Steam is home to a wide variety of RPGs for players looking to immerse themselves in stories and worlds that they have influence over. Medieval RPGs like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 are particularly popular genres for games on Steam to explore, often mixing in fantasy elements in the case of games like The Witcher 3, Skyrim, and, most recently, Crimson Desert. However, few games really commit to the medieval art style, and that’s where Legends of the Round Table stands out from the crowd.
Legends of the Round Table launched on Steam back on March 31 and has already garnered a “very positive” review score from Steam users. The most notable feature of Legends of the Round Table is its art style, which evokes medieval art similar to that of Obsidian’s 2022 historical RPG Pentiment. In practice, Legends of the Round Table blends its historical elements with the gameplay of a tactical RPG like Fire Emblem and wraps it in this unique art style to achieve an experience tailored to medieval history enthusiasts and fans of Arthurian legend.
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Legends of the Round Table is a Stylish Tactical RPG Steeped in Arthurian Lore
Billed as a turn-based RPG with card mechanics, Legends of the Round Table stakes its claim on a popular genre with its commitment to real Arthurian lore and an authentic medieval art style. The game allows players to play through adventures that have been adapted from classic Arthurian stories and embark on quests as characters from those stories. Gameplay wise, Legends of the Round Table will feel familiar to tactical RPG veterans, especially fans of the Fire Emblem series.
Features Included in Legends of the Round Table
- Choice-based quests
- Illuminated Manuscript art style
- Authentic medieval soundtrack
- Deep combat mechanics
- Permadeath
- Knight management including strengths, weaknesses, and social standing
- Card-based adventuring mechanics
Like any good RPG, Legends of the Round Table lets players shape their own RPG adventures with choice-based quests that affect the outcome of the game. Players can choose to show mercy to enemies or romance an NPC and have these decisions impact the story of their characters. Along with these features is the ability to manage nearly every aspect of the player’s roster of knights, including their personal traits, which quests they go on, and whether they earn a place at the Round Table. These unit management mechanics go as deep as whether knights get along with each other based on the traits they’ve developed, creating a unique experience for each player.
Combat in Legends of the Round Table is surprisingly complex, from each knight’s stats to the weapons they wield, including the ability to swap weapons with a knight’s squire, similar to Fire Emblem‘s weapon swapping mechanics. The gameplay systems revolve around chivalry mechanics to create a unique set of combat rules for players to dig into. Players can even hold enemies for ransom and death for a knight is permanent, much like Fire Emblem‘s infamous permadeath system. Actions are taken using cards in Legends of the Round Table, adding another layer of strategy to battles and forcing players to plan ahead if they want to keep their knights alive.
Legends of the Round Table’s Art Style is Impressive
Aside from its focus on telling Arthurian tales, the main selling point of Legends of the Round Table is the way it embraces the medieval aesthetic with its visual and sound design. Scenes in Legends of the Round Table are hand painted in the Illuminated Manuscript style of the 13th century using the same tools and techniques that would have been available at that time. Games like Cuphead pioneered the hand-drawn approach to video game graphics, and now Legends of the Round Table takes it a step further to solidify its medieval identity.
Fit the 9 games into the grid.
The music of Legends of the Round Table also shares the same commitment to authenticity as the game’s visuals. Songs have been adapted from real 13th-century scores and performed on period-accurate instruments like the lute, harp, viols, and more. These details add up to create a real sense of immersion in the legends of 13th-centurary Arthurian folklore that Legends of the Round Table aims to deliver.
Arthurian Lore Included in Legends of the Round Table
Fans of King Arthur and Arthurian folklore will likely already be familiar with some of the characters included in Legends of the Round Table, such as Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, and Sir Percival. From classic tales such as The Sword in the Stone to The Quest for the Holy Grail, Legends of the Round Table offers players the chance to live out these iconic stories of Arthurian legend and bend them to whatever choices they make. While Legends of the Round Table isn’t grounded entirely in historical accuracy, since it includes elements of magic and mythical creatures, it does stay true to the Arthurian stories that include these elements.
Developer Artifice Studio sought to answer the question of what an RPG would look like if it was created in medieval Britain, and the result is Legends of the Round Table and its period-accurate art that pays homage to real-world Arthurian lore. While it may not be set in medieval Bohemia like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 or include a wholly original story like Pentiment, the game’s authenticity should still appeal to fans of historical games, and its turn-based combat and quests where every choice has consequences should appeal to RPG enthusiasts. There is also a Steam demo for Legends of the Round Table, so players can try out these systems for themselves and see if the game does its source material justice before purchasing the full game.
