Want to fight for less than 99 seconds? Knightcore: Sword of the Kingdom is a speedy strategy game

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SHOULD I PLAY KNIGHTCORE: SWORD OF THE KINGDOM?

Check it out if you’re looking for a simple, fast-paced strategy game you can play on the go, but skip it if you’re looking for a deep story or combat. Knightcore: Sword of the Kingdom offers small-scale battles that are over in 90 seconds or less. That’s a terrific game if you have a few minutes to kill, but I struggled to stay invested when I played for longer stretches of time. There are few cool side features, like minigames and some light kingdom building, but there’s not much to them. It’s clearly a game made to be played in short bursts, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you should give it a try. 

TIME PLAYED

I spent a few hours playing Knightcore, which got me through quite a few chapters of the main campaign. During my play sessions, I was also able to unlock and upgrade several new fighters, claim and upgrade new lands, and play a few minigames. Since Knightcore has some light idle mechanics, I also took regular breaks so that I could rack up rewards.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT KNIGHTCORE: SWORD OF THE KINGDOM?

• Fast, streamlined battles. All I needed was a few spare minutes to make progress in Knightcore. My battles were generally over in less than a minute, and if that wasn’t speedy enough for me, I could make them go even faster. Fights were mostly automated, so I could still get in playtime when I was distracted by something else. Other tasks, like collecting resources and upgrading characters, could also be completed quickly. It’s the kind of game that anyone can find time for.

• Ridiculously cute minigames. During my time with Knightcore, I occasionally encountered minigames, like a chicken race and a carnival-style shooting gallery. These games were brief, but they were really well executed and included some unique gameplay mechanics and adorable animations. I was genuinely surprised by each game I encountered, and they gave me a nice little break from battling.

• Lots of idle rewards. Knightcore doesn’t put a lot of emphasis on its idle mechanics, so I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with an assortment of goodies after I put the game down for a few hours. Knightcore has the potential to be a grindy game, depending on how you play it, but I’m glad to know that if I’m short on resources, all I need to do is take a quick break.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT KNIGHTCORE: SWORD OF THE KINGDOM?

• Dull story and characters. Knightcore tells the tale of heroes on a quest to reclaim Camelot. It’s not a bad premise, but the actual story is so boring that it might as well not be there at all. The dialogue sequences are extremely repetitive, and characters rarely have anything interesting to say. The writing’s not great to begin with, and since there’s very little voice acting, the narrative feels completely lifeless. I strongly suggest skipping past the story segments and focusing on the parts of the game that are actually entertaining.

• Unsatisfying gacha mechanics. I eventually managed to build a decent roster of Knightcore heroes, but it took quite a while. Right now, the game doesn’t have that many playable characters, and that meant gacha pulls weren’t fun. On more than one occasion, I saved up for a ten pull and walked away with nothing but generic resources. It doesn’t feel exciting to pull for characters, and I can’t ever see myself spending money on the game.

• Gameplay is really mindless. If you’re looking for complex tactical gameplay, you won’t find it in Knightcore. The game mostly plays itself, even when auto-battle is turned off. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it would be a fantastic game to play while you’re waiting for your food to heat up or watching TV—but as an avid strategy RPG player, I wish the gameplay had more to it.

💬 Are you looking for a streamlined tactics game like Knightcore: Sword of the Kingdom, or do you prefer more complex strategy games? Let me know in the comments!