Comments on: A Magical Knight: King Arthur Diaries

By: getter77

getter77 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:13:57 +0000

Right, make that November 24th with support confirmed for Steam at the very least amid the other big DD outfits. They also still plan to do a retail release some months later and there are some fresh Stronghold screenshots on the mainsite.

By: getter77

getter77 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:16:54 +0000

Release date now set for the 12th of November on some manner of digital distro sites, time to update everybody again RPS!

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:02:03 +0000

“Arthur is still seen as an English national hero destined to rise again and save “Albion” form a great threat.”

No he isn’t English, was never seen as English and isn’t regarded as English by anyone except, it seems, you. Albion (Alba in Scotland) doesn’t correspond to England either, neither does ‘Brittaniia’: they simply indicate the largest island and at the time they were 100% “celtic” / “romano-celtic” – “England” didn’t even exist back then.

It just doesn’t make any sense to pretend that a 600AD setting involving magic etc and based on a mythological Welsh/Celtic hero-king who fought *against* the Anglo-Saxon invasions is somehow a symbol of English (Anglo-Saxon) nationalism.

Your scenario of ‘conquest’ is of one Celtic king conquering other Celtic provinces and fighting against Germanic (Saxon) invaders.

Just to emphasise: England, Scotland and Wales didn’t exist at that point. King Arthur isn’ regarded as an “English” national hero. You are projecting your own modern politics and nationalism back onto a game that you haven’t even played or seen yet. You demand for “balance” doesn’t make any sense.

By: lePooch

lePooch — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:34:12 +0000

God I’m hoping this is as good as it looks. I’m glad there are tool tips when you roll over almost anything there, so that you don’t spend half your time guessing what each button does. Some keyboard shortcuts might help too.
And to anyone who complains about spell spamfests, remember that you only get twelve of these guys, and stacking them together would be a waste, much like stacking generals in Total War was: it is great to have that much power in one stack, but it comes at the cost of less stacks of units to subjugate the far reaches of your empire. I’m guessing that having half a dozen heroes was the best way to demonstrate the spells for the video.
Also, the demos had them switching heroes a lot to cast spells, which signals to me that the spells will probably be on a pretty long cooldown, which would also mitigate any spell spamming.

And fuggles, that’s “knightly” adventures. As in heroic and chivalrous, not as in “general by day, hero by night”. Though both ideas kind of make sense from a gaming perspective now that I think about it…

By: Dante

Dante — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:56:16 +0000

Anyway, this does look very interesting, and the abundance of Knights (plus the mention of Sir Kay) suggest they're keeping close to the myths. It’ll be nice to see some of the more obscure knights given a showcase, for instance, did you know there was a mixed race knight? (Sir Morien, son of Sir Algovire and a Moorish princess) And not one, but two Saracen knights (Sir Safir and Sir Palamedes, the latter of which figures in many stories, and probably has a fair chance of making the cut).
Arthur was clearly an equal opportunities employer.

By: Unlucky Irish

Unlucky Irish — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:01:34 +0000

You still keep on returning to the original myths for your arguments, I’m not arguing about the original myths but rather their modern interpretation. Despite who or what he was Arthur is still seen as an English national hero, destined to rise again and save “Albion” form a great threat.. Now what I’m arguing that having a modern interpretation, of an English national hero subjugating the rest of the region through force (as this is a war game) with out the choice to play any other faction is a little bit suspect. Even if the game map doesn’t include Ireland it still features Wales and Scotland; countries which historically (and even till today some would argue) were brutally by the English. This is most defiantly not anything as juvenile as a rant against the English, I’m just saying that perhaps the developers could have handled the issue with a little more balance

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:20:53 +0000

Also there is no mention anywhere of “English” or “England” on their website. They reference ‘Celtic mythology’ and mention ‘Saxons’ as one of the enemies Arthur faces.

The map of provinces to conquer only includes the modern-day area of England/Wales/Scotland and doesn’t cover the island of Ireland at all.

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:07:30 +0000

Why do describe Arthur as “English”? If he (or anyone similar) ever actually existed they fought *against* the invading Saxons. If you really need to put some kind of [ahistorical modern-day] label on him then “Welsh”, “Celtic”, “Romano-British” or “Brythonic” would be far more accurate, definitely not “English”.

Also ‘uniting’ didn’t mean genocide: typically it meant turning a bunch of squabbling petty kingdoms into a unified force against a common enemy (eg invaders). A ‘good’ king also had the reputation of establishing the rule of law and justice in the place of lawless bandits or oppressive warlords.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:55:41 +0000

This looks incredible, if it lives up to its promise. For some reason, I trust them.

Keep us posted, Jim. You’ve got the eye!

By: Unlucky Irish

Unlucky Irish — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:50:46 +0000

Despite the content of the original myths the game is still about “uniting” Britain. Of course in game terms, and historical terms, “uniting” generally means war, genocide, exploitation and deceit. Granted this is the premise of many of a game, and I doubt it will put me of buying it, but the fact you can only play one “English” faction is a bit suspect. It’s like if a game based in the Balkans was released and you could only play as the Serbs.

By: kafka7

kafka7 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:05:34 +0000

At last! A game that is historically accurate.

By: Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:35:51 +0000

YEAH KING ARTHUR

GO ARTHUR THOSE KINGS