A Knight's Quest Review
Release Date: October 10th, 2019
Developer: Sky9 Games
Platforms: Switch (Reviewed), PC (via Epic); Xbox, PS4, and Steam in the future.
Price: $24.99
With the multitude of games that have left impacts throughout the medium's time, it's easy to be inspired and want to grow upon an idea or make an homage to something that meant a lot to you. Even if it's indirect, titles like Destiny, Bayonetta, Banjo & Kazooie, and Overwatch wouldn't exist without seminal titles laying the foundation of what's possible in genre-defining titles Halo, Devil May Cry, Mario, and Team Fortress respectively. The realm of indie gaming is filled with love-letters to these kinds of games, though sometimes the quality can be a bit of a mixed bag. At times, you'll have incredibly faithful yet refreshing visions like Axiom Verge (Metroid) or Bloodstained (Castlevania), respectable but unrefined like Oceanhorn (Zelda) or Poi (Mario 64), and downright abominations like Mighty No. 9 (Mega Man) or the multitude of Minecraft clones that are as shallow as their textures. It’s an odd place to tread since you typically want your own identity, to stand out from myriad others that have been inspired by the same if not similar piece of work, but other times you kind of just want to make your own "alternate" version of sorts, and that's totally fine. A Knight's Quest falls in this category of being heavily inspired by Zelda that it's clearly not trying to reinvent the wheel by any means, but put their own humorous twist on the illustrious series. It's a game that mixes the likes of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Portal Knights, bringing them into a fun, accessible package filled with tons of humor that's self aware of its influences. Unfortunately the Switch version, of which this review was conducted with, is clearly at a large disadvantage - almost so much so the inferiority and limitations stacked upon an unpolished, janky adventure not only leave much to be desired, but make for a less than optimal playing experience that, despite its few pleasures, is identical to the protagonist's name: Rusty.
A Knight's Quest starts out strong, cleverly putting you in an intense scenario of running out of a collapsing cave akin to Indiana Jones, you'll play as Rusty, a goofy adventurer that acts before he thinks, more often than not finding himself in situations that were easily avoidable but, him being Rusty, somehow manages to engage in. After a bit of excavating and finding a crystallized being amidst the collapse, the crystallized structure levitates higher into the sky and brings about dangers in the world. To save the day, Rusty must go about getting abilities wielded by former guardians known as "Spirit Powers". With these Spirit Powers, he'll be able to get the power he needs to defeat the enemies that roam the lands and put an end to the destruction… if he can focus. Rusty and his companions are a funny bunch that bring a lot of laughs in the clearly zelda-inspired game that puts more focus on platforming than dungeons and puzzles, though they're certainly there to keep you busy as well. The world is vibrant and just about everyone you talk to has something witty to say that'll make you chuckle, and some of the conversations you'll have in various cutscenes and quests are borderline fourth-wall breaking that you can't help but smile. I absolutely adore how the game is self-aware, and frequently I found myself in situations where I'd comment on something that seemed weird or inopportune only for Rusty afterwards to make mention of it, expecting the player to notice such an oddity, not only for something being out of place but being illogical as well. For example, one of the first bosses you fight is a Skeleton that could easily destroy you with size but instead decides to wield a smaller skeleton to hit you with instead. I couldn't help but notice how stupid this looked and immediately after defeating the boss the protagonist would mention "Did that guy really just use a smaller version of himself?" in an equally flummoxed tone. The storyline is about as generic as it gets, but the humor and sequence of events that happen throughout your playthrough more than make up for it all as its playful nature shines not only with friendly NPCs, but enemies taunting you with dances and faces in the distance as you near them preparing for battle (I always felt like I was about to engage in a dance contest instead).
