KickStarter King Arthur: Knight's Tale + Legion IX standalone expansion - dark fantasy turn-based tactical RPG from NeocoreGames

[Alienman]

Wow, what happened to the difficulty in chapter 3? These wood creatures just tear through my armor like it was made out of butter. Playing on hard, btw. Up to this point I thought it was fairly challenging at times, and enjoyable if a bit repetitive. But these monsters took my will to continue I think.

Actually "a bit repetitive" is a huge understatement when I think about it. These huge encounters is starting to take its toll on me, and I'm not sure the narrative is worth it to be honest.

 

[Serious_Business]

Yeah but you can say that for literally any game. On the harder difficulties you are obviously going to optimize your builds and strategies, if the game breaks due to that then that's an issue in balancing. Purposefully handicapping yourself is something I did to keep the game challenging. I for example did a clean playthrough without any Sages or Vanguards.

So, you've completed the game on Very Hard in Rogue-like mode without Sages and Vanguards? My respect.

Or you are handicapping yourself without playing actual hardest variant of the game as it is proposed by developers?

I distinctly recall some developer saying roguelike wasn't really what the game was designed for - and it is certainly mirrored in the design. There's a ton of stuff you need to sit through again here on a restart if things spiral out of control.

I usually play ironman in most games with the mode - certainly nu-XCOM - but I think it would be incredibly tedious with a game like this.

You don’t have an endless bench, for example, and you have plot central characters. In X-COM ironman means I might lose my best guy to a mistake and then lose the mission having to retreat. In this game it’ll mean a total restart

I played a couple of WotR games on the ironman mode (last alzanti). Had my save erased a couple of times until I couldn't handle it anymore ; everytime I died to some nonsense, like a high DC Covid disease that I couldn't cure or the Wenduag duel with Lann that destroyed the save when she didn't win. It was good fun but at some point it didn't hold up. That game wasn't designed for ironman, like pretty much all crpgs. But this, I don't mind it. Parameters seem much more controlled and if you loose, it means you played badly. Even in Firaxis Xcom most of it is about player skill (I've seen a guy do the entirety of the game on Long War Impossible with only a couple of losses).

The difference between a tactical game and crpgs really come down to this, in a way. The design around the save mechanic is a also big deal, and a problem. I'll be bitter till the end of my fucking days about cprg players not playing tactical games on ironman and then saying these games are "boring" because, of course, they reload everytime there's a minor problem. When you get into these games with that mentality there's no hope. Took me years to break it myself as I originally was much more a crpg player, but now forget about it.

 

[Brickfrog]

I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. I'm skipping through most dialogue, as is my custom, but the grimdark aesthetic is done very well. The snippets of dialogue I have seen are not atrociously written, so that's cool.

It's repetitive as fuck but so was darkest dungeon, so I knew what I was signing up for here.

I wish the itemization wasn't diabloized but at least they give you unique artifacts.

The enemy variety, ai, and tactical mechanics all seem quite solid to me. The armor system is used well to create enemies with unique strengths and weaknesses. That said, since the game is so long, all encounters except for boss fights are highly forgettable.

Interesting how much work went into the graphics. The game would work fine with much less expensive assets. I guess they just felt like nu-xcom had fancy graphics so by gum, knights tale had better have them too.

 

[d1r]

Wow, what happened to the difficulty in chapter 3? These wood creatures just tear through my armor like it was made out of butter. Playing on hard, btw. Up to this point I thought it was fairly challenging at times, and enjoyable if a bit repetitive. But these monsters took my will to continue I think.

Actually "a bit repetitive" is a huge understatement when I think about it. These huge encounters is starting to take its toll on me, and I'm not sure the narrative is worth it to be honest.

Just use Vanguards bro. Seems like everything from Hard to Very Hard was built around +AP on Hit/Kill + Vanguard cheesing.

 

[Sunri]

Wow, what happened to the difficulty in chapter 3? These wood creatures just tear through my armor like it was made out of butter. Playing on hard, btw. Up to this point I thought it was fairly challenging at times, and enjoyable if a bit repetitive. But these monsters took my will to continue I think.

