Review: Knytt Underground-Wii U

The other day, I finally finished Knytt Underground. This game was one of the most pleasant surprises that I’ve experienced through my time as a gamer. When I approached this game, I was only looking at it from the standpoint of someone who had played it’s predecessor

 

Knytt Underground is an exploration based, re-traversal adventure game, a genre that typically goes by the moniker of ‘Metroidvania’. It takes the rare opportunity to weave a narrative that is filled with subjects that most video games shy away from such as, faith vs. reason, family based tension and shaming, and homosexuality. The game offers a satisfying and engaging, albeit disjointed, story.

The game play of Knytt takes a very simple approach. The game is not very complex on the surface. Everything that your character can do throughout the game is given to you less than two hours into the experience. Many other games in this style tend to offer a carrot to the player. They point to the next way point, either by level design, or actually a point on a map. In this, the game offers the chance to open the world up bit by bit. Knytt doesn’t work this way. There are no upgrades or power-ups to earn. The game is completely open ended, the only thing inherently pointed out on the map are the main objectives that you must complete to finish the game.

 

Hearing it from this standpoint may sound like there’s not much to do in this game. This is far from the truth. Knytt is probably the largest ‘Metroidvania’ game that I’ve played. The game takes place on a huge 29 by 47 map where every single space on the map represents a room. That’s 1363 rooms! There’s so much to explore in this game.

 

The exploration and discovery is one of the things that will keep you coming back to Knytt Underground. Almost every room in the game has some degree of challenge, weather it’s using magic to traverse the area, or bouncing around using Mi’s ability to morph into a ball. The platforming and puzzle solving elements are solid and entertaining. Mi can climb up any vertical surface, too. Climbing and platforming are extremely satisfying. One of the most unique features of the game is Mi’s ability to morph into a ball. The first image conjured seems to be of Samus Aran of Metroid fame rolling around seeking hard to reach, small places. Mi’s ability is vastly different, however. Mi’s ball form bounces around like a basketball You use this ability to reach higher areas, and to deftly bounce around enemies

 

There’s nothing in the way of combat in this game. This doesn’t take away from the entertainment of it, though. Although enemies can be destroyed in certain areas as part of puzzle solving, they are typically just obstacles to avoid. The types of enemies are pretty varied, and sometimes getting past them can be quite challenging.

 

The only gameplay shortcoming in gameplay that I observed was the quests. One of the only directional pushes in the game is when NPCs that you talk to send you on quests. Every time that this happens, that I remember, they are fetch quests. You go to an area, one or several items, and return to the NPC, where they award you.

 

The visuals on this game are, in the most severe sense, hit or miss. The backgrounds are beautifully rendered, and in many cases, photo realistic. On the other hand, the character models are very ugly. They resemble something from a very early, primitive flash animation. The contrast can be jarring, and may be enough to pull a few players out of the game. For me, the character models were jarring at first, but given a few short hours, I stopped noticing.

 

The fact that the dialogue is so good and the characters are so compelling was one of the driving forces behind this game for me. When I got this game, I noticed the ESRB rating M-for Mature. The ratings descriptor stated that it was for “Strong language” and “Sexual themes”. Playing an earlier game in the series, this baffled me, since there wasn’t much in the way of story for it.

Mi, the main player character, is a mute sprite. She is accompanied by two fairies, who act as her voice, communicating for her. One of the fairies, Cilia, is responsible for the ESRB rating. She is a lesbian, and aggressively outspoken atheist She is one of my new personal favorite game characters. She’s got something sarcastic to say about everything. I’m very glad that this game explores these social territories when so few games(none that I’ve personally played) dare venture.

 

The story of the game focuses on two primary groups, the Internets and the Myriadists. The Internets are secular and focus on development of technology, and the Myriadists are religious and luddites. A large part of the story focuses on the tension between the two primary groups. The main characters, besides Cilia, tend to fall somewhere in the middle ground of the two groups. The story can be, however, disjointed, since it’s told through the dialogue of the characters you meet, and sometimes you can go quite a long time without entering a populated area.

 

With Knytt Underground there’s not a lot to be unhappy about. It’s a really solid game, and a long one for the type that it is. Great gameplay and awesome characters are at the core of this game. I would definitely recommend grabbing a download.

 

You can download Knytt Underground on the e-Shop on Wii U. The game is also available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and on PC through Steam.