Knight of Pen & Paper II - The Pen and Paper simulator is back!

Around two years ago Behold Studious released something that I enjoyed immensely! It was fun, it was challenging, and it had retro feeling appropriate for a D&D simulator. And it was also filled with references to a lot of other things, like games, shows and books.

Now the game is back, this time released by Paradox Interactive, the second part is a fact! And I'm here to tell you more about it.

But let's start with some information what Knights of Pen & Paper is for those of you who have never heard of it. After all I'm here to tell you what are the improvements compared to the first part.

Knights of Pen & Paper is a pen and paper games single-player simulator. And it includes everything that you might need - a sturdy table, roleplaying party (which you build), clever DM, rolling dice and a ton of adventures. Now the fact that your party is sitting on the table does not mean they're not moving. Oh, no, they're roleplaying traveling to all kind of places - swamps, castles, forests and what not....and the table is travelling with them. All those travels are of course for only two reasons - doing quests and getting loot!

The World

You're in the world of Peperos and you're chasing after the evil 2nd edition Paper Knight who is converting different parts of the world to 2nd edition causing chaos and sorrow in his wake. There is not much story really. You start in the Spawn Point Village and by following the main quest you're traveling to different strange places like The Brass Tower and...The Wall...yes, it’s made of ice. Most of your destinations are just places where you go to do your quests, but there are also few villages and towns. 

The travelling is done in the same way as in Knights of Pen & Paper +1 edition. You pay small sum of gold and you roll 1d20 if you get above certain number your travel is safe. If not you're ambushed and you fight monsters from the area where you're ambushed. You can travel from one area to the next or you can travel from one end of the map to the other. 

There are few new additions to the world. First is the Search option. Each area you visit you search for clues, when you gather the necessary amount you're rewarded with items. How you search? Well each of your party rolls a 1d20. Each party roll costs 5 gold.  

The second new things are the Dungeon raids. Some quests now are completed in Dungeons. Once you enter you cannot rest to restore your characters. You also can't Search in Dungeons. You can leave at any time but then you lose your progress in the Dungeon. The Dungeons are separated into rooms. The rooms might be empty, have enemies waiting for you or traps ready to trigger when you enter. There might be good things also like magical springs, treasure chests; captives which if you free will help you and many more.

The third new thing that Paradox has added is conditions to battles. Sometimes you will fight in the "dark" where enemies will have higher initiative, other times all the greenery around you will inspire your healers and they will cure your wounds like there is no tomorrow.

And the fourth new thing is that now there is a chance to get lost while you travel. If this happens you should pass few dice rolls. If you fail different bad things happen to you.

The Party, The DM and The Quests

As in the previous part here again you build your party of heroes by adding new ones to the starting two. As in the previous part here again the characters are strange combination of modern...hobbies, classic races and classes. For example you can be a rocker elf archer or cheerleader dwarf mage. Every "hobby" and race has one unique passive and each class has four skills which you can level up. You can have maximum of five people in your party, but you can exchange characters by leaving some in the Tavern and recruiting new ones. By completing quest and exploring the world you can unlock more races and classes, like the Exchange Student or the Ninja.

The DM is your God, you should listen to him, never think bad of him and trust him with your character's life. Now seriously by clicking on the DM you will access area options. Also he will talk with your party and nearby enemies all the time. Your characters will also speak with enemy creatures all the time offering them not to fight or threatening them or just total nonsense. All three of the one I mentioned will from time to time break the fourth wall. In other words he is one rather good DM who has accidentally angered the wrong character.

The Quests follow the formula from the +1 edition. There are again side and main quests. They also have kept the really cool system for killing monsters quests where you can choose the number of the enemies to face. This allowing you to take it easy or to really test your skills and party. 

Gold, Energy System and Buying Power

Knight of Pen & Paper as most mobile games have some kind of energy system and in this case is Gold. For every travel or Search you will need gold. But while travels are necessary and there is no way around them, Searching for items is not and not doing it will not harm your experience. But even if you do it and you're extremely unlucky with little grind you will be able to gather enough gold to keep doing quests without spending real money. So to the question "Is there Energy System in the game?" the answer is "Yes, but it's extremely fair."

Now for the buying power issue that mobile games have. You can buy decorations for your gaming room and they give good bonuses, but again if you don't buy them you will still be able to beat the game with ease. Not to mention that Knights of Pen and Paper is single player game so even if you buy every single item in the game with real money, that will change only how you experience the game.

References and Eastern Eggs

As I already mentioned there are a lot of references in Knight of Pen & Paper II. And if you have read my review of Book ofUnwritten Tails 2 you will know that I really like games that do this. But let me give you few examples so you get a better idea. 

Unlike the previous part here you will find a lot more references to D&D and problems between the different editions. But you will also see some more easily recognizable. For example The Wall, a diamond pickaxe from another famous game, one of the little ponies and even someone who really looks like Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters. Those are few of the ones that I caught, but there are a lot more for you to find yourself. Now unlike Book of Unwritten Tails for example here even if you don't get the references you will still have a lot of fun playing the game.

Conclusion

Knights of Pen & Paper II is not really a second part, but more like an improved version of the first edition. Paradox have kept all the good parts like the humour, the references, pixel graphic, traveling table and the turn-based battles. After that they have added few at first glance little things that actually add a good amount to the game, like the Dungeons and chance to get lost. 
If you have liked Knight of Pen & Paper +1 edition then there is no reason to wait and not play this part. And if you have never heard of it before, but it sounds interesting to you then go for it! The fact that there is previous game should not worry you, because the two have no connection with each other. 

You don't want to play it on a mobile device? Then you will have to wait until 30th of November as it is still not available for PC.

Links:

Official site

iOS Store

Google Play