On the surface, it's most definitely a Wind Waker meets Portal Knights kind of adventure, but traversing throughout you'll notice that the game has a huge emphasis on platforming, even being in a large portions of dungeons as well. Puzzles are there but are a minor obstacle rather than anything that's meant to take a substantial amount of time and concentration to accomplish. The thing about A Knight's Quest, however, is that while it takes a lot of inspiration and ideas from great places, it does all of these things in a mediocre fashion. The platforming, combat, puzzle-solving, menu management and animations are all extremely janky and I frequently found myself in areas where I had to do a soft-reset because respawn points put me right back in areas that killed me or registered as me falling for a long time, which would then lead Rusty to ragdoll before the screen turning black to ostensibly place me in an area that was "safe", only to find myself in a never-ending loop that I couldn't get out of. Close to the beginning of the game, I made my way to the port and while trying to go up a ladder, I clipped through it and landed in the water underneath the bridge, however when it reset me it was right back in that water, which instantly disables Rusty. Checkpoints and respawn points are usually close by, so it's not that big of an issue to have to exit the entire game and continue from the last checkpoint, but this happened rather frequently that any time I found myself ragdolling off of a cliff or into water or in between an onslaught of enemies that surrounded me so closely that I was essentially floating - crowd-surfing possibly - that the game would then trigger a collapse to reset me, only to find myself in yet another never-ending loop of falling and having to do yet another soft-reset. Collision detecting feels off and lots of times jumping would feel delayed, and sides of walls and platforms you'd try to grab simply wouldn't connect despite Rusty making contact, leaving him falling to his death below. A lot of inconsistencies like that plague the game throughout, and it can make for a frustrating experience. The exploration factor is great, though, as I've said the world feels alive and colorful, with the music - which is hands down the best part of the game - carrying your way through. The music is so ineffable that despite that feeling of adventure and wonderment it exuded, it was so high quality that it felt disconnected from the game in an odd way. This was the type of soundtrack you'd maybe hear while playing an epic among the likes of Dragon Age or Witcher, but here it is representing a game that unfortunately doesn't do it any favors.
A Knight's Quest is an enjoyable time that's perfect for all ages and playstyles, but the Switch version is absolutely hindered by a poor port providing low resolution that's made even more egregious when going out into open environments, and a frame rate that tries its best to hit 30, though in its defense it never gets to the point where it's chugging and becomes borderline unplayable. It's a solid package that provides a lively world filled with themed areas typical of games of this nature like desert, water, and fire-based areas, so it's extremely unfortunate that while the game clearly has an appealing art direction that it can't be enjoyed in the slightest due to the massacre of visual fidelity on Switch. Shading seems like a blessing, lighting is irksome, textures are disjointed, and the overall presentation feels more like a college 3DS project than the spectacle it could be. If you've seen photos or gameplay of the game running on other systems, there's no doubt A Knight's Quest is visually appealing in a lot of ways, so the Switch version seems like a massive disservice to anyone who owns any other platform in addition to it, even taking the portable factor in mind it's just not worth it to play it here when there's a plethora of other games also inspired by Zelda and Portal Knights that run exponentially better, even if the adventure is a little smaller scale.
Overall, I had a fun time, which is ultimately what's most important, and while I think it's a perfectly fine game despite its horrendous optimization, I do advise staying away from the Switch version, which is a bit of a downer considering how perfect I do think it is for the platform. It's cool being able to wield all the powers you come across and use them to your advantage against certain enemies, bosses, and puzzles to make your way towards that next big goal in your adventure, but a lot of the feeling of accomplishment goes away when you have to fight through unpolished mechanics more than enemies. It's a cute game that exudes charm that you can't help but feel joy, but it’s the technical issues that really cause for a time that's simply not able to be recommended in its current state, certainly not on Switch.
PROS:
Cute art-style resembling a hybrid of Wind Waker and Portal Knights
The music is incredible, easily becoming the star of the show
The humor and dialogue throughout the game will keep you smiling
Level design is actually really nice and gives a grand sense of adventure
CONS:
The resolution is really low, especially once you go out into the open
Performance can be really bad at times
The unpolished nature of A Knight's Quest can cause extreme frustration when a multitude of bugs riddle the game in a perpetual state
Thank you to Curve Digital and Sky9 Games for providing us a copy of A Knight's Quest for the purposes of this review