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”Ruined King: A League of Legends Story” is a decent RPG, even for players entirely new to the franchise - however, a few issues stop it from being more than just a nice spin-off
When I booted up Ruined King for the first time, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I only played League of Legends for a very short while back when it launched in 2009 - and never went back. It was only thanks to the outstanding TV-series Arcane that I got interested in the franchise again and that was how I learned of Ruined King. An RPG like this could provide a great opportunity to learn about some of the characters, I thought, and so I went in.
19h of playtime later, after I finished the game, I’m both pleasantly surprised – and a bit disappointed. Pleasantly surprised because Ruined King, the gameplay especially, turned out way better than I thought it could be. And a bit disappointed because some design decisions hold Ruined King back, making it “just” the nice spin-off game I was initially expecting.
Let’s talk about the good parts of Ruined King first. The most engaging part of the game, to my surprise, turned out to be the gameplay of all things. What might look like a normal round-based combat system quickly turns into something way more interesting with the introduction of a “lane” system. Not only choosing and action but also deciding on the lane to put it in (speed, balance, power – each with their own benefits & disadvantages) makes for an interesting system – which is unfortunately only really used to its fullest during the boss fights of the game.
However, thanks to numerous customisation systems - be it ability upgrades, runes, enchantments or equipment changes – even the RPG-typical filler fights can be quite enjoyable. As only three out of the six potential party members can fight at a time, team composition is important – but also entirely up to the player (outside of a few instances with forced party members). This allows for some interesting synergies, and I soon settled on a powerful playstyle with my three favourite characters. Fine-tuning this party over the course of the game was a great joy and even if there were a bit too many filler fights with the same enemies (or reskins) - it’s been a long time since I had this much fun with a round-based combat system.
The second-best thing about Ruined King are the characters. Each of them a unique personality, it was especially the party conversations during rests that made me appreciate the main cast (Braum – what a legend). Thanks to the unique art-style of the game, courtesy of Joe Madureira, they look really great as well – even if it takes some getting-used to. However, even with a main cast of just six characters, there’s a clear imbalance in terms of story attention they received. While some almost feel like the main protagonist of the story (Illaoi, Sarah) or are undergoing a personal journey (Ahri), others are seemingly only attached in order to make some plot moments happen (Pyke).
Speaking of plot, this is unfortunately where things take a turn for the worse. The story of Ruined King turned out to be disappointingly standard fantasy-story, without any huge surprises or interesting developments. It works, sure, but with such a colourful cast of characters and a lore as deep, something more interesting should’ve been possible. It’s great that the story of Ruined King can be followed without any previous League of Legends knowledge but as Arcane has shown, this doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to have a more interesting tale to tell.
A huge part of the problem are the villains – considering how much attention was paid to presenting the main cast, someone seemingly forgot to do the same for the bad guys in this game. For a game literally called Ruined King, I’d have expected to know more about, you know, the Ruined King. And not just a few cutscenes with mostly expositional dialogue about why he has to be stopped and a short tragic backstory.
Another problem of the game would be the gameplay outside of the fights and team finetuning – because it’s mostly consisting of moving around the map at an agonizingly slow pace. Combine this with a lot of backtracking as well as odd quest tracking (why can’t you just show me where I need to go sometimes??) and you’re in for a treat. There are a few light puzzle elements to shake things up, but I feel I could’ve beaten this game quite a lot earlier if my party just didn’t move at a pace rivalling snails. The sprint option in this game makes me wonder if a leisurely walk in the park would also be considered a 5km sprint by the developers.
But in all seriousness, it’s really hard to look past the merely genre-typical dungeons when you spend a lot of time in them thanks to slow movement speed. I actively ignored a lot of the usual RPG side content (quests, bounties, etc.) because it would’ve resulted in long strolls through the different levels again. And it certainly doesn’t help that the map can be quite unhelpful as well. The UI in this game can be really odd sometimes – why can I only access the quest log from the map menu, for example, and not the main menu? Why do I have to scroll through all my weaker potions during battle when I want to use the stronger ones? And why is the tutorial experience mostly a few textboxes popping up here and there – with a combat and customisation system as interesting as this one, there just has to be a better way to show it off.
The last thing I want to mention is the time it takes until you’re actually able to fully mix and match your party. At 8.6h and with 50% story completion (according to the in-game stat), I was finally able to use all party members. Considering it took me just 19h to beat the main story of the game, I wish this would’ve happened earlier on. Sure, having only access to fewer party members makes me try strategies I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. But if a character I really want to have in my party arrives way later than expected, I’m still going to replace anyone I didn’t really want to have in my party to begin with.
Concluding, Ruined King has a lot more to offer than it might seem at first. Besides the colourful cast and fitting art style/music, it’s the combat where this game shines the most. But a weak plot and design decisions ranging from just okay (filler fights, dungeon design) to annoying (movement speed, tutorials, UI) unfortunately stop this game from being anything more than “good” – when it easily could’ve been.
Which leaves us with the difficult question of “who should buy this game”? I’ll be honest – while this game really grew on me during my playtime - I’d say it’s probably most important to be interested in the world or characters of League of Legends if you’re thinking about buying this game. If you’re just looking for a good RPG, well, there are unfortunately a lot of other RPGs out there that are equally as good or even better. As much as I hate to say this, Ruined King is not offering something unique enough to really stand out amongst other (equally good) RPGs – apart from it, well, being set in the big League of Legends universe. And while I myself was pleasantly surprised by the game, as I said in the beginning – if it wasn’t for this League of Legends connection, I probably never would’ve picked it up.
So, to make it short, are you interested in a League of Legends story and want a decent RPG alongside it? Go ahead, Ruined King could be fitting you. Just want a decent RPG? Make sure you have checked out other options first – it’s a crowded genre after all.