Actually "a bit repetitive" is a huge understatement when I think about it. These huge encounters is starting to take its toll on me, and I'm not sure the narrative is worth it to be honest.

Just use Vanguards bro. Seems like everything from Hard to Very Hard was built around +AP on Hit/Kill + Vanguard cheesing.

They already announced +AP nerf.

 

[Chippy]

Wow, what happened to the difficulty in chapter 3? These wood creatures just tear through my armor like it was made out of butter. Playing on hard, btw. Up to this point I thought it was fairly challenging at times, and enjoyable if a bit repetitive. But these monsters took my will to continue I think.

Actually "a bit repetitive" is a huge understatement when I think about it. These huge encounters is starting to take its toll on me, and I'm not sure the narrative is worth it to be honest.

Neocore have always done stuff like this. In the first King Arthur game you could get around their gaming decisions like archery and the sidhe by using cover, or having the right items and units, and even using a bit of trickery. But in other games since then I've found they just send enemies in with massive damage ranges and there's either a mechanism in place to counter it or there isn't.

 

[Takamori]

Enjoying the game so far, just reached Act 2. The itemization is interesting but some things seems like a must for this game like the 15% vit instakill unit.

Art style I like the overall but Sir Mordred Armor seems out of place? Like he comes from a marvel movie while everyone else is wearing the Arcturian Fantasy armor.
Also given the theme is definitely missing gore, limbs flying, decapitations etc etc.

 

[Sarathiour]

In the first King Arthur game you could get around their gaming decisions like archery and the sidhe by using cover

I'm pretty sure the problem with sidhe archer is that they took no penalty whatsoever from wood or meteorological condition, and the end map were a huge pain in the ass for a christian, because cavalry is not going to cut it when 90% of the map is a forest.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Interesting how much work went into the graphics. The game would work fine with much less expensive assets. I guess they just felt like nu-xcom had fancy graphics so by gum, knights tale had better have them too.

The graphics designers went about their work in counterproductive fashion, since the 95 GB of terrain files serve only to present the viewer with extremely cluttered areas that have many little animations constantly whirring but are lacking distinctive elements or aesthetics. The perspective makes this all the more claustrophobic, while the repetition of objects such as statues becomes wearying, and the general aesthetic is simply dark and dismal. The visual design would have been greatly improved if they actually had taken cues from new X-Com, even with its deficiencies.

 

[Harthwain]

I wish the itemization wasn't diabloized but at least they give you unique artifacts.

"Diabloized"? Not sure what that means. I like that you get various items with various effects, because this can help make an interesting build. Also, not only you get quite a few items from missions, you can also buy them for gold or dust, meaning you can hand-pick certain items if you really want them.

 

[Brickfrog]

"Diabloized"? Not sure what that means. I like that you get various items with various effects, because this can help make an interesting build. Also, not only you get quite a few items from missions, you can also buy them for gold or dust, meaning you can hand-pick certain items if you really want them.

I mean the randomized bonuses tied to color-tiered gear as opposed to gear which is handcrafted/non-random. My issue with it is that low and mid tier gear tends to be highly interchangeable. My coffers are overflowing with useless trinkets and rings for example, and it makes me want to avoid unnecessary encounters because if I'm not getting a blue-tier or relic out of it then I basically don't care.

Your right though, it doesn't seem too hard to find the items you need for particular builds. And artifacts appear to be handcrafted and powerful, which is great.

 

[Harthwain]

My coffers are overflowing with useless trinkets and rings for example, and it makes me want to avoid unnecessary encounters because if I'm not getting a blue-tier or relic out of it then I basically don't care.

I am selling needless trinkets. That way I can pay for Camelot upgrades and quick treatment (if needed) or buy items (a relic can cost 2100 gold in the merchant's shop).

