King's Bounty II

Overall, King’s Bounty II was an enjoyable experience with some unique gameplay elements. It’s slightly let down by its frame rate and graphical issues and I can’t really justify it at its current price point, but if it goes on sale it’s definitely one to pick up.

Yes, the quests and the story are not crazy. Yes, the technique of the game is outdated. Yes, getting around is boring and the interface painful. But you have fun creating your army, choosing among all the possibilities the best possible combination. We take pleasure in browsing this skilfully constructed universe. And we get excited as we face the challenges of the tough battles ahead. Despite its flaws, the game manages to glue the player and make them want to load up their game. You should not shy away from your pleasure.

King’s Bounty II is a good adventure game with better turn-based combat. There are plenty of elements to keep the player interested, but the story does not have the depth you might expect, and therefore doesn’t warrant the $59.99 price tag.

King’s Bounty II is an incredibly ambitious game that seeks to leapfrog the last thirty years of genre evolution. From a certain perspective it is impressive they’ve managed to get this far while still keeping the gameplay recognizably close to its source material. On the other hand there are just too many obvious quality of life issues to ignore. Too often exploring the world becomes a game of walking in a direction until you realize you’re not supposed to have gone that way due to high level enemies. Too often combat results in re-loading a manual save as you trial and error your way through various unexplained mechanics. There is a good game deep beneath the surface, but it lacks a lot of polish that it would need to be truly great.

As far as the structure and gameplay are concerned, this is a great achievement which strikes a good balance between the original formula and today's tastes. At the same time, the way this sequel fits in the Nintendo Switch has its share of problems, with visual performance issues becoming too frequent. All in all, this is a remarkable work that nonetheless ends up getting harmed by its technical execution.

The battles themselves are great, with the game treating them as puzzles the player has to figure out. But the slow open-world gameplay combined with the subpar graphics and story keep the game from being truly great. Sometimes less *is* more.

Difficulty spikes abound, movement through the world is slow even on horseback, and there’s a lot of cumbersome backtracking that is only made worse by that plodding pace. The voice acting is painfully bad, and that hurts a story that already isn’t the greatest. Bob and weave around all of that, and you may find things to like here. The battle system is excellent, and there is certainly a bit of clunky charm to the game. Promising, but in the end it falls well short of its potential.