League of Legends fans experience a special moment not only with the premiere of Arcane on Netflix, but also with the surprise arrival of an RPG designed by the authors of Darksiders Genesis. How is it? And above all, is it made just for fans? In the Ruined King review, we answer these and other questions.
As an absolute fan of the League of Legends universe, being able to review the first title to expand the history of the MOBA from Riot Games has been a true privilege. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is an RPG developed by Airship Syndicate, studio responsible for titles such as the remarkable Darksiders Genesis or the no less interesting Battle Chasers: Nightwar. The latter is of vital importance to understand Ruined King, as the inspiration in him is more than palpable.
The existence of Ruined King was no secret, as it was shown quite some time ago. What was an absolute secret and took everyone by surprise was its sudden launch on last November 16, and after being a couple of days without stopping playing we have finally finished it in its version for PC. And the first thing that catches your eye is your graphic section. Without beating around the bush, the game is very pretty. There are three graphic styles to differentiate: kinematics (drawings), combat (similar to Battle Chasers, perhaps less cartoon) and exploration (isometric view). Each has its own charm, although all three connect quite well with each other.
With Arcane, Riot has already made clear his intention to maintain certain continuity in what to its actors and actresses of dubbing it means. Ruined King has not been the exception, and the vast majority of characters have been voiced by the same person who did it in League of Legends (except Yasuo). In this aspect there are zero complaints, and they all do an excellent job of making the characters come to life. The music Perhaps it is somewhat flatter compared to the work done with the dubbing, and it can sometimes be repetitive. It is not something especially annoying, but it is a section in which there is really little to highlight and that simply accompanies, without more. Leaving aside the more technical parts of the game, we come to the three strongest points of the title: your combat, exploration and history.
A simple but effective combat system
They wanted players not very used to the genre not to have a hard timeThe combat it’s fairly straightforward in its approach, with “basic” attacks separate from more advanced spells and actions. However, the fact of differentiating between instantaneous and channeled attacks (which take a while to perform) is already quite a pleasant twist, and if we add to that the lines in the techniques and spells, we are left with a combat gameplay. very attractive.
Basically, we can focus each non-instantaneous technique in three waysHitting faster (at the cost of some power), balancing strength and power, or hitting like a trailer truck (at the cost of launch speed). Everything will depend on the moment and the technique in question, but the title itself forces us to use the three forms depending on the moment, as there are many altered states.
My face knowing that I was going to have to repeat zones due to a bug.
During fighting, we can stop a moment and analyze the altered states of our characters and the opponent, and this is going to be key in a good handful of fights. By not stopping to read what some altered states of enemies were doing, I ended up suffering resounding defeats (the famous wipes), and in many cases taking away certain benefits from the enemy happens by using a particular speed line. I have played on normal difficulty, and it’s been pretty easy. Beyond a couple of defeats for not being attentive, the difficulty is not too high, and it shows that they have wanted players not very used to the genre not to have a hard time. Veterans should consider playing on higher difficulties if they want the title to be challenging.
- Enchantments: to boost our team or raise it to a rarity level.
- Abilities: We can invest points to improve our skills with a simple progression system (it is not a skill tree itself, rather it would be a bonsai).
- Runes: a system that allows you to customize each character a bit, taking you through one of the two branches available for each one (tank, support, DPS …).
Finally we will explore the universe of League of Legends
The bounty board is a great way to get gear and gold
The exploration is another of the strong points of the game, and it is that Airship Syndicate has put a lot of care in the game settings and setting, making them feel alive (or dead, sometimes). The first time I toured Stagnant Waters I got lost a lot and thought that architectural planning was the work of a psychopath, but the more you walk its streets the more you understand that the intention is to make it feel real, and they have succeeded. The game constantly invites you to explore, and there is a bit of everything: secondary missions, a reward board with optional bosses, hidden puzzles….
All the scenarios hide secrets in the form of journal entries that tell a little more about the League of Legends universe or missions outside the main one that will give us gold, equipment and other benefits. The puzzles are quite easy, and none are particularly complicated (I will have left a couple unsolved, which have ended up being too abstract). In general, anyone looking for a hardcore RPG in Ruined King will end up somewhat disappointed, since it is quite obvious that the goal at all times has been to make it accessible to all types of players.
The scenarios show us the thousand and one faces of Stagnant Waters
As a lore fan I can only take off my hat and clapAnd we leave the icing on the cake for last: the universe. As a fan of lore, from the stories and the universe that Riot created more than ten years ago, I can only take off my hat and clap until my hands bleed. The game takes great care of its characters and their stories, and I’m not just talking about the cinematics of the main story: every time we rest, we can hear conversations between the characters in which they delve into their backgrounds and motivations. Until the game, Illaoi, Braum or Pyke they were just one more League of Legends champion, and with Ruined King we finally know what the hell has led the Freljord giant to Bilgewater, what Illaoi’s religion is based on, or why Pyke is the way he is (more in depth, I mean). The title, yes, collides head-on with one of the last LoL events (that of the Sentinels of Light), and trying to follow a canon within the universe seems difficult to say the least.
The game has like the islands: a few shadows
The combat is simple, but it will force us to stop momentarily to read the altered states
Not everything has been good, yes. Yes OK three quarters of the game has gone smoothly, I have had a few glitches and bugs. On the one hand, there are bugs in the visual section (especially in puzzles in which you have to activate gateways and platform) that should be corrected in future patches, and a couple of quite annoying crashes in the last bars of the game. To summarize: I had to repeat two areas again because my character was “trapped” between objects on the stage or directly trapped in a cinematic.
It has also touched me watch the same cinematic four times in a shop after purchasing a certain important mission item, or having to cancel the tutorial for each menu every time you entered the game. As you have read above, nothing serious, but there are little things that can get a bit tiring when they happen more than once. Probably these failures they end up being solved sooner rather than later, but it never hurts to be clear about the rough edges of the games. Do these failures make it impossible to enjoy the game? Not much less. Would it be okay if they corrected them and left a round game? You can bet it does.