Kritika: The White Knights

Kritika: The White Knights Review

By, Herman Y.

Kritika: The White Knights is a free-to-play, 3D hack-and-slash action RPG co-developed by ALL-M, the developers of the PC MMORPG, Kritika Online, and Funflow, a small Korean game developer, and published by GAMEVIL, the same publishers of the popular Zenonia game series, Dragon Blaze, and Darkness Reborn. Kritika: The White Knights, originally known as Kritika: Chaos Unleashed, is a streamlined mobile version of the Korean PC MMORPG, Kritika Online, which has yet to come out in English. Kritika: The White Knights was released worldwide on Android and iOS on July 15, 2014 and currently has over 15 million downloads. It features high quality graphics, fast-paced, action-oriented combat, and unique equipment upgrade systems that easily makes it one of the best free-to-play mobile RPGs on the market.

Character Creation and Classes
When players begin Kritika: The White Knights, they can choose one of three character classes for free, or unlock one of the five advanced classes with Karats (premium currency). These advanced classes are just as balanced as the starter classes but differ in gameplay and are unlocked after players reach a certain level. The starter classes include the Berserker, Acrobat, and Blood Demon. The Berserker is a powerful but slow, two-handed warrior specialized on dealing heavy area damage. The Acrobat is a swift, dual dagger-wielding assassin focused on speed and multi-hit skills. The Blood Demon is a wide reaching, scythe-wielding vampire with abilities to absorb enemy health. All three classes differ greatly in gameplay and abilities and are all fairly beginner friendly with the Acrobat being the hardest of the three classes to play.

Advanced classes can be unlocked when players reach a certain level (level 15 or 20 depending on the class) or unlocked early with Karats (premium currency). These classes include Shadow Mage, Demon Blade, Crimson Assassin, and Dark Valkyrie. The Shadow Mage is a standalone ranged, dual-pistol class with the ability to bind opponents, while the other three classes resemble a “job advancement” of the three starter classes. The Demon Blade (similar to the Berserker) excels in frontal melee combat but is swifter and carries dual blades. The Crimson Assassin (similar to the Acrobat) is a dual dagger-wielding rogue specialized in mobility and boss battles and has short cooldowns. Lastly, the Dark Valkyrie (similar to the Blood Demon) is a powerful, scythe-wielding fighter with long-ranged, melee attacks and proficiency in both attack and defense.

Stage-Based Progression
Kritika: The White Knights is stage-based with over 100 stages divided into 10 chapters. Each stage has 3 difficulties (Easy, Normal, and Hard) and each chapter features new maps and boss battles. Although each set of maps is called a “Chapter,” the game doesn’t actually have a story. Players will essentially play through the stages to level up and obtain new items and equipment. Each stage features a unique map that is split up in many parts. Each part has 1-2 waves of monsters and after clearing a part, players can proceed by running through gates onto the next part. Each stage is fairly short lasting from 1-5 minutes although the stages become much longer at higher difficulties and in later chapters. Due to the very fast-paced combat, however, players will still be able to go through waves of monsters relatively quickly. Completing stages gives gold, experience, equipment, and materials, and special items via a randomized chest system. Three chests appear at the end of each stage and players can choose one to reveal their reward which can include keys (for Shop chests), crafting material, and rare equipment. Each stage requires Stamina to attempt but the game gives out a lot of free stamina so it isn’t much of a problem for casual to medium hardcore players.

High Quality Anime Graphics
Kritika: The White Knights has incredible graphics for a mobile game. The visuals are very colorful and crisp with an anime-inspired appearance. All the character models are based on the PC version of Kritika so they look very similar, as do most of the monsters, bosses, and maps. Each map varies in appearance ranging from colorful grasslands to dark forests and dungeons, and each map has many environmental objects scattered around to add atmospheric detail. The game has tons of cosmetic Avatar items (costumes, weapons, and wings) for each class that look very well designed and visually impressive that add a lot of appearance customization. The combat animations are smooth, the attacks are impactful, and the skills are flashy. Kritika: The White Knights is by far one of the best looking mobile RPGs at the moment.

