My liege! You have returned from your quest! I trust that you did duly vanquish the foe and rescue the faire maiden. No? Oh, well, this is awkward. What happened? Maybe if we start from the beginning...
It was a lovely moonlit night. The brave knight and his faire maiden sat alone on the hilltop, overlooking the peaceful village below. It was a night to remember. Nothing could spoil this moment. Suddenly, the moon disappeared and the sky turned red. From below the hill, a demon appeared and floated in the air in front of the couple. Before the knight knew what was happening, the demon captured the faire maiden and took her deep into the depths of the Earth. The knight jumped to his feet, trusty drill at the ready, and dove into the ground after them.
In Knightfall from Megadev the objective is to get your knight to the key for the level exit, and then to the exit itself. This sounds easy, until you realize that you do not actually have direct control over your knight. In order to reach items on the game board, vanquish foes, and reach the exit, you have two main actions that you can do. By double-clicking on groups of matching blocks, you will make them disappear, much in the same manner as the classics: Same Game, Sega Swirl and Collapse! This alone won't do much good. You also have the ability to rotate the game board 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise. This allows you to change which way is "down", and make it easier to line your knight up with his goal.
Of course, no adventure would be complete without baddies to dispense of along the way. There are a wide variety of monsters to come up against, each with their own methods and ranges of attack. For instance, the slime will only attack when right next to you on the board. Mages can blast lightning across the entire board as long as you are lined up with them either vertically or horizontally. Dragons and minotaurs will attack from a couple blocks away. You, of course, can attack back by coming up next to a baddie and rotating the board so that you come down at them from above, drill pointed down ready to attack. In true RPG fashion, you'll receive gold and experience points for each creature dealt with.
You have a limited amount of hit points that can be replenished by either drinking a magic potion or by eating chicken. Both of these items can either be found on the game board from time to time, ready to be collected, or can be purchased between rounds with gold that you have collected. As you gain experience points, you will slowly gain levels, which in turn will raise the maximum hit points that you can have. There are a number of other items that you can collect and buy, including spells that will do anything from allow you to rotate the board 180 degrees to destroying all creatures on the screen to turning all of the creatures into chickens.
As you are clicking matching blocks, attempting to remove the obstacles in the knight's way, you may wonder what keeps you from clicking on blocks for the entire round and gaining copious amounts of experience points? The answer to that would be action points. In leu of some sort of timer for each round, you are instead given 50 action points. These points are only used when you clear out matching blocks; you can rotate the board all you want, and you won't use any. If you end up using all of your action points before you manage to make it to the exit, your knight will begin losing a health point for every extra move you have to make. While it's good to collect other items and to vanquish foes along the way, it is generally in your best interest to open and make it to the exit as soon as you can.
Analysis: Knightfall is one of those games that instead of retreading a popular style of game, mashes-up the styles to make a game that is more interesting than the sum of its parts. Part Mr. Driller, Same Game, and Puzzle Quest, the gameplay in Knightfall is well balanced and well executed. The game includes a tutorial which is executed in an interesting way, in the form of a YouTube video showing how the mechanics of the game work, complete with narration of what's going on on-screen. While I generally prefer hands-on tutorials, I had no questions about how to play the game after watching the short video.
Once you complete the three different difficulty levels of the story mode, you can always take the game on in Purgatory mode. This is a never-ending series of levels of ever-increasing difficulty where instead of collecting a key to open the door to the next level, you need to dispose of all of the creatures on the screen. With the same action point limit of 50, this can at times be a daunting task.
There are (wait for it...) 28 achievements to be had during the game, as well. One thing that I don't like about the achievements in Knightfall is the fact that there is absolutely no description of the achievement or what you might have to do in order to win it, save what you may be able to glean from the rather obscure titles. Somehow I've managed to collect the "Rainbows over Camelot" and "Deadly Gentry" achievements, but I couldn't begin to tell you just how I accomplished it.
That small complaint aside, Knightfall is a definite keeper. With a fun story mode and an unlimited purgatory mode to keep you coming back for more, the mix of matching game and RPG is, once again, a success. While it does call into question at what point the electric drill was invented, we'll leave that to the historians and go back to busting rock and beating baddies to rescue our damsel in distress.
I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peak at this a few weeks ago - I am proud to say I know the guys who developed it (Megadev).
