All in Vain - Flame Knight Demo

Interesting gameplay mechanics can sometimes save the entire game from perdition, as long as they are fun and they help the players forget about the rest of the problems. However, this only works in certain situations, so it’s not always enough to keep the gamers interested or avoid their anger. The game at hand tries to lure you in with some intriguing concepts as well, but the experience itself may not really be worth the bother.

All in Vain - Flame Knight is not your usual RPG, although it feels a lot like one when you first open up the game and hear the story. However, the gameplay is a lot more similar to something you might have seen in Castlevania and various other platformers, especially since the perspective is the same, and most of the mechanics might feel very familiar as well.

Your main goal is to escape the levels and try to make your way to certain areas, from where you usually have to retrieve keys or various artifacts to unlock the way further. Naturally, the path is cluttered by enemies that try to stop you, so you’ll have to put your sword to good use. The actual combat is pretty basic and all you have to do is press the attack button repeatedly when you are in the proximity of your target.

Since this is till a 2D platformer, you need to get familiar with the mechanics and the controls before you are able to aptly navigate some of the trickier sections. Hence, jumping from ledge to ledge with extreme precision is a skill you need to pick up early on, otherwise the rest of the experience might become a bit frustrating. Thankfully, everything works as you would imagine and the character responds intuitively to your commands.

However, the graphics are a bit boring and the colors are too dull to create any kind of atmosphere in most cases. The level design is not great either, which means that you can easily get disoriented due to repetitive design and a lack of interest points. On the other hand, you can get past this if you are having enough fun trying to battle the enemies blocking your way.

All things considered, All in Vain - Flame Knight is not exactly a bad game, but it doesn’t feature too many attractive points either. Hence, it can be a good way to have some quick fun when there’s nothing else to do, but it’s not the type of game you would choose over one of your favorites.