Gryphon Knight Epic

 
Developer: Cyber Rhino Studios

Steam Release: Aug 2015

Hours Played: 4.0

Similar To: Black Bird / Dandy... / Jets 'n' Guns Gold / Platypus / Satazius

Rating: 3/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Gryphon Knight is a chunky, old-school style side-scroller that has you battling away in a fantasy/medieval setting and in a large variety of locations. Rather than fast and quick like a Procyon or a Sine Mora, gameplay here is relatively slow-paced with the background strolling past at a more leisurely rate. You control a rather large gryphon via your heroic knight and your hit-box is slightly larger than the norm. Enemies also tend to be a little on the large size but there is a huge variety to keep things interesting. Your default is a rapid fireball attack with a choice of one of half a dozen special attacks (awarded as you complete each level) that depletes an ever replenishing meter when used.
 
   
 

BALANCE & PACE

Unlike a typical side-scroller though, Gryphon Knight Epic throws a lot of interesting curve-balls at you to keep the gameflow dynamic. For one, like Aqua Kitty, it is one of the few side-scrollers that allows you to travel from right to left as well as from left to right; mainly to allow you to pick off those pesky enemies you missed earlier. Secondly, there are sections where it shifts into a vertical scroller where you'll need to travel up and down but you can only ever fire horizontally. Furthermore, on later levels, even puzzle elements are thrown in. The game is wrapped up in a six-level campaign (plus a final stage) with each featuring two stages and ending in a boss fight. The final boss of each hands over a special weapon that you add to your arsenal. You'll also be able to do each on Squire, Knight or Epic difficulty.    

PRESENTATION & DESIGN

The art-work is kept very much in the retro-style and with the gameplay being what it is, you almost feel you're playing an arcade game from the 1990s. Most of this is done in a good way of course but scrolling through which potion, weapon or squire to use during hectic moments pauses the game to bring up a dial-like menu and this does hinder immersion somewhat. You'll also be using all four buttons on the Xbox controller which in the heat of battle can be a lot to remember. You'll need quite a fair amount of time with the game therefore before comfortable familiarity with the controls seeps in. Finally there is a tedious and over-involved story with far too many dialogue boxes about saving old friends that requires skipping through constantly and which really does become quite annoying.   

PROGRESS SYSTEM

The presentation of Gryphon Knight Epic might remind players of Jamestown not least in the way your progress is depicted on the level-select screen which is displayed in the form of a map. This is broken up into eight areas showing which of your six old friends you need rescue - and by "rescue" I mean defeat in an end of stage boss-fight to transform them from evil back to good. This is not about high-scores but purely about finishing levels. Defeating the final boss earns you a bronze award if you complete the stage on squire difficulty, a silver award on knight difficulty and a gold award on epic. Upgrading weapons at the market and buying potions at the shop (with collected gold) can also be done by clicking on the necessary icon next to your map.

 

CONCLUSION

Gryphon Knight Epic may not have the jaw-dropping graphics of Sine Mora; the behind the scenes progression system of Steel Rain; the varied customization of Reign of Bullets; the innovative twist in gameplay of Revolver 360 Re:Actor or even the zippy, quick-style of Aqua Kitty or Who's That Flying?! What it does have is the remedy to scratch the itch of all those who yearn for that old-school style gameplay from the 1990s. In this respect, its simplicity is its strength; you'll know exactly where you are and what you have to do when you fire up a game of GKE - level designs are fixed, not randomly generated, and as far as choices go before playing, questions won't go much far beyond which boss to kill and on what difficulty. The only thing you will have to conquer are the slightly fiddly and complicated controls.