The Onion Knights Review

Sometimes after playing hardcore titles such as the rage-inducing Bloodborne or gripping games like The Last of Us and Resident Evil 7, you’d probably want to take a break in between your gaming hours to free yourself of the pressure. Well, there’s a whole lot of simple yet fun games currently available on the PlayStation Store to do just that. However, you don’t want them mindless gaming, and you’d want them to challenge your skills and wits. That’s what The Onion Knights did for us.

Sometimes after playing hardcore titles such as the rage-inducing Bloodborne or gripping games like The Last of Us and Resident Evil 7, you’d probably want to take a break in between your gaming hours to free yourself of the pressure. Well, there’s a whole lot of simple yet fun games currently available on the PlayStation Store to do just that. However, you don’t want them mindless gaming, and you’d want them to challenge your skills and wits. That’s what The Onion Knights for the PlayStation 4 did for us.

Plot

In the age of the Great Binge, the Broccoli, Potato and Ginger have all fallen to the enemy empire of Curry and now only the Onion Kingdom is left. But just as curry cannot be complete without onions, the Curry Empire keeps attacking the Onion Kingdom. To guard their kingdom, their greatest army has been sent into battle - the Onion Knights.

The plot is kept fairly simple. During the age of the Great Binge, the kingdoms of Brocolli, Potato and Ginger have all fallen to the empire, and yours, the Onion Kingdom, is the only one left standing. Your job is to defend the Onion Kingdom using your troops and your skills, and that’s really just about it.

Gameplay

Onion Knights at first glance seems like a tower-defense title, albeit one where your primary line of attack is a cannoneer that can only move up and down. The main objective is to halt the advances of the different types of enemies as they move forward to your castle, which gets a tad more difficult as you progress.

You’ll get to beef up your cannoneer through upgrades that can increase your damage and your hit points, and you’ll also be assisted from your three primary heroes using their skills and an extra hero, plus the items that can either give you improved stats, replenish the health and mana of your cannoneer, summon heroes, or eliminate enemies that are currently on the field. Of course, leveling up your characters through the use of gold is necessary if you want to further progress. Gold is the form of currency, but there are also gems that can also aid you in upgrading your stats and heroes. The latter does come scarce, however, so you may want to save it for endgame.

It’s a different take on a game of tower defense, but it’s actually much more than that. Sure, it’s probably a no brainer that the standard difficulty setting is easy enough for the average gamer, and most times this is where you’d want to perfect your scores. It does pose a challenge from time to time, but it’s not as frustrating as seeing the “YOU DIED” screen in Bloodborne or Dark Souls. It’s a fun pick-me-up game that you can play without the difficulties of getting a 100% completion on certain titles, which makes it a fun stress relieving title if I do say so myself.

However, if you’re not really in it for leisure and you want to maximize your time with it, you’re in for a treat. The Onion Knights has two hardcore game modes that you can attempt, and both of them can really grate on your nerves if you want to finish them. One is the Hard Mode where, as its name suggests, will make the game harder exponentially. This mode will pit more enemy troops against you, with bosses for each levels firing artilleries at you and it’s bullet hell when they do. It’s a fun and rewarding mode when you get to complete each level, although there are no merits in beating it save for bragging rights.

On the other hand, the Extreme Mode is the equivalent of Survival Mode where you will attempt to withstand all of the enemy waves until you can no longer fight. What’s fun here is that all of the gold you collect will carry over to the main game, so it’s also rewarding and fun to go through it whenever you want to upgrade your skills, heroes, and cannon.

Graphics

In terms of graphics, The Onion Knights isn’t exactly presented in the most visually exhilarating of ways. The graphics are quirky fun, and it’s actually a good representation on what the plot and the battle system are. Character models are also cutesy, and the animations are quite enjoyable to watch. If there’s one thing to gripe, it’s the different in visual presentation for some of the models and animations – players and enemy troops are rendered in 3D, while some of the attack animations from troops and heroes are animated illustrations that feel off. It’s not exactly a dealbraker, but it’s one you’ll probably nitpick on.

Customizations

As mentioned, your cannoneer isn’t your only line of defense against enemy troops. You’ll have the help of your hero skills and another hero to boot, which you can upgrade accordingly to help you out during large waves of enemies swarming towards you. Skills are very useful in the battle since they are AOE attacks, giving you enough breathing time if you are being swarmed by the enemy troops. There are a lot of skills that are situational, while some are quite useful for spamming. It’s up to you which you want to upgrade, although you can opt not to if you want further game challenges that are self-imposed.

As for your hero selection, you can upgrade the one you choose through hero cards that you can acquire as you play. However, these don’t come in pretty often, so do take note that you’ll have to invest in one hero to achieve the desired effect efficiently.

Items on the other hand are straightforward. There are descriptions that will give you the lowdown on certain items you can use during battles. Some actuate as soon as the battle starts, while the majority are manually activated for situational/emergency cases.

Verdict

There are those who look for games for leisure and for killing time, and there are also those hardcore enough to make it as a profession or a passion. And in that note, when gaming is all that can really satisfy your interests even when gaming is all you’ve been doing, pick-me-up titles will be your cup of tea to relieve your stress, boredom, or breather from playing.

THEM Corporations’ The Onion Knights can provide you with a clean and satisfying break from hardcore gaming – its simple take on a tower defense is a breath of fresh air, and its competitive modes can fill you in if you want the challenge. At SGD22, The Onion Knights can last you a while if you’re looking for a fun-yet-competitive title that you can pick up whenever you need something fun and fresh.