Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur is fun, if incredibly repetitive, roguelike with a story that goes a lot deeper than you think.
What’s more classic than the story of brave and noble knights, clad in shining armor, riding upon the backs of their majestic steeds, with their swords drawn and ready to smite all that would cross their path? In the case of Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur, what crossed their path was a 60ft tall, hulking colossus that is currently throwing a tree at you.
Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur is a fun roguelike published by PQube and developed by Gambir Game Studio, a small indie game development studio based in Indonesia. The studio, which was formed back in 2016, doesn’t have many games under their belt, with its other notable releases being a few mobile games such as Selera Nusantara: Chef’s Story and Bubur Ayam Express. With this in mind, it came as a surprise when the studio revealed that they would be venturing into the realm of PC with Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur.
To say that their newest title is a complete shift from their previous releases is quite a huge understatement, Gambir Studio went from your standard Diner Dash mobile games to a straight-up brutal roguelike that will constantly deck you in the face. That might be overselling it, but the point still remains, despite its appearance, Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur is unforgiving, and it knows it, it also knows you will keep coming back for more. In terms of gameplay, it is very similar to another top-down roguelike, Ember Knights.
Now, “What is Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur even about?” You may ask. As you can probably tell from the game’s title, the game takes a lot of its inspiration from the most famous knight of all time, King Arthur. In the story, we meet most characters seen in the original legend, including Merlin, whom we first see during the game’s opening cinematic.
Merlin is seen hunched over the Roundtable, deep in thought over what has just transpired. The Kingdom of Camelot is in ruins, a giant was accidentally summoned after the knights tampered with the Holy Grail, despite him being the one who instructed them to get it in the first place. Merlin must act quickly as the fate of Camelot rests in his hands, that’s why he gives all the world-saving duties to King Arthur instead.
Our protagonist wakes up dazed and confused, Excalibur is broken in half, and he’s in the middle of a forest. He could have sworn he was in the middle of meeting the Architect. Merlin explains that he used his magic to revive King Arthur and needs his help in restoring Camelot and destroying the Giant behind the destruction.
Here the Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur gives us a brief tutorial, where we learn to move, dodge, attack, and even teleport to the different regions of the map, that is if you’ve completed them. Just when you think you have a hang of the game, you need to face off against a new forest giant that was brought into existence by the Grail. Arthur is promptly flattened, and that’s when things start getting interesting.
After briefly becoming a pancake, Arthur is returned to the safety of Camelot, where he is reintroduced to his former companions, except they’re technically dead, and their souls are placed in statues. These knight statues are also where you will choose what abilities you start each run with. Arthur only has access to two attacks, a melee swipe and a rechargeable spell. Each knight will have their own unique attack and spell, so you will need to mix and match to find what works best for you.
However, this is where one of Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur’s first issues arise, and it has to do with how abilities are balanced. In the beginning, you only have access to two knights, Lancelot and Bors. Lancelot’s weapon is built around dealing melee damage and landing critical hits, which means it’s the most balanced out of the two. Lancelot’s spell, on the other hand, is a lightning strike that attacks multiple enemies and has a chance of stunning them, so not so balanced.
What about Bors? Well, Bors’s attack is a rapid-fire ranged attack that, while not the strongest, lets you attack from afar, which is a godsend in this game. His spell, on the other hand, which lets you summon a set of spinning blades around you, is a little underwhelming as it takes a while to recharge and requires you to get up close and personal. With what abilities are available, you kind of see which mix is the most obvious choice.
However, it should also be noted that which knight you choose will also change your base stats, for example, while Bors is ranged, he is as squishy as a marshmallow. This doesn’t really matter as much with the ranged ability, you will kind of not need to get in the middle of combat.
So, we’ve chosen our preferred abilities and are ready to get smashed in the face again, there are also other kingly duties we need to attend to. Dotted throughout each level, King Artur will encounter a lost denizen of Camelot. These individuals will permanently offer you their unique service, whether it be improving your spells and equipment or offering a means to make extra cash, it is vital that you acquire these individuals as soon as possible, which is easier said than done as their encounters are randomized, and some seem to be rarer than others. Heck, you can go two whole runs, not even knowing that the stone mason even exists.
