Might post a longer review of this later, but for now I'm going to keep it short.

Definitely feels like a hidden gem. Is the game perfect? No. But for the price point any shortcomings can be forgiven. The controls aren't the tightest, the movement mechanics can either extremely satisfying.... or frustrating. There are times when the momentum of moving through the world feels great but others where things come to a near screeching halt.

One of the most frustrating things are the camera and the lack of lock-on for a combat system that could have desperately used one. While the busy visuals in some of the more crowded fights can hinder the experience, the overall feel isn't terrible.

My biggest complaint might be something that a lot of games with voiced companion characters fail on: no option to mute them. While not as annoying as in other games, the talking shield complains about things you are doing that are core mechanics of the game. Whether that is gliding, sliding, or even just accidentally falling to the ground without rolling.

I'd give this game a solid 6/10 - Above Average

Charming style and overall a fun game. It reminded me of some old adventure games with the platforming and the simple combat.

Man, this really feels like it should be so much better. As it stands, this is a fairly enjoyable adventure game that absolutely begs to be focussed more on platforming.

The Knightling really reminds me of the PS2 era of gaming and I mean this in the most endearing way possible. I really like ambitious indie projects like this that clearly have a lot of passion. This game is very beautiful to look at (especially the opening few areas) with bright colours elevated by a distinct artstyle; however it does also run pretty badly on higher settings, even on better machines (I had to cap my game to 60fps to avoid constant frame drops.) I also like the plot, even if it's mostly pretty simple; I am always a big fan of going on an adventure with one clear objective in mind, and having the story around that develop. I did however dislike one of the main characters: Magnustego, the shield wielded by the protagonist; he is constantly berating, patronising and rude, but in a completely straight and serious way, rather than it seeming playful or fun; as such later in the game when the game wants us to care about him, I couldn't bring myself to at all!

Where this game mainly trips up is the gameplay itself. Please don't take this at face value; this game still does play well and is relatively fun. It feels nice to explore and jump around, and the combat (at least at the beginning) is a cool addition which honestly has a little more depth than I was expecting. Unfortunately where the game falters I would say is where it puts its focus; I think if the sheer size of everything were scaled back just a bit, and the game was more of a strict platformer rather than this more action/adventure heavy focus we'd really be onto a winner. As it stands currently, the combat is not good enough to have as much focus as it does (I think the main problem here is enemies being a little too tanky but also simplistic to beat, even when you've upgraded your damage) and I would have liked this to take on more of a level based structure rather than a more open world; being able to jump around smaller levels I think could lead to some more focussed challenges based around the cool moveset the game gives you (as well as helping the aforementioned poor performance.) As it stands the platforming you do have is very simplistic and the exploration doesn't feel particularly rewarding, because you can just look at your map to see where everything is.

Overall an above average game that just needs a little more focus to really elevate it to the next level. I definitely do respect the passion and vision that's clearly gone into this, and I am very interested to see what the devs do with their next project. 6/10