Sky9's A Knight's Quest is a fairly typical action-adventure title, which I played on the Switch. It has everything you'd expect from a game of its type. There's a hero, a quest, a simple story, and some monsters to fight. Nothing out of the ordinary. And that's its main problem. Everything is combined into a shiny package of mediocrity.
The Noble Quest
The quest our accidental hero Rusty embarks upon can be explained in just one sentence: Defeat the enemies to prevent the coming of the end of the world - which you accidentally set into motion - from happening.
The official summary describes the game as an open-world platformer, but the title is very much platformer, with only certain sections being open-world. There are still many places you can't go, ledges to fall off, and paths to follow.
While the storyline is weak, not every game needs an engaging narrative, so I let this slide a little. The real question to consider is how it plays. Sadly, this is where the game still fails to shine.
Fights And Failures
The first issue is the combat system. You can block and hit. That's it. It's not especially challenging, engaging, or exciting but likewise, it's not the worst combat system I've encountered. As with most of this game, it's decidedly average.
The same goes for the graphics. Yes, they aren't stellar quality, but for an indie game, you'd be daft to expect that. The graphics are perfectly, fine. They can be a little glitchy in places, but overall they are ok. Not too bad, not too good, just ok.
The music is distinctly mediocre. It's not irritating, but it's also not something I'd especially choose to listen to.
Are you seeing the pattern here yet? The entire game is like baby bear's porridge, not too hot, not too cold, just an average temperature. While the three bears may have thought the porridge was just right, unfortunately many gamers will likely be underwhelmed by this middle of the road title.
Parkour And Platforms
It's such a shame that this plays so blandly because indie platformers can often turn out to be hidden gems. Sadly, this one is more like a rock. It's absolutely solid, but it doesn't excite me, not even if it's on Twitch.
I should also mention that there are some pretty hefty parkour and platforming sections throughout the game that will leave younger or more inexperienced platform gamers with sad faces and frustrations.
To get to the better parts of the game with spells and cool weapon upgrades, you have to face some challenges, which for the less skilled are irritating. Thankfully, you can infinitely respawn pretty much where you died, but that only takes the edge off.
Even once past them, more keep cropping up, which was enough to get the better of the more experienced platformer fans in my family. Luckily, not all of the game is like this, but these frustrating sections can be a constant low-level source of annoyance between the interesting parts.
An Average Adventure
As you get further into the game there are more puzzles, bosses, spells, and upgrades that bring up the excitement levels considerably. Sadly, the frustrating parts bring them back down, keeping everything around that dreaded average mark.
It is sad to see as, with a few tweaks to the more challenging parkour sections, this game's enjoyment factor could likely be vastly improved for a wider spectrum of gamers.
Yes, it's not the greatest game in the world, but it's in the "cheap and cheerful" category. Unfortunately, so are many other indie titles and many of them manage to iron out the frustrating parts while keeping the greatness.
3 Out Of 5 Stars
A Nintendo Switch copy of A Knight's Quest was provided to TheGamer for this review. A Knight's Quest is available for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and on the Epic Games store.