The Knightling | PC Review
The Knightling, made by Twirlbound and published by Saber Interactive, asks the question on everyone’s mind: how much can you get away with if all you give the player is a shield? Turns out, quite a lot!
After all, that’s The Knightling: a game about a knight-in-training squired to a legendary knight who, in the process of trying to seal some ancient evil, sends you back to safety with his equally legendary shield and then promptly vanishes off the face of the earth. Thus begins your quest to find your knight, equipped with his shield and not a darn thing more! That shield will carry you, sometimes literally, through various environments, boss battles, and puzzle-laden dungeons.
When All You Have Is a Shield
The Knightling is, at its core, sort of a Zelda game, sort of a Metroid game. Sort of a Zeldavania. I say sort of because there’s a lot of exploring on the overworld that tends to result in a bit of a dungeon crawl, which gets you a new ability for your shield that allows you to progress to the next area, rinse and repeat. The game really shines when you’re exploring. Each zone has a lot of verticality and various ways to employ your travel abilities (surfing on your shield, riding air currents, etc.) and the dungeons employ some interesting puzzles. There’s also plenty of little upgrade materials you can find while exploring which expand your inventory or your max health.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an action-adventure game without some action, and naturally your shield gets copious use in various ways. You have your standard combo, counter attacks, shield throw (you can Captain America all over this game) and super moves, along with three enemy types (basic, armored, agile) that require different tactics. While you can block most attacks (and the game is very clear about which cannot be blocked) you can also dodge, or if you time your block perfectly, you can parry. This is one of the best and most reliable ways to build an enemy’s stun gauge, and once it’s full, they’re not just stunned, but take a ton of extra damage. This is often the most efficient way to kill enemies, since your regular hits tend to just chip away at them.
I Get Knocked Down, I Get Up Again
Combat is, unfortunately, this game’s weak point. Because it encourages a very defensive and reactive playstyle, combat can feel slower and methodical, but also enemies don’t drop enough upgrade materials for it to be worth it unless you find the combat fun to begin with. This is especially true later in the game when you’re tossed in front of multiple enemies, all of which are throwing attacks at you, to the point that parrying isn’t really an option because so much is coming at you at once. The parry only affects enemies in melee range, so anything outside of that just keeps spitting acid at you. It’s hard to tell when to parry at all in some cases, simply because certain attacks which you should be able to parry don’t seem to pop off when you try to block them. It’s a shame because while early in the game combat is done sparingly, later on there’s enemies aplenty, and frankly the best thing you can do is run past them.
Likewise, there’s some really baffling design decisions present. Fast travel points, while they do exist in this game, are extremely few and far between, mostly placed in the major hub areas. Also, most quests in the game have a marker on your in-game compass (and map) indicating where you should go, but many will, once you reach the marker, put you in an ‘investigation zone’ where you just have to figure out what to do. In many cases this is obvious, but in some, you’re going to be criss-crossing through a very large area trying to figure out exactly what to do because it isn’t indicated to the player very well. Probably the most annoying among these is the fact that each and every chest in the game requires a randomized button sequence in order to open it, as well as removing armor off of armored opponents. The latter is especially grating when you’re in the middle of combat and any hit by an enemy knocks you out of the little minigame, which also forces you to start over from the beginning of the sequence.
Final Thoughts
The Knightling is currently on Steam and all major consoles for $30 USD, with a launch discount down to $24 USD until September 11th. It’s only about ten hours long, perhaps longer if you do all the side quests and try to collect everything. While it’s a fun game when you’re not having hordes of enemies thrown at you, the short length and lack of replayability means it doesn’t really earn its $30 price tag. If you can pick it up on sale, though, it’s a fun little Zelda-like that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
To hear me talk more about The Knightling, be sure to listen to the September 3, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 1:07:44 time stamp.
This review is based on a PC copy of The Knightling provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
The Knightling
$29.99
Pros
- Fun, Colorful World
- Exploration and Moving About the World Feels Good
- Plenty of Puzzles in the World and in Dungeons
Cons
- Combat Can Be Slow and a Bit Clunky
- Too Stingy With Fast Travel
- Very Short for the Price
