Lost Ruins Review

Lost Ruins was released on PC last year, and I have to say I was a little jealous. Altari Games developed the game and Dangen published it. I’ve enjoyed the games from Dangen’s catalog that I’ve played in the past and Lost Ruins looked similar to those. The game features pixel art graphics and despite so many games using that style of art, the artwork here gives the game its own unique look. Watching trailers of the game last year I saw that the game was a 2D action-adventure game that looked like the Metroidvania games I love so much, so it should be no surprise that I was hoping for an eventual Xbox release. Well, that release is finally here, Lost Ruins is now available on Xbox and I was lucky enough to get a copy for review. Despite wishing for the game to come to my platform of choice, I didn’t actually know anything about it so I was eager to dive in and find out if the game was worth the wait.

Once I started up the game, before I got to any actual gameplay, I was met with a screen warning me that Lost Ruins is a survival-style game and that it can be difficult. Now that I’ve played it I know that it isn’t really a survival game in the typical sense. There is not any crafting and you don’t have to manage your food and drink stats, but the game is difficult. To help manage this you are offered a few choices when it comes to difficulty. I went with the recommended difficulty (that’s what it’s called, “recommended”), which I suppose is equivalent to other games’ normal setting since it was right in the middle. There is also an easy setting that eases the gameplay with a constantly regenerating health bar, and there is a hard mode, veteran, which I haven’t tried yet, as well as a Hardcore mode. In this last mode, if you die it’s game over.

The game refers to itself as survival because of its combat and the systems surrounding it. There is a large assortment of weapons you can use, such as swords, daggers, axes, and even household items like a plunger and a broom. In addition to melee weapons, the game presents you with a number of ranged weapons such as bows and throwable items. There is also a long list of spells that you can acquire. The spells and some of the items have elemental properties (ice, fire, lightning, poison) and these can interact with the environment in a number of ways. If any of the elements besides fire comes into contact with water then the effect spreads throughout the water damaging anything touching the water, including you. Of course, the game also has flammable surfaces that will ignite when fire comes in contact, this includes torches and other light sources if you knock them over. Interestingly you can also use fire to burn away certain substances, such as poison. You learn this early on, but unfortunately the game never really comes back to it. All of this interaction takes what would be an average combat system and elevates it to the next level. I think it does have some issues though. In order for most players to succeed you have to frequently switch your gear around to maximize your damage and take advantage of the environment and enemies’ weaknesses. I found that this really took me out of the action, and slowed the pace of the game down too much.

Many of the items you find are one-use items. You also have a mind point meter that depletes when casting spells, and of course you have hit points, so you have to manage all of your resources to make sure you stay alive and can defeat what’s ahead of you. Early on this feels somewhat daunting because you have no reliable source to restore your HP and MP. Enemies drop items sometimes and you can find items in the environment that restore these values, but they seem to be few and far between. When I first started it seemed like I found three useless items for every useful one. There are vending machines in some of the rest areas (these also contain save computers and warp points), but everything is very pricey.

After playing for a bit you will gain a few useful items that really turn things around for you. The first is the purifier item which when equipped prevents you from being poisoned and regenerates your health while you are in water or wet (you stay wet for five seconds after touching water). This is a game-changer since you can use this to restore your health instead of your precious items. Later on, you get multiple items that have the same game-changing effect on your MP.

I’ve seen a lot of players and other reviewers refer to Lost Ruins as a Metroidvania. This is part of the reason I was initially interested in the game, and at first glance, it seems like it is. The game takes place in a decently-sized interconnected game world, but it is missing the most important component of the sub-genre. As you play you don’t find or gain any new abilities or moves that expand your exploratory capabilities, meaning that there is no ability-gating. All the doors in the game are unlocked with regular keys. Early on when the game presents you with the poison that can be destroyed with fire I thought there might be some magic-based ability-gating, but like I said they don’t really expand on it at all. There are two other spots I can think of off the top of my head where you need particular spells. The game world might be interconnected but the game is mostly linear. There is very little need to backtrack unless you want to grind for items or achievements. The main reason you backtrack is to complete the short throwaway fetch quests that the NPCs give you, but most of them are so simple that the item you need to find is only a screen or two away.

Lost Ruins makes use of the amnesia trope for its story, which overall is on the simple side. I actually tuned out most of it; fortunately, it can be quickly skipped with the press of a button. To sum it up you find yourself in a strange environment and you meet a magician girl right away who enlists you to help her track down some dark followers that will hopefully restore your memory.

I should also note that the game features many younger female characters that are portrayed in a sexual manner. The pixel art is harmless for the most part, with the exception of the huge bosses with jiggly breasts. The anime-style portraits for the dialogue are a little more revealing, but I don’t think they go overboard, although some players might question the ages of a few of the characters. Overall though I think the art style is one of the stand-out aspects of the game. One aspect of the game’s design that I think is weak is the level layouts, the whole thing feels rather uninspired, and the platforming elements of the game suffer because of it.

Once you beat the game you are rewarded with a handful of extra game modes to try. For the most part, these are just additions that pad the overall playtime of the game: Witch mode where you can only use magic, and Assassin mode where you cannot use magic and are limited to a few weapon types. For me the game does not have the drawing power to entice me to play through these modes, you do get an achievement for beating each of these modes, but I doubt even that will sway me. The one interesting new mode is the Boss mode. In this mode, you play through the game as three of the game’s bosses, and you are able to freely switch between them with a press of a button. Each boss has two unique attacks, and moves through the environment in different ways – the witch can float allowing you to avoid traps on the ground, for example. I’ve only played this mode for a bit, but it seems like it has completely different story beats and new dialogue so I’ll probably continue playing it for a bit. I’m interested to see if those boss fights are replaced with something else.

Conclusion

A slightly risque, 2D action RPG is how I would describe Lost Ruins. It has a unique combat system with a wide variety of weapons, spells, and items, giving you plenty of options to tackle your foes. Some might say it has too many options and the constant pausing to swap things around takes away from the gameplay, others will like this approach. Don’t be fooled by the game’s Metroidvania appearance, it lacks a few key components, and you won’t get lost working your way through this linear adventure, but I think it has just enough to keep fans interested.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.