Majesty: Difference between revisions
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You have inherited the crown of [[The Kingdom]] of Ardania, a [[Medieval European Fantasy]] kingdom with a surplus of [[The Hero|heroes]] but a desperate need of an [[The Leader|inspired leader]] to lead them to victory. Taking up the throne of Ardania, it is your duty as Sovereign to forge alliances with [[Five Races|the other races]], placate the gods, hire heroes to defend your kingdom, and send them on quests to drive back the [[
Released by Cyberlore in 2000, '''''Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim''''' portrays a typical fantasy [[RPG]] world from a slightly different angle. The game can probably best be described as a city-building [[Sim]] with [[Real Time Strategy]] and [[RPG Elements]], but that doesn't quite encompass the extent of the gameplay. The player is cast as the Sovereign of Ardania, a [[Affectionate Parody|deliberately stereotypical]] fantasy kingdom, and is given complete control over construction, taxation, research, and the hiring of heroes to defend the realm.
Gameplay starts with the player in control of their palace. From here, they can send out peasants to construct new buildings, including guardhouses for the [[Redshirt Army]], shops, and guilds, temples, and enclaves for other races. The last three all allow the player to hire heroes, the bulk of the game's units. Uniquely, Majesty does not allow the player to command their heroes directly - heroes will act intelligently based on their artificial intelligence, shopping and going hunting on their own time, but they can be enticed to act by placing bounties on specific enemies.
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An expansion back, appropriately titled ''The Northern Expansion'', was released in 2002; it was released with the original game in a box set called ''Majesty Gold''. A sequel, ''Majesty Legends'', was in development, but was eventually canceled. Paradox has since acquired the rights to the franchise, and ''Majesty 2'' is out now.
In addition, there is a version of ''Majesty'' recently developed for cell phones, by Herocraft and Paradox Interactive. To save on memory, it cuts out and/or fuses the functions of many aspects of the original ''Majesty'' (for example, you can only build temples to Agrela, Krypta, or Krolm, and they're all mutually exclusive, you can no longer hire gnomes, their dwelling instead providing a one-time reduction to construction time on all buildings on the map, although it still prevents you from hiring elves or dwarves, and several types of heroes, such as rogues, are removed entirely). This version takes, if possible, an even more tongue-in-cheek look at the stereotypical fantasy setting than the original version did, replacing the graphics with cartoony sprites and adding a number of blatant references (your wizards can randomly be named [[The Lord of the Rings|Gandalf]]). The campaign is significantly shorter as well, comprising a handful of linearly unlocked missions.
Apart of the main games, two spinoff games set in the same universe have been released. The first one, ''Defenders of Ardania'', is a Tower Defense & Offense game. The second, ''Warlock: Master of the Arcane'', is a turn based 4X game in the style of ''[[Master of Magic]]'', and is considered a [[Spiritual Successor]] of it.
Both the main games and the spinoffs can be bought at [[Steam]] and [[GOG.com]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: Judging by what crawls out, at least. Or rolls out. "Ratapults"?
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** [[Elfeminate|And possibly the elves, but it's hard to tell]]. According to the flavor text of the [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|"re-imagining"]] Majesty ones Elfs were all Male, and serve the human world in gender shifts.
*** In the sequel (which has better 3D graphics), the elves are clearly female, with large assets. The other heroes are also changed a little: all rogues are now female (however, you can upgrade them to assassins which look male, but [[The Voiceless|don't speak]], so it's hard to tell), and the clerics are female too (upgradable to the priestesses for Krypta and Agrela), while paladins now upgrade from fighters, and thus will always be male.
* [[
* [[All Myths Are True]]: If you hear stories about spheres of power, legendary monsters, or crowns, they are out there somewhere and will inevitably be the focus of [[The Quest]].
* [[All There in the Manual]]: Literally. The manual contains a lot of vignettes about life in Ardania. Additionally, flavor text is provided for all buildings and units. You can litterally click on just about anything from treasure chests to a random pack of magical flowers and immediately get a explanation of its mechanical benefits and flavor
* [[All Trolls Are Different]]: In this case, they are chubby, regenerating brutes who spontaneously erupt from the ground and love smashing up Marketplaces over all else.
* [[An Axe to Grind]]: Ratman champions and goblin overlords use halberds. Barbarians use this in conjunction with a club.
