Turn Back, Newcomers – This Is For Enthusiasts Only
Defender of the Crown takes up a strange position in my gaming memory. I never actually got to play it, as my Dad either felt it was too complicated or too adult for me (he clearly didn’t want me raiding castles to kidnap a wife). But I’ve got fond memories of watching it over my Dad’s shoulder, cheering him on in the jousting or sieges. I mostly remember him failing at them, cursing the game, and returning to play Elite instead.
It meant that I was actually a bit daunted playing Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns. I was finally getting to play this forbidden game. I was going to become my Dad.
A Compendium Of The Crown
The error in the previous paragraph is that Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns isn’t a game – it’s three games. Black Tower Basement have taken the remastery incredibly seriously, as it delivers the ‘Retro’ version of the game – based on the PC and NES code; a ‘Classic’ version, which takes a liberal approach to improving everything; and a ‘Kingdom’ mode, which is effectively a whole new game. It borrows the map and some assets to create a roguelike dice game.
I decided that I was going to go for Classic, then Retro, then Kingdom. I wanted to see what a modernised version of the game felt like, then see how much has changed from the dusty PC version. Finally, I would approach the roguelike.
The basics of Defender of the Crown are the same in both Classic and Retro. You choose your pretender to the throne and start on a Risk-like map. Accompanying you on the map are some friendly-ish Saxons, whom you have to appease rather than invade, and some Normans whom you get to beat up.
Turn-Based Combat Is So Hot Right Now
Events are turn-based. Your turn can be spent ‘holding a tournament’, which costs cash; ‘seeking conquest’, which risks your army; ‘going raiding’, which costs nothing; and ‘building and army’, which swaps your coins for units. Each of these takes a day, in which your enemies can do the same. So, you’re reacting to the current state of the map, and your stockpiles of men and money.
‘Holding a tournament’ is the iconic element of the original, and having played the ‘Retro’ version, it’s clear how things have improved. The original jousting games were luck-based, and skill didn’t really play a part. In ‘Classic’, the jousting games are less luck-based and skill can play a part, but it’s still, in all honesty, a bit duff. You have the opportunity to balance with the shoulder buttons, so you have another bar to manage, but I rarely ever felt imbalanced. The aiming still feels arbitrary, but it gives the illusion that you are having an impact. Probably the biggest change is that I succeeded more in Classic than Retro, but that success felt unearned.
‘Seeking conquest’ is similarly better, but not good. You can think of these sections as a Football Manager version of warmongering. You watch a zoomed out overview of the battle and change your tactics as the battle shifts. Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns, as it is in the wider game, is OK at telling you how something works, but awful at telling you how to be good at it, and this minigame took ages to understand. It’s basically a giant game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and finding out what-defeats-what is trial-and-error. Oh, and we would have given our horse to know what the enemy’s army composition was. For some reason, Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns keeps this invisible.
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain
You can also participate in a spot of besieging if you have purchased a catapult unit, and this is – you guessed it – better, but not good. In Retro, it’s hard not to cheese this minigame, as there is a specific pixel that you can click to win every time. In Classic, the position of the catapult varies, so there’s some skill to it, but it still feels easy enough to win every time.
The saviour is raiding. This has had a significant overhaul from the original, giving you blocks, parries and a health bar. Playing on Retro, it’s almost comical: you’re just button-mashing like a five-year-old who’s bought their first Mortal Kombat. There is at least some skill here, as you’re anticipating attacks and capitalising on parries. It’s not exactly Sekiro, but there’s some satisfaction in trouncing the early defenders and holding your own against the final knight (before stealing yourself that wife). Parries are suitably reactive.
It hurts me to say, but I found myself trudging through Retro and Classic without coming across much to enjoy. I liked the shape of Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns: I liked the simple strategy of what to do each turn, and I enjoyed steam-rollering opponents. But I didn’t like the acts – let’s call them minigames, as that’s what they are – that form the gooey centre of the gameplay.
Saved By The Deckbuilder
Luckily, Kingdom mode was much better. Not great, but good. It borrows the region-by-region conquest of the Retro and Classic mode, but starts you in the North. You’re invading and either encountering battles, or you’re finding smaller events. These might include shops for purchasing cards and relics, or opportunities to get them for free. But the majority of the gameplay comes from the battles.
The battles are simple dice battles where the total on your dice must be larger than that of your opponent. So, you both roll, and one of you will lead – for now. This is where a deck of cards comes in, and they alter the dice on both sides of the table. You might be able to convert all your 2s to 5s, or destroy every dice of a single number (bar two) that your opponent owns. The strategy comes from which cards you play, since you have a set number of ‘Orders’ that you can spend, and when you play the cards. It is often better to wait till your opponent has stockpiled the dice they want and then destroy them. But there’s a chance that those dice will be different numbers when you get there. There’s a fair amount of risk-reward at play.
There are huge, gaping holes in this mode. It’s incredibly hard to get the ramp going in the early game. There’s simply not enough opportunities to gain cards and relics before you face the first ‘boss’, who you will need luck to defeat (and some well-timed relics). But once you defeat that first boss, you will likely have enough momentum to beat the rest (at least, in our experience). If we cleared the first hurdle, we rarely faltered on any of the others.
Plus, battles are incredibly repetitive. They draw from the same limited deck, meaning you have roughly the same experience, give or take a few cards, with each. It makes the going fatiguing, especially when some battles – and particularly some boss battles – can span a decent amount of time. It’s particularly painful on bosses, where you are forced to replay if you fail, and you can often be in a match that feels unwinnable.
But for all its clear and present issues, I still had a good time in Kingdom mode. There’s enough synergy in the cards and dice to create something over-powered. Turning your dice to 1s and then all to 6s is a pocket joy, and there’s enough interest in the events and relics to make a run memorable. Just don’t expect to play it more than a handful of times.
Treat It As A Museum And You’ll Be Fine
As a museum piece, Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns is superb. It lovingly preserves the original PC/NES version of the game, so you can check whether your memory was correct about it. Plus, the Classic interpretation of the game is a clear step up. You even get a completely free, almost unrelated game in the bundle, in the form of Kingdoms.
But in the context of modern strategy games, Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns doesn’t even get close to the quality I would expect from a contemporary game. Regardless of mode, I found it too arbitrary and too limited to be anything other than an oddball.
I’m glad that I got to finally play the game that I watched over my Dad’s shoulder. But now that the curiosity has gone, I honestly have no will to play it again. Still, I might buy it for my Dad and see if it’s better while wearing a rose-tinted visor.
Important Links
Defender Of The Crown: The Legend Returns Brings A Classic Back To Life – https://www.thexboxhub.com/defender-of-the-crown-the-legend-returns-brings-a-classic-back-to-life/
Defender of the Crown Returns This August! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/defender-of-the-crown-returns-this-august/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/defender-of-the-crown-the-legend-returns/9N4W35GX7MP6/0010
