Developer Mosu describes The Dark Queen of Mortholme as an anti-game more than an actual game, and with the experience lasting approximately 20 minutes you’d have to agree. In The Dark Queen of Mortholme you are are the titular character, the final boss of a game confined to your throne room, but your peace is threatened when the hero of the game appears to end your reign.
When you first meet the hero he is no match for The Dark Queen of Mortholme, and you can beat him in one hit. But, since this is a game, the hero respawns after each defeat, learning the Queen’s moves every cycle. Between the bouts the Hero and the Dark Queen have conversations about the nature of trying and purpose.
The conversations have multiple choice options, allowing you as the Queen to respond to the hero in different ways. These responses shape the relationship between the two characters between each bout, exploring a few themes such as persistence, the meaning of existence and more..t manages to pack some heavy hitting existential questions and lessons, making you reflect on your life choice.
The gameplay is pretty good for a 20 minute experience, because as the queen and final boss you get a small arsenal of very powerful moves. To really delve further into the gameplay experience, would be to spoil it.
The Dark Queen of Mortholme is a single room game, and the pixel art of it looks very good. The character designs really shows the difference between a powerful boss and a pretty normal hero. The boss battle music is well composed as well, with it being suitably big for such an important battle.