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[CamHostage]

Riot Forge today held a League of Legends-themed developer showcase (partnered with Nintendo Indie World, as all of the featured games are coming to Switch... the mainline LoL not included.) (All games will also be on PC as well as PlayStations and Xboxes.)

They showed off the previously-announced platformer Hextech Mayhem (developed by Choice Provisions / Gaijin Games, of Bit.Trip Runner fame,) stealth-released the RPG Ruined King (by Airship Syndicate, makers of Darksiders Genesis and Battle Chasers Nightwar,) and announced or talked about two more games coming in 2022, a 3D adventure game called Song of Nunu (by Tequilla Works, the Madrid-based game design studio behind Deadlight, Rime, and Gylt) and an action-platformer (Metroidvania maybe?) seen before called Convergence (by Double Stallion, who you might have played in Speed Brawl or Big Action Mega Fight.)









And beyond all that, there's also another game to come that's "set in the Demacia region" (a sort of chilly lakeside mountain region dominated by a big citadel.)

Side-note, LoL is having a surprising moment right now, with some good developers doing their spin-offs and the new League of Legends Arcane show also getting unexpected appreciation. I myself have spent as many as 0.00 hours playing LoL, but Riot seems determined to leave nobody without a LoL in their life...

That League Of Legends show, ARCANE... is kinda lit.

Is this a hot take? I don't play LOL and never have (and probably never will). Am I gonna get cancer for liking this show? I was intrigued by the trailers and by how good the animation looked (which, by the way, it's amazing). Just three episodes in and I'm legitimately hooked. It's not just...

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[Mister Wolf]

Buying Ruined King right now.

 

[Esca]

Any impressions?

 

[Hargate]

I'm in for Ruined King because its seems like an improved Battle Chasers.

 

[FeldMonster]

I absolutely love BattleChasers: Nightwar, so I bought Ruined King immediately on my Xbox, though I know nothing about League of Legends. Warcraft 3 DOTA Mod, right?

So far it plays similar, though they added additional mechanics to the battles. When you select an action that requires mana it isn't instantaneous (which is the same as in BattleChasers), but you can now choose balanced (normal), speed, and power versions to have the action occur faster (and weaker) or slower (and stronger).

 

[docmindbender]

Chalk me down as another all in on Ruined King. Adored Battlechasers Nightwar.

This looks like a whole bunch more of that. Zero knowledge of the LoL stuff, but im pretty sure that's not a deal breaker. Arcane looks neat too (Netflix series).

 

[Perfo]

At this point I really hope they go Gran Blue Fantasy way and start working on some big single player story driven rpg one day. The lore seems fantastic!

 

[CamHostage]

At this point I really hope they go Gran Blue Fantasy way and start working on some big single player story driven rpg one day. The lore seems fantastic!

That's what I keep hearing...

This isn't the franchise I would have expected to do this really right (or wanted? I can't tell how much of this canon would really grab me if I dug in, albeit the quality makes me feel it's only a matter of time before something sucks me into Runeterra...) but Riot is kind of doing the multimedia/multi-genre thing that Final Fantasy has been building (and seeing crumble) for ages. Square had some good FF side-games early on before things got out of control (some sucky stuff early on too though, like FF Unlimited,) we'll see if Riot actually keeps up this pace, but so far, so LoL...

...Oh, also, I said that League of Legends itself was, in a weird way, the only big LoL game not coming to every other platform (besides the phone games TFT and LoR,) and that will remain the case. However, I forgot that League of Legends: Wild Rift is planned to come to "consoles" sometime in the future. Wild Rift is kind of a non-PC reimagining of LoL, with simpler/more direct controls and shorter matches in 5-on-5 MOBA lanes. Wild Rift came out on mobile in the US in March and seemed to coast along okay (it has only generated $150m, which is still shy of the $billions that some other cellphone MOBAs I've never heard of can rack up...), and there was no update about Wild Rift on this video stream, but reviews were good in how it carried the formula over, so if you want a more traditional League MOBA too on your Switch or what have you, that might be coming too.

