Gotham Knights explores the stories of Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, and Red Hood, with there being plenty of emotional points where they come together as family or in grief, connect to Alfred Pennyworth, and so on. Unfortunately, the story of Gotham Knights often reduces each character to one note.
For example, Nightwing will always struggle as the de facto leader and make dumb jokes. Batgirl is dealing with the grief and trauma related to her dad and Batman's, while Jason Todd can't go more than one cutscene without mentioning how he died and was brought back to life. Gotham Knights tries to make the most of these and develop these characters along these lines, but they are quite repetitive in this regard. And because of that, Robin gets the least attention among his predecessors.
Gotham Knights Tell Robin He's Not a Sidekick...While Treating Him Like a Sidekick
Robin's repeated story point is the most muted, as he often gets relegated to the background save for a few "aha!" moments. This is because Robin's story revolves around everyone seeing him as sidekick, and this includes his fellow Knights. There's even one point where Nightwing and Red Hood remind him that he wasn't the first or even second Robin, and essentially "batsplain" something about Batman's enemies to him.
In Robin's emails and activities around Gotham City, they push the idea that he is a "kid." If it's not his fellow characters, the fact that Robin was a sidekick to Batman is often the point the game, city, and villains push on Robin. There are moments where, like in one email, that Nightwing says he donned the new cowl to escape being a sidekick to Batman, but always saw Tim Drake as a partner to Batman. Yet, these moments are far and few between. That's clearly the goal for Robin's character development: to show him emerge from Batman's shadow and become a Knight in his own right, but the game drops the ball on this in more ways than one. It's inconsistent and at any point in the game, depending on how players approach villain case files for example, the most advances in this story can feel dialed back.
Now, if someone beats Gotham Knights with Robin, there is a scene where he says Gotham City will never be ruled by fear and expresses that he will always defend it. This moment recognizes Robin's rise to Knighthood, but since this scene unlocks the Knighthood skins for every character (and every character has a scene like this), it still feels like Robin remains in everyone else's shadow.
Gotham Knights is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
