High fantasy arcade beat ‘em was calling my name. This is beautiful, with subtle details including chopping big food to spread the wealth of health pickups. Being able to knock back projectiles is a nice touch. The level up system is a neat twist on seeing enemies grow in power by new color alts, so you increase power and get new outfits , but you don’t feel more power because of the enemies growing so quickly . With a minimal boost, it doesn’t feel like you get access to more, maybe an additional move would have made progression feel great. I couldn’t nail the block system but that’s just on me, part of me thinks given the swarming of enemies that a specific parry button rather than attack plus back would have been more effective since you are being swarmed. The Masamune boss is insane, that was truly remarkable. The other bosses were just fine, I was hoping there would be more here to remember . This was nice but not memorable .

Another bit of nostalgia that I'm unsure if it hadn't aged well or maybe my thoughts were always the same on the matter. I was quite fond of playing this over the years but my most recent playthrough reminded me I didn't really play it for the gameplay as I might other beat 'em ups but simply to see the sights: levelling up, the enemies, the bosses, the stages, etc. I like it as it's quite a fun little romp but there's rarely any feeling to immediately revisit it rather to move onto the next thing and that might be a common refrain with these sort of games nowadays.

Played this quite a bit when I was a kid and definitely had fun. Knights of the Round was one of a whole slew of beat-em-ups crowding the arcades in the early 90s, and with such plentiful (though not always high-quality) competition, it would need some kind of gimmick to set it apart.

That gimmick was not the point-based level-up system (which seems more cosmetic than anything else) - it was the inclusion of a parry in an otherwise very small moveset. It added some depth by allowing the player to gain a brief window of invincibility and counterattacking opportunity once they got the timing of enemy attacks down. In later levels, mastery of positioning and parrying is essential to survival. I only wish blocking had its own button tied to it; activating it with attack+direction made it unreliable to pull off and also rather unintuitive. (I suspect that a fair few of the reviewers here that criticise the barebones combat may not have discovered the parry at all)

While blocking is a cool mechanic that the game does build around pretty well, I can't give Knights a high score because it doesn't quite nail two things that beat-em-ups live and die on. The first is game feel - it simply feels too sluggish and stiff compared to the best brawlers of the era. But the second one is a bit harder to quantify: I call it the sense of "oh, cool!" It's not just the presentation and spectacle but also the little details that make you raise your eyebrows, smile inwardly, and continue to play and have fun with a genre that has the simplest gameplay loop ever. Beyond the amusing idea of being able to 'ration' health drops by attacking them (you swing your sword at a salad and suddenly it turns into four smaller plates, LOL), the game as a whole feels rather stodgy - playable but joyless.

This is far from a bad game... but it appears in this instance my childhood memories were embellished.

In terms of aesthetics, this game is very similar to Capcom's previous beat'em up, The King of Dragons.
They both do different things with that aesthetic, but there's a bit of a blend with both games.
Regardless, this one isn't bad, but with it not having as many environments to go through as The King of Dragons, nor as many characters to play around with, it feels lesser.

However, there are two things that I appreciate about this game. For one, the level-up system is done differently here than in The King of Dragons, as it's 100% reliant on the score you have, and it encourages you to get all of the treasure chests in the stages, since that score is converted into experience points.
The other thing that I really appreciate is the soundtrack. It's actually genuinely good, and sometimes even reminds me of older Castlevania games' soundtracks at some points.

Overall, while I prefer The King of Dragons over Knights of the Round, this is an alright beat'em up from Capcom.

Lo completé en PSP, en el juego Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded, una compilación de juegos clásicos de Capcom en el que viene incluido su versión Arcade.
Knights of the Round es un Hack & Slash clásico (beat 'em up de armas blancas) basado en el Rey Arturo que utiliza toda la fórmula ya vista en el género y, sin ofrecer nada especial, lo hace todo perfecto. Tiene una ambientación medieval, con diseños tipo anime, recuerda un poco al The King Of Dragons (también de Capcom e incluido en esta colección) pero visualmente y con un sistema de control mas parecidos a Final Fight, aunque mas rápido y con unas animaciones mas fluidas. Tendremos a tres personajes para elegir, el Rey Arturo (equilibrado) Lancelot (rápido) y Perceval (lento y fuerte). Como es habitual, nos moveremos por un plano 2D atacando continuamente a hordas de enemigos y afrontando ciertos peligros y con un jefe al final de cada nivel. Podremos montar a caballo a veces para ser superiores en combate y mas rápidos al desplazarnos, y funciona muy bien. Algunos enemigos (y jefes) podrán ir en monturas también. Una característica simple pero interesante, es que nuestro personaje irá mejorando en arma y armadura conforme vayamos avanzando, haciéndonos mas fuertes y resistentes.
En conclusión, Knights of the Round, siendo un poco corto y sin ser un juego difícil, es un hijo digno del gran Golden Axe, divertido, rápido, con buena música, bonito a los ojos y muy bueno. Lo recomiendo.

Gorgeous graphics and interesting music ruined by atrocious gameplay and enemy AI / attack design. The game starts simple enough, but several bosses have unstoppable, unblockable attacks AND instant counters that you can't evade. Most of the normal enemies are easy to deal with, but the bosses are just designed to eat through your quarters. I think I continued like 40 times across the playthrough.

I'm never touching this game again.

16th game cleared in 2024 (Capcom Beat'Em Up Collection.) Time to clear: About 1.5 hours. A single achievement for clearing it. I can't even make a closing joke about this horrible game. Bleh.