Gryphon Knight Epic is a great example of an indie game with small flaws that still manages to be fun to play. The story is serious but at the same time isn’t afraid to have a bit of fun with itself: there are some moments when you can’t help but giggle at a silly piece of dialogue. The 2D graphics are well done and detailed, and I never ran into any problems with them. The only problem I had with the controls was having to quickly switch from shooting to turning my character around to kill a surprise enemy, but everything else was quite smooth. I did have a few minor gameplay problems later on, but most are small and will be touched on momentarily.
The backstory tells of a dragon who came to the peaceful kingdom of Valiantskies, decimating everything and stealing the princess. The king then hired seven heroes to go after the dragon, naming a certain Sir Oliver the leader of the group. When they finally found the dragon there was a huge battle, which concluded with Sir Oliver dealing the final blow to the creature and hence saving the maiden. While the knight and princess fell deeply in love, the other heroes looted most of the dragon’s stash, leaving only an old amulet for Sir Oliver. Life was peaceful until one fateful day, when Sir Oliver comes face to face with his evil side in physical form, who tells him that the amulet which he took from the dragon’s stash is what separated the two of them. Oliver then leaves to go warn the other heroes. I absolutely loved the story since you go into multiple different settings for each of these heroes. This helps establish interesting backstories and creates an emotional response in the player. While the ending will put tears into your eyes, you can’t help but smile at the themes of parallelism and reflection which connect the conclusion with the premise.
The 2D graphics work well with the story, and as I said earlier, are absolutely beautiful too. Each level boasts a slightly different style or aesthetic to compliment the hero you are trying to save, giving a unique setting to play through every time. Almost every stage has two bosses, as well as plenty of well designed enemies and the occasional individual story. From a technical standpoint, I never had a problem with any of the graphics or animations, and never had any stutters during the whole time I was playing. Overall I think story and graphics are the shining points of Gryphon Knight Epic.
The controls were for the most part well done, but I did experience one or two issues, though nothing major. The game never got too touchy and actually impressed me a few times with the easy UI access and the controls not being too complicated in a game that requires a lot of multitasking. The biggest issue that stuck out to me was having to quickly switch directions while also constantly shooting at swarms of enemies, but I think the developers could easily solve this if they were to switch up that button with perhaps a press of the analog stick instead.
The gameplay itself was fun but also very repetitive: sometimes a level was just dragging on instead of providing a new experience. Thankfully, the bosses were fun to fight and were almost always unique, which made a break in that repetitiveness at times. Killing the final boss of a level grants you his weapon, but the weapons are always underwhelming and never really give you that sense of progression. In fact, you can easily play through the entire game without ever using them. I understand that having an overpowered weapon can break a game but with such a long cooldown on mana regeneration, I found it easier to just disregard them. You can also upgrade those weapons, but it costs far too much in-game money and isn’t even a worthwhile investment, so you end up ignoring those upgrades in the shop too.
Honestly, despite all the game’s problems, I still couldn’t help but really enjoy Gryphon Knight Epic. Besides the repetitiveness and lack of replayability, the game is fun and can provide 6-12 hours (depending on difficulty setting) of amusing gameplay with a story that is just as good and even emotional at times.
Summary
Overall, I think that Gryphon Knight Epic is a great game for fans of the genre and can even surprise people who are looking for a good story. It provides great controls that people familiar with the genre will be comfortable with and that new players will be able to pick up quickly. It also offers beautiful 2D graphics that convey each of the levels differently. The gameplay itself was fun at times but certain aspects need work. Levels should be a bit more enjoyable and replayable without becoming tedious. I think if these few issues were solved we could end up with a perfect game that would set an example and a milestone for other similar games in the future.
Noel was a regular ICXM contributor in 2016, publishing 83 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the run-up to Xbox One S and Project Scorpio, plus the broader Windows 10 gaming push.