 

[Nikanuur]

After today's update ctrl for sticky info no longer holds the information screen when cursor is moved away from the enemy/champion. No way to check for enemies' abilities costs, their passive's informations etc. Anyone else?

 

[Cyberarmy]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1157390/view/3190249340014166716

Patch v1.1.0

Spoiler

New

• Sorting
  • A sort button has been added to the inventory with which players can sort all their items based on rarity

• Filtering
  • A filter button has been added to the inventory with which players can filter out all the class-only items

Balance

• The Knight's Tournament will be cancellable now in the Training Grounds but the cost won't be provided back
  
• Sir Tristan's starting equipment has been improved a bit, his starting level is 4 now and received the Jump Vanguard skill when we encounter him for the first time in the Whispering Cove mission
  
• Sir Tegyr's starting level has been increased to 7 from 6
  
• Sprint is tagged as a Movement skill now
  
• Leap Attack, Earth Shaker, Poison Bomb and Rain of Arrows received an Area tag
  
• Enemy units which occupy more than 1 grid cannot be put into a Bone Cage any longer
  
• Lowered the requirement of the Parry Master Challenge from 5000 to 3000
  
• Changed the It's a Trap! achievement's unlock criteria: Kill 5 enemies in their own round by traps in a single encounter
  
• Changed the Fire Walk With Me achievement's unlock criteria: every Arcanist spell will count from now on
  
• Decreased the Vitality and the damage output of the villagers in The Return of Morgana le Fay mission
  
• Various Endgame missions have been reviewed and improved
  
• Reviewed and slightly rebalanced several thematic enchants (Blood Magic, Wild Magic etc.)
  
• Rebalanced the AP/kill enchant which will grant AP once per turn from now on
  • Developer comment:
    The combination of stacking AP per kill from various sources and the ease at which certain heroes can close the gap with enemies, combined with other, stacking on kill effects made this enchant far too powerful. We hope this change reduces the possibility to abuse this mechanic, without taking away from other builds that use it.
  
  
• Increased the cooldown of the Vanguard's Jump skill a little bit. 3 turns needed for it to be used again but with its mastery this number can be lowered to 2
  • Developer comment:
    The Vanguard had the ability to deal massive damage, and did that without any repercussions. Jump combined with Hide was a complete safeguard for the class, no matter how aggressive or risky one played. With the changes, mistakes can be punished by the AI, and the Vanguard can't close distance so easily - thus making it harder to clear the whole backline of enemy teams with only one Hero

Misc

• Tweaked shadows to improve the general performance across all maps
  
• The Mission briefing window received a tooltip to indicate where you can change your active party's composition
  
• Added a new font type for the Russian localization
  
• Added a note about the limitation of the Hide skill to its description
  
• Added a tooltip to the Sacrifice button in the Enchanted Tower which also indicates now that only Relic items can be sacrificed
  
• The Knight's Tournament received a more comprehensible description
  
• Added an objective marker to the minimap which appears above the location of the final fight after one talked with the Hermit in The Tale of Sir Yvain mission
  
• If a Hero has been bestowed a title in any building, the title will be indicated in the Hero's tooltip and on their Character sheet as well
  
• Changed the name of Demonic Obsession tag to Demonic Possession
  
• Added a scrollbar to the Reward window
  
• New Status Effect icons have been added
  
• New icons have been added to skills coming from items
  
• The Vanguard's Surprise bonus received an icon

Fixed bugs

Fixed map issues

• A Hero's movement animation could stuck in a loop in the Into the Deepwood mission. The problem has been fixed
  
• From now on, to start Lady Boudicea's and Sir Tewelyn's second missions one has to complete The Warrior Queen and The Return missions, respectively
  
• The Banshee will no longer appear at the starting point in The Whispering Cove mission after running into it for the first time
  
• Fixed an objective in the To Distant Shore mission which could not be completed under special circumstances
  
• Fixed the Find and save the captives objective in the Hunt of the Damned mission
  
• Fixed an encounter in the Into the Deepwood mission where the cutscene did not trigger if one killed all the enemy units in the first turn
  
