Everyone should be familiar with the phrase “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, and you see loads of games out there that have obviously been inspired by others. The tricky thing is, there’s a point where you begin to get close to the line, where the gameplay, look, and feel start to get a little too familiar, and then there’s a point where you cross it. Especially in gaming, crossing the line and essentially copying someone else’s gameplay in full, no matter how you may juice it up visually, is a pretty big no-no.

For those strategy gamers out there, the Kingdom series should hopefully be familiar, and if not you should absolutely check it out. There have already been a few versions of it released on Switch, and though it isn’t the newest, I’d consider Kingdom Two Crowns to be the best of the bunch. Regardless of which version you choose though the essential play is still the same. You’ll play as a young king or queen, and your job will be to slowly build your Kingdom from a mere tent and a few pieces of gold, into something more grand. You’ll then ride back and forth, enlisting the help of locals, establishing buildings that will be used for resources, arming citizens, creating workers, and more. Every night you’ll generally be beset by enemies determined to destroy you, testing your defenses. Depending on which game you’re playing, and your current stage, your goals will vary, but most of the time you’ll set off to start over again, but starting wiser and better equipped each time.

The problem with Monarchy is that even though it has a few elements of its own, simply far too much is exactly the same, just with a different overall look. Even small details down to the behavior of your horse are pretty well identical, and that made playing the game a challenge as I was constantly being reminded far too much of Kingdom, and it simply felt dirty playing it. The thing is, I would sincerely hope that the goal was to pay Kingdom an homage of some kind, not just rip it off wholesale, but in my eyes that goal wasn’t met, at least not in the early few hours. Yes, the further you get the more you can see differences, but right off the bat there really should have been more effort to make the experience feel distinctive. If the gameplay sounds intriguing, I’d encourage you to instead look at the Kingdom series first, and at least give it the first shot at your support that it deserves.