Way back in the mid-'90s, a business software developer called FromSoftware decided to take a crack at making video games and produced a first-person action fantasy game called King’s Field for the original PlayStation. It did well enough to warrant some sequels, and the studio eventually decided to produce a sort of spiritual successor called Demon’s Souls, a major contributor in solidifying what would come to be known as the Soulslike genre.

There are still lots of fans of that original King’s Field gameplay loop that pine for a return to the roots, and while FromSoft has now moved on to bigger things, the indie scene has stepped up in a major way to deliver us a proper successor. Freshly Baked Games' Queen's Domain is a retro-fantasy action RPG that masterfully blends tough combat, addictive exploration, and a thrilling sense of mystery to make this a serious contender for the sleeper hit of the year.

The narrative is set in the Kingdom of Bamaen, a once-peaceful place on the brink of destruction after the resurrection of the evil witch Queen Siraatsu. In an attempt to put an end to the calamity, King Abraon and a group of his strongest warriors sailed to the Isle of Neasied to slay the waking queen before she could regain her full strength, but they never returned and the growing onslaught of monsters seems to indicate they failed. You then take on the role of Prince Berium, who shipwrecks upon the isle and sets out in the hopes of uncovering what happened to his father and putting an end to the threat.

After the initial premise is set up, storytelling then takes a backseat and becomes more of a set dressing that you happen to encounter every now and then. Item descriptions and environmental storytelling help to fill in gaps and give more context, but there are precious few moments where cutscenes or major plot beats play out. This approach works well for the kind of atmosphere that Queen’s Domain has in spades—there’s a menacing, haunting aura hanging over the world as you plumb further into its depths, a lot of which comes from the fear of the unknown.

Gameplay could be most closely described as a slower, first-person Soulslike, tasking you with exploring an interconnected, mazelike world riddled with enemies ready to gank you at every turn. You’ll die a lot, but you’ll also learn a lot along the way, and that learning paired with the incremental upgrades that come with combat and exploration leads to a remarkably satisfying ascending power curve.

Queen’s Domain is the kind of game that feels a lot more intimidating up front than it turns out to be and, as with FromSoft's work, it’s that gradual conquest and mastery of its deeper secrets and mechanics that makes it such an excellent and enjoyable experience.

Combat involves a very methodical pace that prioritises careful, strategic moves during the many tense encounters. Especially at first, a few hits can be enough to put you right at death's door, and healing resources are scarce enough that you'll be stuck with most injuries until you make it to the next shrine. The stakes are pretty high, too, given that death has a terrible finality to it. There are no corpse runs here to offer a chance at redemption—if you die, the game simply sends you back to the last time that you saved and erases all progress since.

You can't just hack 'n' slash your way through hordes of foes, and getting jumped by just three at once can sometimes feel like a notable challenge. When hitting back, a small stamina bar represents your total damage output, and taking a swing empties it completely. You then either have to wait for it to refill if you want another full power attack, or you can get in another shot earlier with proportionately weaker strength.

If you want to double down, you can also hold the attack button to ready a charge move that will do increased damage, but this makes the wait even longer and locks you out of other movement and attack options as you helplessly sit there with your weapon raised.

It may sound frustrating, but this leads to richly rewarding combat encounters once you figure out the nuances of your kit. Every weapon has a different range and its own little quirks to get used to. An early favourite of mine was a short-range torch that can be used to rapidly deal passive fire damage and has a limited-use ranged attack that lets you toss a fireball. The more you use a weapon, the more you’ll level it up and increase its damage output, and some weapons evolve into something more advanced if you use them enough.

You’re constantly finding new additions to your kit that fill in interesting niches, and while you can only carry a few of them on you as active weapons, you’re usually pushed to change up your loadout as you move into new areas and come across new enemy types with different weaknesses and damage type resistances.

This gives you lots of opportunities to familiarise yourself with each weapon’s nuances, building lots of muscle memory and mechanical knowledge alongside the raw stat bumps that make enemies drop faster with each increase.

Despite how central combat is to the loop, it feels like you spend even more time simply exploring the world and trying to tease out the correct path forward. Exploration captures that same sense of awe that some of the early Zelda games instilled, as you find yourself cautiously crawling through a dungeon looking for a key to a door you found or trying to figure out what that switch you just triggered unlocked. There’s no map and few signposts pointing you in the right direction, so a lot of your knowledge of a space comes from stumbling around a new area and trying things.

I was pleasantly surprised to find some Metroidvania elements present to add rewards that keep exploration from getting dull. New abilities, such as an air dash or a throwable knife, give you access to previously gated areas, and you’ll sometimes stumble across a consumable item that permanently boosts one of your stats. This goes a long way in keeping a strong and satisfying sense of forward progression, as you can hardly travel in any direction without finding some upgrade or a new route.

Worth a special mention is just how well Freshly Baked Games champions the themes of wonder and mystery throughout its journey. If you're looking at a distant ledge and wondering if you can get there, the odds are pretty good that you not only can, but there's some sort of treat waiting for you. Sometimes you'll stumble down an obscure side path expecting some minimal pickup, only to suddenly enter an entirely new biome that'll take hours to explore.

The thrill and delight that comes with that constant sense of discovery is something that many modern action games struggle to replicate, and — as much as you can — I would encourage you to go into Queen’s Domain blind and experience everything organically. The magic is somewhat lost if you know where to go and what to do to move forward efficiently, and allowing yourself to struggle with frustrations and overcome them by poking around will be immensely more rewarding.

The graphics are strongly inspired by the blocky aesthetics of the PS1, marked by simplistic environments, chunky models, and unfiltered textures that collectively transcend their lo-fi quality to make for a memorable and fitting art style.

And despite the horror themes present in much of the monster and level designs, there’s a fitting amount of levity to be found in occasional goofiness, such as an unlockable duck-themed shop you gain access to after an early boss encounter. Simple though they may be, the visuals help a lot with immersion, as your imagination fills in the gaps and connects you that much more closely with a given sequence.

The only drawback here is mild performance problems—not present enough to negatively affect the moment-to-moment gameplay, but just enough to be noticeable. In areas with more open space or when you’re being assailed by several foes at once, the frame rate will dip for a few seconds before it catches back up. Sometimes distant enemies will also animate at a much lower frame rate to save on some resources, which can make them appear jittery and unnatural.

I wouldn’t say that these performance issues are significant enough to majorly impact your enjoyment, but they are nonetheless disappointing given the rather simplistic visuals.

Despite the often heavy and dark visual themes, the soundtrack usually leans into a more atmospheric style that bizarrely reminded me of Donkey Kong Country and Metroid Prime. Not only does this often contribute to the grand feeling that comes with discovering a new temple or biome, but it gives a slightly positive feeling as you march onward and overcome new challenges. It’s a surprising soundtrack, but it fits very well.