Kritika: The White Knights

Kritika: The White Knights - Reach Kritikal Mass without the Kritikal Damage to your Wallet

Kritika: The White Knights

I first heard of the mobile game Kritika: Chaos Unleashed from two security guards taking their break at a previous company’s cafeteria. One of them was persuading the other to switch over from Clash of Clans to Kritika: Chaos Unleashed. The other one was quite skeptical as he seemed involved with his current addiction, but the other was extolling the virtues of the game and to end the conversation, he said he’d check it out.

I was a bit amused that gaming has finally reached the masses and that regular muscle-heads like these two were finally discovering that video games were probably much more enjoyable than lifting heavy weights over their heads. Then again, I thought, there’s no way that security guard has stumbled upon a game that I would enjoy as well, so in spite of the awesome sounding name, I filed Kritika: Chaos Unleashed as just one of those simple-minded grind-till-you’re-dead action games into my subconscious and walked back to work unaffected by the conversation I overheard.

Fast forward to December 2015. I was growing bored of the games on my phone and was on the Google Store on the hunt for a new game to offer me a new obsession. I had installed and uninstalled my way through 10 games already when the title Kritika popped into my head for some reason. It’s as if my subconscious blurted it out while I was droning my way through the games.

I shrugged, and having nothing better to do, I decided, well, why not. I searched Kritika, found that it has switched its name to Kritika: The White Knights and clicked on the big green Install buton. After a few minutes downloading the game and additional files, I was on my way to creating a character.

Again, another time leap to the present. 1 year after I first installed it (after going through re-installs due to having issues with my internet connection and my phone) I currently have 5 characters, and spending a criminal amount of time on it during my free time. I guess that security guard was right all along, especially seeing that this game has hit 10 million downloads.

So what does Kritika: The White Knights have that makes it such an enjoyable game? And this is where I stop my diary post and delve into the game itself.

Action RPG at its finest

Categorically speaking, Kritika: The White Knights is an action-adventure game, infused with RPG elements. For many people it’s simply an Action RPG and so that’s what I would call it as well. For the old-timers out there, imagine it as sampler plate of Diablo, God of War, and World of Warcraft. What that means is that you have elements of all those games, but none of it explored in excruciating detail as the others. 

Although I am not a fan of hybrid type games like these, the way it was executed came out very satisfying and it got me hooked.

I was at first worried how I would play these action RPGs. For someone with large thumbs and using only a 5 inch screen mobile phone, you can’t blame me. I was used to playing consoles whose controls appear off-screen on a separate controller that I can touch and manipulate physically. Just as I expected, for a first timer, I had difficulty moving my hero around, but after getting used to it, I was able to control it quite well.

I still would have to suggest though that if you’re going to play Action RPGs like Kritika: The White Knights, a good controller (one that connects to phones, just like this Bluetooth Controller, would be a great investment.

Anime-styled Visuals

I love anime. And games that have anime themed visuals draw me in right away. Kritika: The White Knights’ main characters are all rendered in anime style, but the way they’re drawn is quite different from most of the games out there. First off, thank the makers of Gamevil that they stepped away from the Super-Deformed (SD) characters that had populate a lot of anime-based games cluttering the app store. Each character has its own theme and though several classes share the basic template, they’re unique enough that you can distinguish which is which.

The moves in Kritika: The White Knights are classic over-the-top affairs that seem to be straight out of a shonen anime. One of the Éclair’s moves, her special move, is classic. She sheathes her weapon, raises her hands, and energy swords materialize in the sky. Then a  moments later they rain down on the battlefield, damaging everyone. Awesome effects, and what's more you get an upskirt view of the Eclair as a bonus!

There are graphical shortcomings of course, this being on a mobile phone after all. The characters, though rendered well in 3D, are still too angular and polygonal for my tastes. The stages, although well detailed, can get in the way of your view. The same thing can be said for the enemies, some of which are over-sized to the point you can barely see your character moving around it.

Eventually though, as you get used to the visual style and the game’s limitations, this will be more of a minor annoyance than a big turn-off.

Lots To Do, So Little Time

One thing that got me hooked with this game was that there’s just so much to do. Yes the meat of the game is to go in and hack-n-slash anything that moves, but there are so many side dishes to fill the time between energy refills that you can leave the main course alone for a while.

The game’s main mode is the Campaign mode, where you enter scenarios, fight enemies and beat the boss in the time allotted for you. The second are special instances where you play for additional Gold, Sapphires, Gems, Meteorites and Inherit Material (items that you use to transfer upgrades from one item to another). Finally the third game mode is the PVP mode, where you pit your character against other players’ characters. Of note is the Melee Mode where you and 2 of your sub-characters duke it out in a battle royale with 3 characters from the roster of other players. Enjoyable and very exciting.

But even after you played all these game modes, and had run out of energy or tickets to enter, you can continue playing the game. You can join or create a Guild and join Guild battles, enhance equipment, add special abilities to them, combine useless junk into more useful stuff, get a pet and train it, increase your stats and skills and customize your look with special skins available.

Moreover, Gamevil comes out with regular updates to Kritika: The White Knights, like new classes and even special modes. One time, after losing my phone I was not able to play the game for 4 months. After I finally reinstalled it, I noticed a lot of changes to the game that kept it fresh and kept me playing.

Pay-to-Win

A lot of people complain about the way most mobile games are set-up so that it favors the “whales” or people who pay insane amounts of money to unlock special abilities and features of the game. Many call this Pay-To-Win and a lot of people akin it to lazy gaming. Kritika: The White Knights is no stranger to this. At almost every turn you are prompted to buy some sort of game package. Some seem harmless, but others cost insane amounts. There is this particular starter package worth $100.00 and every time you level-up or even sign in, it reminds you of this “premium” purchase.

Moreover, the top players are those who’ve got so much premium gear that it’s just mind-boggling they’ve spent so much on a game. Also, their VIP system is just another way of encouraging people to spend money on the game.

This is not to say though, that in order for you to get ahead of other players, or get further in the game, you have to dole out real world cash. On the contrary, Kritika: The White Knights is set up that if you were diligent enough, you can get to the same level as other top players. The different game modes let you gather items to craft powerful items that can rival others out there.

There are times though when you really need that special currency to get items of value (skins for example), however, the game is set up so that with enough time and hard work you can get them for free. Gamevil is quite generous with their premium currency, especially with new and returning players, sometimes offering up to 1000 Karats just for them to play. Daily sign-ins are also rewarded and there are days when you get a bunch of them for free. Participating in the PVP arena (1vs1 and Melee) gives you a small amount of premium cash every time you win as well. Finally, Gamevil typically doles out premium in-game cash every time there is maintenance or unexpected down-time.

Despite the obvious in-game gimmicks for you to fork over your hard-earned money, the game can be played for free. Know that I have done so for a year now and I have enjoyed it so far. I told myself I would one of these days purchase one of those Premium packages, just to thank Gamevil for creating such a great game. But then again, maybe not, as it has stolen enough productive hours from me already.

Guaranteed Time-Waster – That’s a Fact

All-in-all despite its obvious flaws, there’s just so much in this little package of a mobile game that you will waste a lot of hours playing and ranking up that even as the hours pass by, it really won’t matter, as your Berserker finally gets awakened to its full power.