• Price: $14.99 USD (currently on sale for $13.49 until May 23rd)
  • Switch 2 upgrade: Free
  • DLC: $4.99
• Developer/Publisher: INTI CREATES
• Release Date: April 23, 2026

A review code was kindly provided by INTI CREATES. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

INTI CREATES is known for their work on the Azure Striker Gunvolt series, with Card-en-Ciel and Majogami numbering among their more recent releases. So I was interested to see what they’d do with their latest game, Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster, which combines elements of the 2D side-scrolling action RPG with city kingdom (re-)building.

They open with the basics of a story about the Kingdom of Almacia, which is usually fairly prosperous due to flocks of tourists coming to make pacts with the fairies who live there. But recently something happened that caused the castle and the town nearby to quickly fall into disrepair. They ask you (an adventurer) to help the only remaining fairy restore the kingdom.

You get to choose between 4 different character classes, but you don’t have to worry about making the wrong decision because outside of missions you can switch characters and experiment with each class. I liked how they gave us an even split of male and female options, and also of magical versus physical classes.

To get anywhere with rebuilding the kingdom, you’ll have to accept missions to go adventuring and gather the necessary materials. Once you’ve started a mission you’re transported to a world map where enemies roam on the overworld. Bumping into them starts a battle with several enemies on the same screen.

I often prefer long distance classes when I play action games because I’m not always the most skilled, so I chose the Wizard class. I thought that combat was pretty easy at first, and I was button mashing quite a bit. However, it does seem to get more challenging as you unlock new areas, and once you’ve unlocked new skills you may not button mash as much.

There are several dungeons on a mission’s world map; dungeons contain multiple “areas”/screens of enemies on each floor. After completing one area you can choose to go on to the next area on the same floor or to skip to the next floor. I often chose to go through the entire dungeon for the experience and materials.

Dungeons contain chests with healing and buffing effects, as well as useful accessories. You don’t get to keep any of those items at the end of a mission as they are converted to money, so it’s best to use the potions when you need to.

Some enemies hit pretty hard and/or inflict status ailments on your character, so you’re going to need to use those healing items. There are also environmental hazards such as mushrooms whose spores release when they’re hit; you can use these to your advantage against enemies while dodging their effects yourself.

Once I reached the first boss in the forest dungeon I was feeling pretty confident, but then I found out that the bosses power up after their HP is depleted enough and was quickly defeated at that point. Thankfully, you do get to keep the materials and money you’ve gathered even if you’re defeated, and you maintain your characters’ levels instead of starting at level 1 for each mission.

I tried out the other classes to see if one of them would perform better than the Wizard. After trying out all 4 classes and learning skills for each one, I found that the Wizard still worked best for me. However, the Alchemist class was also pretty interesting; I liked the different elemental “beaker bombs” he uses.

Victorious or not, once you return to the kingdom you can use your materials to build or renovate facilities. After demolishing the remains of the castle in the beginning you get to choose from 4 design options, and the style you go with impacts the castle’s area of effect on the facilities you build in town. If a building is placed within that zone you get stat increases.

You gain additional stat increases when you renovate (level up) one of the facilities you’ve constructed around the castle. Renovations require both materials and money, and I did think they could be a bit too pricey sometimes.

I found some aspects of kingdom building to be limited or confusing. For one thing, although we build facilities such as a weapon shop in the kingdom we can’t make use of them besides the stat boosts and the occasional side quests from the proprietor. We can’t purchase equipment upgrades from the facilities we build (and pay for).

We can only build up to 5 facilities total until the castle gets upgraded, at which point that increases to 8 and so on. My kingdom got pretty crowded after the castle upgrades. The construction manual says something about connecting roads outside of the kingdom, but I couldn’t figure out what that meant. (Outside of the screen where the kingdom lies?)

Besides rebuilding the castle, you can also visit a few places when you’re back at the base. There are scenes with new dialogue when you visit the castle and other areas in town. The game doesn’t have much dialogue or narration in general, but there is some semblance of a story.

It took me roughly 12 hours to get to the final boss (I keep losing to him). I like a lot of the ideas behind the game. The story’s okay and even somewhat silly, and I liked the graphics.

The chibi versions of each character used in battle are adorable, with fun victory poses and faces when they’re hit. Even though there aren’t a ton of scenes in the game, each character still has several character portraits with different poses and expressions. I also liked the handful of CGs.

There are a few negatives; the game crashed almost every time I went into the class circle menu for the Wizard. It seemed like it only did it when I tried to learn the skills above Charge, but that meant I couldn’t learn the skills on that line. Other than that the game runs just fine.

Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster doesn’t quite meet expectations as a kingdom building game, but it still has promise as a 2D side-scrolling action RPG. The challenge level is decent, and the game will provide you with hours of gameplay for a low price.