 

[Holammer]

LOL: Wild Rift, The console adaptation should release "soon". With the Netflix show doing well, I'm really surprised they haven't dropped it yet.

I put in maybe 200h in League myself and it's my preferred MOBA if I had to play one. Kinda enjoyed myself, but I stopped playing because Riot changed how regions worked and Nordic players suddenly found themselves playing alongside Eastern Europeans. Lemme tell ya, I did not enjoy the change. Suddenly chat is super toxic, full of Cyrillic and players ragequit all the time.
I believe it was a calculated move by Riot to make Nordic players pay for a region transfer.

 

[Lanrutcon]

So Ruined King is basically the unofficial sequel to Battle Chasers. Same mechanics, same look and feel. If you played that then Ruined King fits like a glove. Now, I have never played LOL so I assume the game is full of references, but I don't get any of them and I'm still having fun.

Just a warning: game starts off pretty slow. It tries to hold your hand for like an hour before letting you go do your thing. The difficulty is also pretty low (normal is more like easy, veteran is normal, etc). I would strongly consider playing on the hardest or hard difficulties if you want to really get the most out of your time. The main character is written by a drama student, but the rest are fine.

Gives me a sliver of hope that we see another Battle Chasers game eventually.

 

[ZywyPL]

I'd die for a Battle Chasers sequel, but I'll take Ruined King with opened arms as well.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Really enjoying this. The game is packed full of little secrets that feel really rewarding to uncover.

 

[Exentryk]

As a fan of Battle Chasers, Ruined King was a day 1 buy. I have no idea about LoL stuff. Have played a few hours. Early thoughts below:

• Performance - All good. Playing on PC at 4K and running great!
• Story - So far so good. Currently with Illaoi and another character just joined her. Seems to have more story than Battle Chasers, so that's good. Let's see how it proceeds.
• Music - The opening was great, and Gareth Coker's music was instantly recognisable. Great choice to have him do the music. The early game music has been giving me Witcher vibes, so no complaints here.
• Combat - It's similar to Battle Chasers, which is great news. Playing in Heroic, and some of the random battles do seem a little long (especially with Illaoi), but it might just be an early game thing. The lane system is interesting, and they've managed to add hazards from dungeons into the combat, which adds to the depth of the combat. The only thing I found missing was not being able to read up on some status effects like Tapped, etc. Don't see a tutorial page explaining what these do anywhere. It would be good to be able to read what these status effects do during the combat. The inspection mode doesn't explain the status effects?
• Cutscenes - The hand drawn artwork and cutscenes were my favourite in Battle Chasers and love them here just the same. Keep it up!

So yeah, overall it's a good start. Let's see how it progresses.

 

[The Cockatrice]

As a fan of Battle Chasers, Ruined King was a day 1 buy. I have no idea about LoL stuff. Have played a few hours. Early thoughts below:

• Performance - All good. Playing on PC at 4K and running great!
• Story - So far so good. Currently with Illaoi and another character just joined her. Seems to have more story than Battle Chasers, so that's good. Let's see how it proceeds.
• Music - The opening was great, and Gareth Coker's music was instantly recognisable. Great choice to have him do the music. The early game music has been giving me Witcher vibes, so no complaints here.
• Combat - It's similar to Battle Chasers, which is great news. Playing in Heroic, and some of the random battles do seem a little long (especially with Illaoi), but it might just be an early game thing. The lane system is interesting, and they've managed to add hazards from dungeons into the combat, which adds to the depth of the combat. The only thing I found missing was not being able to read up on some status effects like Tapped, etc. Don't see a tutorial page explaining what these do anywhere. It would be good to be able to read what these status effects do during the combat. The inspection mode doesn't explain the status effects?
• Cutscenes - The hand drawn artwork and cutscenes were my favourite in Battle Chasers and love them here just the same. Keep it up!

So yeah, overall it's a good start. Let's see how it progresses.

