King Arthur: Legends Rise is a turn-based squad RPG from Netmarble that launched for free this week on Steam. You play as the legendary King Arthur in a fantasy world where mankind and the gods are at war.
To gain the power necessary to fight back against the gods, Arthur seeks out the fabled blade Excalibur. Trapped within the sword is the dragon Caliburn, with whom Arthur makes a dark pact to gain the ability to wield it. With blade in hand, you’ll embark on a mission to unite Britain and restore the kingdom of Camelot to glory.
To carry out that mission, you’ll summon allies pulled from the pages of Arthurian legend — iconic characters like Morgan le Fay, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, and more. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, with innate attributes that can define their role in your party and power up certain abilities.
For instance, Arthur is an Attack type, meaning he increases attack-centric abilities. He also has the Bull trait, which improves the accuracy of abilities that inflict status effects. Meanwhile, Guinevere is a classic tank. She’s a Defense type, which increases defense-centric abilities. And she has the Hound trait, which increases those same abilities even more.
Each character can also equip relics that determine their element. There are three elements — flame, frost, and storm — with each being strong against one and weak against another in a rock-paper-scissors system. Enemies also have an innate element (displayed to the left of their health bar), and all three can be present within the same fight, so you’ll want to make sure your party is equipped with diverse relics to stay prepared for anything your enemies throw at you.
Adding another layer to party building is the fact that each character thrives during particular weather. Some prefer the day or night, others perform best when it’s raining, and still others power up when it’s swelteringly hot or during squalls.
Once you’ve decided on your party, you’ll explore a world that fuses the aesthetics of medieval Britain with fantasy elements. As you make your way through the main story, you’ll come face to face with horrific creatures that will test your combat prowess.
Battles are turn-based, and you can see the turn order in the bottom left corner of the screen. Combat uses a vigor system, where each of your heroes has three abilities, and which ones they can access during a given turn depend on their current vigor. Each character has a basic ability that will add one vigor upon use, as well as more powerful abilities that will use two or three vigor upon use. Some abilities attack one foe, others attack multiple, while others support allies with either healing or buffs.
So you’ll need to strategize and think tactically in each fight, taking into consideration elemental strengths and weaknesses, bonuses from current weather effects, and the vigor levels of each of your allies. You don’t want to get stuck needing a healing spell, only to realize your healer doesn’t have enough vigor to use it.
The main story will take you across Britain and see you gather strength and gradually rebuild your home of Camelot. But if you want to take a break from that story, you can make use of Adventure mode, where you can explore the overworld. You’ll find environmental puzzles you can solve to open new pathways, uncover hidden treasures, and find other secrets.
If you’re more of the competitive type, you can battle your fellow players in the PvP Arena, where you can create diverse hero combinations and engage in strategic gameplay based on your opponent’s deck.
Or you can take part in even bigger Clan Wars, a large-scale war system where entire clans of players compete against each other through battles, seasons, and leagues. Clan members deploy their collected heroes and strategically position them within their faction, utilizing structures, gimmicks, and buffs to lead their clan to victory.
To experience all of this for yourself, you can download King Arthur: Legends Rise for free through Steam right now. To celebrate the game’s launch, the developers are offering limited-time packages that provide unique benefits and are only available to Steam users. To get more details about the game and its characters, you can check out the official website. Or join the community on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, or YouTube.
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