Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs - Royal Edition

Regalia is a flawed but nonetheless enjoyable tactical RPG. The goofy humor and characters may turn some off, but I found the cheesiness to be pretty charming. The exploration, unfortunately, can drag a little at times, with many of the battles being too similar or having arbitrary rules (you must finish this battle in X amount of turns... but why? There's never a story reason or, say, something that blows up if you don't. The requirement is just tacked on for no discernible reason.) The forced march through the game (you're required to accomplish 5-7 tasks per chapter, and you're on the clock) adds an element of tension to playing, although I discovered that you can pre-complete these tasks so that they count over into the next chapter, which was helpful. If I had one problem it's that the game largely abandons this structure in the last chapter and kind of just drags on for a while. Maybe some players will find tidying up loose ends at their own pace satisfying, but for me it lost any sense of urgency. I enjoyed expanding my town and bonding with my companions, and the mini-text adventures that pop up in dungeons were amusingly written and a welcome diversion from battling. Voice acting ranges from entertaining to kind of sketchy; a couple characters have pretty grating voices, but overall it's decent. All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Regalia and I intend to jump back in for a second playthrough, as it isn't possible to collect all the characters in one run. I'm hoping for a sequel in which a greater diversity can be added to the battles. Overall, thumbs up! 7.5 rounded up to 8, just because I found it very likable.

The game is fun and doesn't take it self that serious, but it does have some design flaws and the combat can be quite tedious at times. It will however scratch that tactical RPG itch for you.