Playing games growing up with the sixth and seventh generation of consoles meant exploring vast, sprawling 3D worlds where I could let my imagination be captivated and run wild. Whether it was a Zelda, a Ratchet & Clank, or anything in between, the prospect of loading up a disc and getting lost in a different world is something most modern games just don’t capture for me. Thankfully, there’s a certain resurgence of this brand of nostalgia coming out, and one such title that evokes that feeling is The Knightling.

Left without your trusted knight, Sir Lionstone, and still bound by his duties, the eponymous Knightling is tasked with doing quite a lot of hero work with only the knight’s shield at your disposal. Braving many kinds of fantasy villains and monsters, you’ll rely on dodging, parrying, and perfect blocks to compensate for only having a minuscule amount of attack varieties in combat to start with.

By helping folks and earning knightling praise, you’ll be able to unleash launchers, counters, and more to be able to take on seemingly insurmountable odds. Some of these upgrades actually become a requirement for advancement, such as unlocking the launcher to deal with armored enemies. It might feel like that gates off the game for padding, but with so many side quests available, there’s no shortage of things to do.

What’s the most fun about The Knightling, however, is the movement. Holding down the right trigger lets you ride your trusty shield like a sled, making downward slopes a vessel for blazing-fast speeds. I found that even just bouncing with well-timed jumps while riding the shield is even faster than sprinting, making traversal practically a meta-game and a delight for speedrunners. You’ll need to utilize your speed, too, as even though there’s fast-travel, the distance between objectives is quite significant, meaning several minutes of your gameplay will be dedicated to moving from one place to another.

Taking on quests in The Knightling is pretty much what you’d expect – helping out townsfolk and country-siders in Clessia with everything from menial tasks like a fetch quest to dungeon-crawling and monster-slaying like a true knight would. Expect some puzzle-solving to come into the fold as well, primarily involving switch placement and platforming. The game maintains a great balance between NPC interaction, combat, and questing, so you won’t feel stuck doing the same thing over and over again to the point where it becomes tedious.

The Knightling hearkens back to what made gaming special for those who loved a good action-adventure title in the early 00’s. In my ten hours of scouring the map and unlocking as much as I could, I found the game to have a lot of meat on its bones and a nice sheen of polish, well within its scope and target of enjoyment. With its quirky NPCs, outstanding soundtrack, and well-balanced difficulty, The Knightling becomes an easy game to recommend for anyone who feels so inclined.

A PC review copy of The Knightling was provided by Saber Interactive for this review.

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The Knightling

$29.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Varied, engaging gameplay
• Delightful character designs
• Fun movement/combat

Cons

• Progression blockers
• World's a bit too sparse