I've played a fair bit of Knight Eternal and it's a solid throwback to the good old JRPG's of the late 80's and early 90's. So if that's the kind of game you're looking for, then you'd probably like this one.
Then again, if the retro JRPG aspect does not interest you, then you're probably better off looking elsewhere. Knight Eternal knows what it want to be and what you see is (mostly) what you get.

The game does however have a few features you don't often see in these kind of oldschool JPRG's. Namely, a minimap, a skill tree and a simple but nifty questlog. All very welcome additions but the skill tree is probably what adds the most to the gameplay.

There is also a lot of equipment to be found (and crafted) that'll both grant you skills and stat boosts. Combine the choice of equipment with the previous mentioned skill tree and you have a pretty robust system for character customization that'll give you far more control over "who-does-what" in your party than you'd expect. And although some characters are more fit for certain roles, you can easily make anyone the into mostly anything (healer, spellcaster, tank, etc).

As for the graphics, they're "okay". The quality of tiles and sprites vary as some look nice, and some less so. Same goes for the map design, most maps look decent or at least passable but there are a few that feel like they were rushed, with very oddly placed objects. But it's forgivable.

The soundtrack consists of your typical chiptune/8-bit music and is actually pretty good. However on the downside, some tracks get repeditive rather fast so if you're used to long playsessions you might feel tempted to turn down the volume after a few hours.

The story is good, but not great. Some cutscens and conversations are hilarious while others might feel a bit stale or unpolished. There is enough of the good to overlook the bad though, and exploring the enviroment will both reward you with random loot or trigger some hidden banter between your party members so I'd advice you to do so.

Conclusion: This is a nisch game for a nisch audiance, if you're a person who usually enjoy these kind of RPG's, then I think you'll like this game as well.

When I bought this game, it had a very high rating. I think it's down some to about 92% when I'm writing this review, and I have NO CLUE how it is getting high ratings. It's baffling because, although this game does fairly well in the sense that it has made its own custom sprites, it is ABSURDLY BORING. The only reason I didn't ask for my money back was because I had accidentally waited longer than a week to try it out after I bought it.

Essentially, the story is just flat out boring to the point that you will find yourself skipping over text just to get through it. The beginning is just plain stupid. "Oh hello, you guys are complete strangers that traveled here to our foreign land for an obscure reason -- here, have our only princess, heir to the throne, and take her with you into the dangerous wilderness with many monsters where she could very well be sexually assaulted and/or die."

Genius. Someone get that script to Hollywood immediately.

The skill system looked very intriguing at first, and it was one of the major selling points for me when I bought the game, but it turns out that it is VERY simplistic and straight-forward; there is not much strategy to it at all.

You don't really feel like your characters are growing in power. Your skills are based on equipment rather than ability, which limits what you can do. And probably the most annoying thing of all is that, half the time, you have no idea what you're supposed to be doing in the game, or where you are supposed to go. If you miss anything from the ridiculously boring story, there's no way to check to see where you need to go, and no map indication either.

The characters themselves are cookie cutter and boring. There is little to no development, so you have no attachment to them at all, and therefore, no interest in continuing to evolve them.

It's just sad that, after all the work someone put in to make these sprites, there was little effort put in gameplay and storyline. The presumption would be that most of the people who would buy this game could care less about the graphics, and care more about the gameplay and story, so again, how this game got a high rating, I simply cannot understand. Has everyone's standards dropped that low?

I got far enough that I got the ship and started sailing around. Traveled all over the place; couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go, and I uninstalled it because I had lost my patience. I was too bored to continue.

If I had to describe this game in one word: Dull.

I hope this helps some of you save your money.

Did a pre-release stream, yesterday Nov 4th. After 5.5 hours of gameplay here's my take on Knight Eternal.

The game plays quite well, the theme is enjoyable and the story is well-explained in game. This game is part four of a saga, but as the developer stated, you don't need to have played the other games to get into this one (although I believe it could help enrich the experience). The graphics and gameplay are great and there are very few problems overall with the game. As this is the developer's fourth title in the saga, their experience using the kit to create this game shows.

About the only knocks I have with the game are the lack of up-front communication regarding controller support in-game (the developer did a good job of communicating keyboard controls up front and mouse is supported at least) and the Skill Tree. Navigating the skill tree is a bit awkward due to the diagonal spots that force you to go to another location and kinda backtrack around. It isn't too hard to figure out, but diagonal movement support would've been nice. Lack of in-game explaination of some of the Tech Skills makes figuring them out frustrating at times (like the Sing skill you get with the Harp) although I guess some things being left to "trial-by-fire" isn't the worst.

There is one scene that a lewd comment was made to what is an underaged character in the game, while I believe it was made for comedy purposes, might be a little too edgy to some people.

Since I played this before release, I didn't know the price, but I suspected it was under $10 USD (the dev listed it at $6.99) so the cost is appropriate and I truly believe it is worth the money. There is replayablility with the Hard mode as I suspect it will be a bigger challenge (I played on Normal). Overall solid work.

Video uploaded to YouTube -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHL0JkipVc

This is an 2nd review, after the developer update the game is runs smooth now, and has no major issue, i enjoyied my time with the game, even though it did take a while to fix the major bug, is the game worth the price, i would say yes, at 5 pounds you can get 5-10 hours of game play from it, the story is a good story and the combat i would advise going at high level at the normal can be a bit easy for peeps who play this type of game, so i would recommend the game now

A nice little throwback to the NES era JRPGs.