Fast-Paced, Action Combat
Kritika: The White Knights features very fast-paced, action-oriented combat. Players hold their device like a controller and can move with a virtual joystick with a button to attack and buttons for skills. The combat is action-packed and very fluid. Each attack feels impactful as it either launches the enemy back or into the air which leads to powerful juggling combos, especially when combined with skills. Very few mobile action RPGs provide an option to juggle enemies, and the air combo/juggling system works great in Kritika: The White Knights. Enemies come in waves, and all of the player’s attacks are AOE-based and hits multiple enemies at once, which helps clear waves quickly. Bosses are much more tricky in that they cannot be juggled or knocked back from regular attacks (can be knocked down from skills) and can launch some big AOE skill attacks at players. Luckily, a highlight area appears as bosses prepare to unleash a skill which provides players the opportunity to dodge it. Unlike most action RPGs, Kritika: The White Knights does not come with a “dodge/roll” button, but the attack animations are fast enough so that players can move out of the way in time to dodge attacks. Overall, the combat feels very high quality and arcade-like in its fast-paced, combo system. The 8 various character classes also add a lot more variety to the combat via different attack styles and skills. However, at higher levels, the combat does start to feel a bit repetitive due to how much health enemies scale on resulting in non-stop button mashing.

Combining Equipment
Kritika: The White Knights has unique equipment combining and upgrade systems that differ, in a good way, from many other mobile RPGs. There are two forms of equipment combining: Fuse and Transmute. Fusing takes a number of certain grade equipment (4-6 depending on the grade) and combines them to create a random, higher grade piece of equipment. For example, combining six “normal grade” pieces of equipment will create a random “rare grade” piece of equipment. Because it is fairly easy to obtain new equipment in Kritika: The White Knights from completing stages, the Fuse system is a great way of turning those “not-so-good” equipment into “better” equipment, and then those “better” equipment into “even better” equipment. Transmute has a similar combination system except it is more like crafting. Players can transmute 4 “craft equipment material” or mix and match with pieces of actual equipment of a certain grade to obtain a random piece of equipment of that grade (not of a higher grade). Transmute is somewhat like crafting with “craft equipment material,” which are of a certain grade but pieces of equipment of the same grade can be thrown in as well. Transmute is basically for crafting or exchanging pieces of equipment for a random, new piece of equipment of the same grade.

Crafting and Enhancement
Upgrading equipment in Kritika: The White Knights is similar to most other mobile RPGs while the crafting system is more like a Summon system. Weapons can be enhanced (upgraded) by sacrificing other pieces of equipment to level it up and improves its stats. Crafting, on the other hand, takes form in a Gacha-summon system. Players can collect “Weapon Material,” “Armor Material,” and “Accessory Material” which they can use to summon random weapons, armor, and accessories. A random “Normal-Rare” grade piece of equipment can be summoned for 3 Materials, a “Rare-Epic” grade piece of equipment can be summoned for 10 Materials, and an “Epic-Legandary” piece of equipment can be summoned for 49 Materials. Crafting is essentially a random equipment summon system that is simple to use in that only requires Weapons, Armor, or Accessory Material and is done in one step.

Survival Mode
In addition to the main single-player Stage mode, Kritika: The White Knights has a Survival Mode and Battle Mode. The Survival Mode includes 4 sub-modes: Monster Wave, Tower of Tribulation, World Boss, and Expedition. Monster Wave is a survival mode in which players are bombarded with waves of enemies and must survive for a certain amount of time to win. There are many floors that players can choose to play which are level-locked. Tower of Tribulation is similar to Monster Wave except players move up floors of the tower after each wave of enemies and have to survive until they reach the last set of floors; the floors are split up into sets (i.e. Floors 1-7, 8-11, etc.). In World Boss, players have a limited amount of time (usually a couple of days) to defeat a powerful boss with huge amounts of health. Players can only fight the boss for 1.5 minutes at a time with limited attempts each day but the boss retains its lowered HP and the goal to defeat the boss before the main time limit is up. Last, Expedition is a more automated mode in which players can set up a party of four of their characters and watch a turn-based menu as their party fights through regions of monsters with minimal graphics. All 4 modes are essentially for farming purposes and are a good way of obtaining upgrade material, gold, equipment, and more.

