Knights of San Francisco is a mobile text RPG adventure game created by Filip Hracek with illustrations by Alec Webb. With a brief runtime, you’ll experience a dystopian land like no other as you battle through hordes of orcs, goblins, and many other fantastical creatures while exploring a decrepit pyramid that stands tall in the crumpled land of San Francisco.
The story centers around a young necromancer named, Aren, whom you can customize their gender along with a significant affliction they have. Aren is determined to venture out into the ruined city of San Francisco in order to find their brother, Sarn. Long ago, Sarn abandoned his family to go become a Knight but wasn’t there to protect his father and Aren when they needed him most. As a result, Aren grew a bitter resentment towards their brother. I have to admire that with a short playtime, the premise itself explores deep levels of conflict with the main character as Aren faces their traumatic past. All of this is accompanied by beautifully written storytelling that gives you a clear sense of Aren’s inner turmoil as the game progresses.
From there, you begin your adventure and are immediately thrown into your first battle against an angry-looking goblin. The combat itself is very simplistic and reminiscent of a D&D style game. During your quest, you can encounter various creatures with whom you will have no choice but to fight. You are then given several battle commands of how you want to proceed: stab the monster’s eye, aim for the torso, confuse them or stand your ground. It’s important to think about each option carefully because it can decide whether you live or die.
After picking a battle command, five dials with downward swords in the middle appear. On each dial is a dark space that spins. If the sword lands on the dark space, that means it was successful, however, if it doesn’t then the spin is a failure. If the number of successful spins is greater than the failures, then the battle command goes through and vice versa. Each move also has a success rate next to it based on the current battle conditions – enemy type, weapon condition, etc. – so you need to check if a certain battle command is worth the risk of failure. If you end up failing a battle command, you can always re-roll your move by using stamina. But it’s also important to conserve your stamina since there are a limited number of items that can recover it. While the combat isn’t groundbreaking, I’m also relieved that it’s not very complex as well. Knights of San Francisco is meant to get the player engrossed into the world with its detailed writing and creative illustrations, not with action-packed gameplay.
Once you survive your first deadly encounter, you will finally arrive at the main setting of the story: The Pyramid. It’s here where you will meet a wide variety of NPCs who will task you with clearing out the tower of devilish creatures and overthrow the villain who resides at the very top, Big O. Then, you can travel to different areas of the map to uncover more secrets of the Pyramid’s backstory, upgrade your weapons by defeating enemies, and eventually find your brother. You would also be wise to befriend some of the locals since they can also be hired to help you in battle. Progressing through the Pyramid is pretty straightforward, and you will never be confused about where to go next. When you arrive at each area, the writing excels at placing you in it with its abundance of elaborate descriptions. There are also a few moments where your conversations with other people and actions while traveling to different areas can also be impacted by how you created your main character. For example, I chose for Aren to have asthma at the beginning which almost ended up giving me a game over as they were close to letting out a cough while surrounded by a group of sleeping orcs. While these moments are clever, they are also very few, making me wonder if the character-building choices mattered.
Knights of San Francisco provides a short yet thrilling adventure tale in unfamiliar territory in terms of genre, combining both a modern dystopian setting with fantastical elements. As a San Francisco resident myself, I would’ve liked to have seen more city landmarks that have been changed due to the events of the world but perhaps Filip Hracek and Alec Webb are saving that for a potential sequel. Another disappointment that I had was the illusion of choice in this game. Aside from the battle commands, not many of the choices you were given impacted the overall story, aside from a few of the final ones leading up to the boss fight. Having gone through the whole game as both a male Aren with a burn mark on his face and a female Aren with asthma, these choices don’t seem to change anything aside from a few minor instances as I previously mentioned. While this may not have been the direction Filip Hracek and Alec Webb wanted to go in, it would have been nice to have some sort of control over peoples’ reactions towards you and the fate of San Francisco as the player. Nevertheless, the two of them delivered a fantastic narrative experience that adventure lovers will enjoy.
8.5/10
Check Out the Knights of San Francisco Trailer:
Knights of San Francisco is now available on the App Store and Google Play for $2.99.
Mobile Review
I've loved playing video games ever since I first played Battletoads on the NES when I was a kid. Since then, I've played a wide variety of games on different systems, including Xbox One, PS4, Switch, and have mostly gravitated towards open-world RPGs and action-adventure games with amazing storylines and character arcs. I'm passionate when comes to writing and interested in working as a narrative designer.
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