Kingdom: Two Crowns | PS4 Review

This can’t be put lightly: Kingdom: Two Crowns is the quintessential kingdom building strategy sim. Raw Fury initially published this gem in 2015, and it’s been expanded to different systems ever since.

It Takes a Community

You play a ruler (randomly a king or queen) that is building their domain from humble beginnings. As you ride in to your camp, you spread some wealth around and hire newly found people in their own camps. You can recruit these newcomers to become archers, builders, farmers, and more to aid the growth and defense of your land.

A Kingdom Like No Other

Like any sim builder, you find ways to grow and expand; however in this kingdom you’ll also need a sturdy defense. Why you ask? Well the greed, of course. These creatures aren’t all too threatening at first, but they grow bolder day by day and love shiny things (like tools and crowns). And they’re willing to run through walls in the middle of the night to attain this lofty goal. They can steal the bows or hammers from your people and even force them to run for the forest for cover. If you have money in your purse they’ll take that first, but if not, the beauty of a crown tops their list of wants and needs.

If you survive, the sun rises on a new day, and you must rebuild your kingdom, reequip your nation, expand as you see fit, and be ready for another pending onslaught come nightfall. If not, your reign ends, and a successor from your bloodline continues to rule. After all, this is a rougelite. The end goal is to defeat the greed, hence bringing peace and prosperity to your kingdom.

Life is Eternal Repetition, Coupled with Expansion

You can expand to new lands and find new tools, equipment, mounts, and roles for your people. There are also special characters that you can recruit to help your town along the way. The mounts include stags, bears, and even fire-breathing lizards, each with their own unique traits and added skills. They can be a lot of fun, especially since your highness really can’t do much but ride and pay for things at the beginning of the game. On top of that, you can even rescue to loyal pupper that follows you loyally.

Pleasing Aesthetics 

The game is 8-bit, but I had to change the magnification to enjoy the sights. The default settings for this can be a little difficult to get used to. Up close pixelated lives are much less visually appealing than the alternative.

The music and sound effects, however, are a stunning draw unto themselves. If you’d sit and listen, it’s almost a calming ASMR experience. You can close your eyes while your character walks through a field and hear the clip clop of your horse’s hooves while birds chirp and flutter about. A slight breeze rustles the trees as you pass by a stream. The cool water babbling over some rocks invites your trusty steed to take pause and cool its lips. No I’m not crazy. That’s the kind of pictures these nature sounds paint. That, and your mount can graze to refill stamina.

Kingdom: Two Crowns Final Verdict

All-in-all, you really must give Kingdom: Two Crowns a shot. Come for the kingdom building strategy sim; stay for the melodic, inspiring sounds. And if you pick this up on PS4 let me know; it’s even more fun with a co-op partner.

To hear me talk more about this game, be sure to listen to Episode 257 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on a copy provided by Raw Fury for coverage purposes and is also available on Xbox One, Switch, and PC.