You never know what to expect when you start playing an indie game. These days, comparisons to other games do at least a third of the heavy lifting for most new titles, hoping to cash in on cross-over fans of various popular titles. With such a full marketplace that’s now getting even worse with AI slop, who can blame them either. If you like a certain game, maybe you’ll like this one too! And that’s how we found Queen’s Domain from two-person indie developer Freshly Baked Games LLC and publisher Future Friends Games. Marketed as a love letter to King’s Field, fans of the old From Software title have every right to get their hopes up, but just because you namedrop something doesn’t mean it will match you expectations. This time however, the comparison is definitely warranted!
In Queen’s Domain, you play as a prince looking for your father who has become lost on the Isle of Neasied. Travelling there, your boat is wrecked and you wash up on shore with no supplies or gear. Fortunately, a few survivors are wandering about and happen to have some weak gear with them! While there are bits of hidden lore and plot scattered throughout Queen’s Domain, most of the story is told through discovered notes and tablets and there is only a smattering of occasional dialogue. Much like King’s Field though, you kind of piece together things as you explore. Wandering about shows you an island filled with ancient ruins, monsters, and puzzles that show a complex civilization that has crumbled and disappeared. Strangely, everything is locked or hidden away and finding your father will take every ounce of courage and cunning that you have.
Probably the most frustrating thing about Queen’s Domain is the early game. Early progression is incredibly slow and your weapon is very weak. Almost every creature can kill you in a couple of swipes and managing to survive is an exercise in frustration as you die over and over again and slowly creep around corners and up pathways in fear for your life. Death is not the end fortunately, and you’ll find yourself back at the most recent save crystal. You can also heal at these crystals, but all enemies that you previously killed replenish, so you’ll quickly learn to balance resting and saving in order to progress. Fortunately your weapons slowly level up with use and you get more powerful when you level up as well. Between the two, you’ll start doing more and more damage until you get the hang of the combat, circling around enemy attacks and jumping and dodging out of the way. Some enemies drop healing herbs as well as other items and you’ll definitely need those. You can set items to a hotlist and use them at the touch of a button, so make sure you’re healing in battle.
The best thing about this game is the exploration. While you’re nervous at first to go anywhere unsafe, investigation almost always nets you big rewards. One of the first and most valuable items you can find is the dagger bandolier, allowing you to toss daggers at enemies from a distance. This lets you take out ranged enemies without taking massive damage. Of course, your initial fear will be that you’ll need more daggers, but they thankfully replenish after a minute or two so you can throw more. Considering how hard it is to dodge some enemy attacks, ranged weapons will absolutely save your bacon. You can also use them for various other things that you’ll discover along the way. There are over 50 different weapons available throughout the game, so experimenting with them and levelling them up is going to take some time and you’ll have to adapt your strategies for different enemies with different weapons.
The main weapon you’ll get relatively early on in Queen’s Domain is the Holy Sword Endu. This magical sword not only does as much damage as more powerful weapons, but also lets you fly through the air a fair distance at the touch of a button. Each time you do, a charge is expended that slowly replenishes. This mechanic allows you to reach areas that were previously inaccessible and also serves as a powerful thrust attack against enemies. As you explore the island of Neasied, you’ll find additional gems that fit into the hilt of the sword to let you fly further and reach new areas that are always tantalizingly visible but inaccessible at first. Once it develops an affinity for you, Endu can also send out powerful waves of magic with a charge attack that hit enemies from a distance, bolstering your mid-range attacks. As you level up, it becomes more and more effective of a weapon, but there are plenty of other weapons with different attack styles, magical abilities, and more and you’ll definitely want to change things up as you proceed!
The controls are particularly solid here, with precise movement and hitboxes for all enemies and smooth controller interfaces. Everything is configurable and most of the mapping makes perfect sense, but in a heated fight with Endu equipped, it’s easy to accidentally hit the flight button and dive directly into a powerful enemy, especially on the Switch 2 Joycons. Play on a Switch 2 Pro controller is much smoother due to the button size and layout, but this might not be an issue for players with smaller hands. A quick remap fixes most of these issues either way. Combat is extremely satisfying as well with the variety of weapons and attacks and learning to use the right weapons and items is both fun and engaging.