• Fixed the "Fight as many bandits as you can" side objective in the Woodland Vermin which could not be completed
  
• Fixed an issue in the Fire with Fire mission where a Hero could stuck between two grids making the unit unable to move for the rest of the encounter
  
• Fixed various encounters where either enemy units or allies could stuck outside the arena of the battle
  
• Fixed various encounters where the enemy units became unresponsive due to various reasons
  
• Fixed an issue in the Forbidden Keep mission where a Lost Crossbowman could become unresponsive after destroying the Bone Totem
  
• Fixed an issue in The Hidden Stronghold mission where some of our Heroes could stuck behind a door after a cutscene
  
• Fixed the third chest of the druids in The Blackthorn Council which did not appear
  
• Fixed an issue which appeared in the Excalibur mission after killing the Pict Mage 'Reoch'. The game could stuck sometimes
  
• Fixed an issue in the Blackened Heart mission where one of our Heroes could stuck in an encounter and could not move
  
• Fixed an issue in the Balor's Champion mission where after completing the main objective and then interacting with the Christian grave the game could stuck
  
• Fixed an issue in the Fire with Fire mission where Heroes could stuck into the corner of a building
  
• Fixed an issue in the Balor's Champion mission where units could keep spawning endlessly even if the portal has been destroyed
  
• Fixed an issue in The Wild Hunt Returns mission where after clicking on a barrel, the leader of the party was separated from the rest of the Heroes and approached this object
  
• Fixed an issue where after completing the last encounter in the Besieged by the Undead mission the objective marker was not removed from the minimap

Fixed Achievements

• Fixed the tracking of the Penny Knight achievement
  
• Fixed the tracking of the One Brick at a Time achievement. Moreover, it will count the mission reward too
  
• Fixed the tracking of Wisdom is Better achievement. Moreover, it will count the mission rewards too
  
• Fixed the One Step Ahead achievement
  
• Fixed the Floor Sweep achievement and changed the unlocking criteria: Knockdown 3 enemies in one turn.
  
• Fixed the Fortune Favor Fools achievement, and now every dodged attack will count too
  
• Fixed the Just a Rotting Corpse achievement. Moreover, it will count the completed missions now, not Sir Tewelyn's death
  
• Fixed the Ready to Fight! achievement

Fixed skills/enchants/traits

• Fixed Lady Guinevere's Keen Mind and Reinforced Aura masteries of the Aura of Protection skill
  
• Fixed Sir Pelleas' Secure trait
  
• Fixed Sir Bors' Lazy trait
  
• Fixed Lady Guinevere's Tutor trait
  
• Fixed Sir Mordred's Physical Resistance mastery of the Unyielding Aura passive
  
• Fixed the sound of Merlin's Fog skill
  
• Fixed Sir Galahad's Miracle Healer trait
  
• Fixed Sir Tristan's Counter Attack passive skill
  
• Fixed the Sentinel's Hexmark and the Keen Eye abilities which did not reduce the cost of Overwatch
  
• Arcanists' AoE Skills (like Fire Blast, Fire Drake) are now properly tagged as Area Skills
  
• Fixed an issue where Sir Lanval and the Black Knight could use their Power Attack skills while these were not unlocked by default
  
• Fixed an issue where the encounter could stuck if an enemy unit was inflicted with Mind Fog and knockdown in succession
  
• Bear Trap's Precision mastery had a mismatched icon - now it has the correct one
  
• Fixed an issue where Heroes could use Potions, special abilities or counter-attacks while frozen or stunned
  
• Fixed the "-1 AP cost to Force Bolt" enchant which didn't work on the Faerie Knight's Force Bolt skill
  
• Units with Spell Immunity tag will no longer be affected by the Death Hex spell
  
• The "Teleport to nearest enemy within 8 tiles" ability will no longer work with the Ice Wall
  
• Fixed the Poison Cone skill which calculated its own damage output as well for its requirement
  
• Fixed the Ice Storm skill which moved towards our Heroes instead of enemy units
  
