The Knightling Reviews
The Knightling is a touching adventure that is built on exploration, movement, and the bond between a hero and his shield. The environment of the story pushes people to explore at every chance, and the tale strikes a good balance between silly adventures and the mystery of Sir Lionstone’s fate. Shield-surfing and nimble mobility mechanics are two of the most fun ways to go about in recent memory.
The Knightling is an example of how one frustrating issue can drag an entire work down with it. There’s plenty to like here, from its charming world and narrative, to its whimsical music. However all of this and the bulk of its mechanical and game design offerings are dragged down by input delay issues and poor optimization making for a disappointing experience. Despite this, with an apt amount of polish, I believe The Knightling could one day be an easier recommendation.
The Knightling is a lovely open world adventure game that stands out from the crowd with its focus on shield-based combat and traversal.
The Knightling is a fun, if imperfect, ride for gamers who seek a faster fairy tale with puzzles, platforming, and some new kinds of fighting. This is a good second game that could become amazing. With enough work, it could even become a series. It shows that even with a lot of huge names in the field, simple, sincere stories can still be unique.
If you’re patient with combat and can overlook technical issues, there’s genuine fun to be had here. The shield mechanics are unique, the world is pleasant to explore, and there’s something endearing about playing as an underdog who slowly proves everyone wrong. Just maybe wait for a patch or two before jumping in, and definitely play on Easy if combat frustration starts killing your enjoyment.
Knightling has some great ideas and its story is certainly the game's best element. But, the unresponsive combat is the game's biggest failing, and makes encounters more about survival than achieving victory. Twirlbound could convert this into a fantastic series with some improved combat and a more unique visual approach to give the game a stronger identity.
The Knightling offers a charming mix of exploration and combat that combines to create a very unique game, but technical hindrances, a lack of enemy variety, and some difficulty spikes prevent it from reaching its true potential.
The Knightling is the perfect end of summer action adventure romp, with great combat, a colourful world to explore, and shield surfing.
The Knightling is a game that fills me with nostalgia for the platforms and adventure games of the 1990s. It's got some rough edges here and there, but despite those issues, it's a really good time. The movement and combat feel nice and smooth, there's a decent amount of content, and the world is interesting. It's a game to check out if you enjoy platformers and feel nostalgia about the good ol' days. It's possibly the closest I've seen to a 3D Zelda game on PC. Steam Deck performance is a little disappointing; the inability to hold a constant 30 FPS is a shame, especially when it feels like the main reason you can't is because of non-essential background NPCs and their pathfinding. However, in most combat areas and away from the city, the game tends to hold at 30 FPS, making it a playable experience.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Twirlbound’s open world adventure, as its cute visuals, on point humor, infectious sympathy and solid gameplay loop kept me more than intrigued enough to keep pushing on, with the end credits rolling before the game’s relatively limited scope would start hurting. Keep an eye out for this one, as it’s a pretty fun ride.
The Knightling is a triumphant achievement for Twirlbound and Saber Interactive—a vibrant indie gem that blends stellar 3D platforming, emotional open-world exploration, and a joyful audiovisual experience into one crown-worthy adventure, with only minor flaws in combat and side quest variety barely dulling the shine of a game that inspires and delights from start to finish.
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