There are a number of distinct areas in Queen’s Domain as well. Initially, you’re in a small section of the island that you slowly unlock, surrounded by mountains and crumbling bridges. Once you can travel up those mountains and across the bridges, there are plenty of new places to explore and unlock. Doing so will give you tantalizing bits of story that drive enough engagement that it’s hard to stop playing, even when you know you should put the game down and go to bed. The gameplay loop, even with replenishing enemies, is so compelling in Queen’s Domain that you just want to reach one more milestone every time…and then one more.
Each time you shift to a new area, there are new enemies to fight, new patterns to learn, and new areas to explore, both obvious and hidden. Secret doors don’t trigger your targeting reticle to change color to indicate interaction because, well, they’re secret! Always checking everywhere yields all kinds of surprising results, reminiscent of last year’s Avowed. Rewarding exploration makes the entire game feel far more engaging than you might expect and while progression is somewhat linear in Queen’s Domain, this is still an open world game and you can go anywhere you can get to, assuming you can survive.
There are also a number of environmental puzzles to solve in Queen’s Domain, ranging from simply finding keys to lighting various lights or unlocking doors in a particular order. You’ll have to pay close attention to the various clues to progress as there are no indicators out in the world of what to do with any of the statues, doors, or other interaction points in the game. When you accomplish something in the game, whether it be reaching a new area, opening a door, or finding a hidden item, there’s a strong sense of accomplishment you don’t get in other games that lead the way. This will be very familiar to From Software aficionados, but for a small indie game that uses retro graphics, the combination of satisfaction, playability, and retro sensibilities is outstanding.
By now, you’ve gotten a taste of the visuals in Queen’s Domain as well, and the old-school pixellated polygons here have a certain charm that makes the game that much more enjoyable. It’s not a high-tech Unreal 5 visual extravaganza but the purposeful designs and vintage-style graphics make this a masterpiece nonetheless. Every enemy is unique and lovingly crafted and the environments honestly will stop you in your tracks occasionally as you marvel at how gorgeous everything looks. As you play, the visuals become more commonplace and you start learning to pick out important details, but the overall impact is masterful and awe-inspiring no matter how long you play for. There is no question that with Queen’s Domain you’re playing a work of art as much as a video game.
Audio is also interesting here. Initially, the music is fairly repetitive, but like old 16 bit games, the longer you play, the more of an earworm the soundtrack becomes. Different areas have different music and while the tracks are short, they’re well-designed and grow on you to the point that you may end up humming them while wandering around after an extended play session. The sound effects are also well-done, with metallic rings, subtle growls, wet unfurling noises, and plenty of other sound effects. Just um…watch out for the monkeys. *shiver* All in all, the minimalist soundtrack and detailed sound effects create a perfect accompaniment to the outstanding retro graphics here.
Normally, there would be some caveats to our recommendation of a game. Something that feels off, wrong, or just could have been done better. Would it be nice to have even more lore? Sure it would. This world is fascinating and honestly could easily support a novel or comic series. Is that a complaint? Absolutely not. In fact, the only thing we had any issues with on the Switch 2 were a couple of extended load times with blank screens when saving, resting, or visiting the merchant. While this didn’t happen consistently, it was just long enough to break the spell of the game for a bit when it did. It doesn’t happen often, but honestly, Queen’s Domain might be a nearly perfect game. Yes, that early game is quite frustrating for the first hour or two, but once you get over that hump, it makes up for every frustration with an utterly compelling experience.
There’s just something satisfying about Queen’s Domain that makes it feel like an instant classic. From the expansive world full of wonder and secrets to the odd and hilarious merchant, this is a fully realized and unique world that has all the challenge and inventiveness that seems lost to most of today’s games. It’s fair, it rewards you for putting time in, and most of all, it’s incredibly fun! With eye-catching retro-visuals, a realistic difficulty curve, and no hand-holding, Queen’s Domain manages to challenge you, captivate you, and pull you into its world until you won’t want to leave. We don’t say this often but Queen’s Domain is easily one of the best gaming experiences of the last couple years and you are not going to want to miss out on it! Honestly, we’re just waiting for a physical edition to be announced now because this is a game that deserves one!
This review is based on a digital copy of Queen’s Domain provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch 2 in both docked and undocked modes where it played equally well…unless you have giant hands. Queen’s Domain is also available for Xbox, PS5, and PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.