Mobile gaming is hit or miss with me, with the latter being the most likely outcome when it comes to my gaming entertainment experience. Being that I’m pushing towards the age of 50, gaming experiences must be meaningful, deep, and offer a good payoff by the end, as I don’t want to waste my time with them otherwise. I know that sounds trite and superficial, but it’s my opinion of mobile gaming. There really must be something good to catch my fancy when it comes to a mobile gaming experience. Now, that’s not to say that I wouldn’t occasionally fall into the Plants v. Zombies world now and then, or dive into a great big helping of Angry Birds Whatever Edition, but for the most part mobile gaming has been on a lower, more casual level for my tastes. That’s my snobby taste, so don’t read into that too much.
And now we get to the point of this jibber-jabber — King Arthur: Legends Rise. It’s a mobile gaming experience that felt like an old familiar GAAS but turns out might be a mobile game that pulls me back to considering mobile gaming as a serious platform. Built on an RPG idea, led by a turn-based/squad-based RPG backbone, and filled to the brim with story and side quests, there is a lot to like about this game so far.
Let me go get my reading glasses on and let’s get right into this preview.
Story with a past, present, and future king
While the story of King Arthur has been portrayed in various ways, including the magnificent film failure that was Excalibur (now a cult classic), a Disney-led somewhat dark comedy with The Sword in the Stone, and a spin-off with The Green Knight, it has never been pinned to one complete and certain storyline. And that works just fine for King Arthur: Legends Rise.
The good folks at KABAM Games have taken the liberty to instill their version and flavor of Arthur’s story by going for a more gruff, somewhat over-the-top Final Fantasy slanted version. The characters are a lot grittier in this version of their story and some characters have been swapped out for others. While the classic films of yesteryear generally portray a more generic and light-hearted version of King Arthur’s tale, this feels like a worn-torn England in search of a leader. It’s like a kinder version of Warhammer. Anyway, the story addresses why Excalibur is such a powerful sword and why Arthur is powerful by wielding it. It also makes a more realistic land surrounding Arthur’s kingdom and one that is desperately in need of a leader. What KABAM does with Arthur’s story is respectful, and interesting, and adds to the mythos of the Arthur legend. I think it was a well-done take on King Arthur, as it fits the past stories, while also fitting firmly into a present gaming experience.
In addition, the game does a fantastic job of showing how people depend on Arthur and his round table of knights and what they mean for the land. Every side quest that Arthur picks up in the story, it relates to him becoming a stronger and more representable king to the people who populate his kingdom. His tasks in the game seem meaningful to the overall body of the story. For example, early in the game, Arthur is tasked with rescuing kidnapped villagers. The kidnappers are led by rival knights who don’t respect that the future king has a future as king. By rescuing the villagers, his relationship with the surrounding villages becomes stronger, which makes him a respected king and adds greater girth to the legend.
Anyway, KABAM Games did a fantastic job with how they treated the story and how they integrated it into the gameplay. While it might have a tinge of Final Fantasy in it, it still works within the well-known Arthurian legend.
Gameplay
For the brief time we previewed King Arthur: Legends Rise, we found a few things interesting about the gameplay. The first big function of the gameplay is how it is turn-based by nature and how well that works. This was the first thing we were introduced to in the game right from the start. Arthur and his knights went up against a giant plant creature in turn-based fashion. The gameplay functioned like you might expect, where you had regular attacks, skill-based attacks that depended on a skill’s meter recharging between rounds rather than a set number of magic points (MP) to contend with, and ways to defend if need be. The options were plenty, the gameplay was quick, and it all seemed to work together as it should beautifully. Everything about the turn-based portion of this game made complete sense and it worked with little to no explanation needed. When something is intuitive like this, that means the developers are well-versed in what it should be like for the player.
When you’re not in a fight, you are tracking a main story or taking on quests. Much like Amazon Game Studios Lost Ark, you’re constantly running into people who may need your help or enemies that might need your handling. The former is plenty, which bodes well for this preview as it promises you won’t be bored during your mobile adventuring. You will run into a lot of people requesting help. Some tasks will lead to taking down enemies through multiple encounters, while others will lead to gathering and helping. There are a large variety of tasks to be had in this game and that seems to give hope that the longevity of this title is nearly guaranteed. I would play this game regularly and probably will when the final version arrives.
