REVIEW

Black Clover: Quartet Knights Review

by Luke Walsh, October 2nd, 2018

Anime-based video games tend to be aimed at the fans of the series, which makes sense, aiming to offer more content for the show and the characters they love. Similar to titles like Sword Art Online, they either offer the same story arcs as the anime but let you live them yourself, or they allow you to experience an entirely new adventure one that expands on the already crafted universe from the manga to an anime and then a video game.

Black Clover: Quartet Knights prefers to take the latter and opts for an all-new story path that it sends you down, one which takes place in the early parts of the anime when the team are investing a new mysterious dungeon. This means all the main characters and teams are already in play. For the new story, it also means new gamers or watchers of the show will not be tip-toeing around to avoid spoilers or daunted at trying to get a lot of backstories before they dive in.

Yami is turned into a teenager after fighting the first boss, his memories also going back to the moment in time matching his new younger looks. He is looking for someone called Karna, who once they meet up with also looks as she did in the past. The team must uncover why Yami and Karna have regressed and stop Karna from what she is planning based on what happened to her in the past.

The game is broken up into two mains parts, the campaign which follows the younger Yami story and the multiplayer, which allows you to play in three-man cells online and battle other players with your favourite character from the Black Clover universe.

In the campaign, the missions that you are set on range from the usual kill quests, where you’ll fight in the set teams based on the story arc and kills monster usually ending in a boss battle. There is also a King of the Hill mode and protecting a moving object and just boss battles in general from familiar bad guys from the show.

The story is an easy enough walkthrough of the game’s mechanics that seem to be leaning towards getting you more into the multiplayer mode. Pushing the basics of combat and how to work in your three-man team is the focus of most of the missions in the campaigns. Players can usually, block, health regeneration, jump and have both a short range and long range attack. Different characters have a special attack that is in line with their anime counterpart, Asta, for example, focuses on a pure melee attack that increases his health regen and damage output. In this mode, he can also dash towards an enemy as slashing them three times before the special wears off.

Each character has some decent depth to their playstyles, even when comparing two Fighter based characters like Asta and Yami. Although they are both melee based, they have slightly different styles thanks to their attacks and even their regen speed. Asta has a much higher health regeneration, while Yami is slower but deals more damage using crowd control magic and AOE based attacks. This results in a game that is actually quite easy to play but more difficult to master, even more so when you head into the Online mode. Combine this with different character costumes, voiced lines and a lot of unlocks, there is quite a lot of fun to be had.

As the Asta storyline can be completed in around two hours, with the alternative storylines being about the same, the game centres a lot of the online mode to get players to come back and play more. Much like other team-based games, you are only usually only as good as your other teammates and playing online with random people can be a frustrating experience.

Players can choose from three roles Fighter, Healer and Support with it being a good idea to have one of each for a balanced team. This can be broken though if you have other players who are just bad at teamwork or choose characters that do not complement the rest of the team. This is quite common in the Zone based games when players are not able to focus on the right next move to win.

One time in memory I was on the point, trying to gain points while the other two players went off trying to kill the enemy one by one. This meant most times it was three vs one and our side lost because they would not concentrate their efforts together and focus on protecting the objective. After the game has ended, you can choose to stay in the team, join a new one or just leave the match all together which creates a no-fuss experience.

Graphically, the game follows a lot of other anime-based games which are cel-shaded and holds a lot of the detail on the character models. They do the characters justice making them look like their anime twins, with characters like Asta and Yuno keeping their trademark over the top or dead-pan looks. You can also have a bit of fun with the different costumes and if you have not read the manga but bought the deluxe edition, there is an Asta skin that could be a little spoiler!

The green forest location is the nicest looking out of all of them.

Environment-wise, however, they are all over a bit lacking and basic, but this is fairly common in these styles of games. You have a couple of different maps such as a temple, grasslands, a built-up city but nothing really ever leaving a lasting impression. Mainly due to the fact the models in the different environments are just the bare minimum to build each one. This makes sense to an extent when the game focuses on the characters but would not hurt to have spent a little more time making some more diverse areas when the anime has such a wide range of locations in the bank.

In the end though, Black Clover: Quartet Knights is a fairly decent adaption of an anime into a video game, creating play styles that match the characters and online play that is enjoyable when you have a good team, usually better playing with your friends than random gamers. The story campaign is good enough but overall you are pushed to the online mode, it’s just a same the environments are not more varied and detailed like the universe is in the anime and manga.

If you are a fan of Black Clover like myself you’ll probably love this game or if you like anime-based games in general, you will probably also enjoy it. If not, it might not be your cup of tea.