However, these residents are permanent additions to Camelot, and you can go to them whenever you want. However, during your runs, you may also encounter NPCs that won’t always appear, such as Morgan Le Fay, the forest witch. She will offer King Arthur a passive skill for that run at the cost of you receiving a debuff along with it. There’s no telling what you will get, so it’s a bit of risk Vs reward.
Another NPC that challenges you to a game of luck is the Pan Piper, a mysterious being that offers you a boost in gold if you can survive the waves of enemies he sends your way. He also plays a much more vital part of the story than he initially lets on, but we’ll touch on that later. And, of course, the oh so useful merchant which will be your saving grace when you’re low on health.
During runs, after you defeat a room full of enemies in Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur, you will be rewarded in one of three ways – You will get some lovely gold, XP and purple orbs. You will encounter a round table where you can get an additional active or passive skill. And finally, a knight statue that lets you upgrade weapons and spells. As you would probably expect, everything, aside from your gold, will be reset when your run ends.
Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur consists of three different biomes, The Brochalant Forest, The Sarrache Desert, and The Suidhe Volcano. Each of these biomes will consist of two floors, at the end of the first floor, you will encounter a challenging mini-boss that is meant to warm you up for the next floor and, of course, the Giant.
At the end of the second floor, you will encounter that biome’s giant, you would think that for a game called Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur, the Giants would prove to be the biggest challenge, but that’s actually quite the opposite, as their patterns are relatively easy to learn and they are more a test of patience, in more ways than you think. This is true… Until you meet the Void Giant, which is when it decides that it hates you and wants you to suffer.
So far, Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur sounds pretty solid, it’s got everything to make it a decently challenging Roguelike, what could go wrong? A lot, actually. Once you have successfully beaten the Void Giant, you’re probably thinking that you beat the game, sadly, no, as getting to it and defeating the Void Giant is just the tip of the iceberg. You will notice that Camelot is still missing quite a few residents, and some plot points don’t quite add up, that’s when you realize that you are going to have to fight all the way back to the Void Giant and defeat it again and again.
Remember, when we said the game was a test of patience, we weren’t just referring to the boss fights, as the entire game is needlessly grindy. In the beginning, you are incredibly limited in your builds, and you will find yourself dying multiple times before you’ve even made it to the first Giant. This repeats itself for almost every biome until Lady Fortuna smiles upon you and gives you another knight statue, but that’s if said statue’s abilities are worth getting.
A large portion of the Camelot’s residents are only encountered after you defeat the Void Giant, meaning if you want to get all the upgrades, you need to repeat the same fights in the same biomes multiple times, not just because you have to but also because you will have bad runs. This makes the game painfully tedious and gives players too much work for very little reward, it also makes the biomes and enemies feel repetitive and stale, which also makes it hard to appreciate them for their uniqueness.
This is a great pity, as the game is genuinely fun when you are finally strong enough not to die on the third encounter. The game is filled with so much wit and charm and probably has the best character dialogue I have seen in a while, with characters that simply ooze charm and personality but even then, it’s not worth the grind that the game puts you through.
As mentioned earlier, the game has a ton of great quality. Aside from the character dialogue, Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur has such a beautiful art direction with environments and bosses feeling like they are straight-out story books. It’s not perfect, especially as King Arthur seems to be drawn in an entirely different art style than the other characters, but it is genuinely beautiful to look at.
The game also has a beautiful soundtrack that is mellow and soothing but ties in quite nicely with each biome and boss encounter. It is very reminiscent of the soundtrack of Vanillaware’s Odin Sphere for the PS2. It lures you in with serenity and keeps you calm throughout the grind fest.
Overall, Knight Vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur is hard to recommend. It has solid ideas and concepts, but the execution has seriously missed the mark. The game has padded out its story and gameplay with tedious grinding, and instead of actually creating a fleshed-out experience, the game just decides to wash and repeat itself until you either get everything or uninstall it out of exasperation. If you want to give it a go, by all means, do so, it is fun, but you probably need a lot more patience than you think.
