Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is a true single-player role-playing game in the League of Legends universe. Even I, who can’t get anything out of the MOBA hit, am looking forward to this game! This preview will show you why you should keep your eye on the game.
I am a gamer who plays almost every genre. Besides FIFA or racing games, my gaming heart beats for good single-player role-playing games and turn-based strategy. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story combines exactly these genres and is one of the biggest highlights of 2021 for me. I’ll tell you why even LoL muggles should look forward to these solo adventures!
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Ruined King: Such Excitement!
I have a confession to make: I know absolutely nothing about League of Legends. It must be five years since I last played the timeless multiplayer hit, and I don’t really have any memories with it. But, you can’t like everything, can you?
What I can appreciate, though, is the LoL universe and the cool characters that the MOBA has spawned over the years. That makes me all the happier about Riot Games’ decision to consistently expand the game universe with other games.
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Ruined King: A League of Legends Story presents itself as a true single-player role-playing game and is scheduled for release next year for PC and all consoles. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a hit, and I'm happy to tell you why.
Ruined King: Single-Player RPG Meets Turned-Based Strategy
Ruined King combines the strengths of a classic single-player RPGs with a turn-based battle system. A mixture that already worked excellently in the indie RPG Battle Chasers: Nightwar about three years ago.
Back then, the developers at Airship Syndicate cobbled together a game that marked my surprise hit of 2017, with a cool comic book graphic style, exciting story and enormously tactical combat.
And now, guess which development studio is making Ruined King: A League of Legends Story? Airship Syndicate! The third game from the Texas-based studio is based on the Austin team’s first work, both visually and in terms of gameplay, and is more or less an indirect successor to Battle Chasers, but in the LoL universe.
A Hit Candidate?
That alone is enough to make my “hit candidate” bells ring. I love the cool comic book style of Airship Syndicate, which, by the way, was penned by co-founder and comic book artist Joe Madureira.
The name means nothing to you? Shame on you! While fans of Marvel Comics should be familiar with the name, I especially appreciate the work Madureira did with the four Darksiders games – to me, perhaps the most stylish and coolest action-adventure games ever!
This Is What Makes Ruined King Stand Out!
With Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, Riot and Airship Syndicate are intent on delighting newcomers to the LoL universe. At the same time, connoisseurs should also be able to enjoy numerous details from the lore of Runeterra and various allusions to the world of the MOBA.
With that, the developers will definitely pick up LoL fans. But those who, like me, can only do little with it, also have reason to rejoice. In addition to an exciting story about a deadly, black mist, Ruined King relies on everything that characterizes a good role-playing game.
Thrilling Tactical Battles
The turn-based battles offer enormous tactical depth. The large game world can be explored completely freely, and there are many options open to you in terms of character development and unlockable skills.
The combat system is especially impressive: a total of three of six champions known from LoL are available (Ahri, Miss Fortune, Pyke, Illaoi, Braum, Yasuo), whose abilities can be cleverly combined in combat.
In addition, each champion has a passive ability, several active skills, and even a particularly powerful ultimate.
As in League of Legends, you can expect three lanes in Ruined King that determine how fast your hero can attack. A system that should be all too familiar to connoisseurs of tactical role-playing games. This strategic depth makes for exciting battles – if you don’t choose the right strategy here, you’ll quickly perish.
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Puzzles and Character Upgrades
Perhaps the biggest difference to Battle Chasers, is the freely explorable game world of Ruined King. In the iso-perspective, you wander through the lovingly designed environment and solve more or less tricky puzzles. Especially cool: some of the puzzles can only be solved by certain champions.
As is typical for RPGs, character upgrades also play an important role. You can increase your basic stats by leveling up, while equipping the champions with varied weapons and armor. There will even be a crafting system!
Conclusion of Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
Honestly, among all the big games that 2021 has to offer, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is one of the ones I’m looking forward to the most. That’s mostly because 2017’s Battle Chasers was one of the best RPGs I’ve played in recent years (and I just love the art style!).
Ruined King, however, goes several steps further in all aspects and convinces with an enormously tactical combat system, while I can freely explore the game world and solve exciting puzzles.
And, even though I don’t get 99.9% of the League of Legends references here, Ruined King works great on its own – as an RPG. It is so full of lovely details that many triple-A productions seem to lack these days (*cough* looking at you, Cyberpunk 2077 *cough*).
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Original article by EarlyGame's Philipp Briel.