• Fixed the Gas Trap skill which didn't apply Poison onto those units which moved into the trap
  
• Fixed Sir Tristan's Double Strike skill which did not properly register the damage output of the second strike
  
• Fixed the Poison Cut skill's Gangrene mastery which didn't decrease the enemy units' damage output
  
• Fixed an issue related to Hex resistances

Corrected texts/descriptions

• Silence's tooltip will now display its proper effect
  
• There was a missing note about the Fogbringer's AoE passive skill which was activated upon the unit's death. This has been corrected
  
• Master Bleeding's description now properly matches its effect
  
• Fixed various dialogue texts and voiceovers where they were not aligned
  
• Earth Scorcher now properly includes in its description that Units starting their Turn in the area also suffer the Damage
  
• Sir Dagonet's Desecrated Round skill covers a 4x4 area instead of 3x3. It's description was incorrect, which has been fixed
  
• Fixed various typos and strings

Misc

• Fixed various crash issues
  
• Fixed the Tome of Release which did not remove negative Hero traits with a permanent effect
  
• Fixed an issue where the building resources could go into the negative and block the progress of the player
  
• Fixed the Regain Vitality Hospice upgrade
  
• Fixed an exploit where players could separate a Hero from the party and go through several encounters without triggering them
  
• Fixed an issue where after taking action with a Hero the player's turn ended even if other Heroes still had unused Action Points
  
• Fixed an issue where the extra Loyalty points coming from the Guardian of the Lady Court title did not update the Loyalty values immediately on the GUI
  
• Fixed an issue where an activated Overwatch could not reversed sometimes
  
• Fixed an issue where if someone activated two essences in quick succession both essences were applied twice
  
• Fixed various Heroes' missing reactions
  
• Fixed the End Turn hotkey as it could also work in the enemies' turn
  
• Fixed a movement animation issue of the Spirit of the Artificer NPC in a cutscene in the Artificer mission
  
• Fixed all those Shrines which did not grant XP in missions despite their descriptions' indication
  
• Fixed a camera rotation problem which appeared for those who use dual monitors and their cursor left the monitor when rotating the camera
  
• Several GUI-related fixes

TLDR; Made end game missions more interesting, nerfed +AP gain per kill from gear making it only activate once in a turn, nerfed Vanguard jump by raising its CD to 3 turns (2 with passive)

 

[Harthwain]

Wow, what happened to the difficulty in chapter 3? These wood creatures just tear through my armor like it was made out of butter. Playing on hard, btw. Up to this point I thought it was fairly challenging at times, and enjoyable if a bit repetitive. But these monsters took my will to continue I think.

Actually "a bit repetitive" is a huge understatement when I think about it. These huge encounters is starting to take its toll on me, and I'm not sure the narrative is worth it to be honest.

Neocore have always done stuff like this. In the first King Arthur game you could get around their gaming decisions like archery and the sidhe by using cover, or having the right items and units, and even using a bit of trickery. But in other games since then I've found they just send enemies in with massive damage ranges and there's either a mechanism in place to counter it or there isn't.

Eh, I think they do enough to keep things fresh (warning: minor spoilers).

Spoiler

In Tegyr's mission you can find a wounded soldier who will tell you how to lure out crossbowmen in the open, thereby making the fight much easier. In the very same mission you will also see brigands fighting among themselves for loot, which is thematcally appropriate and not that common in tactical games.

Spoiler

In Kay's mission you can bribe the mercenaries to fight for you, instead of killing them.

Spoiler

In Fisher King's mission you can get a password from a guard to safely bypass enemy patrols (although I think you will end up losing on loot and XP that way, so I simply killed them all.

If anything I'd like to see more of this kind of stuff as it makes the game feel more like an RPG and less like a tactical game with RPG elements.