* [[Apathy Killed the Cat]]: The tax collectors and builders are programmed to neither question nor flee the waves of [[
* [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]]: Usually four; you can spend 12,000 gold and still only get four monks per temple.
** The non-human dwellings only allow 3 per guild, ''two'' for elves.
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** Temples to Krolm. Barbarians are one of the best melee fighters in the game, with damage exceeding that of ''[[Lightning Bruiser|paladins]]'', and the ability to go into a [[Non-Lethal KO]] instead of dying. Rage of Krolm is a very potent spell, too. However, if you build it, you can't build ''any other temple'', meaning you give up almost all the spells in the game and a ton of heroes that mostly fulfill unique roles. Most of the time, that's simply too steep of a price. In the times when multiplayer was played though, most players banned use of Krolm though, despite how big of a crutch Krolm is.
** Adepts, usually. They constantly use speed charms on themselves, making them the fastest characters in the game, and have incredibly good stats to boot. Unfortunately, they spend most of the time patrolling your palace, so they rarely put their skills to good use by, say, exploring or fighting monsters. And even when they do get into a fight, they're extremely cowardly, usually fleeing after a single hit. Once they get a few levels under their belts they shape up, especially in the Northern Expansion, which gives them the ability to teleport anywhere on the map, turning them into something of a magical SWAT team.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Warriors of discord are insane to the point of stupidity and are quite bloodthirsty. They wear leather "armor" and use a [[Blade
* [[Back
** The sequel shifts the ressurection function to a graveyard building, eliminating the need to invest heavily into high level temples to access that ability. However, graveyards are placed automatically the first time a hero dies, and [[Blessed
** Healers do this when killed. Once per gained level.
** One of the perks of Barbarians is their ability to turn death into a [[Non-Lethal KO]].
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* [[The Beast Master]]: Higher level cultists can charm most animal and animal-like [[Mook|mooks]]. Priestesses can do similar with undead, as well as often creating their own skeleton mooks.
* [[The Berserker]]: As explained in [[Too Dumb to Live]], below, all the heroes can be this, but some more than others. Barbarians and warriors of discord are infamous for doing ''nothing but'' -- they're strong, but they'll die the moment they hit something they can't take because they never back down.
* [[Blade
* [[Boring but Practical]]: Warriors and marketplaces.
** Also, building ballista towers constantly, which is time- and gold-consuming, but guarantees [[Game Breaker|you'll be practically invincible]].
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* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Krolm, the God of Barbarians. Sounds pretty [[Conan the Barbarian|familiar]], doesn't he?
** Additionally, one of the randomly selected names your barbarians can have is "Kornan".
* [[Call a Smeerp
* [[Command and Conquer Economy]]: Partly averted; you have to build most buildings, but houses, graveyards, sewers, and the like will develop on their own.
* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: In one quest, "The Siege", you need to fight an enemy monarch who can do the exact same things you can: build stuff, place reward flags, hire heroes, etc. However, all of his caravans have twice as many hit points as yours, which is annoying since destroying his caravans is the simplest way to win.
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* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The rather appropriately named "Abomination" from the expansion's "Vigil For a Fallen Hero" quest. {{spoiler|Not only does this thing [http://pcmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/majestyNEab.gif very much fit the visual bill], but its in-game spells revolve around [[Mind Rape|messing with your hero's heads]], being capable of sending them fleeing for their lives or even briefly [[Mind Control|turning against their fellow heroes]]. Also, after you kill the thing, your advisor (who refers to the Abomination as an "indescribable evil") reveals in the closing monolouge for the quest that the surviving heroes ("even the most stoic of these veterans" according to the advisor) are "forever changed", [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|suffering from what a modern observer might recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder]], reporting reccuring nightmares or hallucinating the sound of its call.}}
* [[Elemental Powers]]:
** [[Playing
** [[Blow You Away]] - Adepts
** [[Green Thumb]] - Cultists, Healers
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* [[Enemy Mine]]: In the sequel, the priesthood of Ardania launches a coup via the "Spirit of Kings" and kicks you and your adviser out. There's only one organization left to turn to: the monsters you spent the main campaign killing off. Awkward, yes, and you [[Continuity Nod|have to resolve the new problems you gave each monster group not too long ago.]]
