A few years ago, I discovered this RPG on Google Play. Naturally, it piqued my interest and I gave it a try, and I do not regret it in the least. You play as a new Guardian in the kingdom of Kanterbury and it is your job to end the war between your world and the Invaders. You solve puzzles, dodge attacks in real time, and challenge various bosses across the different kingdoms while searching for the champions and obtaining their blessings to power up the Champion Sword, the very blade destined to end the war against the Invaders. However, not everything is as it initially seems...
What I enjoyed:
- Amazing story: When I started this game, I was immediately hooked by the tutorial section and the introduction of the Dark Magician. This story has kept me invested the whole way through; the jokes the game makes, the stories of each kingdom expanding with Nightmare difficulty, and even the side stories all have their charm.
- Deep connections: As I played through this pixel-based RPG, I couldn't help but feel immersed in the story. I felt like it was me walking through the different kingdoms, taking down Invader leaders, and even looking after the Little Princess. I felt actual emotions when watching certain cutscenes in the game, which I can't say for a lot of games.
- Fun extra content: I went through this game exploring as much as I could, getting the purple artifacts and the star pieces that I could, and I had a lot of fun figuring out how I was going to do that. On top of that, I also enjoyed the side missions and side stories; they actually fit into the game and made a lot more sense to me.
What could've been improved:
- Grinding: Guardian Tales requires a lot of grinding in order to get to the levels you want to achieve and progress the story. Even then, the game gets very difficult, especially the passageway levels. If you're looking to get through the story, it requires a lot of time and patience to do so.
- Unbalance: Some characters are clearly more powerful than others. I went through the entire game playing as the Knight using Libera Type B, which is made for them, but there are a lot of later characters who are more powerful.
- Slow development: I currently enjoy Guardian Tales for what it already has. However, it's frustrating to see all this new content the Korean server gets and having to wait weeks in order to get the same content. I understand that the Koreans are essentially testing this stuff and are able to use it first, as well as the fact that the Korean server doesn't cross into the Global server at all, but I'm trying to explore the game for myself, and the large gap between Korean updates and Global updates makes it difficult to stay spoiler free.
Would I recommend Guardian Tales?
If you enjoy action fantasy RPGs, I cannot recommend this game enough. However, one thing to note is that the game gets dark when you get close to the end of each season, but if you can get past that, this game is for you. At the time of writing this, World 20 is already released and World 21 is almost here, so you know what I'm going to be doing for the next week after that releases.
Guardian Tales truly does not get the recognition it deserves.
Note: I wrote this article of my own accord. I truly enjoy this game.
