Motion Twin’s Dead Cells’ Queen and the Sea is the final installment of what is essentially a DLC trilogy that, until Jan. 6, has detailed the fall of an unnamed kingdom to an infectious Malaise—and the selfish actions of an arrogant king.
It is in this installment where you meet, as the DLC’s name implies, the Queen, who is protected by a trio of powerful guards in the new Lighthouse biome.
Meeting an infected Queen is usually unwise, and when the King turns out to have been the player all along, the situation is officially classified as FUBAR.
Those familiar with the lore of Dead Cells will know that the King is not exactly someone to sympathize with, as at the end of the Bad Seeds DLC he is more than content with condemning his kingdom to a life of eternal pain as long as he isn’t bored afterward.
This DLC, however, holds more to it beyond a troubled marriage, because the story so far is better understood by the bits and pieces of information gathered from the Lore Rooms that are generated in each session of gameplay.
As a result, the player—or King, if you please—is encouraged to fight through hordes of relentless, undead enemies who are far more capable in terms of verticality and strength.
By the grace of Motion Twins, the King is upgraded to better handle these new threats, with weapons like the Abyssal Trident and Hand Hook being introduced, both of which specialize in giving the player a little breathing room during a fight.
Although it is up to the player’s fighting ability to not only get them through the Lovecraftian horrors at the foot of the Lighthouse, but also the aforementioned trio, who will chase the King up the Lighthouse as flames swallow it whole.
After all, Dead Cells is a roguelite, and experience is king—no pun intended.
Apart from the current lack of lore that is yet to be found, theories can be made based off of the storyline before the Queen and the Sea and the interactions faced by the King during the new DLC.
The Malaise, a disease that has overtaken the kingdom, has proven itself to be a merciless pathogen capable of painfully transforming anyone into a supernatural monster for whom fear is unknown.
The Queen, it seems, is disconcerted by the failures of the King and the rather extreme measures he went to in dealing with the Malaise. It is before dueling that the player she laments to the Malaise must not leave the island and that the King has gone insane.
As such, it could be that the Queen distanced herself from the King as he committed horrors arguably worse than anything the Malaise ever created and decided that if she could not save the kingdom, she could save everyone else and blockaded the surrounding sea.
To be sure, if anyone’s curious enough to confirm this suggestion, they are more than welcome to brave the new dangers presented by the Queen and the Sea.
