Arena Monarchy
Kevin Zhang · 2025 · Loot, Turn-Based Combat, Turn-Based Tactics, Medieval, Rome
PC
7 user reviews100% · 7
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About Arena Monarchy
✦ AI summary
Manage a gladiator ludus and lead your warriors into brutal arena combat where permadeath is permanent and every decision matters in this deep tactical game featuring 500+ unique pieces of equipment, 35+ weapon types, and faction-based battles. With over 500 abilities and perks to master, challenging combat mechanics rewarding strategic positioning and planning, and ironman mode support, Arena Monarchy delivers surprising depth at an indie price point for players willing to embrace unforgiving gameplay.
Arena Monarchy is set in the same world as Dead Monarchy. This is a challenging game with no handholding, the inevitable mistakes that you will make will become part of the learning experience. This is a game that requires you to actually think, to plan several steps ahead and to come to terms with loss. It is also a game that costs about as much as a coffee but if you are willing to look hard enough, it is a game with a frightening amount of depth just below the surface.
Arena Monarchy Features
- Manage a ludus and personally lead your gladiators in the arena. You are a desperate lanista, every fight could be your last. It is game over if your player character dies in combat.
- Lead up to 12 gladiators during combat. Supports both manual saving and ironman mode. Death is permanent for your fellow gladiators.
- Survive in an anachronistic world inspired by ancient and medieval history. Weapons and armor are loosely inspired by real world civilizations.
- Collect over 500+ pieces of equipment, consisting of visually unique helmets, armor, trinkets and rings. 6 tiers of quality for helmets and armor.
- Light, medium and heavy armor types that change your fighting style. Hunt for masterwork equipment that has unique effects and much higher stats to turn your gladiators into champions.
- Master 35 melee weapon types, 5 shield types and 1 ranged weapon type. Gladiators have backgrounds assigned to them which determine what weapon type they will be proficient with. Collect over 250+ visually unique weapons. Just like with the helmets and amors, there are 6 tiers of weapon quality with acquiring rare masterwork weapons as the ultimate goal.
- A combined total of 500 abilities and perks. Each weapon type is entirely unique with its own weapon abilities and upgrades. Specialize your gladiators by focusing on weapon abilities or round out your gladiators with general perks. Once you are familiar with the combat system, go even further and combine weapon abilities and general perks together in the same build and swap between two weapon types to create hybrid fighting styles.
- Over 35 factions to fight against with their own fighting styles and visually unique unit designs.
- The new weapon abilities greatly expand upon the combat system from Dead Monarchy which already featured an elevation system that affects hit chance, as well as counter attacks, attacks of opportunity, ranged combat and a flanking system where unit positioning actually matters.
- 8 upgradable buildings, each with their own unique effects which creates an additional layer of strategy. Balance between investing directly into the infrastructure of your ludus and upgrading your gladiators.
Solo Indie Developer
This game has been developed by a solo developer. As a commitment to remain transparent to my fellow gamers, Arena Monarchy in some ways can be seen as a standalone expansion to Dead Monarchy or a spin-off title. That being said, I wholeheartedly believe that I have created enough new content to justify the price.Cheers,Kevin.What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Deep and engaging combat system begging for "one more battle". Nice character progression with a lot of viable options. A slice of management and crafting between battles make for a fun play loop. Looking forward to updates.8 found this helpful
SO hardcore...but it's literally the only game I own where I laugh like a lunatic when I mess up or when my main character gets beheaded. The margins are so tight at the start though, even on the easiest setting, you miss one chance to collect loot because you got overexcited that you actually won with none of your squad dying and that's pretty much the end of your journey. Same thing if you lose more than one fighter in a 6 or even 12v12 battle - you simply can't afford to make mistakes early on and even later in the game losing a unit is punishing. That said I still love this game. The sense of achievement is worth the struggle. Something should be cheaper, I'm not sure what, maybe the basic food supplies or the lvl2 building upgrades. That's if you even live long enough to realise this.5 found this helpful
the game is pretty good, the dev is a cool guy who works hard. Solid tactical RPG that might be a little more complex than is fun. would probably suggest you try "dead monarchy" (first game by the dev) first, and then move on to this if you like it5 found this helpful
This continues to develop into a great series. It is extremely addictive. I now have 173 hours playing in just the last couple of weeks. If you like Ludus / Gladiatorial type games, you will love this one. For the price, it is a steal. There is a great online manual (accessible from the start menu) written by Kevin Zhang, the developer/publisher of this game. It explains all the fundamentals and also gives great advise on how to upgrade your gladiators. Easy to play, hard to master. This is a labor of love, made by an Indi dev. It's taken him 7 years to get this far, with Arena Monarchy following along after his first Steam game, Dead Monarchy. Kevin plans to roll the upgrades from this game back into Dead Monarchy and come up with an even better, more inpressive game over the coming months. Please support this Indi Dev!!!! Try it, you'll like it!4 found this helpful
great game! this is one of the best gladiator management games around that ive played and i have maybe 6 such games in my library. has a small learning curve and u should expect some losses in early game but as your men get stronger, better equipped and your tactical knowledge increases, you will do a lot better and find a lot of enjoyment. dont forget to try the first game dead monarchy its awesome. both dead monarchy and arena monarchy are a strong recommend.4 found this helpful
i love the main game and the Arena means more of the main game and super cool new weapons too try out too. i highly recommend both2 found this helpful
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