Legends of the Round Table

I really wanted to like this game. As someone with an interest in history, it’s really refreshing to see a developer take inspiration not from the weird 'medieval-inspired' simulacrum of D&D or the tasteless edginess of Game of Thrones but from the actual stories actual medieval people told about their past. The game beautifully evokes the mythic world of Arthurian legend, a world of bright livery and courtly love, brought to life through poetry and singing and graphics inspired by illuminated manuscripts. Sadly, apart from the impeccable aesthetics, Legends of the Round Table is lacking as an actual game. Most of the game is a basic point-and-click adventure game based on an anthology of Arthurian stories. The puzzles and problem solving are pretty simple, and the game rarely lets you take any shortcuts, resulting in a lot of boring back-and-forth (or padding, if I’m being cynical). For example, in one story I helped a shepherd, and it was obvious I’d need some food from him to finish my objective, but I couldn’t just ask him for the food – I had to go speak to another character several screens away, ‘find out’ that I needed the food, then go back to the shepherd, then back to the other character again. Each story has about 3 areas and 4-5 NPCs and believe me you will get bored of riding between them. It’s also disappointing that although this has the trappings of an RPG (stats, equipment, dialogue choices etc.) this isn’t really a role-playing game in the traditional sense. Because you can do each 'adventure' with any of the Knights of the Round Table (even the stories associated with a specific character, like the Green Knight), the knights themselves are entirely interchangeable. They have slightly different stats, but these are essentially irrelevant since the stat differences amount to 1 or 2 points in a game where the average card adds 7 points to a stat check. Each character has the same dialogue, can choose all the same dialogue options, and has the exact same options in battle, and each quest has an obvious 'golden path' to get the best rewards. The battle system itself is the game’s biggest flaw. There's very little strategy to speak of, especially given that all your knights have the same abilities. Target the enemy in front of you, hope you roll high enough to wound them, then target the wounded body part to finish them off, rinse, repeat. Success is largely dependent on RNG - you have a few ways to manipulate the card deck but they themselves rely on you drawing specific combinations of cards, so you can still get screwed through pure bad luck. Letting any hit get through stacks up debuffs which means failure snowballs quickly, but you still have to go through the painfully slow animations every time. The game actively discourages ganging up on enemies (chivalry, remember?) which would be a neat mechanic if it didn't make the battles even more excruciatingly slow. What makes this even more frustrating is that the vast majority of fights in the game aren't actually relevant to the stories! They're basically just random encounters thrown in because (presumably) the devs assumed that people wouldn't engage with an 'RPG' that didn't have enough fighting. If they'd kept the battles limited to once or twice per adventure, they'd still probably be tedious but at least they'd feel consequential. In the original tale of the Green Knight, Gawain kills exactly 0 (zero) people and that hasn't stopped the story from being told for centuries. The success of Disco Elysium, Pentiment and others proves that you can have a great RPG that doesn't have the hero tripping over packs of wolves everywhere he goes. What a missed opportunity. (edited from my much longer original review because some of my earlier complaints were specifically about one battle where I hadn't figured out the gimmick. My main points still stand.)

Absolutely fantastic achievement of a game. The systems can be overwhelming at first when they are introduced, but stick with it and you will learn how everything clicks together. It can be difficult, but even the most unfair odds are incredibly thematic. A weak knight can be struck with a random quest that will definitely lead to their death, but the backdrop of chivalry and being good and just makes even certain loss feel poetic. That's the magic of the game, it totally immerses you in that mindset of righteousness and fully succeeds in bringing Arthurian legends to life. I can't recommend this highly enough.

It has a nice concept but the combat is far too punishing. Failing one challenge quickly snowballs and suddenly all your knights are dead. A real shame.

6/10. Super cool concept and unique art led me to buy this game and try it out. I thought the story exploration, following arthurian legend was very well done. However, parts of the game become slow (or very slow) paced, where lots of travel time between points takes away from part of the fun. There isn't any customization between characters, and they level up, generically increasing overall stats. As the game progresses, you realize that it's just an RNG simulator, where eventually you may run out of high-value cards, and your character just randomly dies. Early game -> Very cool concept, late game -> a bit of a chore. Probably not worth it full price unless you're super into the visuals.

我做了一下机翻，请各位移步【社区】- 【指南】，搜汉化就能找到。

I cannot stop thinking about this game! Graphics are absolutly stunning, music and narrataion are beautiful, and the gameplay is engaging, deep and interesting. I've never played a turn-based RPG in my life, nor was I ever that stoked on Arthurian legends, but I guess I'm a fan of both now. It's so immersive, the menus are so detailed, stories are told so playfully, art is mind blowing, animations are pretty, combat is satisfying, systems are deep, music is lovely, systems' tutorials are so well made, sound (both narration and SFX) are masterfuly done, and everything is crafted with so much love... Ten out of ten I WISH this game would get more recognition. I may have only played for a few hours (also around 6 hours of the demo as well) and all I can think of is the next time I'll play it. This is truly a masterpiece of a video game!

Beautiful game, top notch immersion and passion for the source material. But the fetch quests are a purge.

Truly wonderous visuals with a strong but not too varied Combat system. Fun characters, with devs that show obvious care for making this game proper. Buy it.

Very unique and strange game inspired more obviously by Arthurian legends and less obviously by the Pendragon tabletop game. Manage the Knights of the Round Table as King Arthur year by year. Every year some of your knights participate in a major adventure, which plays out like an adventure game with combat. The rest of your knights perform minor tasks, with one being selected for a text-based minor adventure. Sometimes you have army vs army field battles which are influenced by the glory you amass from adventuring. Pay attention to the in game video tutorials because the interface is practically out of the 90s. Only downside is everything is voiced (and occasionally sung) by the narrator, and well, ymmv on her. Overall thumbs up, the devs put a lot of love into this and I hope this is a success for them.

Oh my what an incredible game! The storytelling, the artwork, the music, it's an all around work of art. It reminds me of a spiritual relative to Pentiment. Clearly a labor of love.