Royal Quest Review

Royal Quest is a free-to-play MMORPG in which you take up swords, staffs, and other fantasy accoutrements and go defend a virtual kingdom.

Then again, all of this sounds a bit familiar. It seems the majority of MMOs have always been medieval “hack and slash” affairs. Does Royal Quest set itself apart from the pack? Or should you just cave in and go back to WoW?

Familiar Archetypes

If you’ve so much as glanced at the covers of various fantasy novels over the years, Royal Quest’s character system will seem familiar. You can choose from familiar genre archetypes such as Warrior, Archer, Mage, and Rogue.

This simplicity is ultimately a good choice. It makes the game more accessible to new players by not overwhelming them with choices from the very beginning. And players do not have to be steeped in any kind of deep fantasy lore to understand and appreciate these character types.

Don’t worry, though. There is a chance to expand these characters into more specialized classes like “Crusader” and “Assassin.” This gives more experienced players a goal to shoot for and offers some tantalizing rewards for continued gameplay.

Cute Graphics

If I only had one word to describe Royal Quest, I’d go with “cute.” The characters are all colorful cartoons, and they inhabit a similarly colorful and vibrant world.

I’ve written about this before, but cartoonish graphics for an MMO are actually a wise choice. Attempts to look super-realistic are always doomed to failure, and such games end up looking very dated within a year or two of their release.

However, cartoon-style graphics are functionally timeless. It’s a design decision that has worked well for World of Warcraft, and Royal Quest couldn’t ask for a better model.