PC PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S

The Knightling Review

6.5 Alright
Cropped Me Bw By Steven Mills August 30, 2025 9 min read

This review follows Output Lag’s comprehensive review methodology.

6.5 /10
Alright

About The Knightling

Developer
Twirlbound
Publisher
Saber Interactive
Release Date
August 28, 2025
Platforms
PC PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S

Where to Buy

Price: $29.99

At its core, The Knightling is admittedly something you don’t see every day: a game where you’re basically the intern who has to save the world. And after spending about 20 hours with it, I’ve got thoughts. Lots of them, actually.

Starting From the Bottom

You know that feeling when your boss disappears and suddenly everyone’s looking at you to handle things? That’s basically The Knightling in a nutshell. You play as a scrawny 13-year-old apprentice whose mentor, the legendary Sir Lionstone, goes missing during what should’ve been a routine patrol. All he leaves behind is his massive shield called Magnustego (Magnus for short), and guess what? Now it’s your problem.

This works because you genuinely feel like an underdog as you explore the world looking for Sir Lionstone. Nobody in the kingdom of Clesseia takes you seriously at first. You’re just the knightling – basically a glorified squire – and NPCs make sure you know it. Farmers would rather wait for a “real” knight to help them then accept your service. The queen barely acknowledges you exist. But that’s what makes earning their respect as you progress feel so good.

Meet Magnus, Your New Chatty Shield

Now here’s where things get interesting. Magnus isn’t just a shield. In fact, he becomes sentient early on in The Knightling and from there on simply won’t shut up about it. Picture having a magical shield that comments on everything you do, from your combat performance to your platforming skills. Sometimes he’s helpful, sometimes he’s annoying, and after hearing him repeat the same five lines during combat for the tenth time, you might want to throw him off a cliff. But you can’t, because you need him for literally everything.

And I mean everything. This shield is your weapon, your surfboard, your key to puzzles, and basically your Swiss Army knife for the entire adventure. The game really commits to this concept, and it mostly works.

Shield Surfing Never Gets Old

If you’ve enjoyed the activity that is shield surfing in Breath of the Wild, well, The Knightling basically said “what if we made that a core mechanic?” and ran with it. Sliding down hills, grinding on aqueducts, racing through time trials. And it all feels pretty good. There’s something stupidly fun about turning your shield into a makeshift sled and bombing down a hillside at ridiculous speeds.

The movement in general feels great once you get the hang of it. You start off pretty basic, but by mid-game you’re gliding through the air, bouncing off mushrooms to reach rooftops, and chaining moves together like some kind of medieval Spider-Man. The world is built for this kind of traversal too, with tons of verticality and hidden paths that reward exploration.

Combat: Where Things Get Messy

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The combat in The Knightling is… complicated? Not complicated as in deep or strategic, but complicated as in “why does my shield feel like it weighs a thousand pounds when I’m trying to fight?”

The game wants you to block, parry, and counter-attack. Makes sense, right? You’ve got a shield. But the timing feels off, especially when you’re surrounded by enemies. You’ll press the block button and your little knightling takes forever to actually raise the shield. By the time you’re ready to parry, you’ve already been smacked three times by some random bandit.

It gets worse when you’re fighting groups. The game loves throwing multiple enemies at you, including ones with projectiles, and the combat system just isn’t built for it. You’ll find yourself getting juggled around like a pinball, desperately trying to get your bearings while Magnus cheerfully comments on your poor performance. Thanks, buddy.

The difficulty options here do help. There’s Easy, Medium, Hard, and an Immortal mode if you hate yourself. I switched between Medium and Easy depending on my patience levels, and honestly, Easy mode saved this game for me during some of the more frustrating combat sections where the tedium just didn’t feel worthwhile or enjoyable to continue.

PS5 Performance: Not Quite Knightly

Unfortunately, performance is where things get disappointing for a game released in 2025. The Knightling has performance issues on PS5 that…really shouldn’t exist. We’re talking frame drops when you enter open areas, texture pop-in that’s super noticeable, and occasional stutters during combat when multiple enemies appear.

It’s not game-breaking, but come on. This isn’t some massive open-world game pushing the PS5 to its limits. The art style is charming but not exactly demanding; think somewhere between Breath of the Wild and Darksiders with chunky, colorful visuals. When you’re sliding down a hill at high speed and the framerate tanks, it kills the momentum. As of release, patches haven’t fully fixed these issues just yet.

The loading times are fine, and the game uses the DualSense features minimally but effectively. You’ll feel Magnus clang when blocking attacks, which is a nice touch. But overall, the PS5 version feels like it needed more optimization time.

