A review of the League of Legends story Ruined King

Ruined King is a unique work. Many individuals were either unaware of this game or had just recently learned about it before its unexpected release on November 16 during the Riot Forge Showcase. League of Legends naysayers were curious about this new game, while League of Legends enthusiasts had something brand-new to enjoy. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story invites everyone to explore an established universe and engage in an all-around epic adventure, including a broad roster of Champions and a new take on turn-based combat.

First things first: you don't need to be familiar with League of Legends in order to understand and/or enjoy this game. Even while Ruined King is a part of Runeterra and has well-known League of Legends Champions, it is entirely independent. And do not worry if you think Ruined King is just League of Legends gameplay. It is an isometric, turn-based, single-player role-playing game that allows for a great deal of experimentation and exploration.

Combat:

The battle is Ruined King's brightest feature. By adding a lane mechanism, Riot Forge and Airship Syndicate elevate Ruined King's fighting to a whole new level. The lane mechanism, which is undoubtedly derived from League of Legends' lane meta, gives players a risk-reward structure that keeps battles feeling new.

The way it works is that each Champion may cast one of their mana-costing abilities on the power, balanced, or speed lanes throughout their turn. You forfeit your efficacy by selecting the speed lane in favor of a greater initiative that could be required to play ahead of the opposition or even other teammates. In contrast, the power lane strengthens your abilities but slows you down, so you'll often find yourself hitting after your allies and the opposition. As the name implies, the balanced lane combines power and speed in small doses.

There are more player-driven fight moments thanks to the lane mechanic. You may tactically utilize the speed lane to get directly in front of the enemy assault if you need to heal your allies while they are attacking. You may utilize the power lane to do maximum damage while your allies take one or two more turns to cover you if you are prepared with a potent assault. The turn-based formula is effectively revolutionized by this clever technique.

War: Dangerous Areas

Hazard Zones work in tandem with the lane mechanic. Every adversary in a turn-based role-playing game adds something fresh to the battle, as one would anticipate. Every boss and adversary in Ruined King places a unique Hazard Zone over the lane mechanic; if they don't, a random Hazard Zone will be chosen. These danger zones provide a defined area where a certain activity, either positive or negative, will occur on the power, speed, and balanced lanes (sometimes on all lanes, sometimes on just one).

For instance, there may be a black mist zone that does harm to all teammates who finish their turn there, or an attack boost zone that increases the attack strength of both players and opponents for their subsequent actions. The Hazard Zones provide even more strategy and decision-making to the battlefield, even if the lane mechanism alone modifies it.

Team Synergy and Champions

Battles in Ruined King are limited to three-person teams, however players may choose from six distinct Champions to play as. As a result, there are a ton of entertaining and unique party choices. In any video game, a champion can be summed up in three simple roles: tank, DPS, and healer, with the majority of them falling into another category. Because of this, sticking to the same Champions with little modification is often necessary for a good party makeup.

There's not much that needs you to stray from your ideal squad and try different Champions after you've discovered the one that suits you. For instance, consider the very potent trio of Braum, Ahri, and Yasuo. Braum, the tank, provides damage shields with Stand By Me and Poro-Snax, taunts all foes into attacking him with Unbreakable, and may apply buffs with Inspiring Presence and remove debuffs with Porogeddon. Stacks of Essense Theft let Ahri to continuously deal damage and heal her team. After it has been enhanced, Spirit Mend may be used to restore a knocked out champion in the speed lane or to heal everyone in the power lane. Yasuo needs no mana to unleash Raging Wind after stacking Steel Tempest. In order to consistently do catastrophic levels of damage, he may also utilize Eye of the Wind to increase the party's Crit Rate and equip himself with items that already improve his Crit Rate. I had no need to change it when I found this squad since it was a winning combination.

Furthermore, a number of Champions—particularly the DPS ones—frequently experience the same thing. It's unfortunate that while each being unique, Yasuo, Miss Fortune, and Pyke may all feel a lot alike. The playstyles in any particular group may differ drastically with Ahri, Illaoi, and even Braum. In contrast, Yasuo, Miss Fortune, and Pyke may seem stale. More variation might be obtained by adding a sorceress, totem user, or summoner Champion.

The Narrative

Ruined King's overarching narrative is captivating, but the true beauty lies in the interactions between each Champion. Each Champion seems to be completely unconnected to the others, particularly Braum, who has no business being in Bilgewater at all. Nevertheless, their individual motivations and justifications for joining forces and pursuing the mission are compelling and convincing. The interpersonal tales of Illaoi's religious crisis, her curiosity in Pyke, Miss Fortune's desire for dominance, and her conflict with Gangplank are particularly noteworthy.

Understanding, Fixing, and Preserving

In between fighting corrupted trees and Mistwalkers, every task has you working through a puzzle of some kind. While solving the riddles might be enjoyable, it's not pleasant to be lost and confused about what to do. That's not to say I want golden arrows to bring me straight to my destination, but having some background information in the mission guide or map would be helpful.

These days, glitches are becoming more and more widespread in games. Additionally, playing the game from the beginning might try your patience, even if presumably future updates will iron out these flaws. My game would crash at the conclusion of a fight, after Champions had earned their XP. I think I experienced this seven or eight times over my twenty hours of gameplay. While some glitches are acceptable, game crashes after a 20-minute combat are not.

While Ruined King offers several great upgrades to the gameplay, such as Quick Strike and battle Speed times two, it is appalling outside of battle, especially when it comes to saves. Saving often is required, particularly on higher difficulties due to the game's irksome flaws. would gain a great deal from Ruined King by placing a fast save button directly on the screen of the pause. You could quicksave by pressing a single button and return to the action immediately, saving you the trouble of scrolling all the way to the bottom of the pause menu, selecting the save option, and then saving. Making the mistake of not saving and dying only to have to replay the last hour of gameplay you just finished is an unnecessary grind in a game that can become tedious very fast.

The Conclusion

You shouldn't miss Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. Play League of Legends if you have any doubts about it, don't believe turn-based games are your thing, or just think it would be dull in general. This game's unique fighting techniques, captivating characters, dramatic boss encounters, and thrilling dungeons will surprise you. Hopefully, Riot Games will be able to include more innovative games like Ruined King, since it is a first of its type.