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IGN Preview of Heroes of Ruin
While I've only had a few days with an early version of the game, it's already very apparent that Heroes of Ruin is like nothing else in the 3DS library. A Diablo-stlye action RPG with a huge emphasis on online multiplayer, this new game from Square Enix is bringing quite an ample offering to the 3DS table.
Heroes of Ruin - Video Preview
Heroes of Ruin puts you in a world on the brink of ruin - no big surprise there. It's up to you to train up your character and, working either solo or with a group of up to four players, embark on a quest to save the kingdom's ruler (who happens to be a giant sphinx named Ataraxis) from a cursed slumber. The first step is choosing what kind of hero you want to train. There were only a handful of classes available at the time I was playing, including the Vindicators (lions that wield giant swords) and Alchitects (powerful wizards). Naturally, I went with a lion person who I named Mufasa.
The good news is that there are four available player profiles on each cart, meaning you'll be able to go back and restart the game with a different class whenever you want without losing your progress. You're also able to customize your character, though this feature is, at this time, rather limited. For some reason you can only change out skin tone and hair style/color, so hopefully this aspect is fleshed out a little more before the game ships.
While I only barely got my feet wet in the world of Heroes of Ruin, I was absolutely astonished by the amount of content it has to offer. The main quest has you journeying from location to location to solve the mystery of the ailing sphinx king, vanquishing evil along the way. Your character's bread and butter in the defense department is their main attack - which, in the case of my lion, meant swinging his ginormous sword. You can charge your attack by holding down the B button, and you can roll to dodge by pressing the R button.
There's also a robust set of skill trees, which allows you to assign up to three abilities to the A, X and Y buttons for easy use. Do things like quickly dash forward or use a powerful magic attack, the choice is yours, and how you develop these skills informs how your character grows. The game also offers plenty of loot, equipment and items for the taking, so you certainly won't run out of things to collect. A handful of boss fights also help add depth to the experience - and trust me, the main quest is only the tip of the iceberg.
In addition to the main adventure, there are also tons of side quests to complete, as well as a hub town that is positively bustling with NPCs to help and mysteries to unravel. Before too long your Quest Book will start filling up with optional missions you can complete along the way - so much so that it's almost daunting to try to complete them all. The game also supports randomly-generated dungeons, which further helps shake things up and makes for some seriously incredible replay value. Basically, you can revisit the same dungeon any number of times and find a different level layout than the time before. There are plenty of secret treasure rooms and the like spread throughout the world, so returning to these areas for fresh loot will certainly be a priority for greedy adventurers.
Of course, one of the game's main draws is its multiplayer. With easy, drop-in/drop-out gameplay, you can share your adventure with up to three other players at a time, either locally or online. To be clear, I only got the chance to test this out with one other player (the servers aren't active yet since the game hasn't been released, after all), but I found that crawling around these dungeons and using the voice chat feature to coordinate attacks with a buddy greatly enhances the experience. If you don't have the inclination to take your game online, you can also complete the whole quest on your own - which is still fun, though admittedly not quite as engaging. Still, with all the content this game comes packing, you won't run out of things to do should you choose to fly solo.
While I've only had a handful of days with an early version of Heroes of Ruin, what I've seen has me excited to delve deeper. I'm not terribly in love with the characters I've seen so far, and I wish you could customize your hero more - but the world itself is strangely intriguing, and the amount of content and scope of the online multiplayer is terribly impressive. All in all, Heroes of Ruin is a fascinating title, one that feels very different than anything else the system currently has to offer. It remains to be seen if all the great parts developer n-Space has put into motion come together into a cohesive, satisfying product - but one thing's for sure, this is certainly a 3DS title to keep your eye on. Will it deliver on all its promises? I suppose we'll all have to wait until its June 26 release to find out.
Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor of IGN.com and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her zany exploits on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!
©2012-04-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Heroes of Ruin puts you in a world on the brink of ruin - no big surprise there. It's up to you to train up your character and, working either solo or with a group of up to four players, embark on a quest to save the kingdom's ruler (who happens to be a giant sphinx named Ataraxis) from a cursed slumber. The first step is choosing what kind of hero you want to train. There were only a handful of classes available at the time I was playing, including the Vindicators (lions that wield giant swords) and Alchitects (powerful wizards). Naturally, I went with a lion person who I named Mufasa.
The good news is that there are four available player profiles on each cart, meaning you'll be able to go back and restart the game with a different class whenever you want without losing your progress. You're also able to customize your character, though this feature is, at this time, rather limited. For some reason you can only change out skin tone and hair style/color, so hopefully this aspect is fleshed out a little more before the game ships.
While I only barely got my feet wet in the world of Heroes of Ruin, I was absolutely astonished by the amount of content it has to offer. The main quest has you journeying from location to location to solve the mystery of the ailing sphinx king, vanquishing evil along the way. Your character's bread and butter in the defense department is their main attack - which, in the case of my lion, meant swinging his ginormous sword. You can charge your attack by holding down the B button, and you can roll to dodge by pressing the R button.
There's also a robust set of skill trees, which allows you to assign up to three abilities to the A, X and Y buttons for easy use. Do things like quickly dash forward or use a powerful magic attack, the choice is yours, and how you develop these skills informs how your character grows. The game also offers plenty of loot, equipment and items for the taking, so you certainly won't run out of things to collect. A handful of boss fights also help add depth to the experience - and trust me, the main quest is only the tip of the iceberg.
In addition to the main adventure, there are also tons of side quests to complete, as well as a hub town that is positively bustling with NPCs to help and mysteries to unravel. Before too long your Quest Book will start filling up with optional missions you can complete along the way - so much so that it's almost daunting to try to complete them all. The game also supports randomly-generated dungeons, which further helps shake things up and makes for some seriously incredible replay value. Basically, you can revisit the same dungeon any number of times and find a different level layout than the time before. There are plenty of secret treasure rooms and the like spread throughout the world, so returning to these areas for fresh loot will certainly be a priority for greedy adventurers.
Of course, one of the game's main draws is its multiplayer. With easy, drop-in/drop-out gameplay, you can share your adventure with up to three other players at a time, either locally or online. To be clear, I only got the chance to test this out with one other player (the servers aren't active yet since the game hasn't been released, after all), but I found that crawling around these dungeons and using the voice chat feature to coordinate attacks with a buddy greatly enhances the experience. If you don't have the inclination to take your game online, you can also complete the whole quest on your own - which is still fun, though admittedly not quite as engaging. Still, with all the content this game comes packing, you won't run out of things to do should you choose to fly solo.
While I've only had a handful of days with an early version of Heroes of Ruin, what I've seen has me excited to delve deeper. I'm not terribly in love with the characters I've seen so far, and I wish you could customize your hero more - but the world itself is strangely intriguing, and the amount of content and scope of the online multiplayer is terribly impressive. All in all, Heroes of Ruin is a fascinating title, one that feels very different than anything else the system currently has to offer. It remains to be seen if all the great parts developer n-Space has put into motion come together into a cohesive, satisfying product - but one thing's for sure, this is certainly a 3DS title to keep your eye on. Will it deliver on all its promises? I suppose we'll all have to wait until its June 26 release to find out.
Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor of IGN.com and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her zany exploits on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!
©2012-04-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved