The Knightling

As video games have been around for decades, it can be hard to create one that doesn’t take some sort of inspiration from something else. Even if it’s easy to see where the inspiration came from, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As long as the game can stand on its own two feet without constantly reminding players, “Hey, this is the game we’re referencing,” it’ll be fine. That’s one thing that went through my mind when playing through The Knightling.

As the titular Knightling, you begin the game journeying alongside the legendary knight Sir Lionstone as he recounts one of his heroic deeds. After defeating a giant beast, he claimed its gear made of Callyrium crystals. With his new powerful sword and shield, he vowed to protect the realm from any danger that befalls it.

After telling the story, the Knightling and Sir Lionstone investigate an area where another beast was seen—known as an Earthborn—but after a bit of a struggle, both the Earthborn and Sir Lionstone go missing. Picking up Sir Lionstone’s shield, which is infused with Callyrium, the Knightling makes his way back to Clesseia to see if the legendary knight has returned. After arriving and realizing that isn’t the case, the Knightling sets out in search of the missing knight.

To aid the Knightling in his quest, he can wield his shield—known as Magnustego—as a weapon. As you progress, you’ll pick up yellow orbs called Knightling Praise that let you learn new moves, such as a Shield Launch that knocks enemies into the air (especially useful against armored foes). Collecting Guilders and Metal Parts allows you to upgrade Magnustego itself to deal more damage, throw it, or equip more inscriptions that grant various abilities and buffs.

These materials are mostly found by defeating enemies, though Knightling Praise can also be discovered while exploring and collecting out in the open. The various locales you’ll visit typically have someone who can teach new moves or upgrade Magnustego, so if you’re stuck in a particular area, it’s not too difficult to grind for materials and power yourself up a bit.

Once you step foot outside the starting city and set out into the world of Clesseia, you’ll start to get a Breath of the Wild feeling from the open world. You have your main quest line that continues the story, but you’ll also come across plenty of people who have minor tasks for a young Knightling to complete. The quests themselves are a nice deviation from the main story and can earn you some solid rewards—despite not really needing a Knightling to do them. One example is a librarian asking you to track down some overdue scrolls, or a villager trying to woo his love interest. Sometimes we all just need a distraction from the world for a bit, even if we’re supposed to be searching for our missing knight.

Combat in The Knightling can be a little rough at times. While you can learn new moves beyond just swinging Magnustego around, it is still just a shield, and that means it has a pretty short reach. There’s no manual enemy lock-on—just a soft lock-on that nudges you toward whatever you’re attacking. This can sometimes lead to targeting an enemy you didn’t intend to hit and drifting away from your original target.

Some enemies wear armor, which means you’ll either need to use moves that are more effective against armored foes or damage them enough to trigger the option to remove the armor. Then there are times when you’re dealing with one enemy and another pops up behind you unnoticed, causing you to take unnecessary damage. Thankfully, you can heal yourself as long as you have food in your pouch. You also have the ability to dodge attacks, and you can usually see when and where an enemy will strike thanks to a large red area on the ground. Once you learn the ability to throw Magnustego, you can start picking off enemies from a distance.

Boss fights are in the same boat—kind of hit and miss. One of the first boss fights taught me real quick not to just rush in and blindly mash the attack button. There were a lot of moments where the boss would just continuously attack, and I had to wait out the flurry before I could get my hits in. That’s a part of combat in general.

A lot of minor enemies you can just bash a few times and you’re good to go. Others, though, you have to get a couple hits in, then back out and wait. For the most part, it’s fine, but there are a few moments now and then where fights can get tedious—like a multi-stage battle with a bandit partway through that teleports onto a rotating structure and shoots fire, making it really tough to get in any hits, let alone enough to take down their large health bar.

On the positive side of the coin, the land of Clesseia looks beautiful, and I found myself kind of eschewing the main quest to just run around, find side quests to do, gather materials, and enjoy the countryside. Early on, you’ll learn two new methods of traversal with Magnustego. The first is sliding around on him like a sled, which can be fun but a little tough to control without a lot of practice. In fact, there’s a side quest you can do early on that basically forces you to get good with sliding to complete.

The other method of transportation is using Magnustego like a paraglider to ride various wind currents you’ll find, some leading to higher-up areas to explore. While you can fast travel to certain locations, I didn’t use it all too often depending on the distance I had to travel, so I could collect more resources. The puzzles you’ll come across aren’t typically too difficult to solve, though a few did leave me scratching my head—along with various objectives leading to an “investigation area” where you have to find a specific item or a certain spot to stand in to continue the task.

Despite combat being a bit rough, I enjoyed playing The Knightling. If a game can sidetrack me from the main quest with a vast world and engaging side quests, and I’m still enjoying it the whole time, that’s a win in my book. The world of Clesseia looks beautiful, and the soundtrack complements the journey perfectly. If you enjoy games with a sprawling world to explore and plenty to do beyond the main plot, The Knightling is a solid addition to your collection.