For The King II Review

IronOak Games is best known for developing the original For the King. As For The King II is a direct sequel in the same genre, a vast number of other experiences likely aren’t needed. Publisher Curve Games has several other franchises under its belt. This includes The Ascent, Human: Fall Flat, and Autonauts.

It is uncertain how much hands-on input Curve Games had in For The King II, or whether they simply allowed IronOak Games to do as they liked. The intro story recaps the events of the first game. King Bronner had ruled the kingdom of Fahrul peacefully for many years. However, he was suddenly assassinated.

The widowed Queen Rosomon hailed adventurers from across the land to investigate Bronner’s murder and bring the perpetrators to justice. This became a great turmoil known as the Chaos War. Three heroes - the player team of For the King - finally located the perpetrator and sacrificed their lives.

Now, in For The King II, it has been more than 20 years since the old war. Queen Rosomon had been a just ruler but had slowly become more corrupt. While many of Fahrul’s subjects have been imprisoned, enslaved, or killed, a small resistance is growing. You lead a team of four adventurers aiming to locate the rebellion and offer your services as capable fighters and mages.

For The King II builds off the systems and goals of the first game. There are no drastic changes; instead, improvements and quality-of-life updates. The first notable point is that your party now consists of four members instead of the original three. You are given a selection of five classes to begin with: Blacksmith, Stablehand, Hunter, Herbalist, and Scholar; more characters can also be unlocked by playing or using redemption codes.

The Blacksmith is the main tank, always starting with a strong shield and the ability to negate hits. The Stablehand is fast-moving and can, at times, act twice. The Hunter is an expert marksman able to ambush targets and snake away. The Scholar is a spellcaster who can attack multiple enemies at once. Finally, the Herbalist can heal nearby allies and recover extra healing items for free.

You can set up your team in any composition you like - including having multiple or even all of one class. The team is randomized by default, so there isn’t an outright recommendation. However, parties typically always have a Blacksmith. However, character order does determine turn order in the open world; the speed stat instead determines turn order in combat encounters.

After picking the team, you can change the party’s loadout. All members begin with a carrying capacity of five, while different items vary in weight. For example, you might want your Blacksmith to carry a three-value tent to help the team rest, along with two-value gloves that improve their critical hit rate.

You usually start with one copy of each item, so it is essential to distribute them as desired. The party is brought to a region of Farhul, broken up into hexagonal spaces. Characters in For The King II can move in any of these six directions, provided no obstacles are blocking the way. Teammates can occupy the same space, but you must succeed in a sneak check to move through an enemy undetected.

The amount of movement is random, utilizing that game’s “slot system”. These are essentially mechanical dice rolls, but with multiple hexagon slots determined by a stat. Due to the randomness, a fast Stablehand might wind up moving only one space, while a slower Scholar might advance six spaces.

This can get a bit frustrating, as you’ll often spend turns just waiting or trying to reach a better, more strategic position without actually moving forward. After all, it would be far worse to leave a slower party member behind or let the faster ones get ambushed ahead. While enemies don’t move every turn, they can eventually disappear. If this happens, all of that careful planning can go to waste.

Positioning in the world is always extremely important, as it determines who fights in a combat encounter and the party formation. The combat zone is highlighted in red swords for those engaging in close-range melee and yellow arrows for those who will be further; characters without any icon will be excluded from battle.

Fights occur with the sides standing in a 2-by-4 square grid. Blacksmiths and Stablehands fight the closer enemies in melee, while Hunters, Scholars, and Herbalists have an easier time sniping. It is important to note that a Herbalist needs to get close to using their strongest passive healing.

Every character will have various types of defenses: Armor stops physical damage, Resistance against magic, and Evasion that can outright prevent damage. This makes it essential for the party to hit the right enemy in a group and then leave the others to someone else.

After a battle concludes, you will need to determine how the money and loot are distributed or equipped right then and there. Characters still need to monitor how much they can carry, as well as buy and sell using their individual gold pools. The fast-moving Stablehand might discover a merchant on the overworld map, but not have the funds to purchase anything, as you sent all the items to the Blacksmith to hold.

For The King II can be played either as a single-player campaign or online with up to four players. You may even use the same saves and go from local to online from the main menu. The campaign has five chapters, and even online, it cannot be skipped if the host has not completed them yet. Guests can, however, join adventures they have not seen before.

However, no one can join a game already mid-match. If you want a team of all four people, you have to wait in the lobby before you can pick a mission or load a previous session. Lobbies can also be password-protected so that strangers cannot jump in. This seems to be the For The King II community norm, only to create private games, and you should not expect to drop in and play them with someone you have never met.

Even in multiplayer, the host has to manually assign who controls which character. It isn’t a simple default that player one gets the first party member, player two the next, etc. This can be a bit annoying, though it also allows everyone to change controlled characters freely at any time.

Oddly, For The King II only features online multiplayer for now. Those who want to play locally will have to create an awkward online session or pass a single controller around. IronOak Games has stated that local multiplayer is planned for a 2024 update - possibly in January or February, but it still seems odd not to have this feature at all.

It is also important to quit out and save properly, both when playing online and alone. There is only a single save slot per campaign, and if any issues arise, an entire adventure can be lost. Multiple campaigns can run at once, but the saved data will be segregated and updated after key choices. This makes actions lasting and permanent, as in grueling dungeon crawlers like Elden Ring and Slay the Spire.

The graphics of For The King II feel like an evolution of the first game. Characters are wearing fashion and wielding weapons that look similar to those in For the King. Character models are smoother; in the first game, IronOak Games showed off much more jagged polygon edges on all creatures.

While this is an improvement, For The King II still looks somewhat dated and generic among cartoony medieval games. It would be easy to look at a screenshot and think this was the same product as Fabledom.

For The King II can be rather performance-intensive at times. Each battle and return to the overworld takes an abnormal amount of loading time - upwards of a whole minute. This can make it feel like you're watching the load screen more than playing, half the time.

Additionally, sometimes the game crashes to the desktop outright. This typically happens after a cutscene or leaving a match. For The King II is very much a board game rather than an RPG adventure or a grand strategy game. You should be fully prepared for the fact that slots are just random dice rolls that can lead to chaotic events and outcomes.

Treat the game as short, fun sessions with friends rather than a serious, ongoing campaign. Just remain aware that you and your associates will need to own four copies. If that is too much of a commitment, it may be better to skip For The King II until proper local multiplayer has fully rolled out. And as a strictly single-player game, it isn’t worth it yet.