The Arthurian legend becomes much more interesting in this way.
Knights of the Round, on the other hand, is a more action-focused game. The background story here is about three knights, Lancelot, Percival and Arthur, in a quest to recover the Holy Grail and dethrone the evil king Garibaldi to finally unite England and free the Britons from slavery. As you can see, it's nothing compared to the movie Excalibur (1981) or King Arthur (2004), although Merlin do his appearance and Arthur himself uses the powerful sword of his father to bring peace to the land, so he can become the king of the Britons. A simple story, but at least there is no Guinevere betraying Arthur with Lancelot. =)
The gameplay is an improved version of Final Fight. The player doesn't only need to hit his opponents, but also block incoming attacks. Blocking is where Knights of the Round shines over the countless similar arcade games, and must be used in the entire game if you're planning to finish it with only one credit. Some enemies and bosses become much easier after you master the correct time to block, but the problem is the learning curve to reach such skill. To perform a block, you must first press the attack button and then push the controller backwards. If you maintain the attack button pressed, then your character will be blocking until it's tired, and then you become susceptible to attacks. Alternatively, you can step back right at the moment when an enemy attacks you, but that's really difficult to do and it's usually triggered just because you were lucky. No matter the way you block an attack, your character becomes invincible for a few seconds after doing so, which is definitely a thing you must use and abuse throughout the game.
As usual, Capcom allows you to choose between a few characters in their beat-'em-up games. In Knights of the Round, Lancelot is the fastest guy, Percival is the strongest, and Arthur is something between the other two. Strength comes at the cost of speed, so it's not hard to understand why Percival is so powerful and slow, although ironically he's the only one that can run in the game. Lancelot is a bit weak, and Arthur can deal often good damage, especially against bosses. There isn't a best choice, only the one that satisfies your gameplay style. All the three characters have particular special moves, which are quite useful sometimes. However the heavy attack, that must always be used, is a common ability between the knights. To use it, just press the regular attack button and press forward. Since there is a substantial delay when it's performed, it's best used immediately after blocking an attack, taking advantage of the temporarily invincibility, so you can hit your enemies with the heavy attack without getting interrupted by in-between attacks. When you're surrounded or about to be smashed, and you think there is no way to improve your position, you may use the desperation attack by pressing both the jump and attack buttons. This will damage all the nearby enemies and knock them down, but at the cost of a small portion of your character's health.
The opponents in Knights of the Round aren't very bright, but they are quite effective when trying to surround the player or waiting for the right moment to attack. Sometimes you may notice that, if you keep blocking, they'll not attack until your character is tired and with open guard. This greatly increases the difficulty in this game, but there're some problems as well. I think the most irritating one is when the enemies attack you from outside the screen. Naturally, it's almost impossible to predict such thing, so your best answer to this is to stay away from the edge of the screen. Another mistake in this game is that some enemies behave oddly enough to confuse you, especially when you're trying to defend yourself. When you open your guard, they instantly attack you without any possible retaliation, as if they already knew when you would stop blocking. Nevertheless, you can surely expect nice boss battles, and you'll need to study each one in order to learn their behaviors and beat them. There're seven stages in total, each one with a final boss, but there is a particular level where you will encounter two minor bosses waiting for you.
Anyway, Knights of the Round isn't that type of game where you die with only a single hit. Your character has a health bar, and it's possible to find food in barrels and chests to heal yourself. You may also find treasures that increase your experience, so your character levels up and your health is restored. Experience is also acquired after killing opponents, especially when you kill several of the same type consecutively. When you level up you also get a weapon and armor upgrade, which makes your character look more powerful, not to mention the slightly damage boost you deal when attacking. It's also possible to find a staff that gives your character an additional level of experience, but they're quite rare.
Graphics in Knights of the Round is something you should expect from a raster arcade game. It's a side-scrolling platform beat-'em-up, and naturally it's sprite-based. But it's very well-designed and above the standards of a 1991 title. Sound effects and music are quite good too, nothing to complain about.
A strong point in this game is that you can play it with another two players, each one with a different knight, of course. The number of enemies increase, and the bosses have more health, so you must act cooperatively with your companions to succeed. As you can see, Capcom wanted to make a fun game without letting empty gaps, which are present in most comparable games. I'm happy to say that they achieved that, and if you like retrogaming, Knights of the Round is one you should try.