Vidjama Gmaes Work

Memory holes it.

Knights of Pen & Paper 3 released on March 7, 2023, and if you were looking at picking this up on Steam you are far too late. On the plus side, Knights of Pen & Paper 1 and 2 are still available for purchase. On the double plus side, you don’t seem to be missing anything. The game’s reception was very poor and both the developer and publisher seem really eager to forget it ever existed.

As I said, Pen & Paper 3 launched on March 27, 2023. It currently stands at a 20% “mostly negative” rating on Steam out of 191 reviews putting it in the far lower bracket of review scores.

Why does everyone hate the game? Going by reviews, the game launched in a pretty bad state with a ton of balance issues, game-breaking bugs, a horrible grind due to the game being an obvious mobile port. To top it off, Kyy Games and publisher Paradox Arc almost immediately abandoned Pen & Paper 3 after launch. Following the March 7 launch the last patch notes posted on the PC version was March 30. Barely a single month.

I couldn’t help but check the Kyy Games and Paradox Arc websites and noticed while both companies still prominently display Knights of Pen & Paper 2, both would seemingly prefer to pretend that 3 never existed. The mobile store version is still online and lists “Northica” as the company handling it. That version was last updated on October 10, 2024 although recent reviews are loaded with 1/2 star ratings noting the game’s lazy design and overtly greedy monetization.

It is a mobile game after all. Sacrificing gameplay value for the sake of comically excessive greed is just part of the territory.