Floppy Knights Indie Video Game Review

Recently the tactical strategy card game has been one of my favorite video game genres. There is just something really satisfying about a game that combines the two genres together really well. Today I am taking a look at Floppy Knights which released today. Between the interesting gameplay and charming theme, I was excited to check out the game. Floppy Knights finds a great balance between depth and accessibility to create a fun tactical strategy card game that fans and newbies alike can enjoy.

In Floppy Knights you play as Phoebe and her robotic arm companion Carlton. Phoebe is a brilliant inventor who has come up with a new invention, Floppy Knights. Floppy Knights are basically projections that can interact with the world. Phoebe’s goal is to use them to make enough money to finally move out of her parents’ house.

Floppy Knights is basically a mixture of turn based tactical strategy and card games. The objective of each level can vary. Some missions require you to defeat all of the enemies. Others have you capture a location and hold it for a certain number of turns. There are other types of objectives as well. Each level takes place on a grid board that all of the units move around on.

Before you start each mission you will get to build your own deck to bring into the battle. There is a limit of 30 cards, but you can use any combination of cards that you have already acquired. You will acquire cards from completing missions. You can also use coins to craft new cards for your deck.

These cards come in a couple different types. Some cards let you spawn units inside designated areas on the board. There are movement cards that let you move units around the board based on their speed stat. Various attack cards allow you to deal damage to enemies within a unit’s attack range. Finally there are a number of stat boost cards and others that provide various benefits to a specific unit or your whole team.

You will play Floppy Knights in turns. Each turn you will get a certain amount of energy to spend. This energy is used to play cards that you draw at the beginning of your turn. You will use your cards to move your units around the board and attack enemies. After you take your turn, your opponent will take theirs. When a unit loses all of its health it is removed from the board. Should your leader unit run out of health, you will fail the mission and have to restart from the beginning.

Any regular readers of Geeky Hobbies will know that I am a big fan of both board games and video games. In some ways Floppy Knights kind of feels like both. Creating your deck can be a big factor in how well you do. At the beginning of the game you only have access to one set of cards, but you will later get access to two more. These cards can be mixed and matched so you can create your own unique deck. This allows you to craft a deck that fits your playstyle.

In some levels I think some playstyles might work better than others, but the game gives you options. I always appreciate when games give you choices in how you play it. You can choose to go the more direct path with high damage/health and keep hitting the enemy units until you defeat them. Otherwise you could go with a more indirect path using special cards to power up your units, or use special abilities to turn the tide of battle in your favor.

Floppy Knights greatest strength might just be the fact that you have a direct impact on how well you will do. There is some luck to the order that you draw your cards. Usually you will win or lose based on your decisions though. As none of the units have a lot of health, one or two bad decisions could lead to your failure in a mission. Since there is no rewind feature, you need to be sure of what you want to do before you play a card.

The game makes it easy to see where enemies can move and attack each turn. Therefore you need to use this to your own advantage. Sometimes you can be aggressive, but you can’t just throw a unit into a group of enemies willy nilly and expect them to survive. Instead you are better off picking your battles and then making sure you can minimize damage from enemies.

With its cartoony style you may not think there would be a lot of strategy to the game. It may not be a strategic masterpiece where you have to think ten turns in advance, but your decisions will easily impact whether you are successful. You need a plan if you want to be succeed. Generally you want to plan out the entire turn before you start playing cards. You don’t want to run out of energy or the required types of cards when you are right in the middle of your plan for the turn. If you just wing it, you will likely get stuck in a situation that you can’t get out of.

While the game has quite a bit of strategy, it doesn’t mean that Floppy Knights isn’t accessible. If you have ever played one of these type of games before, you will likely be able to jump right in and generally know what you are doing. If you have never played a game like this before though, it is still accessible where you can figure it out after a small learning curve. The game was designed to be accessible, and that is exactly what it is.

Ultimately Floppy Knights is the perfect mixture between complexity and accessibility that I generally love. It might not be as deep as a game that is obsessed with the strategy. This may turn off players that want a really complex game. Instead it successfully creates a game that fans of the genre and even those new to it can enjoy. The game really finds the right balance between being deep enough to be satisfying while still remaining fun.

As for Floppy Knights’ difficulty, I am not entirely sure what to say. The difficulty between levels can actually vary quite a bit. This might be at least partially due to how I approached the game. I would say that I found most of the levels to be kind of easy. I beat many of the levels on my first attempt while also completing the optional objective. If you take your time and don’t rush into things, the missions can be kind of easy.

Then there are occasional missions that are the opposite. I wouldn’t say that any of the levels are so difficult that it is a grind to beat them. Some levels will force you to approach them in a different way though to be successful. In particular the levels with a lot of enemy spawners are usually the most difficult. To stand a chance in these missions you basically need to take advantage of the fact that enemies won’t spawn if a unit stands on it when it timer hits zero. If you don’t recognize how you need to approach a level, you will have a hard time beating them. Even when you are aware of what you need to do, the levels can still be challenging. You need some card draw luck to go in your favor, and you need to utilize your cards as best as possible.

Because of this I am not sure what to say about the difficulty. If you play a lot of games from this genre, you may find a lot of the levels to be kind of easy where you will beat them on your first attempt. Then there are some levels that are considerably more difficult. The game is challenging enough that I still had a lot of fun with it. I wish the difficulty was a little more even though. Most of the levels could have been a little more difficult. While a few are probably more difficult than they need to be.

I had a blast playing Floppy Knights, but I will admit that the game may not be the most original. The game takes a unique twist on the formula, but much of the gameplay is pretty similar to a lot of other games in this tactical card game genre. If you are expecting the game to do something totally unique or different, you may be a little disappointed. While I wish the game had a few new mechanics, this doesn’t mean that the game isn’t really good at what it does. Despite the game not being the most original, I still had a blast playing it.

With the gameplay out of the way, lets move onto Floppy Knights’ story and atmosphere. It is obvious that the game is going for a more charming/cute theme. This applies to both the atmosphere and story. If you aren’t really into this style, this element of the game may not be for you. As a fan though, I really liked both the story and visuals. The visuals use a cartoony style which really works for the game. The story is a little cheesy, but it works as well.

As for Floppy Knights’ total length, I can’t give a definitive answer. I have completed the main story, but haven’t completed all of the challenge levels. The main story features seven locations with four levels per each location (except for the last one which only has three). The length of each mission can differ a decent amount. Some may only take around 20-30 minutes while others could take considerably more than 30 minutes. It really depends on how cautious you play each level and how often you fail. I have completed all of the main levels with their optional objectives, and it took me around 13-14 hours. Outside of replaying the levels I don’t know how much replay value there will be to the game. If the game interests you though, I think you will easily get your money’s worth out of it.

When I first saw Floppy Knights I was intrigued as it seemed like a game that I would enjoy. My first impression was spot on. It may not revolutionize the tactical card game genre, but it doesn’t really need to. It instead focuses on creating a great game in the genre. Floppy Knights is surprisingly accessible where even those who rarely play games from this genre can enjoy it. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have plenty of strategy. The game gives you quite a few options to customize things to meet your preferred playstyle. There is genuine strategy in the game as you need to have a plan if you want to succeed. I would say the difficulty can vary a decent amount, but the gameplay is really fun. This is topped off with a theme and story that are quite cute/charming.

If you don’t really care for deckbuilding card games or tactical strategy games, I don’t know if Floppy Knights will be the game for you. Those who are at least a little intrigued by the premise though should at least take a look at Floppy Knights as I think you will enjoy it.