Besides that I find the variation between enemies to be decent and I use a mix of different characters (mainly because I want everyone to level at roughly the same pace), so maybe that's why I didn't get the fatigue syndrome yet. Also, I am a huge fan of the theme (knights doing knightly things), even though it's set in grimdark reality. If anything annoys/bores me it's Lady of the Lake's useless pre- and mid-mission comments. I am fine with literally anyone else doing some sort of commentary, even Sir Tewelyn (who reminds me a bit of a TV cartoon villain at this point).

Enjoying the game so far, just reached Act 2. The itemization is interesting but some things seems like a must for this game like the 15% vit instakill unit.

Indeed. I find this particular quality to be very hard to pass on. Evenmoreso when an enemy has high HP pool and on a character is designed to keep killing enemies to reach high enough damage level (or just to make sure the target dies, so you won't need to spend any more AP to finish it off).

On that point, is there a way to refresh cooldown of skills? I seem to recall seeing something like that, but I can't quite place it. Could be useful for Kay, to make maximum use of his Cleve skill.

 

[Cyberarmy]

On that point, is there a way to refresh cooldown of skills? I seem to recall seeing something like that, but I can't quite place it. Could be useful for Kay, to make maximum use of his Cleve skill.

Inspire has a passive that lowers other skills CDs

 

[Harthwain]

Bless has a passive that lowers other skills CDs

That explains why I thought I saw it somewhere. I did look through upgrades to Sage's skill at some point, because I was wondering if it is possible to refresh cooldown of the Ring of Teleportation in order to give Leodegrance an artificial teleport skill (he doesn't seem to have one, whereas Guinevere had it and it make her really good at backstabbing archers and flanking enemies).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Wow, what happened to the difficulty in chapter 3? These wood creatures just tear through my armor like it was made out of butter. Playing on hard, btw. Up to this point I thought it was fairly challenging at times, and enjoyable if a bit repetitive. But these monsters took my will to continue I think.

I mentioned this way, way back. The difficulty curve goes up another level at the start of each act and makes the previous act look like a tutorial.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Lady Guinevere is really good with backstabs when you find her a relic sword rune that amplifies her damage for each spell she casts.
She also has another passive that lowers her inspire CD when she kills and another passive that giving her +AP for enemy deaths (even from other knights)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

something games don't get enough appreciation for is when they take the effort to put tooltips on nearly everything btw

 

[Shackleton]

Played a lvl 19 mission with the new update. Wasn't abusing the AP on kill stuff anyway, so apart from the longer CD on jump it had no noticeable effect. Boudicea gets plenty of movement AP and if she stays behind the mobs she can back off to stealth without eating an opportunity attack. Morgana and Morgawse are still breaking faces with ice and lightning.

The copy and paste nature of the mob fights in Act 4 are really draining though. Got a lvl 19 against

Spoiler

Galahad

now though, should make a change from Fomorians but shame I've just hit 20 so won't get a lot of challenge.

 

[notpl]

Did they fix the 120 gigs of uncompressed 8k textures yet?

 

[Sunri]

Game gets quite boring after chapter 3 I guess its just nature of turn based games they put you to sleep after novelty feels off.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Finished this yesterday night after 50 hours and enjoyed the ride. Nice last boss fight, at least somewhat challenging. Finished it on very hard and game kicked my ass throughly, on missplaced step and team member spends 1 mission in cathedral.
Act 3 mobs are a bit HP spongy for my taste so I had to resort Vanguard backtabs but for most of the game a well placed champion was enough for damage especially Lancelot with his charge and lone wolf passives.
Dunno if I will play post end game missions, they look like randomized missions just for levelling up.

 

[Daidre]

Dunno if I will play post end game missions, they look like randomized missions just for levelling up.

From what I saw, postgame missions are filled with unique handcrafted encounters with scripting and events (without voiced cutscenes), but they reuse the old assets, like enemies and locations, and scale in range 20-25 while only 5-6 of them could be active at once. Not sure how many of them exist in total, I have played 10 or so and started to see repeats, so my estimate would be around 20. But I hit lvl 25 at that point, cleared trio of post-story super-bosses and went back to playing Wrathfinder)