I absolutely love this game. A perfect mash up of familiar themes with plenty of added individuality. And, best of all for me (and partly because of me I hope) it is completely colour-blind friendly (often a failing of games with this mechanic).
The music is great too!
I actually happen to love this game, even if for some reason I can never seem to make it past the second "world".
Is it just me or is this another game that borrows heavily off of the opening sequence from Ghosts and Goblins? Meat Boy's opening sequence also bore an uncanny resemblance.
This game is terrific, but I wish they had gone even further in the Puzzle Quest direction. When I gain a level, I want to get a new ability, not just some extra hit points. I also want items or abilities that can transform individual blocks into other kinds of blocks.
Ideally, I'd like different character classes that can do different things as they gain levels, perhaps by spending a quantity of Action Points. Maybe in the sequel.
I hope that the vicious bits of the Armor Games audience don't discourage the author too much.
Not sure about the origin of the opening sequence, but it does seem familiar.
About the game, I've been enjoying this one, too. I've managed to make it to the 3rd world so far.
I really enjoy these mash-ups! :D
I DID IT! I finally got out of the second world!
Beautiful, challenging game. I must have died at least 100 times. I really have no idea what drove me to finish the game. Probably, "I'm this far, I can't give up!"
Hi all, I'm one of the developers of Knightfall. Thanks for the nice comments, much appreciated!
@ Kyle E. Moore: You're absolutely right, it does crib from the GnG intros, but the whole thing is intended to be a visual and sonic love letter to that series, so it goes even further as you get into the game!
@ Psychotronic: Those are noted - constructive feedback is always good. We'd love to do a sequel if we get the chance, as there's plenty that didn't make it in due to time, overambition and the like. You never know, it could happen...
@ Jay and Reibear: Cheers! Glad you're getting a bit of enjoyment out of it.
And yeah, those Armor Games folk can be mean, but what can you do? It's the Net for you... ;)
Hey, Nick, great to hear from ya.
Yeah, there's definitely plenty of old school hommage to be found. For instance, the knight right down to the lance-like drill looks like a fully armored GnG, and I was wondering if the death sequences (which are rather frequent in my case) were intended to resemble the death sequence of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (another death sequence I've seen quite a lot of in my day).
But I'm with Reibear; I just can't put this down! Especially not since I've developed my ultra awesome winning strategy!
Since block placement is for the most part random, I just keep dying until I come across a configuration I can beat!
definitely one of the top recent web games I've come across... excellent execution of a bright mashup idea
I hope there will be a sequel with some of the additional features (new skills as you level up... maybe a character stat system... plus new classes/races) that have been mentioned.
A lovely spin to the RPG genre for the casual gamer with a lot of potential for more elaborate development
How many times do you have to hit the final boss to defeat him?
NickP - how about a save function?
I just finished World 3 (again, since I quit out before I was finished earlier and there was no option to "resume" my game when I came back), and now I need another break.
Sure would be nice to be able to pick up where I left off later, or else I don't think I'll ever be able to finish story mode. It's just a little bit longer than my ADD lets me play.
Jay:
I was right with you yesterday. Then I noticed that below the new game button there is a really long button with a lot of writing. Turns out, that writing is Continue game, and all the extra stuff is where you actually left off.
Either that button is new as of today, or yesterday I didn't see it because it had too many letters and I was just too lazy to read it.
Heya NickP,
Hope you don't mind me posting the Penguin cheat
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Great game!
Howdy guys,
I'm just excited that my YouTube tutorial was actually mentioned in the review! I'm seriously more proud of that video than any of the 100+ walkthroughs I've made. I was challenged to do something I'd never done before, and I feel like I did a solid job with it. Big thanks to the Megadev team for writing most of the script that I used, and thanks to my lovely girlfriend for doing the narration.
While games like this are really not my style, I disliked this game less than other similar games. Drilling through dragons is fun!
Also, don't be too surprised if you see more video tutorials coming out of Armor Studios.
-Tass
@ Kyle E. Moore: That's the most cunning exploitation of a loophole I've ever seen! Excellent :D
@ Tass: thanks for the video, sir - very clear and concise, so it was. Just the ticket.
@Glenn: Cheers for the support, Mr Broadway!
