The Knightling

For years, developers have tried their hardest to capture the magic of The Legend of Zelda in their creations. This has led to a flurry of lovely and enjoyable games over the years, but typically speaking, few reach the heights that Nintendo's iconic series manage to achieve. This might seem like an odd way to begin a review about an AA action-adventure game, but it's actually very applicable because Twirlbound's The Knightling is another admirable attempt at cracking The Legend of Zelda code.

This game revolves around a young, not-very-talkative, and small-in-stature hero who takes on the immense challenge of saving a fantastical realm. To do so, he wields a signature weapon and uses it to battle enemies, be they man or monster, and to solve environmental puzzles through creative platforming and strategic puzzle-solving. Sound familiar? That's because The Knightling is about as Zelda-like, or at least modern Zelda-like, as a game can get, and that's not a knock at all, just a way to understand what kind of game Twirlbound has cooked up here.

So yes, the idea is to save the world as a hero who nobody really expects much from. This burden is put on your shoulders when the great knight of the realm, Sir Lionstone, goes missing, leaving you in the possession of his famed shield, a veritable and capable tool used for combat and exploration. Upon sharing your knight's disappearance with the local royals, the Knighting (a squire) finds itself with the burden of knowing that the realm is at risk, with many unperturbed by this development, causing him to prove his worth by helping the locals and earning their trust and ultimately setting out to save the land from devastation. It's a pretty simple plot to get behind, one that is powered by typical stereotypes and narrative tropes, but all delivered in a way that keeps you entertained and engaged, and curious enough to keep pressing onwards.

The truth is however, the part of The Knightling that will pique your interest the most is the actual gameplay. Twirlbound has designed a system that encourages the player to tackle the task at hand in their own creative way. You can combine different actions and techniques together in combat to overcome the various threats, the movement suite and abilities are designed in such a way that exploration is fun and thrilling, and the environmental puzzles have that right balance of difficulty and ease to understand. It's a balance that Twirlbound has mastered that makes the world of The Knightling a joy to explore, a place where you'll actually be more interested in wandering off the beaten path than following the main story.

What's at the top of the aqueduct? How far can I slide uninterrupted? What happens when I bounce on these glowing mushrooms? What secrets does this cave hold? What's behind the door that requires me to solve a gear-moving puzzle? There's a lot of reasons to find secrets and puzzles to fill your time, plus movement challenges to master, and these are just some of The Knightling's biggest treats and treasures.

But that being said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There are various elements in this game that don't quite land, or are used to such a major extent that they become tiresome. For one, the upgrading and progression system is not particularly inspired. As you explore the world, you will find glowing orbs of Pride that are effectively currency that can be used to unlock new abilities at a vendor. This is matched up with resources that are used to improve your shield, meaning there's not much meaningful moment-to-moment progression, as instead you collect resources and spend them for a reward in a consumer-to-vendor interaction.

Also, the combat is a tad hit and miss. As excellent and varied of a tool as the shield is, it's very slow and sluggish to use and fighting groups of enemies is frankly not a lot of fun as they strike faster and harder than you do. Combat also lacks a lot of ability depth for the majority of the game, as you need to purchase new abilities and moves to expand your arsenal... It would be a little less frustrating too if the game's signature pull mechanic wasn't baked into the combat, as there are times when you need to pull armour off enemies in order to make them vulnerable. That may seem like a cool idea, but you also have to use the same mechanic to open chests, root out food to heal, pull levers, the list goes on. I'm not a fan of the mechanic because it's a quick-time event where you need to press the right combination of inputs in quick succession, and while that's fine every now and then, having to do so hundreds of times throughout the adventure is a massive overuse of the mechanic.

This feeds back into the original point of Zelda-likes that have great ideas but just don't quite stick the landing, as is the case with The Knightling. There are a lot of really lovely ideas and elements to this game, including the colourful art direction and the quirky characters, but there are also some ideas that feel undercooked or overused. There will be some that question the lack of voiced dialogue for most of the characters too, and I can see the grounds for that criticism also, but compared to how some of the more major elements of the gameplay (which while they fundamentally work, feel a tad off in practice), this feels like less of an issue.

So long story short, The Knighting is a fine action-adventure game with some strong ideas and elements. There's plenty of charisma and quality at the heart of this game, and it's broad and packed enough to keep you engaged until the credits roll. But, and despite its immediately noticeable similarities in gameplay, don't expect a game of nearly the same mechanical depth nor technical refinement as that of a Zelda project, as The Knightling doesn't have the same attention to detail as the series that to this day stands out as one of, if not the best in the genre.