The Legends await
I have been excited for Ruined King: A League of Legends story for quite a while. As someone who is a fan of LoL (admittedly I haven’t played the PC version in a few years but I play the mobile Wild Rift version daily) I was excited to learn more about these champions, as I have never dug deep into the lore. Not only that but as a HUGE fan of Joe Madureira’s as well as his studio Airship Games’ first release; BattleChasers: Night War, my hopes were high for Ruined King to be great.
The beauty of Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, is that players do not have to know anything about the world of Runeterra. While players of LoL will be rewarded with visiting places that they have only heard about in a blurb of lore; Airship Syndicate ensured that this game is accessible to many types of players. In Ruined King, players manage a group of characters (or champions if you prefer) that players would expect to see in League of Legends, but with some of their abilities changed to fit the turn-based RPG combat. These characters also fulfill typical RPG “roles” of being a healer, damage dealer and a tank. For example, Illaoi is a Kraken priestess who is capable of healing herself and her allies while also dishing out varying amounts of damage with her summoned spirit tentacles. But she can also function as a tank if needed, quite a few of her abilities allow her to excel in multiple roles. She was also one of the only characters that I didn’t recognize immediately as her premiere on League of Legends was after I had hung up my “Dunkmaster Darius” plays.
MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Braum the gigantic shieldbearer with a heart of gold from the icy lands of the Freljord comes with his Poro companions (think small furballs like Tribbles in Star Trek but with eyes and a giant tongue) who focuses on shielding allies and stunning enemies. Yasuo is a swordsman who relies on landing critical hits and applying massive amounts of damage onto a single target, the same way he destroys enemies in the jungles and lanes of LoL. Players will run into more champions from League proper, each will bring a new tactic to utilize in your quest to stop Gankplank’s machinations for Bilgewater.
The first thing that is immediately noticeable is the fantastic art from Joe Mad. As I said I have been a fan of his for years starting with his Marvel days; but it was his BattleChaser series that he was really able to do his thing. With Ruined King his unique style is noticeable in everything from character stills to the animation. Miss. Fortune’s red hair just pops off the screen much like the colors for Scarlet in BattleChasers: Night War. The murky greens, and dark colors make the Shadow Isles look as ominous as its name sounds. The pirate haven of Bilgewater is a beautifully terrifying place which might be a weird sounding description but it is an accurate one. The shanties and homes throughout the area, the grungy denizens wandering the streets, even the blue green haze when you explore the docks is all very atmospheric.
Players of BattleChasers: Night War will be right at home with Ruined King due to the developers not straying too far from what they did with the previous game. Overworld movement, dungeon abilities are all present here. Each of the dungeon abilities will allow players to get a free hit on enemies as well as hit them with a debuff depending on which champion is used. Yasuo can summon a small wind storm that will blow away any sort of environmental debuffs in the area as well as slow the enemies for the coming battle. However, it’s the combat that really reigns supreme in Ruined King. Combat is turn based, with a visible bar or “lane field” that shows each enemy and champion and where they are in the queue to take their turn. Each Champion is equipped with an “instant ability” that doesn’t cost any mana, these consist of “Attack, Defend, and Taunt” while the effect varies from champ to champ the result will fall into one of the above categories.
Ruined King employs a “lane system” in combat which I am almost certain is a nod to the games forefather. It works like this; champions special attacks cost mana and can come in three varieties depending on which ‘lane’ is chosen. The “Speed Lane” will activate the ability faster than any other lane but players will see a reduced amount of healing or damage. Its good for a quick attack that adds a debuff that can be combo’ed with another champion or maybe a heavy attack is needed; in that case players will want to use the “Power Lane”. “Power Lane” attacks will hit harder and give more healing but you will attack much later, sometimes after enemies have had two full turns. Adding to the variety, some battles have “lane conditions” in the form of healing, critical damage boosts, poison etc. Timing is everything when it comes to these conditions, so players will have to pay attention where they are on the field to avoid being poisoned, or set up the champions to have their damaged buffed.
The battle system provides so much flexibility with the various attacks and combos that are possible using the lane system. And while there is no need to “grind”, the usually way for players to gain experience points in RPG’s the battles can start to feel a little grindy by themselves. Discovering new tactics is a joy to be sure, but feeling like you are battling just to get to the next boss fight can be frustrating. However, the “lane field” allows for some cool tactics required for taking down bosses. One of the first that the champions will run into is strong against all of your conventional attacks. But they summon minions who will buff the boss and without spoiling the key to defeating her I will say you need to pay attention to those minions. Its encounters like these that make Ruined King feel different enough to stand on its own among the onslaught of RPG games available. Regrettably, these moments aren’t frequent enough, and more or less I just felt as though I was running through the numbers.
While Ruined King: A League of Legends Story won’t set the world on fire, it does do quite a lot of things that work well for it. The story that is told within this game is deeper than I imagined it would be. Via the champions it tells a wonderful narrative about loss; each of the characters you meet have all lost something, or someone. This game explores how they navigate dealing with that loss, while some like Gangplank will stop at nothing to get back his empire others like Illaoi is coming to terms with a lost love and their sudden reappearance. For League of Legend fans this game is a no brainer, finally you will be able to see and move around the world of Runeterra in a way that isn’t possible in LoL. But for those folks who just love a good story, interesting characters and pretty decent combat Ruined King could be that gateway game that gets into the larger world of League of Legends and its many, many offerings that are coming soon.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