Other aspects of gameplay that I found interesting during my preview time are split between controls and exploration. The controls portion of the game is something I’m oddly excited about, as silly as that may seem for a mobile gaming experience. Moving around in the game is as simple as touching the screen and watching Arthur go. Tap-tap-tap…move. It’s just that easy. Now, if that isn’t good enough for you, when you run into quests and take them on, a little quest descriptor will pop up on the right side of the screen. Should you choose to tap on that descriptor, it will lead Arthur toward that goal. Yes, it’s automatic. No, I have never run into that before with a turn-based/squad-based RPG on a mobile gaming device. Yes, it makes me happy because my fat fingers and big old adult hands don’t like tapping screens too many times or using ‘virtual’ controls. Just one tap and Arthur is on his way is how it should be for any game of this type.
The other happiness maker for this game is exploration. The land in true turn-based/squad-based RPG fashion is big. It has scattered goods lying around it, like treasure chests and other items of gathering interest, and it has enemies waiting in the wings to attack when you happen upon them. It also has secondary weapons that help defeat enemies, get you through sections, and are just interesting to play with to see what you can discover with them. For example, there is an early part of the game where you can go head-to-head with enemy soldiers, or you can climb a cliff to fire a large arrow weapon at a mountain that will send rocks smashing down on the enemies. Regardless of what you choose, the fact that you have a choice like this in the environment makes this experience far less linear and makes exploration a must. I can dig all that intention and sentiment.
If regular missions and side quests don’t suit your fancy too much, then the game features a place called a Power-Up Dungeon. During our preview time with the game, we played the first one and it consisted of a fiery demon boss that wasn’t too tough to take down…at first. The purpose of the Power Up Dungeon appears to be, wait for it, to power up your characters. You play against the same boss repeatedly in a multi-tier dungeon and it gradually becomes more and more powerful as you up the ante with each tier. That’s right, you can go into it, beat the boss, and then the game asks if you essentially want to play a tougher version in the second stage. I can confirm that the boss does get tougher as you go along, and it becomes more vicious and trickier. Other dungeons that we saw but couldn’t unlock in this preview were the Equipment Dungeon and the Talisman Dungeon. I like how you don’t have to figure out their purpose. Anyway, the entire concept of having a place where you can level up or gain new items is kind of smart. It works well with the rest of the gameplay and encourages the player to do more, get better, go fight in these dungeons, then repeat the entire process. Giving players a purpose to return is vital for the survival of a mobile gaming experience. KABAM Games seems to do it well here.
On the backend side of King Arthur: Legends Rise, it’s a lot more than what you would expect from a mobile experience. You gather coins in a grind-y sort of way to progress with equipment and rewards. The grind comes from fights and completing quests, which helps you to push forward by building up characters through gained XP. There are also other encouraging pushes to come back to the gameplay through things like Daily Attendance. Daily Attendance rewards track consecutive days of playing the game that equal some useful items of interest, including money, valuables, and armor/weaponry. Of course, you also have microtransactions available so you can get ahead in the game, though they don’t appear to be necessary. It’s the best of all worlds in this game and that’s what should be expected with this game type, though KABAM Games appears to lean more for a good gaming experience than a quick buck. I commend them for that because that is what gets old people like me coming back for more on the mobile side of gaming.
Overall, from what we saw in this preview, there is a lot of room for this game to grow. As it stands at this very moment, King Arthur: Legends Rise is filled to the brim with good content that doesn’t follow the traditional in-your-face purchasing requirement that most mobile games follow these days. It has a great take on a classic story, solid characters that you can build out and move around to form different team combinations, and additional backend content that will keep players coming back for more. While there are microtransactions present in the game, they’re not necessary to move forward with it. It’s mobile, so that is typical these days.
Anyway, let’s wrap this preview up.
Conclusion
King Arthur: Legends Rise from KABAM Games in its current form is brimming with potential on a mobile platform. It has all the markings of a great turn-based/squad-based RPG, including a solid story, great backend design, and plenty of content to explore easily. We will certainly keep our eyes on this as it continues to move toward a final release. We suggest you do the same.
King Arthur: Legends Rise is available here and is now open for pre-registrations across iOS, Android, and Steam.
