Customer Reviews (500)

TheVolleyballSlayer • 2025-03-22T23:29:33-07:00

Can’t compete with whales they destroy your whole alliance

Jimmy John1238 • 2025-03-22T22:37:43-07:00

This game bad

Animatronic Jester • 2025-03-22T16:13:38-07:00

I love this game and if you don’t have it your doing something wrong

Summary of Key Insights

Rise of Kingdoms enjoys generally positive sentiment, with many users finding it addictive, fun, and engaging. A significant number appreciate the strategic depth, historical elements, and alliance features. However, the "pay-to-win" aspect is a major concern, with many users feeling that spending money is almost necessary to compete at higher levels. Issues with long upgrade times, misleading advertising, and occasional toxicity in the community are also recurring complaints. The game's strengths lie in its engaging gameplay loop and community features, while its weaknesses revolve around monetization and aspects of the player experience.

Quantitative Metrics:

  • Overall Rating: Approximately 4.4 stars (estimated based on review distribution).
  • 5-Star Reviews: 68.8% (344/500)
  • 4-Star Reviews: 11.2% (56/500)
  • 3-Star Reviews: 3.2% (16/500)
  • 2-Star Reviews: 3.0% (15/500)
  • 1-Star Reviews: 13.8% (69/500)

Data & Methodology Overview

  • Data Sample Size: 500 reviews
  • Time Frame: The reviews appear to be recent, spanning from late 2023 to early 2024 (based on context within reviews).
  • Analysis Methods:
    • Sentiment Analysis: Manual assessment of the overall tone (positive, negative, neutral) of each review.
    • Keyword Extraction: Identification of frequently used words and phrases related to features, issues, and requests.
    • Thematic Analysis: Grouping reviews into common themes based on the issues or features they discuss.

Key User Pain Points

  • Pay-to-Win (P2W) Nature: This is the most significant and frequently mentioned complaint. Users feel that spending money provides a significant advantage, making it difficult for free-to-play (F2P) players to compete.
  • Long Upgrade Times: Many users find the wait times for building upgrades, research, and troop training to be excessively long, especially in the mid-to-end game.
  • Misleading Advertising: Some users complain that the game's advertisements do not accurately represent the actual gameplay experience.
  • Account Issues: Some users reported losing their account progress or having difficulty linking their accounts.
  • Toxic Community: Some reviews mention toxicity, bullying, and unsportsmanlike conduct within the game's community and alliances.
  • Chat Issues: Some users report issues with inappropriate or offensive content in the chat, and inconsistent moderation.
  • Server Imbalance: Large, powerful alliances dominating kingdoms, making it difficult for smaller or newer alliances.

Frequently Requested Features

  • More F2P-Friendly Mechanics: Requests for better rewards, faster progression, or dedicated F2P servers.
  • New Civilizations/Commanders: Suggestions for adding specific historical figures, civilizations (e.g., Armenia, Persia, Poland, Illyrian, Indian), or units.
  • Improved Social/Alliance Features: Requests for better kingdom collaboration, alliance merging, or cross-kingdom trade.
  • UI Improvements: A "disable UI" button for better map viewing, a permanent graphic setting option.
  • More Builders: Request for more builders to reduce upgrade bottlenecks.
  • Educational features: More strategic explanation

Strengths and Positive Aspects

  • Addictive and Engaging Gameplay: Many users find the game highly addictive and enjoyable.
  • Strategic Depth: Users appreciate the strategic elements of city building, troop management, and alliance warfare.
  • Historical Setting: The historical civilizations and commanders are a major draw for many players.
  • Alliance System: The alliance features, including cooperation, chat, and coordinated strategies, are highly valued.
  • Graphics and Design: Positive comments on the game's visuals and overall design.
  • Community: Some users report positive experiences with the game's community, finding helpful and friendly players.
  • No forced ads: Some users find the game doesn't have annoying forced ads.

Prioritized Action Recommendations

High Priority:

  • Address Pay-to-Win Concerns: Implement changes to balance the game and make it more accessible and enjoyable for F2P players. Consider increasing rewards for F2P players, reducing the advantage gained by spending money, or introducing F2P-only servers.
  • Reduce Upgrade Times: Shorten the wait times for building upgrades, research, and troop training, especially in the mid-to-end game. Or improve the availability of speed-ups through in-game activities.
  • Improve Moderation: Implement stricter moderation policies and tools to address toxicity, bullying, and inappropriate content in the chat.

Medium Priority:

  • Revise Advertising: Ensure that the game's advertisements accurately reflect the actual gameplay experience.
  • Account Recovery: Improve the account recovery process and provide better support for users who have lost their accounts.
  • Alliance Balancing: Implement mechanics to prevent large alliances from completely dominating kingdoms, allowing smaller alliances to compete more effectively.
  • UI Improvements: Add a "disable UI" button and a permanent graphic setting option.

Low Priority:

  • Add New Civilizations/Commanders: Consider adding new historical figures, civilizations, or units based on user suggestions, but prioritize addressing the more pressing issues first.

Opportunities for Startup Ideas

  • Fair Mobile Strategy Game Platform: A platform that vets mobile strategy games for "pay-to-win" mechanics and promotes those with balanced gameplay, providing a trusted source for F2P players.
  • AI-Powered Community Moderation: A service that uses AI to automatically detect and remove toxic or inappropriate content from game chats, helping to create a safer and more welcoming community.
  • Personalized Game Progression System: A system that adapts the game's difficulty and progression speed based on individual player skill and engagement, providing a more tailored experience.

Trends and Observations

  • Language Preference: A significant number of reviews are written in languages other than English, suggesting a global player base.
  • Recurring Themes: The "pay-to-win" issue and long upgrade times are consistently mentioned across reviews, indicating that these are persistent problems.
  • Ad Discrepancy: Many users downloaded the game because of the ads, but were disappointed that the gameplay wasn't similar.

Conclusion

Rise of Kingdoms has a strong foundation with its engaging gameplay, strategic depth, and historical setting. However, the "pay-to-win" aspect is a major deterrent for many players and needs to be addressed. By focusing on balancing the game, improving community moderation, and enhancing the user experience, Lilith Games can further improve Rise of Kingdoms and attract a wider audience. It is recommended to prioritize action items to address the P2W issues and improve game balancing.

Original App Link

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rise-of-kingdoms/id1354260888?uo=2