• Price: $11.99 USD
• Developer: Grey Alien Games
• Publisher: Jake Birkett
• Release Date: October 19, 2021

I remember playing Solitaire on school computers back in the day – after finishing all of my work, of course. 📚 I don’t know why I enjoy it so much, but it’s always satisfying to complete a hand. Nowadays I don’t tend to play Solitaire as much, but I was intrigued by the idea of Regency Solitaire, which combines the card game with some visual novel elements set in the Regency Era!

The Regency Era occurred in England between 1811 and 1820; “during this nine-year period, the aristocracy flourished” (JSTOR). Regency Solitaire’s story begins in 1812. You play as a woman named Bella, who is from a “respectable family.” She had hoped to marry well, but her brother squandered the family fortune, and the best match she can hope for is with their unpleasant neighbor.

Bella’s fortunes may be changing though, as her godmother – the Lady Fleetwood – has invited her to a grand ball. Bella’s mother tells her to go and find some of her old finery, which for some reason triggers a game of Solitaire. They say that Bella’s mother’s trunk is hidden under some cards (kind of a thin premise unless her brother spent all their money on packs of cards, but I’ll allow it 😂).

So how does the gameplay work? It’s different from the kind of Solitaire I’m used to, which I believe is known as Klondike Solitaire. This version seems similar to the “Tripeaks” version of the game.

A face-up card in the waste pile below decides on what cards you can play from the “tableau” cards, or the ones at the top of the screen. You can only play face-up cards from the tableau that are a point above/below the current card in the waste pile. If you run out of valid plays, you must flip over another card from the stock pile. When the stock pile cards are all gone, that ends the current hand of Solitaire.

There are two difficulty modes (Normal & Hard), and you can switch between difficulty levels on the chapter menu. In total, there are nearly 200 hands of Solitaire for you to play through across 20 chapters. (Most chapters consist of 10 hands.) Each chapter has a set of challenges, which may include clearing cards away to find an item underneath, earning a certain amount of gold/stars/perfect hands, or getting the combo or multiplier up to a certain point.

You can purchase items – or use the ones you find – to decorate Bella’s ideal ballroom in the family home, and there are also clothing items for Bella herself. (I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more outfit options, even if there were just a few more color variations for two or three outfits or something.)

Each item has a beneficial effect when you play the game; some items add perks like increasing the number of “undos” you can use per hand, while others give you the ability to remove or shuffle cards.

It’s possible to replay previous chapters to make more money or to try out the other difficulty if you’d like. You may want to replay a chapter to improve your performance and earn more stars than the last time. Sadly, you can’t view any records for how many stars you earned in each chapter/hand (or even the average number of stars across the hands) you played before.

They did make things more challenging as you go along, adding different types of locks above groups of cards and bows that make you use a card twice before they’re removed from play. Occasionally, you may find yourself not earning any stars for a hand, but you can choose to replay it.

Thankfully, if you “lose” a hand and want to try again, it only has you replay the hand and not the whole chapter. I also liked that they allow players to choose to go on to the next chapter even if they don’t complete all of the challenges. And whenever you replay a hand or chapter, it randomizes the cards so that you’re not just memorizing play strategies.

Wild cards, including the Joker, make an appearance to help you out when winning is just…not in the cards. 😉 🃏 You can choose which wild card to use when you need them, and you can use as many of them as you want (as long as you don’t run out of them). The wild cards you haven’t used will remain in your inventory for future use.

I ended up returning to some easier chapters to build up my wild card inventory, as even in Normal Mode it gets pretty difficult to maintain lengthier combos and higher multipliers to complete challenges. But even when I performed poorly, I could still go on to the next chapter.

I did have an issue with the way some cards were tilted, as it made it harder for me to read them without tilting my head. However, they did include alternative cards with only plain text and symbols, if that makes it easier for you to read them. (I liked the art a lot, though, so I kept the default cards.) Another nice feature is the ability to use the touchscreen.

As far as the Solitaire gameplay goes, I had a good time. I appreciated the way that they allow players the choice of making things easier or harder for themselves. Adding the Regency storyline and incorporating the story items into the game certainly make the game more interesting. I found it really creative.

I will say that I think they could have expanded on the actual story a bit by separating the multiple hands per chapter into their own individual chapters. The story is nice enough, if not slightly standard as far as Regency romance seems to go. I responded well to the character art and backgrounds, and the music was pleasant and seemed to suit the theme well.

The story’s no epic tale, and I would have liked more outfit and room customization, but I still enjoyed the combination of everything. Solitaire fans that aren’t necessarily Regency fans may enjoy this still, as you can skip the story, and those who enjoy both aspects may also appreciate the uniqueness of Regency Solitaire. I’d love to see Regency Solitaire II make its way to Switch at some point as well.