Fantastic Knight Review

Action RPGs and the App Store go together like... well, like ice cream and soda, strawberries and whipped cream, hamburgers and french fries or salmon and honey. Now I've gone and made myself hungry. Anyway, iOS devices have been a warm home for RPGs of virtually all kinds for quite a while now, so it's no big surprise to see yet another pop up. But while the appearance of an eightieth (give-or-take) action RPG isn't exactly noteworthy, the fact that it can easily go toe-to-toe with many of the App Store's finest is.

Fantastic Knight tells the typical story of a kingdom in peril from two different perspectives: that of the outcast prince, Wenrick, seeking to save his kingdom and avenge the loss of his fiance, and Erien, a rebel fighting to free the kingdom from the tyrannical council and avenge the loss of her uncle. The short version: the kingdom sucks, people died and they're both pissed off. And it all takes the form of a pretty slick, skills-driven action game. Not too shabby.

While there might be a smaller selection of playable characters compared to what iOS users are probably used to, there's plenty of customization to be had by way of upgradeable skills and phat lewtz. Even assuming someone were to take the time to complete the game with both characters multiple times so as to try out all the different variations, there would still be more to do. Early on players are given access to the Forgotten Continent, a special dungeon-filled area where the promise of rare items far outweighs the lack of experience gains. And if that's not enough, the Forgotten Continent also features Game Center leaderboards for each dungeon. So yeah, lots to do.

Aside from the common "problem" of just wanting more there's not really a whole lot to complain about in Fantastic Knight. The animations are a tad choppy and some of the sound effects are a little blown out I suppose. Oh, and the inability to compare the stats of gear in the shop to that which is equipped can be a mild annoyance, too.

Whether or not Fantastic Knight is "better" than those other action RPGs is entirely a matter of opinion. Whether or not it's "comparable" is a bit more cut-and-dry. Because it is comparable.