Crystal Knights review - "A Lackluster Idle RPG"

• 36 intriguing heroes to collect
• Dull repetitive combat
• Tons of rewards to nab

The Idle RPG sub-genre continues to proliferate on mobile, with new titles dropping all the time. Of course, with the many titles available, it takes something special for an idle RPG to be worthy of sinking your time into. Crystal Knights is a new real-time online idle RPG in which you traverse the world of Ignis. You’ll battle wave after wave of enemies, level up your heroes, and complete quests. But is this new title worth your time?

Collect Heroes in Crystal Knights 

Crystal Knights by Daeri Soft offers 36 heroes for you to collect and upgrade. Each hero has one or two abilities they can use in combat. For instance, Jude uses her Mutual Healing ability to recover ally health by a certain percent of her ATK depending on the skill's level, while Mentuf can use Ambush to deal excessive damage to an enemy by teleporting them.

The game features a variety of interesting characters, such as the mysterious crossbow-wielding James, who wears a gas mask that conceals his face, to the dual blade-wielding leader of the Cat Assassins, Benny. With such intriguing character designs, you’ll likely be itching to see them in action. Unfortunately, you may find yourself disappointed. 

Crystal Knights Combat

There are three modes for controlling combat: automatic, semi, and manual. As the names suggest, your heroes auto-fight when in automatic mode. In manual mode, you'll need to continuously switch back and forth between all your deployed heroes, as none will attack without direct commands. Semi mode is arguably the most entertaining, allowing all but your active hero to be controlled automatically. 

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Unfortunately, I wouldn’t call any of the combat modes entertaining. Most heroes only have one attack and one evasive manoeuvre, so combat gets old fast, no matter how you choose to play. You can also join other players in taking down more challenging foes in raids. Raids can host up to 32 players, adding to the chaos of combat. Thus far, however, the game feels pretty empty, and I struggled to find more than one other player to raid with.

Crystal Knights feature decent 3D graphics. However, there are usually tons of enemies and heroes on screen. To compensate for this, the game gives you a zoomed-out view of the battlefield, which makes it challenging to distinguish your heroes from one another consistently, especially as characters flit quickly about the field.

On the bright side, Crystal Knights is very generous with its rewards. Between quests, guides, and Pass rewards, you'll soon find yourself with a nice stash of Crystals, Hero Summon Tickets, and more.

Crystal Knights: An Underwhelming Idle RPG

Crystal Knights is a cookie-cutter idle RPG that lacks the creative spark needed to make it captivating. Quests are repetitive and tiresome, and completing them quickly stops feeling fulfilling. The heroes themselves are diverse, and their different abilities bring a bit of excitement when introducing new ones to the battlefield. 

However, that’s not enough to make this idle RPG worth your time. In addition, the overly small text makes reading anything a challenge and quite annoying, especially considering there is ample space for a larger font. Unfortunately, the game's repetitive quests and battles, combined with its poor UI, mean you are better off letting this title sit idle on the App Store than giving it a try.