Paper Knight Steam Demo Review
Verdict: Play
A hand-made paper Platformer built around the legend of Sant Jordi. I had a smile on my face the whole time, and the who
I had a smile on my face the whole time, and it was over in fifteen minutes. Paper Knight is a 2.5D fantasy Platformer from Narvalian Games, built entirely out of paper and craft materials and framed around the Catalan legend of Sant Jordi. You slash enemies, jump between platforms, dodge fireballs, and clear a hand-crafted level that ends in a dragon boss fight. The store page promises five plus hours in the full release. The demo I played is one level, one boss, and done.
Paper Knight is the kind of demo you finish in one sitting and still want to show someone the boss fight. The paper aesthetic is the headline, the Sant Jordi framing gives the Adventure a reason to exist, and the dragon finale proves Narvalian Games can stage a set piece. Go in knowing the slice is short and not looking to push your platforming limits, and you will likely come out smiling anyway. Play.
Pros
- The paper-and-cardboard look creates real depth without breaking the cut-out fantasy, and it carries every fight and platform
- Enemy behaviour adds small puzzles on top of standard Platformer movement, especially the mammoth tusk interaction
- The dragon boss uses readable phases and big sweeping attacks that feel like a proper finale for a short slice
- The post-boss cutscene sells a larger Adventure arc without overstaying its welcome in the demo
- Fifteen minutes, one sitting, still left me grinning, which is a strong signal for a cute Platformer pitch
Cons
- Difficulty sits on the easy side in the slice, so I had no urge to replay for a better run once I had seen the boss
- The move set is familiar platformer toolkit; most of the novelty is presentation and enemy quirks, not new mechanics
- One linear path through one level means the demo shows the pitch once and then stops, with no optional challenge to extend the session
Paper and cardboard that actually works
Paper Knight looks impressive, and that is not an overstatement. The layered cardboard creates genuine depth while still reading like a flat cut-out world. I have not seen a paper-craft Platformer sell the illusion this cleanly before. Paper Knight is an Adventure game in how it frames the Sant Jordi legend, but moment to moment you are in side-scrolling Platformer territory: run, slash, jump, clear the stage.
The art does the heavy lifting. Enemies, platforms, and fireballs all feel like they belong on the same craft table. That consistency is why the fifteen-minute run still feels like a complete little story beat rather than a tech demo with a sword attached.
Platformer basics, with a few enemy wrinkles
The core mechanics are standard 2D platformer stuff. Nothing here is reinventing the genre. Run sideways, slash enemies, jump on heads for a double jump, reach the exit. What saves it from feeling like a tutorial level with nicer textures is enemy behaviour.
There is a charging woolly mammoth where hitting the tusks makes him back off instead of dying. You have to think about approach rather than swinging at everything. Some enemies are more interesting than others, but there is enough variety to keep the single level from feeling repetitive. The Action is in the swordplay and positioning, not in a deep moveset.
The dragon finale
The demo ends with a dragon boss fight. It is not overly challenging, but the movement patterns are well done. Big sweeping attacks, different phases, the kind of escalation that makes a boss feel like a proper finale rather than a health bar with wings.
The paper aesthetic makes those wide arcs read even clearer than they might in a flat pixel style. After the fight there is a cutscene setting up a larger story for the full game. That is the moment the Adventure framing pays off. You can see where a five-plus-hour campaign is aiming even if the slice itself is short.
A slice, not a meal
I want to be clear about scope because the smile is real and so is the brevity. The whole demo took me about fifteen minutes. One level, one boss, credits. Because it was not particularly challenging, I did not feel the pull to retry for a cleaner run. I finished it and that was that.
That is not a knock on what is here. What is here is good. There just is not much of it yet, and the difficulty curve in the slice did not ask me to stay. There are no Steam reviews yet and no release date confirmed at the time I played, so this is a recommendation on the strength of the demo itself.
Game Info
- Developer
- Narvalian Games
- Publisher
- Narvalian Games
- Full release
- TBC
- Platform
- PC
- Multiplayer
- No
- Controller
- No
- Playtime
- 15min
Watch the video review: YouTube
Tags: Adventure, Platformer, Action, Indie, Cute
Appears in
- Best Game Demos March 2026: March was a good month for demos. I played more than I expected to, found more Plays than usual, and still had to cut the list down to keep it manageable. These five are the ones I kept thinking about after I put them down. Different genres, different styles, but all worth your time. Free to try on Steam, all of them.
Related Reviews
- Teeko: Teeko is a cute sloth Tower Defense platformer where defending Granny's food stand with coconut trees worked better than
- Well Dweller: A dark fairy-tale metroidvania where a shift-bubble launch will swear you out of the run until it clicks, and a scissors
- The Eternal Life of Goldman: Goldman has stunning hand-drawn art and smart boss design, but unskippable cutscenes hurt the pacing.
- Cliff Kingdom: Hand-drawn metroidvania inside a sea cliff where a depressed whale, a lonely badger, and a toupee-wearing slug called St
- HELLBOUND INC: A precision puzzle platformer where an undead courier delivers packages for a logistics company Satan just bought. I die
- Dungeons and Dining Tables: Cozy looks, dungeon bite: Dungeons and Dining Tables earns a play on demo alone.