Knight's Fable

Game overview

Knight’s Fable is a role-playing MMO set in a time of knights and gods. While it’s very similar to the previous R2-GTArcade release, League of Angels, the title makes small improvements in the area of story - rife with twists, betrayals and a cast of half-demons, nobles and divine beings. However, it still falls short of being truly great thanks to weak writing and heavily automated play.

Combat and the main quest are heavily automated by the system, leaving almost nothing for the player to do – an odd choice for a game that promised a stronger main story experience. Knight’s Fable does better in its customizable party and beast system, where human and monster allies can be unlocked to aid your character in battle. One of the genuinely fun aspects of the game, discovering and upgrading new allies to watch them kick serious ass in combat was exciting and highly rewarding.

The game also runs very well for a browser title even on slower systems, and strikes a good balance with its unobtrusive in-app purchase options. Overall, a decent title for those who love upgrading and customizing their character and parties, and don’t mind a light combat and questing experience.

Full review

Knight’s Fable is the second release by R2 Games in partnership with GTArcade, the first being League of Angels. The two titles are incredibly similar, from the art to the character design to the nature of the quests and mini-games. Knight’s Fable, however, promises to offer a more story-centric gaming experience than its predecessor. While it certainly does a better job with story than League of Angels did, weak writing and over-reliance on automated play do hold this title back from being a better game.

A better story? Hmmm, kind of.

You are given four classes to choose from upon starting the game, which is pretty much a cosmetic selection as no information on stats or skill specialties are offered other than their class names. You are then thrown into the story, with your hero speaking to a divine being, Moirae, about the land being overrun by evil forces. To remedy this, she sends you 1000 years into the future. Whoa!

Knight’s Fable excels at this kind of super dramatic plot device. Through the course of the story, you’ll discover plenty of twists, gasp-worthy reveals and betrayals as you meet an expanding cast of half-demons, wise old guys and top-heavy babes. A complex plot alone, however, does not make a great story without equally good writing to back it up. The twists come so hard and fast in Knight's Fable that they lose their effect after the third betrayal, and it doesn’t help that none of the characters have ever heard of a sense of humor. Still, it must be acknowledged that the game does improve over previous R2 titles, so if you enjoyed League of Angels and it’s ilk, you’ll likely enjoy Knight’s Fable even more.

Automation is king

Like many browser MMORPGs, most of the processes in Knight’s Fable are automated. In fact, it could probably be argued that the computer plays more of the game than you ever will. Running missions involves clicking to talk to the quest giver, clicking to accept the mission, and then watching your character run to and fro on a map essentially completing the mission for you. Often, the only thing required of me to finish a quest was to click on someone, listen to them say one line of something, and then watch my EXP bar increase. Even the Sage NPC who was advising me called one of the missions a “wild goose chase”, and after watching my character automatically chase the same demon all over the map for about 10 quests, I had to agree.

Many missions involve combat, but here too the system does most of the work, calculating attacks based on the gear you have and the members in your party. There’s even an “Insta-Finish” button that appears during battles and allows you to skip the combat sequence altogether to just find out if you won or lost. While I was glad to have the option to skip the otherwise monotonous combat animations, it almost made me wish Knight’s Fable hadn’t bothered with combat at all. I suppose they just had to have something for all these knights to do.

So, what can I do in this game?

Automation aside, there's still plenty to do in Knight’s Fable. The main action lies in recruiting and training members for your party and bestiary to strengthen your automated battle prowess. Unlocking new allies and monsters to fight by your side was really quite fun – new party members are enlisted through a kind of card-drawing game, and beasts are unlocked by discovering beast fragments in a puzzle. Both actions depend heavily on chance and carry a daily limit that can be recharged with in-app purchases. However, I found the limit made the thrill of the draw all the more appealing as I returned every day in the hopes of unlocking some powerful new ally.

As you gain levels in the main quest, you’ll also unlock the Hell Dungeons – where you can mine experience, silver and loot – and the Battle Shrine – where you can battle other online players. There’s also your own village with a fishing mini game and patron goddesses, daily events to play via Jobs, Alliances to join and daily rewards to collect just for logging in.

There is also loads of stuff to upgrade, from gear efficiency to party levels to your battle stats, all using the earnable game currencies of Silver, Wisdom or Stardust, which are gained from quests. The upgrading mechanic was almost overwhelming – the game even offers you the option of bulk upgrading 10 levels at once, which seemed like overkill but demonstrated how easy it is to move up multiple levels in minutes. While this may thrill players who like progressing incredibly quickly, it got to the point where reaching a new level gave me zero satisfaction – I would have preferred a slower system with a bit more effort needed to move up each level.

In-app purchases

Almost all activities other than the main quest carry daily limits or cooldown periods. However, the limits are fairly generous – you can play 15 times daily in the Dungeons or Battle Shrines, and upgrade your skills by 10 levels at a time. Knight’s Fable does a good job of keeping the cash shop separate from the main game, though if you’re hoping to play primarily PvP battles, you’ll likely find yourself slightly disadvantaged against the paying players.

Runs very well for a browser MMO

Knight’s Fable runs very well for a browser MMO, with no lag even on a slower system. Loading screens are very common, but they whiz by so quickly it’s hardly noticeable. Graphics are decent with animated sprites on drawn backgrounds, though more variety on the backgrounds and character models would have been welcome – a character would often run through a portal to end up at what looked like the exact same place, and repeated character art further confuses an already complicated story.

Conclusion

Knight’s Fable is a title for those interested mainly in upgrading mechanics rather than actual gameplay. While the game’s story is an improvement over it’s cousin League of Angels, it just isn’t well written or original enough to make the game worth playing on story alone. Heavy automation also takes a lot of the combat and questing action out of the player’s hands, leaving you to turn to gear, character or ally upgrading to control battle outcomes. Still, its fun party and beast customization system and well balanced paywall will likely be enough to attract those who have enjoyed League of Angels and other similar titles.