A World Worth Exploring

Despite the technical hiccups, Clesseia is genuinely fun to explore. The world isn’t massive – you can see most of it in about 15-20 hours – but it’s dense with secrets and side activities. Every area has something to find, whether it’s a hidden chest, a time trial race, or some weird NPC with a problem only a knightling can solve.

The side quests deserve a mention because they’re actually good. You’re not just collecting 10 bear pelts or the normal par for the course tedium. You’re helping a farmer set traps for creatures attacking at night, fixing flooded fields, or – and this is real – making cheese. These quests tell little stories about the people living in this world, and completing them makes the NPCs gradually warm up to you. It’s satisfying watching their attitude shift from “oh, it’s just the knightling” to “hey, you actually helped us!”

Puzzles That Make You Think (Sometimes Too Much)

The game throws a lot of puzzles at you, especially in the dungeon areas. Some are clever such as using Magnus to redirect lasers, timing switches with your shield throws, that sort of thing. Others… well, they overstay their welcome.

There’s a fine line between challenging and tedious, and The Knightling crosses it a few times. You’ll find yourself in rooms where you need to hit switches in a specific order, but there’s no audio cue to tell you if you’re doing it right. Or you’ll spend 20 minutes on a constellation puzzle only to realize you missed one tiny node hidden behind a pillar. When the puzzles work, they’re satisfying. When they don’t, you’ll be checking YouTube guides.

The Story: Simple but Effective

The main narrative isn’t winning any awards for originality, but it does its job. You’re searching for Sir Lionstone while uncovering the truth about this mysterious Callyrium material that powers Magnus. There are some twists involving ancient battles and the real history of Clesseia that kept me interested through to the end, even though I did see a couple of the plot threads coming from a mile away.

What sells the story is the relationship between you and Magnus. Sure, he can be annoying, but there’s genuine chemistry there. The game knows you’re just a kid trying to fill impossibly large boots, and it leans into that underdog narrative hard. By the end, when you’ve proven yourself to everyone who doubted you, it feels earned.

However, a really strange choice is that Magnus is the only character with voice acting. Everyone else speaks in gibberish, which creates this odd disconnect during important story moments. By the end of my roughly 20 hour journey I certainly felt like this did more harm to the overall game than was probably expected.

What Works and What Doesn’t

Let me break it down simply. The exploration and traversal? Fantastic. Shield surfing alone is worth the price of admission. The world is colorful and inviting, with enough variety to keep things interesting. The progression feels good too as you’re constantly unlocking new abilities that open up previously inaccessible areas.

The combat? Not so great. It’s slow, unresponsive, and frustrating when dealing with multiple enemies. Boss fights can be especially painful, turning into endurance tests rather than skill challenges. Enemy variety is also lacking, and you’ll fight the same bandits and earth creatures over and over.

Performance on PS5? Extremely disappointing. This should run at a locked 60fps with no issues, but instead we get frame drops and pop-in that hurt the experience. It’s playable, sure, but it could be so much better.

The Bottom Line

The Knightling is a game with great ideas that doesn’t quite nail the execution. When you’re surfing down a mountainside on your shield, discovering hidden areas, or finally earning the respect of the townspeople, it shines. But when you’re struggling through another awkward combat encounter or watching the framerate chug during what should be a simple traversal section, those issues pile up.

For $30 (or $24 for PS+ Subscribers), it’s not a bad deal if you’re looking for a lighter adventure game to fill the gap between bigger releases. Just go in with realistic expectations. This isn’t the next Zelda killer or some hidden masterpiece. It’s a charming, flawed adventure that does enough right to be worth playing.

If you’re patient with combat and can overlook technical issues, there’s genuine fun to be had here. The shield mechanics are unique, the world is pleasant to explore, and there’s something endearing about playing as an underdog who slowly proves everyone wrong. Just maybe wait for a patch or two before jumping in, and definitely play on Easy if combat frustration starts killing your enjoyment.

Frequently Asked Questions

This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.

Review Summary

6.5
out of 10
Alright

The Knightling offers a charming adventure with fantastic shield-based traversal mechanics and a satisfying underdog narrative, but struggles with sluggish combat and technical issues that shouldn't exist on PS5 hardware. While exploring Clesseia and earning the respect of its citizens is genuinely rewarding, the game's potential is held back by unresponsive controls during fights and disappointing performance that breaks immersion during its best moments.

Pros

  • + Shield surfing and traversal mechanics are genuinely fun
  • + Engaging underdog story with meaningful NPC relationship building
  • + Dense world packed with worthwhile secrets and side quests

Cons

  • Combat feels slow and unresponsive, especially against groups
  • Notable performance issues on PS5 (frame drops, texture pop-in)
  • Only Magnus has voice acting while other characters speak gibberish

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