Lot's of skills, secrets, enemies and a decent length of around 10 hours.

This is one of the better Steam 8-bit RPGs.

Positives:

+ The custom sprites look great, even if the overall color palette leaves something to be desired.

+ It's a neat idea that various pieces of equipment can grant synergistic traits, techniques, and spells. I enjoyed experimenting with different combinations of equipment.

+ The game takes place in an interesting post-apocalyptic setting, told mainly through brief glimpses in dialogue. (None of the sprites or backgrounds convey a post-apocalyptic atmosphere, however, which is a missed opportunity. I would have liked it if the game had leaned into the setting a little more, with NPCs not being quite so cheerful or unserious.)

+ The combat is fine, I guess.

Negatives:

- Uninteresting, unsympathetic PCs and NPCs. You will not care about anyone in the story.

- The dialogue is garbage and filled with grating, fourth-wall breaking jokes and cringe humor—it's as if the writer aspired to be Working Designs. (And missed even that mark.)

- The writer is apparently a twelve-year-old boy who is obsessed with lesbians.

- I liked the idea of the skill tree system, though it was disappointing in practice. On a first playthrough of the game, you're forced to guess which stats will be important to which character, and your choices can't be undone if you change your mind. (In addition, Spirit doesn't seem like a useful stat—which is unfortunate, because a highly-useful ability is locked at the very end of its skill tree.)

- Status afflictions and bonuses are completely obscure, as the only feedback you receive is an icon with no description of its meaning. Worse still, there's no way to tell if the enemies have been affected by status changes.

- The music ranges from mediocre to bad. You may find yourself, as I did, actually turning it off at several points.

- Poison immunity does not affect a certain relic that inflicts poison status. That was disappointing and a missed opportunity to demonstrate the power of synergistic equipment.

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Early on in the story, it's established that other heroes exist and routinely save the world. These other heroes—who are clearly pet NPCs of the developer—periodically show up to provide clues to the protagonists and test them in fights. Nothing takes the wind faster out of a story's sails as revealing that there are no stakes. The world is not in any danger if you fail in your mission, since it's evident that these NPC heroes are far more powerful than you and could stop any threat at any point.

(To drive home how little you, the player, matter, there's even a legendary magic sword embedded in a stone—and the NPCs are the ones who use it.)

Furthermore, at the beginning of the game, it's also established that there's a big mystery surrounding the identity of one of the protagonists, who has amnesia. A few hours into the story, this "big mystery" gets spoiled by one of the developer's pet NPCs. You're still forced to play through the rest of the game as if you don't already know the answer—as if the answer even matters at all.

Knight Eternal just isn't fun or interesting.

love the feel of this game and the skill system and crafting, i wish u had a bigger budget to make this game into like 16 bit and a little better animations but other than that great work!
couple of things, any chance you could put a marker on the map so u know where u are? and the pathing of the npc's blocks off doors little gripes other than that loving it!

An uncomplicated yet still fun classic-style rpg

By STEAM RPG Maker game standards go, this is a master piece, especially since it didn't use the frankly obnoxious default artstyle. The retro look is nice and very nostalgic.

Now I'm speaking as someone who hasn't played the other entries in this series, so I'm reviewing it as a stand alone product:

This game is pretty good.

-First, the story: The amnesia cliche character plot point is used, but not for the main character, and it's executed better than most RPG games do. Our hero's story is actually very good and surprisingly well written. It did honesty surpass my expectations. The side characters are engaging and likable, the character development is generally pretty good. The game world itself is very well designed and I really like it.

-Combat/Gameplay: The core system is competent, and the FF7 inspiration is undeniable, to the point that I would call it uncreative, but it's executed well, and the encounter design is good, so it earns a pass. It may not be the most unique, but y'know, FF7 is fun.

-Length and worth it for the price?: The answer is simply, yes. Good job whoever it was that made this game (I forget).

Muh score: 4 out of 5. Good. There are a few areas that could be improved, if that was done, I'd give it a full 5. Better than I expected for a cheap RPG Maker title. I'll look into your other games in this series. Hopefully at least some of them share this game's retro feel, as I'm not fond of the standard RPG Maker style.

Ok so as a JRPG fanatic I feel inclined to always leave reviews for them.
So I purchased the bundle for 28 dollars it included I think 7 of Joshua Keith's RPG's a couple were in sale individually but I went ahead and grabbed the bundle. The game above all I was excited for was Knight Eternal because I am obsessed with pixel/8-bit graphics and as soon as I seen a turn based pixel graphics JRPG I was pumped. Now for the game.
The soundtrack is amazing to start I was impressed with a 2 dollar game having a more classic esque soundtrack really well done there.
The starting plot of the game wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. I am not far enough in to know what's going to happen but I believe Dylan and his father are bad or up to no good which I dislike. I hope I am wrong but I don't like betrayal plots or characters especially main characters that betrayal their "friends". The chick falling directly on the ship is a huge stretch but it's not necessarily that bad. The way the plot comes together is ok, I wish it was a little more compressed there are some wild stretches of the game that I am like ehhhh. For 2 dollars it's absolutely a must buy let me say that. As for the map and world design it is weird but it's ok. A complete game that is playable and little to no bugs that kill the game. The soundtrack and battle system is awesome which is a plus. Overall I say buy it and play it at least once however I honestly don't know if I will ever replay it.