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On its face, this system is pretty simple, but The Ruined King manages to make it exciting by attaching dozens of buffs, debuffs, and special effects to which Lane you happen to be in at any given moment. Power Lane attacks hit hard, but take a while to set up. Balance lane attacks have an even split between attack power and speed. Speed Lane attacks come out faster and deal less damage. Lane abilities also ask you to choose which lane you’ll be attacking in, which is another translation from League. Basic attacks generate temporary mana in the form of Overcharge, which allows you to cast your strongest abilities without wasting precious Mana. Each character has a mix of instant abilities and lane abilities which have casting times and usually cost mana. Each fight has a timeline, which lets you see who will act and when. The game uses an active time battle system, reminiscent of some early Final Fantasy games. In addition to its solid writing, The Ruined King has managed to translate League’s signature mechanics into a totally different genre, to varying degrees of efficacy. The Ruined King presents a new opportunity to showcase this type of work by putting it directly in front of players, and, in its opening 10 hours, the game is pulling it off.

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The majority of League’s storytelling has come from external materials - ranging from a comic series to the short stories frequently posted on the game’s website (Hell, even skin descriptions have no small amount of lore and writing attached to them). Every entry I’ve seen has been genuinely well written and I’m really excited to pore over them once I actually complete a few of the stories. The letters detail the convert’s slow exposure to and corruption by a cult-ish sect of the faith. I’ve found a series of letters between a priestess of Nagakabouros, a Buhru deity, and a recent convert. Scattered throughout Bilgewater and the Shadow Isles are journal entries, letters, and pieces of text that will slowly fill your inventory. There is also a tremendous amount of writing in The Ruined King, and the vast majority of it seems great. A mansion off the beaten path in the game’s first major dungeon, for example, treated me to a short story about a family of ghosts coming back together, before leaving the site of their haunting to travel the world. The game’s level and environmental design is incredibly detailed and there’s small things to find just about everywhere - from short side areas with simple puzzles and interesting narratives, to new equipment and gorgeous vistas. Learning the rules and rhythms of a single city is far more approachable than having to learn the rules, customs, and cultures of an entire world.Īnd those rules and rhythms are worth learning. This is a story about one place, which means that it’s an incredibly easy introduction for new players. But the game’s camera basically never leaves the city. Not every character you’ll meet will be from Bilgewater - characters will talk about other parts of the world, but you’ll never go there yourself. The Ruined King acts as a brilliant introduction to Bilgewater, and Runeterra by proxy, through its near unwavering focus. You play as a handful of League’s Champions as they push back against the encroaching black mist and the titular Ruined King. The city is layered, wet, and hungry - to paraphrase Illaoi, one of the game’s main characters, it is a city built on desire in all of its many forms. The Ruined King is a turn-based RPG for Xbox One/Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Switch, and PC, set in Bilgewater, a major location in League of Legends’ setting, Runeterra. This piece originally ran on Kotaku Australia on December 1, 2021. League of Legends remains one of the biggest games in the world, despite its rampant community toxicity and the tremendous time investment required from most players - but things like The Ruined King and Riot’s recent Netflix series Arcane allow people without a death wish to dive into Runeterra. The Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is, like many of Riot’s recent projects, an effort in translation.

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