Essentially, a few of the LoL champs
- Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Braum, and a
few others – have teamed up to save
the city of Bilgewater from your
standard Deadly Fantasy Mist: the
same mist that has
consumed the nearby
Shadow Isles. Each
happens to be in
Bilgewater on
unrelated business,
before fate conspires to
bring the gang together.
There’s not much
more to Ruined King’s
story than that. It’s a straightforward - you might say clichéd – fantasy
RPG, with a setting that’s barely
touched on and characters moulded
firmly on archetypes. Sarah Fortune
is the fiery, headstrong pirate captain,
Yasuo the disgraced samurai seeking
redemption. Illaoi is more notable,
being a muscley priestess who batters
foes with a golden idol. Still, you’ve
seen versions of most of these
character types before.
Not that that’s necessarily a
criticism – it’s what you do with the
characters that counts. And the cast
of Ruined King, on the whole, is an
entertaining bunch. I feel I knew
them already, despite having no
knowledge of the game this has
spun-off from. That’s partly because
they’re based on archetypes, but also
because they’re so vividly realised,
coming to life during the juicy,
turn-based combat.
As in Battle Chasers, the animation
here is fluid and expressive, whether
it’s a basic attack, a nasty chomp from
one of the giant bosses, or one of the
flashy limit breaks each character
soon gains access to. If the story is
lean – wasting little time on trifling
world-building or character
development – then we can learn
about our heroes by watching Sarah
juggle her flintlock pistols, or Illaoi
heave her idol like a burdensome
bowling ball.
Particularly
impressive are the boss
animations, which
force the camera to
zoom way out to
accommodate them.
With their respawning
minions and specific
battle conditions,
they’re the enemies that make the
most of Ruined King’s complicated
battle system: a tangled array of buffs
and debuffs, synergies and,
importantly, timeline management.STAY IN YOUR LANE
JRPG fans will be familiar with
games that use a battle timeline,
meaning you can see the order that
everyone will go in combat. Ruined
King expands on the concept by
turning the timeline into a ‘lane’, a
term borrowed from LoL proper that
makes the whole thing more
confusing than it should be.
The icons in the lane are so small
and indistinct that it took me a while
to grok the system, which is
essentially a way to shunt combatants
back and forth along the timeline. Say
you want your pal Yasuo to act before
the enemy – just use an ability that
pushes them back along the lane.
Abilities have a wind-up time, so
might not activate immediately. The
enemy may kill your wounded fighter
before your heal spell finally goes off.
The lane system is innovative,
adding a few more layers of
complexity to an already robust battle
system. I just wish it hadn’t been
implemented in such a fiddly way.
Combat is clearly the heart of the
game, but a compact city sits around
it, housing sidequests, bounty hunts,
even a spot of mildly diverting
fishing. It’s just not very exciting.
Ultimately, much of the game just
feels like content, with a LoL veneer
daubed over the top.
As for why the story didn’t grip
me, it didn’t give me time to care- about the characters, or about the
fate of their world. This is a
CliffsNotes take on the RPG and it
feels like it starts about halfway
through the adventure.
Flashbacks filled in some of the
gaps, but not enough to make me
invested in the world. I suspect you’ll
get more out of this if you’re already
on-board with League of Legends.
75
Ruined King: A League of
Legends Story’s battle
system is the highlight of
an attractive but
unexciting RPG.VERDICTR
uined King may seem familiar if you follow fantasy RPGs. Not
because it’s a League of Legends spin-off, but because it
draws from the developer’s previous release, Battle Chasers:
Nightwar. Ruined King, too, is an isometric RPG with a
turn-based battle system and Joe Madureira art. If you’ve
played Battle Chasers, you’ll be right at home. Those coming to this from
League of Legends may require a more detailed explanation.
KINGMAKER
Is RUINED KING: A LEAGUE OF LEGENDS STORY in the right lane?
By Tom SykesFeels like
content, with a
LoL veneer
daubed over
the topLANE EVENT
Breaking down the complicated battlesNEED TO KNOW
WHAT IS IT?
A League of Legends
RPG from the team
behind Battle Chasers.
EXPECT TO PAY
£25
DEVELOPER
Airship Syndicate
PUBLISHER
Riot Forge
REVIEWED ON
Intel Core i7-10750H,
16GB RAM, GeForce
RTX 2060
MULTIPLAYER
No
LINK
ruinedking.com1
W A V E O F
MUTILATION
Some battles have
multiple phases,
putting you in
extended fights that
will test your tactical
chops over many
bouts of combat.2
W I L D A T
HEART
The lane. It shows
the order of attacks,
and can be tactically
rearranged using
abilities. That blue
box shows a future
Wildcard effect.3
Y NOT
Inspect Mode
lets you scrutinise
allies and enemies to
see the active buffs,
debuffs, and passive
abilities. With so
much going on, it’s
nigh-on essential.Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
REVIEW
123