A Knight’s Quest Review
A Knight’s Quest
Publisher: Sky9 Games
Developer: Curve Digital
Genre:
PEGI:
Comments:
Released just over a week ago by developer Sky9 Games, A Knight’s Quest is the latest Zelda-clone to hit the markets. With such a revered franchise to make obvious comparisons to, and plenty of other clones to compete with, it is no easy task to throw one’s self into the arena of a Zelda-clone platformer. Will A Knight’s Tale be able to carve out a style of its own, or will it drown in the sea of similar titles? Let’s take a look and find out!
Let me start off by saying that A Knight’s Tale just oozes positivity. From the perpetually cheery scenery to the incessant grin plastered to our hero’s face and the abundant comedy packed into the dialogue, you would be hard-pressed to find many grim moments in the game. While this does give the game its own flavour, it is one that becomes quite bland after a few hours of gameplay. I would have loved to have seen greater diversity in the range of emotions evoked by the characters and settings.
In matching with its cheeriness, the graphics are suitably cartoonish, but not always consistently polished. There is a significant differential in the graphics quality of different environments and models through A Knight’s Quest, and it is distracting enough to beg the question of whether the game was rushed in its completion.
The platformer puzzling mechanics of A Knight’s Quest, however, leave nothing to be desired. Armed with just enough information about how your abilities work and when you can use them, you are left to solve your puzzles (which can be rewardingly tricky) without any handholding, which I can appreciate sincerely. Occasionally the puzzle section will feel needlessly drawn out, but overall, they are one of the greatest successes of the title.
The combat mechanics, on the other hand, are an entirely different story. The combat is extremely simplified and is prone to glitches or, at the very least, some major inconsistencies. Timing for parries, enemies’ reactions to your attacks and even targeting are bogged down by these inconsistencies, making combat feel more tedious than exciting. In fact, it almost makes you wish the game was nothing but puzzles and dialogue.
Speaking of dialogue, the writers for A Knight’s Quest should be very proud of their work. Chock-full of jokes for all ages and humour ranging from slap-in-the-face obvious to slyly subtle, this is one of the few games that has me reading to all dialogue intently, waiting for the next joke that I can snicker at. The developers also use the dialogue to poke fun at the fact that they know exactly what their game is – a Zelda-clone. Repeated references to the Zelda franchise and made with enough levity as to not be insulting, but rather taken as humous homages to the series that gave them inspiration.
Overall, I wish I that A Knight’s Quest held my attention and excitement for longer than it did, but the consistently positive and light-hearted scenery and gameplay, combined with the tedious and flawed combat, created an experience that starts out extremely enjoyable but turns bland after a few hours.
Learn more about A Knight’s Quest here: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/a-knights-quest-switch/