Played the demo during next fest, I knew what I was getting myself into. And that is just an amazing game. Twirlbound has accomplished what very few games nowadays fail to accomplish and it is simple: Make me feel like i'm actually playing a video game for entertainment. Let me have simple fun, make me feel like when I was a child starting up my gamecube. The game's art style makes me feel that sense of wonder you only got when you booted your very first game. The game's soundtrack is whimsical and relaxing, the composer's way of telling you: we're going on an adventure. The game has one major weak point though, its combat. The game shines when you can go around the map, slide and fly around on your shield and do some random quests for NPCs. The moment you start fighting, it becomes a slug. Trying to time your parries and blows to stun people (or randomly zooming in to a red barrel and blowing yourself up when you never meant to be near that barrel), then when they're stunned, you n...

I initially enjoyed The Knightling in its demo version, the world seemed promising - open, teeming with puzzles, interesting sidequests etc. The looks and the music are also nothing to be ashamed of. That said, the full release leaves a lot to be desired: The story and worldbuilding end up shallow, with a lingering feeling of unrealized potential. I need to force myself to care about any characters, whether it be the nameless protagonist, the side ones or the awfully bland and flat town NPCs. The game tries to dump some lore via collectible "scrolls", but I find myself barely interested enough to read additional small walls of text. The collectibles is something I was really looking forward to, as I'm usually the type to enjoy scouring maps for every single tidbit, unlockable, hidden puzzle etc. Here though, most such things seem haphazardly scattered around difficult to spot random places around the map, and boil down to chests with skill-unlock materials barely worth the trouble, ...

Giving this a thumbs up, but only half-heartedly because I feel like a thumbs down would be too harsh, and I do realise that maybe this game just isn't 100% for me. If you like open world games like Genshin, where you go around, beating stuff up, and collecting stuff, you should enjoy this. The world looks nice, and the shield mobility can make going around feel quite enjoyable. But unfortunately I did feel myself having to force myself through the game's 2nd half. -A lot of the side quests feel incredibly generic and fetch questy, so I ended up just mashing through the dialogue. -The game gives you the mobility to explore in fun ways, and you can have skyrim-like moments of climbing up a mountain that would've seemed impossible. But this game isn't built with sequence breaking in mind, so if you ever go anywhere you aren't supposed to, the game will quickly bring you to a halt and drag you back to where you were supposed to be, which can be a bit of a mood killer. -The game's f...

Charming but lots of issues. Major performance problems, good ol baked in stutter. No keybinding options, dodge locked to Left Alt lmfao Combat is almost good, but they gave enemies parries and you will get oneshot during unstoppable animations. Ripost is forced after parry and takes like 4 seconds lol If you get the stutter to go away, (turning basically all the settings off got rid of it for the most part) its decent enough. some other bugs like map objective progress not tracking, and some bugged quest objective waypoints.

// UPDATE UPON COMPLETION Can already sense the immense love that was put into this. So far, extremely impressed with the polish and adventure of The Knightling. The art style is refreshing, the story is fun and engaging, and the mechanics are fast paced and exploration driven. I haven't felt this sense of excitement for the opening of a game in a very long time. It reminds me somewhat of a Zelda title but definitely has it owns unique twist. Another (maybe even better?) comparison would be the original Jak and Daxter. Just wanted to leave an early review as I am really hoping this one gets the attention that it absolutely deserves. Zero performance issues, running in 4K.

This feels like a game I would have snuck into the living room in the middle of the night to keep playing as a child. Fantastic movement, great character design, music is amazing, I don't think I am anywhere close to beating it. [spoiler] My only complaint is that I wish the shield would stop talking, there is nothing more annoying than exploring the map, enjoying the atmosphere, the music, and being ripped out of it by hearing the same repeated line about wanting to get down to the ground or about him being covered in dirt. I just got him talking and I have heard each of those lines at least ten times in the past 30 minutes.[/spoiler]

The Knightling is a story about making a difference, no matter how small you think you are. Every little bit you do, helps people. Sometimes, people need that little bit of help to help. And you need a big shield. For some reason. The shield also talks. Good times! As of writing, I'm about 5 hours in and did a bunch of collecting and upgrading. With the difficulty system, you really can choose your own playstyle, or go absolutely shields blazing and parry every living thing you can see. I'm recommending The Knightling this early in, because it's a genuinely good game with great controls. I do recommend playing it with a controller, but mouse and keyboard feels great too!

I can't help but keep falling into time sinks in this game already. It's a game you can really lose yourself in and just fully have fun. The art style is gorgeous, the gameplay is fun and relaxing but can still keep you on your toes with combat, and I haven't fallen in love with a game's soundtrack like this in years. I haven't made it too far into the story yet but it's been wholesome and great so far. I highly highly highly recommend this game, I already know I'll be sinking many more hours into it!

This game reminds me what it was like to be excited to get home and play a game as a kid. Even just the soundtrack alone is breathtaking. But the art team COOKED with this one. The style, the world, the characters. EVERYTHING. The voice acting behind muffled masks made me crack up. The gameplay feels fluid and not clunky. Each quest feels different. And I get lost running around constantly because I want to explore and collect things. I can already tell this will be one of those indies that I'll wish I can erase my memory and play again. When I was listening to the soundtrack on my own last night I knew I had to leave an early review before even finishing it. I seriously can't recommend this enough.

Fun movement, world looks nice. I like the shield only mechanics and how it's used for everything, lots of creative ways to use your shield. Honestly I bought this game because I wanted to feel like captain america and it does a pretty good job of that in a way, at least in combat.