Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster Review – A Bland Inti Creates Experience

Inti Creates has built a reputation for delivering games with at least one standout feature, even when the overall experience isn’t exceptional. Titles like Dragon Marked for Death shine in multiplayer, while Umbraclaw impresses with its character designs. Unfortunately, Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster lacks such a saving grace. The game looks passable, and the kingdom-building mechanics offer incremental stat boosts, but nothing about it feels special or memorable.

Instead of recommending this title, I’d rather point players toward other Inti Creates games that excel in nearly every aspect. The story in Kingdom’s Return is particularly underwhelming, offering little personality or purpose. After selecting your starting character from options like the Alchemist, Imperial, Wizard, or Zipangu, you rescue a time fairy named Kairos from monsters and arrive at Norlant’s Kingdom of Almacia. Minister Navi and the unnamed King explain that their alliance with the fairies—once filled with adventurers who made pacts with them—collapsed when the fairies vanished. The Great Fairy of Time, Chronos, reveals that the kingdom and surrounding areas were sent to the future, and she offers assistance to mitigate the damage to her kind’s reputation.

That’s the entirety of the plot. The narrative is barebones, with even the King lacking a proper name. By the time players uncover the reasons behind the time-related chaos, the story feels weightless and uninspiring. This is surprising, given that Inti Creates games typically boast distinct personalities. Even the character, enemy, and stage designs—with the exception of Chronos and Kairos—feel generic compared to the developer’s other works. The lack of exposition and character individuality might even be intentional, designed to make the game’s Azure Striker Gunvolt and Gal Gun character skins more appealing.

The gameplay in Kingdom’s Return follows a predictable routine. In the village, players can check in, spend earned currency, manage their base by constructing buildings that boost stats and kingdom growth, switch characters, and enhance their units via the Class Circle skill tree. Missions send players into time-displaced areas, where smaller encounters involve brief 2D "stage" battles to defeat all enemies for extra experience, cash, and materials. Major missions take place in multi-floor dungeons with specific enemy counts per floor, often culminating in large-scale boss fights. Once completed, players return to town to continue rebuilding.