:OOOO
I can now continue! Wooty! \o/
Thanks so much. If it was there before, then some glitch happened and the game didn't save my progress the first time I played.
Some small complaints, as praise gets you nowhere (you're bound to get plenty as-is ;) ):
1. In-game tutorial would've been preferred to a Youtube link; I don't want to diss your video craftsmanship, but as far as I've seen it makes things a bit easier.
2. Purgatory is easily "cheated" by going on killing sprees on the easy levels, using the gold to buy annihilation/chicken/skeleton keys, and blitzing through the hard levels with a few easy kills to loop back around to the easy levels. If enemy damage scaled as you continued, it might balance out.
3. WARLOOOOOOOOOCKS, GAAAAAAAH.
Anyone have tips on how to defeat the devil?
I killed him multiple times and he just keeps coming back..
Tweed:
Keep killing him. I think it took me 6-7 attacks to finally get him down. (6 definite, and a lightening scroll)
The game is great. I would like to see some more RPG elements in it to really earn that puzzle/RPG title though.
And does anyone know what the (live) chickens do?
Awesome game. Just finished all story difficuties.
I just don't get the achievements. There's only titles, no description, so i have no idea what i did to earn them.
For the rest: keep it up and i expect an even more awesome sequel.
Pretty fun game, but it's a little irritating that using magic to kill enemies (as far as I can tell) doesn't give you experience or gold. Also as mentioned it'd be nice if there was some indication as to what each achievement actually was.
Hi Dan, this is Mike from Megadev here, standing in for Nick on the weekend shift. :-) I can understand your frustrations at not being awarded anything for killing enemies using magic, but it was a design decision made to stop players exploiting the magic system. If XP and / or gold were awarded then you could potentially fill up the board with monsters, destroy them all with an "annihilate" spell and then probably go and buy even more annihilate scrolls with the proceeds. There's already a few minor exploits in the game (which I'd rather not divulge), but the magic exploitation could have easily ruined the game's balance.
As for achievements, we wanted to keep the names fairly cryptic to encourage players to talk amongst themselves and discover how to unlock them, but this has probably back-fired a bit. :-) We'll be posting the descriptions on the video tutorial page in the next day or two so please check back!
The chickens really don't do anything at all, but they can effectively either help or hinder you. I quite often use them as a "buffer" between the knight and certain enemies to make initiating an attack a little easier. I think every RPG should feature chickens though - just look at Zelda: Link To The Past. :-)
We're currently in discussions with Armor Games about a sequel so keep an eye on our site for news. We've had a lot of feedback asking for more RPG elements so we'll probably take the game further down that route whilst still maintaining the puzzle and strategy elements. Thank you all for your great feedback and we hope you continue to enjoy the game - any more suggestions would be very welcome. :-)
Nice one,
Mike.
I FINALLY BEAT IT!!!! YEAH!
Issue: The Beholder; why would you DO that? *grumbles*
This is weird, but this is one of those games that I have fallen more in love with the more I play. This is because the more I play, the more I discover different things I can do which really hints at a very impressive amount of depth. And now that there is talk that there is going to be a sequel, I'm uber excited over that.
And now to go back and try and beat it on the not easiest level!
I really liked this game. The randomization mechanic made it so even though levels got harder, you weren't stuck banging your hand against the same wall over and over. Even when I got stuck on the same level for half an hour, I was still willing to try to beat it because the next set of blocks might be easier to deal with. The items added some nice "well, crap!" things to do, but I noticed that most of the time they were unnecessary, since once you get the hang of how you can move just about anything to (more or less) your own liking the game isn't too hard. (Then again, I played on chicken mode, so don't take my word on that. :-))
As has been pointed out, levelling up is almost underwhelming. However, I think the overall effect is underrated. As you get into higher levels (and armor, I suppose), being able to take acceptable amounts of damage gives you more freedom with how you move around the board. So while levels aren't particularly exciting, they're pretty useful and I'm glad for the mechanic.
The one complaint I have is near the end, I got stuck where I couldn't remove any blocks and the game wouldn't let me shift any around (like it would normally if I ran out of moves). I think this was caused by three of the pink unremovable blocks (the ones that damage you when you land on them.) touching, and it confused the programming a bit so it thought there was a 3-match when there really wasn't. This was easily solved by quitting and going back to the stage (it resets the stage when you quit/return), but irritating.
