Fairy Tale Spotlight: Knack (Game Series)

So Knack is a video game for the PS4 that came out in 2013. It was followed up by a sequel in 2017. I dearly love them both. I won't spoil very much because I am more interested in talking about the main character and what he is in this series.

The series is all about adventure and the fighting of evil. A lot of the themes are extremely cliché but not in a bad way. It takes place in a advanced world where humans went from primitive to advanced in a short period of time after discovering ancient technology. Interestingly they are still suffering attacks from a race of goblins.

Knack is a golem that was created by one of the human's leading scientists. He is a core that magnetizes little funny-shaped blocks called relics to himself which creates his body. The more relics he finds, the bigger and stronger he gets. This provides the main game play loops which has him growing in size as a level progresses. Loads of fun really.

In his smallest state, Knack does not have enough relics to process communication. Once he picks up enough relics, he is able to get some mouth-work going and actually speak. He has a deep and booming, yet friendly voice. He is 100% loyal to the humans that created him. This loyalty, at no time, ever sways. He is truly their creation, and as the game says many times, he is alive. He is life. And the humans created that life.

Now one of the biggest complaints these games have from some of the very critical reviews [almost none of them liked these games] is that the game seems to be more about the humans (that you never play) while the main character (Knack) just does work for them. The critics seem to prefer the game show Knack as more of a deciding protagonist rather than a pet that can beat stuff up and lift big things. A lot of people hate this game because of this.

Here is the problem with the argument. Knack is a golem. He was created to serve the humans. He has no interest in anything other than that. He is also a genuinely nice person... to the humans. To their enemies, he has no qualms about crushing and killing them.

Knacks loyalty even extends to what some people might call absurd levels. Lucas is the golem's best friend. He is also a confused and often tortured teenager. Lucas is often known for making rash decisions that put people in jeopardy due to his immature ego. Despite kind of realizing this, Knack always remains faithful to Lucas even when it seems like it's the wrong thing to do. He does this because he can't help it. It's in his programming.

To make Knack feel like more of a humanized character might have pleased the critics, but it would have been wrong. It would not have shown golems in the correct light. As loving and faithful as Knack is... he is not human. He never will be. And yet, he is awesome to watch as he grows and beats the crap out of the bad guys... but the humans in the story are the real driving force, whether or not they be in the right. They are the ones really winning the battle. If they make the wrong decisions, so will Knack.

The fact that you play the golem who is bound by his human creators is likely what puts off the reviewers. They don't understand that the developers of these 2 games did it correctly. I applaud them for it. I am also very pleased that they made a sequel to a game that was panned from release. They even doubled down on the original message. They bothered, and the world is better for it. I whole-heartedly recommend the Knack series for its sense of adventure, lovable characters, and one of the best representations of a golem I have ever seen in fiction. Bravo.

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