Ruined King: A League of Legends Story Review – Royal Pain

Twelve years since its original release, League of Legends remains a top-rated esports game and one of the most loved competitive games. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story takes several of the beloved MOBA’s notable characters and drops them into an entertaining, albeit overlong, role-playing experience. Skill-based progression, explorable hubs, and turn-based combat might immediately excite fans of developer Airship Syndicate’s debut project, Battle Chasers: Nightwar. However, Ruined King’s implementation of these features is often mediocre. Nevertheless, the total package is an adequate single-player alternative to Riot’s multiplayer-centric titles.

Sadly, Runeterra’s verdant prairies are absent from Ruined King. To defeat the forgettable antagonists I was instead spending several hours traversing Bilgewater, the port city, and the Shadow Isles region. You will find wild beasts, vicious pirates, and restless spirit in these areas. Ruined King’s washed-out grays and sickly greens parallel grim motifs like revenge, greed, and displacement. However, I was unable to stop myself from walking through dark caverns in dark harbors for hours. This subdued hue palette began to wear me out. The many temples and markets became duller and less vibrant.

This is a shame because the ensemble cast – Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Braum, Yasuo, Ahri, and Pyke – have fun and diverse personalities. Silly banter and tense disagreements between the protagonists keep Ruined King’s predictable narrative interesting. Every legend has a different interaction with the game, which makes for interesting interactions. Pyke’s expertise as a harpooner allows him to dive into deep waters to access hidden passageways. At the same time, I’d shoot Ahri’s magic orbs from various angles to activate far-off switches or solve environmental puzzles. These abilities were invaluable, particularly when I was searching for rare equipment and lore documentation in dungeons. Of course, collectibles weren’t the only things that awaited me while completing main and side quests. 

Many areas host a variety of enemies. These range from stone giants and long-bearded undead fighters to stone giants. This helped to compensate for the lackluster level design. When a battle begins, an “initiative bar” at the bottom of the screen indicates the turn order, but a “lane” system – inspired by League of Legends mechanics – spices up the formula by allowing characters to move up or down the initiative bar at will. With reduced damage, a speed lane sword swipe or magic attack will be more effective. While shield bashes and gunshots from the speed lane are quicker to activate, they are especially devastating. “Zones” that appear along the bar have the chance to apply buffs or debuffs, so using lanes to obtain or avoid these random conditions added even more depth to the action. Even though I wish foes were more challenging, the clever rhythm of Ruined King’s lane system made me want to seek out brawls all the time.

I loved using Braum’s “Stand Behind Me” ability in the power lane to cast mighty shields on the entire party. And if I didn’t feel like waiting for a lane ability, I relied on default attacks for instant gratification. The ultimate meter is built up over engagements. Activating super abilities could often mean the difference in slaying the boss or losing the entire bout. Unfortunately, I couldn’t substitute party members in or out of combat, which didn’t allow for much roster experimentation. Moreover, during several combat scenarios, I felt like I was being punished for any tactic that didn’t include the typical healer or tank-focused lineup. It was difficult to fast-travel to an emergency spot in order to swap or fix this problem.

The gold that vanquished enemies drop is valuable, and more important, it gives you materials for weapon and armor enchantments. While traveling far from the main road, I was able to collect a lot of enchantment recipe recipes that helped me improve my combat skills towards the Ruined Kingdom. To increase my Crit Ratings, I altered my gear often so my gun-toting Miss Fortune and Yasuo could have significant attack numbers. I also earned ability points for leveling my party (experience points are shared), which I’d use to amplify default and lane powers. “Rune shards” were also doled out every few levels and, once equipped, introduced fun modifiers that bolstered stats of my choice, like Illaoi’s healing or Pyke’s evasion. There were many ways to customize my favourite fighters’ kits and upgrade them.

Ruined King, a traditional RPG in League of Legends’ universe features an engaging lane system which cleverly reconstructs the turn-based loop. The story is mediocre and the backdrops repeating themselves are a problem. The action and imaginative characters do their best to keep the game’s 20-30-hour time sink enjoyable. Still, players that aren’t already fans of Riot Games’ flagship franchise are better off skipping this entry.