A Knight’s Quest Review

Developed by Sky 9 Games, A Knight’s Quest at its heart is a 3D Action Platformer. Most will compare it to other titles such as the obvious Zelda, but I got some old school Jak and Daxter vibes, what with being able to grind rails to traverse the map. The puzzles really come through in a Zelda manner, but they have their own unique twists and get progressively harder as you continue through the game.

The hero of A Knight’s Quest is Rusty; a clumsy knight who brought the end of the world to the city of Regalia. There are a few other key locations too, such as Zameris. Both act as a hub for Rusty, allowing him to purchase items to help on his quest. Taly is your trusted friend who helps you achieve your goals throughout the story, while you go on adventures killing skeletons and the local wildlife.

There’s no voice acting for dialogue in the game, bringing back memories of old RPG’s with scrolling text. While exploring, I found the quickest way of getting around was rolling everywhere, as this gives you a little speed boost. Rusty only has 3 jump/roll grunts to accompany this though, which I think will be forever engraved in my brain, as towards the end of my play time I was rolling practically everywhere. After completing a main story mission, you have to go back through all the zones you went through to the next one, until you unlock the warp gate system – which I will say I wish was unlocked earlier.

I won’t give the plot of A Knight’s Quest away in this review as its such a good game you should try it yourself. As Rusty, you acquire three divine weapons which allow control of three elements – Wind, Fire and Ice. These are used to defeat enemies and solve the mind bending puzzles. I have to say, I did get stuck a couple of times on my play through and almost threw in the towel. But I soldiered on and boy, am I glad I did.

Puzzle wise, I did feel like I was in a shrine in Breath of the Wild at times, but with A Knight’s Quest unique art style those vibes wore off rather quickly. In the first few hours of the game I only had the wind element and puzzles did get rather repetitive, but after unlocking the other two divine weapons I found myself constantly switching between them to solve the puzzles – though this really did make my brain fry at points.

During combat, one of my bug bears with this game was pressing X until the enemy falls over does get a bit laborious, though thinking back on all the other aspects of A Knight’s Quest I am glad it was a simple system. Parrying attacks to fire arrows back at the enemy was hilarious, and using elements from your divine weapons to knock off enemy shields did bring a little flair to the combat.

As I mentioned earlier the art style is beautiful. Each area brings a different palette of colour, from rolling green hills surrounding Regalia, to the dusty, rocky outcrops of Zameris. Each area has its own music really making you feel part of that zone. My favourite area has to be the Tiki village with its quirky music and tribesman. After unlocking the grind boots to use the rails in each zone, shortcuts opened up, allowing new places to explore. Thankfully you are given them rather early, alleviating some of the need to roll about the place!

Conclusion

I loved the nostaglic feel to the 3D platforming action, though some of the puzzles had me reaching for the off button. Battling through them was ultimately rewarding though, and kept me cracking on through the adventure. While it’s unlikely Xbox exclusive players will get to tackle the brilliant Breath of the Wild anytime soon, A Knight’s Quest is about as solid an attempt as we’ll see on our console for now.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.