Hello everyone and welcome back to Kralizec Gaming.Today we are going to take a look at Paladin's Story. This mobile open-world RPG promises a legendary questing experience on your mobile device. Whether it can deliver on this promise is the question we will try to answer today. Paladin's Story is available on Android completely for free with an in-game purchase of a PRO version for 8 dollars and 49 cents or your regional equivalent.

With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.

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Video Review

Text Review

Reviewing mobile games is still something incredibly strange to me. On one hand, it should be a review just like any other. On the other hand, mobile games need to be quite different from PC games. They need to be fun right away, not something that takes a while to get into. They need really different types of controls and so many things just have to be done differently for the game to be not only good but also successful. So let's see whether Paladin's Story checks these boxes and has the potential to be a success.

Gameplay

In terms of the gameplay, Paladin's Story is your pretty standard hex-based RPG. You have a hex-based map where you can find monsters, quests, cities to trade and a few other things. Everything pretty standard here. The movement across the map actually feels a bit more natural even compared to using a mouse as you just tap on the square you want to end on and your character moves there. If there is a monster along the way your character will try to walk around it but if the monster is aggressive a fight will trigger.

Quests are also really standard, you go to a quest giver, accept the quest and do whatever is needed to finish it. Though, in the vast majority of cases, it just means defeating a number of enemies. The quests could really use a bit more variability. Occasionally the quest will just require you to go somewhere and talk to someone but even then it will likely just be a part of a quest chain that requires you to kill enemies in the majority of the quests in the chain.

But the by far the most important and prominent part of the gameplay is the combat. And here I just really have to praise Paladin's Story. This is likely the most awesome way I have seen combat done in an RPG on mobile. Yet, it is really simple making it easy to learn. Essentially, on one side of the screen there is your character and on the other is the enemy. If you tap the screen on your side of things you block and if you swipe on your side you jump away to avoid unblockable attacks. And if you tap the enemy's side then you attack. Or you can swipe down to perform a power attack. And as you level you get access to different types of attacks and combos that can inflict – for example – a bleed on your enemy, stun him, etc. This really is an effective way of creating a simple, yet complex combat system on mobile and it just works so well. Great job!

Though, over time, the combat does get a bit repetitive. In never becomes mindless because you always have to keep watch of the enemy, to block their attacks and pick the correct time to attack yourself. But! Yeah, essentially it is just tapping the screen over and over again. Though I feel that this could be said about any combat system – it is just tapping on the screen, or pushing the buttons on your controller or clicking the mouse. It's really just about how it feels and in Paladin's Story and it does feel really good.

Apart from traveling across the lands, questing, and fighting monsters you get to level-up. Don't forget, it is an RPG. There is a skill tree… well more like skill lines. Each line is focused on a particular approach of combat like the “Brutality and Stun” line focuses on pure attack strength and stunning your enemies, the “Block and Counters” make blocking stronger and allows you to get some counter-attacks in, etc. etc. There is one thing that needs to be really emphasized. Unless you get the PRO version you do not have the option to reset your skill points. This is something I would change really fast. Make it cost a lot of in-game gold. Make it cost equipment. I don't care. Just give players the option to change their skills even if they are free-to-play players.

And lastly, the thing that drives most RPG players – that sweet sweet loot. You really get only a few basic types of equipment – weapons, chest, head, glove, leg, and boot armor. These come in a few rarities from common to legendary and always have some stats on them. Obviously, your goal is to get the best. But in the free-to-play version, there is an interesting limitation. Epic and legendary items require you to defeat enemies to actually equip them. Usually, you need to kill somewhere between 10 and 15 enemies to unlock the ability to actually equip them. This mechanic I actually like. It is a mechanic that limits free-to-play users without forcing them to pay for the very basic function of being able to equip the equipment. A good solution in my opinion.

The last thing I need to mention before I move on to the story of Paladin's Story is the PRO version. The PRO version costs a hefty sum of money for a mobile game. And yes, I do realize that the majority of free-to-play games have in-game purchases that cost more than this game costs altogether. Still, having a price tag of 8.49 for the PRO version will make a lot of people really think about whether they should buy that. So what exactly does it provide?

The biggest thing is that it includes a full-on expansion to the main game. That means a lot of new quests, monsters, and loot to collect in a completely new zone called Hell. That itself would be worth a lot of money in other free-to-play games. On top of that you get the already mentioned option to reset your skills and instant access to epic and legendary items, different skins for your character, chests with equipment that you can buy with in-game gold a two talismans that give you better prices when shopping at merchants and better luck when getting loot. Apart from the reset of your skills none of these things will have a giant impact on your gameplay and if you choose your skills carefully it won't really impact your gameplay at all. Which I consider being a good thing as it makes the free-to-play version still be a good option for those who do not want to spend money.

Story

The second important part of an RPG game is the story. And the story of Paladin's Story is … well… strange. On one hand, it is almost your prototypical RPG story of a hero being picked by an old wise man to go on and save the world while along the way the hero will discover the power of friendship, honesty, etc. etc. etc…. But on the other hand, the game is weirdly aware of this. It even includes a ton of fourth wall breaking where the hero realizes that what the characters are saying is cheesy as heck and sometimes even other characters sort of imply a fourth wall break.

But overall, I think the story is pretty good. Yes, in its own way it is a very standard story, but the forth wall breaking combined with very good writing – especially in terms of being funny – makes up for a story you will probably not remember for the rest of your life but one you will enjoy while playing the game.

Graphics

Now it is time for us to move on to the graphical department of Paladin's Story. And to be completely honest with you guys here – I really think that whether you will like the graphics of Paladin's Story really depends.

I personally do like the graphics. It sort of looks like those old-school paper puppets being put into motion. But, I can also easily imagine people not being fans of the graphics. I guess, the real answer here is just to look at the footage and decide for yourself.

Even though I do like the graphics there is one thing that really irritated me. And that is the fact that there is a very limited number of models for enemies. To clarify what I mean – human enemies have pretty much two models. Beast enemies have just a single model – though sometimes they also use the “dragon” model. Honestly, I felt that this was perhaps the largest contributor toward the fact that combat fell monotone. I hope this gets improved in future patches.

Music

The last thing that can truly make a game stand out is its music. But here I sadly have to report that the music of Paladin's Story doesn't stand out. Luckily, it also isn't bad. It just is there and I feel that if you are going to be playing a game on your phone you are very likely to just be listening to your own music either way.

Performance

So, there is one more thing we need to talk about before we go to the final conclusion. The performance. And here I am happy to report that the game worked flawlessly for me. I encountered no bugs. The game didn't crash for me. The controls worked well for me. Everything was good. I played Paladin's Story on a Samsung A50 which is a pretty standard low-mid-range phone so it should run well on pretty much any phone.

Conclusion

So… in conclusion: Paladin's Story is a very good mobile RPG. If you are a fan of RPG games and you would like to play a good one on your phone – yeah, go and download it right now. But the bigger question is – should you also buy the PRO version. Eight and a half dollars is considered a lot of money for a mobile game. And the benefits of the PRO versions – apart from being able to reset your skill do not
seem that large. So, honestly, I would say do not get the PRO version initially. First, play through the main game and then if you enjoyed the game and want to either play more of it or just support the developer for providing you with hours of fun – yeah, then buy the PRO version for the expansion pack.

So, that’s it for today guys. I hope you like the review and if you did, please consider upvoting the review and following my blog. And comment, if you have something you would like to add. See you guys later with more gaming content.

Disclaimer: All the images have been taken directly from the Google Play game page