Knights of Pen & Paper II (iOS) Review

There is a forest of RPGs out there and the genre, especially the Western take on it, stems heavily from tabletop role-players like Dungeons & Dragons. Knights of Pen & Paper II goes back to these roots with its gameplay and style. Everyone who has ever played a tabletop RPG will immediately feel at home with the humour and gameplay system that very often makes jokes about how bad game-mastering looks.

However, despite the source of inspiration's vastness, there are actually only a few different routes to take the character development in. Each class has a mere four abilities to choose from, which leaves very little room for species creation, something that any tabletop gamer worth their salt desires, and it sadly leaves the adventure with a highly simplistic feel.

Other than this flaw, however, the gameplay in Knights of Pen & Paper II is actually well-balanced. The party setup is of highest importance, and each class has its role to fulfil, making it highly different from others. The warlock, for example, uses necromancy to both revive and heal its party members by draining life force from opponents, making it ideal for crowd control if there are several enemies on the screen.

The style, mixing both the world of retro and tabletop design, helps to increase the feel of playing an actual tabletop game. The most impressive feature, other than the story that pokes a lot of fun at tabletop tropes, especially those based on the subject of bad and lazy GMing, is the fact that to do anything outside of combat, a roll on the d20 is required. Even resting demands a d20 roll to determinate whether the party gets attacked in its sleep or not - wonderful testament to the unpredictability of pen and paper RPGs.

The balance of gameplay, tied with the very charming tabletop references, does almost cover up the lack of customisation. Almost. Hopefully this will be changed during the course of Knights of Pen & Paper II's lifecycle, but currently more customisation of the characters and more specific gear effects are highly desired aspects that are currently absent.