sequel.
The game doesn’t need to look like a retro title to pay homage to one, know what I mean?
The Bottom Line.
Queen’s Domain isn’t quite the modern King’s Field I’ve spent years hoping for, but it’s probably the closest thing we’re going to get. Its interconnected world is an absolute joy to explore, and there’s something immensely satisfying about discovering hidden passages, unlocking shortcuts and stumbling into entirely new areas.
Unfortunately, its unnecessarily sluggish combat and soundtrack that completely misses the mark hold it back. Still, despite its shortcomings, there’s a lot to love here if you’re a fan of the old King’s Field games. Just don’t expect a perfect recreation of those classics.
Sometimes, the old formula could use a little modernisation.
TLDR:
Queen’s Domain captures King’s Field’s addictive exploration, but its sluggish combat and misplaced soundtrack keep it from being the modern revival I wanted.
The Technoverdict: BUY BUY BUY if you loved King’s Field. Get it on sale if you’ve no idea what it was.
The Good:
- Lots of secrets to find.
- Multiple endings that build upon each other.
- Satisfying combat.
- Awesome weapons.
- Cool visuals.
The Bad:
- Combat could be faster.
- Music isn’t that good (except for the duck merchant song)
- Throwing weapons don’t gain XP.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
