Black Clover: Quartet Knights, developed by studio Ilinx Inc, is the first video game adaptation of the would-be shounen usurper, Black Clover. Now if you’re unfamiliar with this name, then the best way to describe it would be a love-letter to shounen. Set in a world where magic is key, the main character, Asta, is introduced to us as an orphan who is later revealed to be unable to use magic while his childhood friend and rival, Yuno, is a magical prodigy. Asta, however, gains the ability of anti-magic in the form of a sword bigger than himself that can cut through and deflect magic. The two then go on their journeys to be the next Wizard King.

The story of the actual game takes place in the middle of all this somewhere, and it is about as inventive as its source material. It doesn’t do much to break the mold, but fans of the show will be delighted as the cast is back in a never before seen story, complete with new animated cutscenes. Whilst the narrative itself didn’t leave me feeling compelled to know what was going to happen next, I have to admit that the characters and individual interactions between them were written well and were incredibly faithful to the source material.



Speaking of strong points, Quartet Knights’ strongest aspect would have to be its visuals. Whether I was battling in a not-so-bustling city, a dark and dingy mine, or a beautifully green forest, I enjoyed looking around in the midst of the action to just soak some of it in - as well as the occasional odd hit and miss texture. In addition to the maps you fight in looking good, the characters, as well as their various spells, are designed well too. You can customize your character's appearance as well to some degree – which was a nice touch.

Speaking of strong points, Quartet Knights’ strongest aspect would have to be its visuals. Whether I was battling in a not-so-bustling city, a dark and dingy mine, or a beautifully green forest, I enjoyed looking around in the midst of the action to just soak some of it in.

Unfortunately, if the pretty visuals were the game’s chocolate coating enticing you to take a bite, what lies underneath at the core of the Quartet Knight experience would be an onion. The game is simply not fun to play. Billed as a four vs. four tactical third person shooter/hack & slash hybrid, there are four classes you can play. Fighter, shooter, support and healer which serve as melee, ranged, buffer/debuffer and damage mitigation respectively. While in theory this sounds good, I found that the classes were not really too different and that the main distinction was whether or not their basic attack would be melee or ranged.



In addition to that, I could simply run around the map keeping in my basic attack button (R2) and I would deal damage to whatever would be silly enough to enter my crosshairs. There was also an occasional spell fired off with R1 and an ‘awakening’ when my meter filled up and I was feeling frisky. The combat itself, as well as general movement, felt weightless and unsatisfying (as if it were taking place in a vacuum) which honestly didn’t lend much of a feeling of providence or importance to the gameplay. Combined with the generally slick visuals, this actually made for quite the pity.

There are a few game modes on offer, but what normally has to happen during these game modes is you having to go and stand in a spot and kill other players until you have secured the area, picked up the treasure or won the match. There's admittedly not much happening here, and for most of the short single player experience I found that the AI, while passable, was somewhat lacking as an enemy combatant would occasionally stand in our objective area and do nothing as if it was programmed on a potato.

The combat itself, as well as general movement, felt weightless and unsatisfying (as if it were taking place in a vacuum).

The single player portion of the game ended up to be somewhat underwhelming, clocking in at 18 relatively short missions that are clearable in 2 hours at an unrushed pace. I left somewhat disappointed in this regard and fired up the multiplayer in a bid to maybe grab some exposure to the more tactical elements the game had boasted, given I’d be against other players instead of the AI. It seemed the game had other plans.



Finding a game was an issue, and when I finally did I was whisked away to a lobby where I waited for the game to fill up with one or two other people only to have the remaining empty slots filled with bots anyway. This happened time and time again without fail and if it were not for this feature, I probably would not have had the opportunity to play a single game. During these games I often found myself dying pretty much instantly, wondering what was going on. Now as much as I don’t mind admitting - I may just be bad at the game. Unless you’re constantly paying attention to your health bar or damage counters flying out of other combatants, it’s grievous lack of feedback makes it possible for you to not even realize you’re being attacked. I found that dying in this manner, rather than leaving more determined to win as any good shounen fanboy should be, instead laced the entire experience with a sense of apathy.

One mechanic that I can give props to is the deck system. You play the game, earn points and use those points to buy cards which then serve to alter spells and abilities. It is a pleasantly clean and consistent system that does what it needs to do well, but it does beg the question of whether or not it’s worth the grind in the first place.

One mechanic that I can give props to is the deck system. You play the game, earn points and use those points to buy cards which then serve to alter spells and abilities.

Accompanying all of this is the pretty unremarkable soundtrack. It feels like background noise most of the time, and in that sense it does its job; however it’s nothing impressionable. The only part of the sound design that really stood out was, regrettably, how true to the source material Asta’s voice was. There was a healthy dollop of Asta’s iconic (ed - or infamous?) screaming in this recipe and whilst I can’t dock points from the game because of this, I just wish they took it easy in this regard.



At the end of the day, Black Clover: Quartet Knights feels like a project in which the majority of the developer’s efforts were focused in all the wrong places. Whilst the game looks sexy, it’s underlying core mechanics are so dull that they only serve to highlight the bad parts of the game and dampen the impact the better parts may have had. The fact that there is new story content that the anime does not cover is a definite boon to fans of the series, but I can’t see the draw to people who are unfamiliar with the show.

Is this game worth the full price of admission? Not a chance. Maybe pick it up on a deep sale, but if you do, I caution you to go in with low expectations and leave with even lower ones.



*reviewed on PlayStation 4