Crowns And Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit from Thunderful and Tag of Joy is an old-school-inspired charming point and click adventure game on Nintendo Switch. Check our Crowns And Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit review!
Crowns And Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit from Thunderful and Tag of Joy is an old-school-inspired charming point and click adventure game on Nintendo Switch. The game pays homage to and has been inspired by the Broken Sword series, with the art direct of fan-made Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars heading up this release. I actually got to review Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse on PlayStation 4 back in 2015, so, as a fan of point and click adventure games, I was definitely up for checking this one out.
Crowns And Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit tells the story of Milda, who finds herself on a journey that takes her to the hometown of her departed Lithuanian grandfather after inheriting his house there. As expected, things are not what they seem, and you’re in for a whirlwind of an adventure! Milda is threatened by an unknown individual who demands that she give up her inheritance… or else! She’s not someone who can be easily intimidated, so she decides to explore the property and give everything a closer look at things. It’s then that she discovers a series of clues and documents dating back to the 15th century that set a series of events in motion, sending her in search of a mysterious relic.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit is an old-school inspired point and click adventure game, which means there’s more than one way for you to point and click your way through the game’s journey as you try to solve its puzzles while staying one step ahead of the bad guys. But before you do all that, you’ll have to customize Milda’s look by interacting with her wardrobe. You can change her hairstyle, clothes, shoes, and accessories by choosing from the available options.
You’ll control your character with the left analog stick as the game kindly highlights the different hotspots nearby. Hotspots would be the areas you can interact with as needed. You can switch between hotspots by using the right analog stick or by pressing the L and R buttons, depending on which configuration you prefer. You can inspect a hotspot by pressing the Y button and interact with it by pressing the A button. Since this is a point and click adventure game, that means you’ll have to collect items to solve puzzles. These will be added to your inventory, which you can check by pressing down on the D-Pad.
You can then change the equipped items by pressing left or right on the D-Pad or by using the ZL and ZR buttons. The item you have currently equipped by your character can then be used by pressing the X button to use said item on another item or to use it to interact with a hotspot. Oh, and before I forget, if you press in on the right analog stick, you’ll immediately show all hotspots in the area so that you can quickly figure out what you’ll need to do next.
I don’t want to spoil this experience for you, but talking about some of the puzzles is needed so that you can get a better idea of the point and click logic being used in Crowns and Pawns. Milda needs money to be able to afford a plane ticket to Lithuania so that he can check out the house he’s just inherited from her departed grandfather. Unfortunately, she’s completely broke and would need to find a way to get enough money to travel to Lithuania within two weeks before the house is auctioned off.
Your friend Dana is setting up a small exhibition to try and convince a sponsor to cover some expenses. She says that if she manages to convince Alfred – who, spoiler alert, has money but is a big douche – then she can give her part of her advance so that she can fly to Lithuania, and then she can pay her back. But first, the small exhibition needs to be prepared just right so that Alfred says yes to the whole thing.
And then, one of the paintings falls to the floor due to how windy it is. If only there was a way to secure it in place so that it doesn’t end up flying around once Alfred shows up? The good news is that there’s a quick solution to this problem. Once you talk to Dana, she’ll mention – among other stuff – that she even got a pack of gum to make sure she didn’t have bad breath. What if you asked Dana for some gum, chewed a stick, and then used the chewed gum to keep the painting from falling down?
That’s one problem solved, but once Alfred shows up – who, as mentioned before, is a douche – he demands that Milda (who he disrespectfully calls blondie) find him something to drink, as well as sort out that obnoxious music that is playing nearby since it’s not to his liking. For the first thing, you can borrow some coins from Dana so that you can pay the girl scout on the upper left corner of the screen for some of her sour but sweet lemonade. As for taking care of the second request, you’ll have to play the game to find the solution on your own!
The game is fully voice-acted, which is always a nice touch for a point and click adventure game when done right. It features the talents of actors such as Erin Yvette (Oxenfree, The Wolf Among Us, Genshin Impact, Street Fighter VI), Matthew Curtis (Smite, Frank and Drake, Marvel Snap, Source of Madness), Denny Delk (Return to Monkey Island, Full Throttle: Remastered, Day of the Tentacle: Remastered, Tales of Monkey Island, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II), and Katy Johnson (Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, Vernal Edge).
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit is an old-school-inspired charming point and click adventure game that you should check out on Nintendo’s console. When Milda’s life is turned upside-down after she learns she’s inherited a property from her late grandfather. Things take some interesting turns after this that I won’t be spoiling here, but let’s just say that things are a lot bigger than first imagined. Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit is out next week on September 28 with a $19.99 price tag. If you hurry up and pre-order the game right now at the Nintendo eShop, you can get it with a 10% discount.
Disclaimer
This Crowns And Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Thunderful.
