Production began in 2008, with Game Republic pitching it to Namco Bandai during a period of financial trouble in the hope of creating a franchise.

Upon release, the game saw mixed to negative reviews; while praise was given to its premise and art design, its gameplay and Gretchen's artificial intelligence were generally faulted.

Knights Contract is an action video game in which players take on the role of Heinrich, an executioner cursed with immortality and escorting the witch Gretchen.

[2] During the hack and slash-styled combat, players use both Heinrich's melee attacks which can be chained together into combos, and Gretchen's magical abilities which are mapped to controller buttons and act on a cooldown system.

[2] In a fantasy version of Medieval Germany, seven witches safeguard the world with the Anima Del Monde, a mystical power split into seven crystals.

The alchemist Dr Faust, seeking the Anima Del Monde's power, creates a disease dubbed the "Black Death" and has the witches blamed for it.

Gretchen seeks to both stop the other witches, and seal the Anima Del Monde on the Brocken on Walpurgis Night before Faust can steal her piece and achieve true immortality.

During their journey Heinrich and Gretchen have grown close, and a final scene set in modern times shows the two still alive and protecting humanity from magical threats.

[7] According to company founder Yoshiki Okamoto, Namco Bandai underwent restructuring and cut studio budgets following this, which negatively affected Game Republic's in-development titles.

[8] Development was completed in January 2011, with Namco Bandai confirming that the game was declared gold (indicating that it was being prepared for duplication and release).

[9] The scenario was written by Tadashi Satomi, who had worked on the Persona 2 duology and Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.

[3] Game Informer's Andrew Reiner said the story delivered a satisfying payoff,[26] while GameTrailers faulted the cutscenes as consisting of boring dialogue between the two leads.

[27] Kevin W. Smith of Official Xbox Magazine felt the narrative fell flat after a strong opening premise,[28] while Edge briefly described the story as "terrible".

[26] By contrast GameTrailers disliked the voice cast's performances, while praising the environment and enemy design despite technical issues.

[24][25] Guinta enjoyed the combat mechanics despite other elements bringing the experience down,[1] while Reiner saw potential in the concept when the game's systems worked correctly.

[23] GameTrailers found the gameplay overly repetitive and faulted the punishing nature of QTEs,[2] complaints echoed along with other issues such as the camera by Schiller.