Once Again Upon a Time

Theme & Atmosphere

It’s a storybook kingdom, but don’t expect a bedtime story. Once Again Upon a Time is the sequel to the original smash, and it looks the part. Shimmering castles, knights, and enough gold to make you forget you’re looking at a screen. The visuals are sharp, the knight looks like he actually knows how to use that sword, and the soundtrack has that cinematic swell that tries to make every spin feel like a quest. It’s polished, maybe a bit too much, but it sets the stage for a grind through the fantasy tropes.

Feature Overview

The game lives and dies on the Hold & Win Feature. Hit six Bonus symbols, or five plus a Boost, and you drop into three Respins with values locked in place. Boost is the power piece, it upgrades the locked values already on the board. Mystery Bonus can land during the feature and flip into a Jackpot tier or another Boost, which is where the chase gets spicy. In the base game, Bonus symbols can also trigger Royal Fortune, giving you extra chances to force the feature without waiting for a perfect setup.

Technical Specs & Mechanics

This is a standard 5x3 grid with a fixed Payline structure. The math is built for the chase, the Hold & Win trigger chance sits at roughly 1 in 144 spins, though the Royal Fortune chance can stretch that to 1 in 375. It features Stacked Mystery Symbols on every Reel, which replace themselves with a random icon before the spin lands. It’s built on HTML5, so it runs on whatever device you’re holding without lagging when the animations get heavy.

Bet & Paytable Analysis

Bets start at 0.50 and go up to 80, but the real money isn't in the line hits; it’s the five Jackpots inside Hold & Win: Mini 20x, Minor 50x, Major 150x, Mega 2,000x, and the Grand 10,000x. In the base game, your premiums are the characters. The Princess is your high-tier target, paying 20 for five of a kind. The Knight follows at 16, while the Wizard and Ogre round out the top earners. Wilds do the heavy lifting by substituting for everything except Scatters and Boosts. Free Spins (triggered by 3 Scatters) strip out the low-value suit symbols, leaving only the high-paying characters.

Unique Selling Points

• Boost Symbol actively increases Bonus symbol values during the Hold & Win round.
• Royal Fortune, a random base-game trigger that can turn a single Bonus symbol into a full Feature entry.
• Stacked Mystery Symbols: Every Reel carries stacks that reveal matching symbols for better cluster potential.