Candle Knight Review (PlayStation 5)

by Pete Collinsworth · Published May 2, 2024 · Updated May 16, 2024

For this Candle Knight Review, we get to wield a powerful flame, overcome menacing creatures and explore the shadows of a ruined castle in this compelling 2.5D action adventure platformer which features a unique dynamic difficulty system.

Candle Knight Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
7.33GB Download size.
Platinum trophy.
Action RPG gameplay.
Beautiful watercolor art cutscenes.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play then a tutorial help menu for reference.
The absolutely beautiful game world, it’s like a 2D game in a full 3D game world and the camera angle changes to further enhance it.
Chalices once set on fire are used as checkpoints and respawn points.
Button prompts show up on screen.
Ignis system – attacking and blocking adds or reduces ignition which can build and then has three levels that affect your attack and speed at the cost of your defense.
Blocking damage takes segments out of your ignition bar.
Hack and slash combat.
Strong platforming elements.
Enemies can drop coins.
When you die you leave a corpse, regain it to get some of your ignition back.
Collect armor pieces to increase your health.
The world is very dark but you light it up with your flaming head as you go.
Merchants can sell you items.
Big boss encounters and smaller mid-level bosses.
Full inventory management system.
Frequent checkpoints.
Has a Souls sense of danger especially with combat.
You can relight checkpoints to replenish your health.
Has Metroidvania elements.
Find loot from chests and abilities to open up previously inaccessible areas.
Uses a life bar system.
Excellent lighting system at play.
You can jump and then do air attacks and juggles of you time it right.

Candle Knight Review Cons:

Cannot rebind controls.
The performance is not smooth at all the freezing, stuttering and all that happens alot.
The jump is over-exaggerated and takes a bit of getting used to.
After a death I have had the screen go black and never come back meaning a restart.
No way to Invert the axis or sensitivity sliders.
In a few instances the game just straight up freezes for a second which is enough time to knock all your timings off.
The menus can sometimes not be like the controller movement.
A really long initial load time.
Really hard-cut transitions.
No camera control makes it hard to see things below or above you.
Early on you die a lot and very easily more because the enemies hit so hard.
Some of the camera angle choices are straight-up bizarre as they make playing the game so hard for no reason.
You cannot view the controls within the menu making going back to it harder.
The game doesn’t really use a map so you can land up walking around aimlessly.