Title: A Knight’s Quest
Version Tested: Xbox One
Available On: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Developer: Sky9
Publisher: Curve Digital
Genre: Action Adventure
Official Site: CurveDigital.com
Release Date: October 10 (Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC) October 11 (Xbox One)
Where to Buy: Epic Game Store, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
A Knight’s Quest is an action-adventure game in which you play as a clumsy adventurer named Rusty and go on a quest to save the world. During his quest, Rusty has to find legendary warriors in order to gain powers do defeat the threats to his land.
For fans of the Legend of Zelda series, this game will give you a trip down memory lane. The key features of A Knight’s Quest make you feel that you’re playing a simpler version of games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Even though this game gives you a feeling of nostalgia, there is a lot that can be improved upon.
Gameplay
The gameplay in A Knight’s Quest is pretty simple. You have a sword and shield and some magic abilities that you unlock as you progress through the game. Where simplicity can be great, the controls were too repetitive and combat encounters were tedious at times. I found myself mindlessly pressing one button to just hack and slash my way through enemies, rarely needing to parry attacks. Where combat truly shined was during boss battles.
When fighting a boss, you couldn’t just hack and slash away like normal enemies. There are different strategies for each boss making you have to use your abilities in special ways which made the combat fun at times but overall I just found myself only needing to press one button.
Just like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, A Knight’s Quest features an open world. However, it takes some time to explore all of it because you need certain abilities in order to progress to later areas. This kept the game fresh while also teaching you how to use your new abilities after acquiring them. One of the earlier traits you get in the game is the ability to grind on rails. This made me feel like I was playing Sonic Adventure 2 again.
Where A Knight’s Quest shines is in its platforming and puzzle-solving. The puzzles were mildly challenging but very satisfying to solve. The platforming was more challenging than it should’ve been. At times the jumping seemed clunky and it was easy to overshoot gaps. Again these were the best parts of A Knight’s Quest, but there are other games that have the same style and do these things better.
Also within the game are various items you can pick up or purchase throughout the world. In the towns, there are shops where you can buy bombs to damage or stun enemies, potions to regain your health or spirit energy or on upgrades for your weapons. The additions of items made the game seem like there was more content but there were rarely times where they were absolutely necessary.
Graphics and Sound
A Knight’s Quest is truly a beautiful game. The animations and visuals were very aesthetically pleasing. Again it reminds me of Breath of the Wild. The music also enjoyable and fit in with the area you were exploring at any given time.
A Knight’s Quest keeps the dialogue simple again by using just text boxes. While reading through lengthy text boxes during games today may hurt some games, this game tries to make up for by constantly adding jokes within the dialogue.
Every important NPC has their own personality so you actually want to read through and see what characters have to say. Even when you pick up items there is some form of commentary to give personality the main character.
Controls
As I have previously mentioned before the controls are very repetitive and simple. For combat, you have x on the Xbox for attacks. You can charge your attack to do more damage and you can jump in the air for a smash attack. Other than that there are different items you can use for different situations as well as magical abilities that you acquire throughout the game.
When platforming it was easy to overshoot certain leaps because the character tends to jump further than you’d expect. However, the more you play the easier it is to get used too.
Verdict: A Knight’s Quest is a solid take on the action-adventure genre. There are many things that this game does well, however, many games that are similar execute them better. Overall, this game seems like a parody of other games in the genre. Almost any time you run into an NPC they have a witty joke. If you’re a fan of the genre this game is definitely worth picking up. Just don’t get your hopes up that this could be the next Breath of the Wild.
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