Good to hear. I'll get it after I'm done replaying some stuff which I started cuz I had no idea this was coming. If it's as good or above compared to Battle Chasers, then I am excited. THis game had no freaking marketing whatsoever, so little that I assumed it was going to be meh.

 

[Exentryk]

Really starting to get into the combat and the rpg mechanics like enchanting, gear upgrades, etc. Enjoying it a lot more now!

 

[ManaByte]

How long until Tencent has Riot make a console?

 

[Bkdk]

I wish they will make a huge open world single player RPG with mods, even if the mods will be included with a market place for them to increase profits, but I really want a LOL open world RPG.

 

[Holammer]

I wish they will make a huge open world single player RPG with mods, even if the mods will be included with a market place for them to increase profits, but I really want a LOL open world RPG.

Basically, you want Skyrim with Yordle shortstacks?
That's what the first mods will be anyway.

 

[FeldMonster]

I am enjoying the game so far, but not as much as BattleChasers: Nightwar. My biggest complaint is that the game won't get out of its own way. So many cuts scenes! Just let me play!

When the samurai and the furry joined it was probably 10 minutes straight without any interaction. Brutal. I just want to get into combat and fight. Who cares about the story that much?

 

[Lanrutcon]

Finished it.

Man, by 2/3rds into the game you are fucking unstoppable. Hit the endboss so hard he spent the next 4 turns on 1 hp cycling through his phase mechanics.

 

[Exentryk]

Slowly getting through this. Between weapons, armor, accessories, enchantments, runes, masteries, abilities and ability bonuses, this game is just so good at scratching that rpg itch. Really love the team that handles the combat side of things from Airship Syndicate.

I will always be day 1 for these games!

 

[Ogbert]

So, er, it’s really really good.

Games like this always make me rethink why I play certain games. I spend thousands on AAA garbage that I drop after a few hours. I should stick to this sort of stuff.

 

[Fuz]

Ruined King, for me, is a huge disappointment. Disclaimer: it's not bad, it's just really disappointing 'cause it could have been so much more, but it gets dragged down by its LoL IP and myopic design choices.
Starts out really, REALLY well, to the point it made me stay up until 3:00 AM. Then the novelty wears off, and the game revelas itself to be very plain, linear and uninteresting.
The biggest problem is... the combat system is SHIT. It's the most unrewarding turn based combat system I've ever seen. I'm at Shadow Isles and I can't stomach to play more of thoses combats, they're such a huge waste of time in my eyes now.
The "lanes" system is just badly thought. It's not fun, it's not really controllable or exploitable in any way (even if the game makes you believe it is), it's just a big chore. Also, it's so small it's hardly readable, and most of the time I have no idea of who's who in the lanes UI.
You have abilities that works better if used after other abilities and with debuffs applied - except... the enemies die before that OR it isn't worth to sacrifice your limited mana (also a big problem, when a game pushes you to only spam basic attacks) to give that last hit, so you basically can do those "combos" only on bosses. This above all is what makes it unrewarding. You never get any joy from the system.
Menus are okay-sh but bugged AF with keyboard and mouse. Fishing is also bugged, if you did rebind your keyboard you have to reset to defaults it every time you want to fish, or you'll get stuck in the casted line status.
Also, with the exception of Yasuo and Ahri (which I haven't got yet, tbh), don't really like the choice of characters, but that's just personal preferences.
Battle Chasers was much, much better.

Oh, I forgot to mention the music. That's the highest point of the game. It's PHENOMENAL, maybe because pirates settings are my favourites, but I really like it. 10/10 in my book.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I am not a fan of MOBAs. Really could care less about them.

But 'Ruined King: A League of Legends Story' actually looks good and I love Darksiders and Joe Madureira's artwork.

So how is the lore and world in League of Legends? I like fantasy and steampunk and it seems to have that style.

Fwiw, I'm not a fan of Warcraft or RTS but got addicted to World of Warcraft.

 

[killatopak]

They really are firing on all cylinders.

I learned that they were also hiring MMO devs cause they’re planning on making one supposedly.