* [[Everyone Join the Party]]: In the final quest of the original game, you can't recruit any non-humans or build any temples. However, your single exploring guild can uncover every single kind of hero hiding in your kingdom, who all band together to take on every single kind of evil the game has to offer.
* [[Everything's Worse
* [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]]: The witch king's.
* [[The Fair Folk]]: Dryads are implacably hostile to humans, and no one really knows why.
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** Some of the heroes can be this, too.
** In the Monster Kingdom expansion of the sequel, Ratmen. "I will buy.... I will buy..... EVERYTHING!
* [[Leaning
** They say "What a pretty flag!" when going after an attack or explore flag, too.
* [[Level Grinding]]: The fairgrounds allow heroes to gain levels without the possibility of dying.
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** Majesty 2, and how! Each guild only holds 3 heroes, and the more advanced classes aren't available right away in most of the "beginner" and "advanced" quests. There is one mission where the kingdom is constantly under fire by a dragon, with minotaurs and serpents attacking your kingdom every 5 minutes, and including the annoyance of sewer rats and ratmen! Good luck hoping your heroes will survive the constant attacks in time to find the witch who will help you find a way to defeat the dragon...and did we mention this particular mission is listed as "Advanced", rather than "Expert"?
*** After awhile, the missions become essentially luck based. Monster Kingdom is damnright impossible after a few levels in due to the rampant cheating the AI puts your through
*** YMMV, and then some. Actually, one of the biggest complaints about this game is that once you get past the minute 10 mark on (MOST) maps, if you're still alive, you've won. The dragon level would probably qualify as more of a [["Wake
* [[Non-Lethal KO]]: Barbarians have a chance of going into one of these instead of dying.
* [[Only in It For
* [[Perspective Flip]]: Each scenario is essentially a whole load of [[RPG]] [[The Quest|Quests]] from the point of view of the king setting them. The heroes join a guild, upgrade their equipment, learn spells, and either chase bounties or engage in [[Random Encounters]].
* [[Person of Mass Destruction]]: A Wizard with a few levels. As long as that darned mirror spell doesn't happen.
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** Just keep them far, FAR away from [[Nigh Invulnerable|medusae]], [[Boss in Mook Clothing|greater]] [[Mook Maker|gorgons]], and [[Attack Reflector|vampires]] at all times.
** Subverted with the priestesses of Krypta: They have low defense and health, but regularly create skeletons to fight for them, which distract monsters from the priestesses themselves. They are also have a life drain spell, which can keep them alive if they manage to survive a hit or two.
* [[Stalked
* [[Stone Wall]]: Dwarves and monks, though they're strong offensively as well.
** A more straight example are guard towers. They are immobile, do only minor damage, serve as a base for a single [[Redshirt Army|Redshirt guardsman]] who can slow an enemy down by a few seconds, but they have a huge reserve of hitpoints compared to most creatures, and can stall foes long enough for heroes to rally to it.
* [[Stupid Good]]: Paladins, who are virtuous heroes committed to fighting injustice wherever it dwells, even if they have [[Curb Stomp Battle|absolutely no chance of victory]].
* [[Supporting Leader]]: You, at least in terms of the traditional RPG storyline.
* [[Timed Mission]]: The quests Elven Treachery, Quest For the Holy Chalice, and Deal With the Demon. You have only thirty days for the first two, and forty for the latter. [[Nintendo Hard|Legendary]] [[Luck-Based Mission|Heroes]] is a variant; you're [[Stalked
* [[Too Dumb to Live]] / [[Artificial Stupidity]] / [[Suicidal Overconfidence]]: The vast majority of heroes are utter morons. They'll often flee in terror from monsters they can handle easily, or, worse, start "beserking" the instant they see a monster, meaning they'll keep fighting even when they're out of healing potions and low on health. Even ''[[Fridge Logic|healers]]''. This is why the "Change of Heart" spell in the Northern Expansion is a godsend, as are solarii, who are one of the few heroes who ''don't'' do this.
* [[Universal Poison]] / [[Poisoned Weapons]]: A level 2 rogues' guild will let your heroes poison their weapons for a fee, and the cultists of Fervus will regularly plant poisonous plants that can be gathered by rangers and rogues for the same effect.
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