BLACK CLOVER: QUARTET KNIGHTS

Never giving up, but we wish it would

Here in a world where everyone uses magic, you play as a young boy without it. Well, that’s not strictly true; Asta can use anti-magic, the rock to many wizards’ magical scissors. Black Clover’s a hugely popular manga and anime, and this tie-in delves into the past of Asta’s fellow Black Bulls Magic Knight, Captain Yami.

You’ll slice your way through golems and other characters in wave-based battles, three-on-one arena fights, and even a bit of capture the flag. Story mode is brief, 1 with much of the gameplay found in replaying the small selection of story missions as different characters or under set conditions. The optional challenge missions are even more bare-bones. While there’s a number of new animated scenes, these aren’t to the same standard as the show, and the game’s presentation is fairly flavourless.

Combat itself is more mashed than I like my potatoes. You’ll be hammering shoulder buttons no matter who you play as, though you can occasionally co-ordinate with your team mates for a Link Magic attack. Unfortunately, despite the flashy fanfare these special attacks are about as interesting as a plain baked potato, the damage they deal also being on the same level as a damp squib.

Playing as different Magic Knights, many of whom are more interesting than Asta, 2 spices things up but it isn’t tantamount to bacon bits, and fights never graduate to anything impressive, not even when the J-Pop theme song kicks in. Much like a baked potato, it’s all perfectly serviceable but not very interesting unless you’re a carb fiend. Jess Kinghorn

FOOTNOTES1 Including the timey-wimey twist after clearing the main story that offers another character’s perspective. 2 Noelle’s water magic is a fun diversion though functionally similar.