Makai Kingdom’s mechanics owe a lot to
Phantom Brave. You begin the game in a barren world with only Zetta, who has been turned in a book; not the most useful thing to be when you’re looking to conquer the world – making getting an army your first priority. In order to gain your army, you must infuse objects around you with the spirits of warriors. Each spirit represents a different class (warrior, archer, mage…) and comes with its own base stats which effect how well they’ll do in battle. The objects you choose to infuse with these spirits also have stats. For example, a rock might offer a defense bonus while a tree may offer an intelligence boost. The process sounds complicated and frankly, it is unless you’ve read the instructions and know what you’re doing. Early on, the stat bonuses aren’t as noticeable, but eventually you’ll begin to see where you went wrong. Infusing a strength-boosting object with a class that has no use for strength isn’t a good idea.
As your army grows, you’ll eventually begin to build Zetta’s new world, which shows up as buildings. These include hospitals and item shops which you can use between battles to better equip your troops, produce new troops, or heal them. Once again, the whole process seems complicated and, once again, it is.
Compared to NIS’ other games, Makai Kingdom is a bit of a disappointment. The few added mechanics aren’t enough to make the game feel like a fresh enough offering; if you’ve played any of NIS’ past games, you’ve probably played Makai Kingdom. The experience is still an enjoyable one, at least for the hardcore Strategy RPG fans, but it’s becoming clear that NIS really needs to break out and try new things rather than add overly complicated mechanics to what are essentially rehashes of the same basic game.
