The Super Famicom version is similar to the Sega Mega Drive version, except there are more themes in addition to the medieval Europe theme. There is a futuristic theme with robots, a fast food theme with French fries and soft drinks attacking health food, a Three Kingdoms era theme, and a fairy-tale theme. The game is automatically paused until someone presses the Start button, so there is unlimited time for making alliances in the Super Famicom version—until the start button is pressed. This mode gives the player the advantage unlike the Sega Mega Drive version because he can take his time and find an ally that is strategically proper for him. The Super Famicom version of Lord Monarch was one of the few games to support the Super Famicom mouse. A later version of the game was broadcast exclusively for Japanese markets via the Super Famicom's Satellaview subunit under the name BS Lord Monarch.
Sega Mega Drive version
The object is to destroy all the camps and peasants of all the player's rival kingdoms under a strict time limit. Alliances can be formed near the beginning of the game to help the player. However, the alliance is only effective until the enemy alliance is defeated. Then the former allies declare war on each other. Victory through a cunning alliance is impossible because game rules dictate that there can only be one winner at the end of the game; that is why the two former allies need togo to war in order to claim the victory. Peasants have to do engineering tasks as well as military tasks. For example, bridges, monster-filled caves, and fences can be created or destroyed for the purposes of strategy. Peasants may also merge their units to become soldiers and eventually knights when there's enough units in that army. Players can play in either campaign or battle mode. In battle mode the player can choose from a large array of different art styles, such as playing as a foreign Japanese army, animals trying to take over a forest, monsters in hell or even as a fast food business. These modes do not effect the gameplay in any way however each mode has its own unique levels. The simplistic diplomacy system can never be used in a match after five minutes in the game, making it useful only for delaying war with a neighboring kingdom. Human units as well as orcs and demons are used for peasants, soldiers, and knights. Also, a leader can be either a warrior, a magician, or a shaman. The player even has a leader avatar that must liberate hanged men from the gallows to be his assistant, collect treasure chests from the countryside in order to gain a mass influx of gold, and to force nearby cities to pay taxes. This turns the city's banners into the player's colors and at a random time, a taxman appears and goes to the player's castle to give him gold pieces to help with the war effort. Taxes must be controlled or else the coffers will go bankrupt and the player loses the game. Even the three computer controlled opponents must control their tax rate. There is a medieval environment to the game in all levels of the game.
