Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

26. February 2025 /
  • Information
  • Gamerip

Year: 2000

Type: Gamerip

Composer(s): Kevin Manthei

Number of tracks: 8

Rating

★★★★★

Firm fantasy

Here's another short review today. One reason for this is that I never played Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim and only had the sequel from 2009 'suddenly on my hard disk'. “What was it like?” you ask me? Fun, I think. No idea! It's been far too long.

The game concept of the series does indeed deviate pleasantly from the usual fantasy sundries and, contrary to what the name suggests, lets us manage the kingdom of Ardania ... just not directly. Similar to Dungeon Keeper we only set the framework, what our subjects do is up to them. We can simply erect buildings and offer rewards for discovering the map or completing missions. This nice idea is garnished with a pinch of self-irony and charm, which today's games primarily distribute with a sledgehammer. So much for the game.

The brevity of the review is largely due to the soundtrack, which is only available as a 30-minute gamerip with a total of eight tracks. However, you shouldn't sneer at this small score, as the American Kevin Mathei is a true veteran of music production. Even if he hasn't scored many AAA productions, he still has a respectable list of projects for TV (Robot Chicken, Invader Zim), film (Resident Evil, Scream 2) and video games (Jagged Alliance 2, Star Trek Online) on his CV.

For Majesty, however, Mathei does not raise the bar for fantasy background music, but instead leans against the hurdle leisurely. The soundtrack is well done in terms of quality, but lacks identity and excitement. Although there is a main motif (General Theme) that runs through the composition, it will hardly thrill anyone. Meanwhile, the Game tracks, which are the main component of the Gamerip, are delightfully varied and exude a feeling of evolution, similar to Age of Empires IV or the later offshoots of the Civilization series, for example.

Early Game has a dreamy and almost sleepy feel, whereas Mid Game sounds feudal and medieval. Finally, End Game brings things closer together and adds a little more fantasy epicness, but its evolutionary insouciance does not come close to those scores that are entirely dedicated to fantasy (SpellForce) or the Middle Ages (Stronghold).

I'm excluding the Movie tracks because of the voice-over by the Sean Connary-esque advisor Venn Fairweather, even if Movie 2 offers clean audio at the end and becomes a little more brute. My final verdict is therefore the attribute 'nice', which in this context is really meant nicely.

  • Gamerip

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