Having reviewed greater than thirty KEMCO video games now, it’s getting tougher and tougher to consider new and thrilling methods to write down the introductions for every sport that comes down the road.
The most recent from the KEMCO secure is a sport referred to as Knights of Grayfang, and only for a change, it’s a retro styled JRPG. I do know, unprecedented, proper? Nicely, there’s a little bit of a distinction with this one, in that our heroes are vampires, one thing which I don’t assume has featured in a KEMCO title earlier than. Able to sink your tooth into it?
It’s within the story the place every of the KEMCO video games differs from the remaining, and I’m continually in awe of the writers who preserve arising with new narratives, strapping them to what’s now turning into a properly established gameplay formulation. This time round we’re in a world the place conflict is happening. We now have the monsters on one aspect, led by the Dusk Deity, and people on the opposite, led by the Twilight Deity. With a purpose to allow the people to battle on equal phrases with the monsters, the Twilight Deity has created vampires to battle alongside the people.
The story follows the story of Lise, a vampire knight in addition to Mylene, a vampire sorcerer. There’s additionally Leticia, the princess of the vampire kingdom and at last Thoma, a mysterious younger man who has no reminiscence of who he’s or the place he’s come from. Are you able to say cliche? Anyway, what occurs subsequent is in your palms, however be prepared for extra twists and turns than a mountain move as you’re employed by way of the story. Fortunately the writing is excellent right here.
Presentation sensible and there isn’t a lot distinction between Knights of Grayfang and nearly all of the video games that KEMCO make. The model is most positively retro, paying homage to the 16-bit period of video video games. The design of the characters is straight out of the anime playbook, all large eyes, small noses and interesting character design. These characters are all very properly drawn, while the cutscenes are introduced within the conventional model, with the phrases dropped into textual content home windows alongside the image of whoever is talking. To this point, so regular, and the identical trick is on show with the creatures and monsters that we come throughout – all of them really feel very acquainted to different KEMCO video games.
Reusing property is simply widespread sense, however it does carry a powerful feeling of deja vu to the proceedings. That is particularly prevalent as you get additional into the sport, when the identical sprites with a distinct color palette present up, purporting to be completely different creatures. Sound is fairly good although, with good music to take heed to alongside the standard type of battle sounds.
It ought to come as no shock to listen to that the precise gameplay is once more acquainted to anybody who has performed a KEMCO sport earlier than, however there are a few variations which can be price commenting on.
To begin with, as we’re vampires, it stands to motive that we’ll have bats as familiars, proper? Nicely, as we undergo Knights of Grayfang we discover and tame new bats, which give us new talents, largely elementally aligned. Meaning there are hearth bats, earth bats, water bats and so forth. The bats herald one other new mechanic, which is the Bloodthirst assaults. Thoma, you see, shouldn’t be a vampire; he’s what is named a Blooder, coming with the chance to energy up the vampires through the use of his blood. Every bat that you simply discover has a quantity related to it, comparable to 250BG, and the BG rating is the quantity of well being that Thoma should give as much as let a vampire grow to be stronger.
As soon as empowered, the vampires have entry to new, very damaging assaults, and so selecting when to sacrifice Thoma’s well being is essential. Fortunately, Thoma will recuperate some well being each flip, and will also be healed through the use of gadgets. And neatly, if Thoma falls in battle, due to his distinctive physiology, he’ll come again to life in a few turns. You don’t want me to inform you that’s helpful! Managing his well being together with the quantity of BG you employ together with your assaults, hitting the appropriate enemies on the proper time, makes this new mechanic very attention-grabbing.
The remainder of Knights of Grayfang is just about the identical as all the time. We now have an overworld to wander about, main us to new villages or cities to seek out, full with individuals who need assistance. Additionally it is residence to varied dungeons that now we have to battle our method by way of. We’re led all around the map in the middle of the narrative, and by chance, if now we have already visited a spot, we will then teleport there, which cuts out a variety of legwork. Much more fortunately, the quantity of random battles has been toned down in Knights of Grayfang so you may get greater than three steps with out having a battle this time round. Good transfer, KEMCO, good transfer.
Talking of fight, it’s once more the standard story, with side-on battles the place we line up on the appropriate, and the monsters on the left. From there come the standard decisions of what to do, in a turn-based model. We will assault, defend, use an merchandise, use a ability or go for the bloodthirst energy up. Nothing new within the fundamental preventing, that’s for certain.
With an improve system in place that permits you to energy up your weapons and armour through the use of gadgets that aren’t in use, and lots of aspect quests to seek out and full, there’s a lot to maintain you busy in Knights of Grayfang. The story ensures you’ll be saved guessing, the gameplay is attention-grabbing sufficient to maintain you going, and it helps that the issue isn’t as steep as another video games. Even so, there are secret arenas to seek out that require you to be stage 999, so there’s a variety of grinding forward of you.
In all although, Knights of Grayfang is without doubt one of the higher KEMCO video games of latest instances.