Automated PVP (Battle Mode)
Although Kritika: The White Knights possesses a top-notch, action combat system, the PVP is, unfortunately, completely automated and asynchronous like in many free-to-play mobile RPGs. Players can access the game’s PVP via the Battle mode which consists of 3 sub-modes: Arena, Versus, and Melee. In Arena, players can choose from a list of three opponents to fight against and then watch as the two characters battle it out in completely automated combat. The characters basically stand in one spot slashing away at each other and spamming skills, while the camera constantly rotates and zooms in and out on them. It is flashy to watch but disappointing due to the lack of manual control. Versus is basically the same as Arena except there isn’t a leaderboard involved. Melee allows players to create a team with three of their characters to face off against another team of three characters in similar automated combat. The characters actually move around in the Melee mode but players still have no control over the combat. Each Battle Mode match requires specific badges that can be obtained from quest/login rewards or purchased with Karats (premium currency). Overall, the PVP is disappointing and automated but it provides a competitive aspect to the game and gives out 1 Karat per victory.

Cash Shop/In-App Purchases (IAP)
In-app purchases in Kritika: The White Knights are not required but can give a lot of useful advantages. Kritika: The White Knight has a huge variety in cosmetic Avatar items which include costumes, weapons, and wings (that displays over the character’s current equipment) that have stats such as Attack, Defense, and Health increase. I was pleasantly surprised to find that each class has over 100 Avatar items that provide a ton of appearance customization. Because Avatar items provide some decent stat boosts, they clearly give an advantage to paying players by providing them with a slight edge. With Karat (premium currency), players can purchase Avatar items, special level-restricted equipment and accessories, Meteorites that provide stat boosts, pets, in-game gold, stamina, better potions, and Battle Mode badges for more Arena matches. Karat can also be used to open chests that give out random Epic-Legendary equipment, which again provides advantages to paying players, and unlock new classes early. As the game progresses, stages become increasingly difficult so players will have to grind and farm stages which can be minimized by spending cash. Overall, spending money is not required but provides advantages in better equipment and boosts that help in clearing Stages and PVP.

Final Verdict – Great
Kritika: The White Knights is a great mobile action RPG the features top notch graphics, engaging combat, and unique equipment upgrade systems. Although the game has stale PVP and can get a little repetitive at higher levels, the game can be fully enjoyed without spending money and is an action-packed mobile game that all players should try out.

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Kritika: The White Knights Google Play
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Kritika: The White Knights System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Android 2.3.3 and up / iOS 6.0 or later.

Kritika: The White Knights Music & Soundtrack

Kritika: The White Knights Additional Information

Developer: ALL-M and FunFlow
Publisher: GAMEVIL
Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows
Release Date: July 15, 2014

Kritika: The White Knights was co-developed by ALL-M, the creators of the PC MMORPG, Kritika Online, and FunFlow, a small Korean mobile game developer, and published by GAMEVIL, a large Korea-based mobile game publisher behind the popular mobile games, Darkness Reborn and the Zenonia series. Kritika: The White Knights is based on the Korean MMORPG, Kritika Online, and was released worldwide on July 15, 2014. It reached over 15 million downloads on April 2015, which was less than one year after its release. Kritika: The White Knights is continuously updated with new content and characters, with the Blood Demon being the newest playable character. GAMEVIL is also the publisher of the popular mobile RPGs, Million Arthur, Spirit Stones, and Dungeon Link.