Thanks for an amusing couple of hours. :3
I have done it. I have beat the game on all three difficulty levels and now I'm playing on purgatory because... I STILL CAN'T STOP PLAYING!!!!!
Ahem...
That would be my way of saying, please with the sequel to be hurrying up, yes?
This has been one of my favorite games to come out so far this year, I think.
This is more than a "minor" exploit, popping a line of 8 zombies is an infinite combo - go through, they spawn on top of you. Flip it, get hit once, flip again, add plow through again. You can gain something like 2 levels each run and the life gain quickly makes the 5~10 damage you take seem like nothing.
Some of the lesser things include the fact that armor causes 100% miss from the 'hits' you take after using up all action points from level 6-30, at 31 you start taking 1 damage/action again. Also, black knights can be used as utilities for drilling through things like skull blocks, as well as setting up combos. It's remarkably easy to get groups of 4-5 lined up along an edge and collect 20k+ exp off them.This is more than a "minor" exploit, popping a line of 8 zombies is an infinite combo - go through, they spawn on top of you. Flip it, get hit once, flip again, add plow through again. You can gain something like 2 levels each run and the life gain quickly makes the 5~10 damage you take seem like nothing.
Some of the lesser things include the fact that armor causes 100% miss from the 'hits' you take after using up all action points from level 6-30, at 31 you start taking 1 damage/action again. Also, black knights can be used as utilities for drilling through things like skull blocks, as well as setting up combos. It's remarkably easy to get groups of 4-5 lined up along an edge and collect 20k+ exp off them.
A level just spawned with no key on it. It took me a while to figure out why i was finding the game so hard after a few days away!
quevine: if you have 3 pink blocks touching, I think you can click on them to destroy them as with any other block type. I can't say I've done that myself (with the pink spike blocks), but I certainly have destroyed 3 touching skull blocks.
The really annoying part is the achievemnts, they sound so cool and they give you absolutely no inkling as to how you got them or why they're there. Can someone please please PLEASE post an achivement guide. I want to know how I got them! Thanks!
You get Deadly Gentry when you beat a stage with no enemies left.
The achievements:
"Death From Above" - Perform a 3 x combo
"Sir Grindalot The Wise" - Reach experience level "10"
"Difficulty? Nay!" - Simply complete the game
"No Logo Knight" - Don't buy anything from the shop!
"The Bravest Chicken" - Reach the final battle without killing anything
"Sir Dodgealot The Swift" - Complete game without being hit!
"Swords, No Sorcery" - Reach the final battle without using magic
"Merlin's Way" - Reach the final battle without attacking any monsters with the drill
"Nowhere Near Rock Bottom" - Complete game without using block switch tool
I actually have no idea what the block switch tool is. I've noticed that sometimes when I try to clear an area, it just switches blocks instead. I have no idea what causes this.
"Hoarder Extraordinaire" - Accumulate 10,000 GP or more
"Dashing Adventurer" - Complete the game in double-quick time
"Grandmaster" - Complete the game in under 300 moves
"Superboring" - Destroy 20 blocks in one drill
"A Clutch Of Magic Mushrooms" - Catch 3 Golden Mushrooms
I can't figure this one out either. The mushrooms always disappear if I get close to them.
"Last One Left At The Banquet Table" - Complete the game without letting your AP drop to zero
"Variety Is The Spice Of Death" - Destroy one of every enemy in the game
"Rainbows over Camelot" - Drill blocks in order of: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue
"Medieval Monochrome" - Finish a stage while drilling only one type of block
"Deadly Gentry" - Finish a stage with no enemies left
"Ghosts 'n' Goblins" - Kill 100 enemies in a single game
"All in one" - Complete the game in one sitting, without quitting or dying
"Monster's Munchbag" - Take damage from 3 or more enemies on the same turn
"Tiptoe Through The Turnips" - Complete the game without waking a Mandrake
"Honour Amongst Thieves" - Complete the game without having an item stolen
"Collector's Edition" - Buy one of every item in the game
"Fowl Play" - Kill 10 or more chickens in a single game
"Fall From Grace" Fall from the top row of the board to the bottom
"Relentless" - Reach Stage 50 in the Purgatory Quest
Trevor -
On easy it's 5 times
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