Airship Syndicate’s latest title has been created in association with Riot Forge serving as publisher. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is a game that newcomers to League of Legends can easily dive right into without knowing a single thing about the video game franchise. Seasoned veterans of the massively online battle arena game though will find that Ruined King expands upon the lore of League of Legends immensely and will hook them with its excellent storytelling.
In Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, players will take on the role of a range of iconic League of Legends champions. Starting out with Miss Fortune, players will learn about her backstory and how she has to deal with a new threat after defeating Gangplank, a tyrannical pirate captain. This threat being the mysterious Black Mist that’s seeping out of the Shadow Isles.
Upon launching the game, players will be shown a brief introductory cutscene which shows how the Blessed Isles turned into the Shadow Isles. Now a place of evil and darkness, the Shadow Isles has seeped its Black Mist out into the nearby coastal settlement of Bilgewater. It’s here where the tale of Ruined King: A League of Legends Story takes place primarily.
Bilgewater, being closest to the Shadow Isles, has suffered a “Harrowing” event before and it seems as if it’s happening again. Players will slowly but surely be drawn into the mysterious tale told by Ruined King and it’s done ridiculously well. Without spoiling anything further, the storytelling of Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is the best part of the game since it incorporates gorgeous visuals in cutscenes intertwined with isometric action adventuring and role-playing elements.
Gameplay in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story involves players moving their playable character in an isometric environment and interacting with objects and NPCs. This is fairly standard but the environments that you have access to are so visually pleasing to look at and explore that you’ll want to look into every hallway or corridor just to soak up everything. Quite literally every single scene in this game is a masterpiece of artwork and it’s amazing.
Circling back to the storytelling gameplay, players will learn more about the world by interacting with NPCs and objects and reading through tidbits of lore. The major character development that goes on in the game is primarily achieved by means of Visual-Novel storytelling. Character portraits will converse with each other and objectives will arise after conversations driving the plot forward. The game is rather linear with a set series of objectives to complete but there are segments where you are free to explore for a bit before being funneled down towards your objective.
Players will be able to perform an attack with their characters while in the isometric view but this largely just serves as a pre-emptive strike which imparts a buff for the real battle mode. The battle mode triggers when players interact with an enemy and this is where things get complicated.
Battling in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story involves issuing commands in a turn-based manner to your playable party of characters. Where things get complicated lies with the fact that there’s two systems in play here. An “Instant” and “Lane” system. Using an instant skill, your character will immediately attack and charge an “Overcharge” gauge. Using a “Lane” skill involves selecting from one of three lanes. Speed, Balanced and Power lanes each alter the rate at which your turn will come up while affecting your skills power. The timeline found at the bottom of the screen also incorporates blocks. If your character’s turn falls into this block, you may be affected by an environmental hazard or something else. It complicates the battle system further and you do need to take this into account when fighting enemies.
Battles in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story take up a huge chunk of the game which players spending a lot of time fighting off enemies. Weaker enemies are thankfully really easy to beat but the tougher boss fights are where the game’s more tactical aspects show through. Players will have to optimise their character’s equipment and abilities/skills with upgrades in order to be successful in the game. The upgrade system is thankfully really easy to understand and players will be able to build their characters up to their liking as their gain levels and experience points throughout the game.
The soundtrack in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is flat out amazing too with plenty of extremely catchy tracks and themes that play throughout the game. You’ll find yourself humming some of these themes while battling your way through the various regions and locales on offer here. Graphically, this is one of the most artistically striking games you can play this year with Joe Madureira’s artstyle being great throughout.
Overall, if you enjoyed Airship Syndicate’s Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story delivers similar gameplay with some new twists and a distinct League of Legends story flavour. The game’s battle system is enjoyable but the real star of the show is the animation and art quality. The storytelling could have been expanded upon even further but the champions and their tales in the battle against the Black Mist will keep you entertained throughout. Whether you’re a fan of League of Legends or not, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is highly recommended but may be a bit too similar to Battle Chasers: Nightwar if you’ve played that recently.
Developer: Airship Syndicate
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
This game was reviewed on PC
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