A Knight’s Quest Review - Time To Save The World From An Evil You Unleashed

Written by Brandon Hofer on October 18, 2019

Reviews: During the course of trying to learn about spirit energy, Rusty and Vlay accidentally ignite a series of cataclysmic proportions.

A Knight’s Quest is a new action-adventure game that recently released on the Xbox One and other platforms. This game is heavily influenced by the Legend of Zelda series although it doesn’t come close to the quality of The Legend of Zelda. Of course, this title was developed by a much smaller team that doesn’t have Nintendo’s resources. A Knight’s Quest is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It has a similar setup to Zelda with the dungeons and having to meet requirements before you can access the dungeons, finding an item in a dungeon that you need to use to get through to the fight the boss and much more. There is even a hidden collectible hidden behind a waterfall at the beach.

The story of A Knight’s Quest starts with Rusty who is probably at a location he shouldn’t be at and accidentally sets off a chain of events that could potentially end the world. He has a friend named Valy who is the brains of the operation and does all of the research so that you know where you should head next. Every time you beat a dungeon you have to go visit her and see what kind of new information that she has for you so that you can head out on your next adventure.

At the beginning of the game, you have a standard sword and shield to use. You won’t have those for long though. Once the aforementioned cataclysmic event takes place, it is your job to find the Spirit Guardians and unlock the “Spirit Powers”. These powers come in the form of weapons you can use to take down enemies big and small on your road to redemption. There are three different guardians and weapons that you need to find on your journey. As more of the story was unfolding I definitely got the feeling that this is similar to the Triforce in a lot of ways. They couldn’t blatantly call it that obviously but the set up did remind me a bit of some of the most beloved Zelda titles. As you acquire new weapons you will have to use them to solve environment puzzles both in dungeons, as well as in the open world. The first power, for example, is being able to shoot air out of your arm which will allow certain bridges or planks to turn so that you can use them to cross an area that would otherwise be off-limits to you.

A Knight’s Quest features a decent size open world, however, traversal can be a challenge at times. Especially after you beat an area and you need to go back to town to meet with Valy to discuss what should be done next. Instead of making us traverse across almost the whole world again to get back home, it would have been nice to be able to warp there. After you beat a boss in a dungeon a crystal appears to warp you out of the dungeon. When you use that it takes you to the beginning of the area. It would have been nice if an additional option had been included to warp back to town. That way if you didn’t want to you wouldn’t have to but for those who did, it would make the game much more user-friendly. I should point out that there are warp portals in the game but it was in the later stage of the game when I was able to unlock it when we really should have had access to it from the beginning. It would have been better, in my opinion, if once a portal was activated you could use it immediately. So I could have transported back and forth from town to the first dungeon, for example, but only those areas until I activated more portals as I progressed through the game.

”Cyber

The gameplay for A Knight’s Quest could also be a bit better. You have your basic melee attack which can change a bit depending on the weapon you are using but the controls aren’t always as responsive as you would like, especially during the heat of battle. You have to hit the right bumper to roll in the game and there were more than a few instances where I had to hammer on the button more than once to try and roll out of a bad situation when it should have happened when I pushed the button the first time. Additionally, casting magic is much more difficult than it should be in this game. For that, you push the right trigger. The problem here is, similar to the roll, my character wouldn’t always cast magic when I pushed this button. Sometimes I had to push it a couple of times to get it to work or hold down the button a second or two longer. There is also the fact that you can only cast magic on solid, dry land. This was one of the most maddening things about my time with A Knight’s Quest. If I am in deep water I understand not being able to cast magic. If I am standing in a pool of water that amounts to nothing more than a puddle though, I should be able to cast magic. This hindered me during some big moments in fights where it was literally a situation where the next hit is going to win the battle, whether I am able to take own my enemy or rather they get in a last shot on me. Then, of course, the checkpoint system in the game can put you so far back at times, it just adds to the level of overall frustration in certain moments.

If you are someone who enjoys tracking down collectibles in games A Knight’s Quest has a decent amount for you to find. There are slimes all over the environment for you to find and when you get near one you will hear one singing. There will also be an icon that pops up on the screen to indicate you are really close. I want to commend the development team on how they handled this aspect. While some of the slimes can still be a challenge to find, hearing them sing (and seeing that icon) greatly narrows down the possibility of where the slime could be hiding so I don’t have to search all over the area. Hidden collectibles can be fun to hunt down but I do always appreciate when something is well thought out like this. There are three different collectibles for you to find which include the aforementioned slimes, keys, and essence. You won’t be able to find essence until the later portions of the game so you can simply forget about that until you get one by completing a main storyline mission. I also appreciate and need to point out that the team at Sky9 Games (the developers) broke down the collectibles into areas so they are easier to track down. So, for example, if you have found every key except one, you know the area where you missed it instead of having to try and go through the entire world map yet again. The aforementioned slimes have a functional purpose in the game as well. For every five slimes, you find you will get one additional inventory slot. I seemed to always be running out of slots so it was definitely beneficial for me whenever I could add some new ones. Kudos to the team for how they handled the game in this aspect.

A Knight’s Quest has a really nice art style that makes everything pop off the screen with its vibrant landscapes and bright colors. Everything has a nice style to it and the overall world looks great as a result. The audio in this game is also done pretty well with the music doing a great job of foreshadowing what is about to happen and the general ambiance of the environment. The main characters are not voiced however which is a bit of a disappointment, but I understand why with A Knight’s Quest coming from a small studio.

After reading all of that, some might be confused about how I feel about A Knight’s Quest. Overall, I like it. There are some frustrations with the game that I mentioned up above and sometimes there are things that are too obtuse for the game’s own good. I enjoyed the setting though and the two main characters were likable and charming. The gameplay is fun, even if it could be tightened up a bit in certain areas. I enjoyed the overall concept and the environmental variety this game has to offer. If you enjoy action-adventure games similar to a Zelda I would give this one a chance, just keep in mind it doesn’t have the scope of that beloved franchise.