King’s League 2 is the sequel to Kurechii’s award-winning strategy simulation roleplaying game, which has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a browser-based flash game.
That being said, I have not played the first King’s League or any of Kurechii’s games, for that matter.
As we were given the opportunity to review King’s League 2, I thought now would be as good a time as any to see what the Malaysian indie game scene has to offer.
And boy, was I pleasantly surprised. Before I knew it, what I had planned to be a short test run quickly turned into a full playthrough.
Getting Into The King’s League
The game comes with two modes, Story and Classic, so let’s start with the former as that is where the game shines the brightest.
In Story mode, you play as Maxwell, an aspiring hero who, after a mishap involving a soup kitchen (of all things), has lost the trust of his fellow countrymen. He is then sent away by his father to join the King’s League.
The King’s League is a competition where teams of fighters from all over the world compete with one another in combat, in hopes of becoming the very best.
It is here that Maxwell’s father hopes that his son will be able to learn and grow as both a person and a hero.
Along the way, you will meet and recruit a charming cast of colourful characters, each with their own distinct personality and motivations for joining the league.
There’s even a cameo appearance in the form of Peanut, the Postknight, the titular character from another one of Kurechii’s games.
Together as Team Lionheart, your merry band will be journeying across the land in a bid to become the Champions of Kurestal.
It’s An Adventurer’s Life For Me
You will be spending half the game deciding how your team trains, what upgrades to build, and what to do next.
So, it helps that most of those decisions are made on a beautiful overworld map screen.
You could explore a dungeon, enter small tournaments or take on quests, all of which reward you with resources to make your team more formidable.
The other half of the game consists of fights, which are both fast and engaging, addictively so.
Teams start at opposite ends of the screen, charging towards each other and auto-attacking according to behaviour determined by their classes.
For example, the knights swing their swords, archers shoot arrows, mages use magic, and healers heal.
All the while, there will be a gauge that fills up, allowing you to use skills by tapping on the corresponding character.
The knights’ skill is to put up their shields to protect the rest of the team, the archers can fire a more powerful shot, and the mages can cast fireballs.
The more interesting skills belong to the unique Epic characters who you can meet and recruit during the course of the story.
My personal favourite is Auriol the Valkyrie, who can teleport right into the enemy’s backline, taking out those pesky ranged enemies before they have time to murder my team with arrows or magic.
My one gripe is that some of these Epic characters only come along later in the story.
This means these newcomers probably won’t be able to compare to the ones you already trained and levelled up beforehand.
Overall, the game is not difficult per se, but expect to lose some battles, especially if it’s your first playthrough.
Often, you may find yourself biting off more than you can chew, especially when your team is not ready for a particularly hard fight or boss.
In a personal experience, I once had my entire team wiped out by a half-fish pirate captain.
But this makes it all the more rewarding when you come back to that same fight with a stronger team and better gameplan to turn said pirate captain into sashimi.
A ‘Classic’ Blunder
Before we end the review, let’s talk about the game’s weaker Classic mode. It’s basically the same game without any of the stories.
Instead, you are limited to one Epic character and what’s basically a selection of faceless goons instead of the diverse cast of unique story characters.
I can tell you with confidence that playing through the same quests and dungeons without the plot or characters that kept me invested in the first place, was not fun.
It feels like a disappointing addition to an overall good game, which intentionally strips away all the charm of the story mode just to add replayability to the game.
My advice is to give this mode a miss.
Verdict
Not to end on a bad note, King’s League 2 is an enjoyable indie game that kept me entertained throughout the experience.
The game looks great with its simple yet colourful art style, and the story along with the characters are written interestingly enough to keep me wanting to find out what they get up to next.
The gameplay has a surprising amount of depth with loads of ways to customise your team, with a combat system that is fluid and engaging that made the countless battles just fly by.
King’s League 2 is already available on Apple Arcade, and will be available to the public on Steam in late 2019. See you in the King’s League!
- You can read more about what we’ve written on Kurechii here.
