Heroes of Ruin, developed by n-Space and published by Square Enix, projects the archetypal hack-n-slash genre in three glorious dimensions Nintendo 3DS.
When the World of Veil falls into a war so intense it deserves the name War of Ruin, three mysterious and hyper-powerful creatures, the Ruin Lords, decide to end the conflict. The Ruin Lords easily do so and then found their own respective cities. Some time passes and a mysterious curse befalls Ataraxis, the most powerful of the Ruin Lords and ruler of Nexus, forcing him into a deep coma. The king of Nexus offers adventurers a handsome reward to aid Ataraxis in waking from his sudden eternal slumber. The lore reveals itself through talks with the idle citizens of Nexus, cheesy cut scenes, and (of course) quests. Lazy Nexusians speak mostly of mundane concerns, and through these inane ramblings, players can piece together the atmosphere of the game (see: War of Ruin). My personal favorite quest involves a sea-land-shark-man asking me to cut off and steal squid-people’s face tentacles so he can cook an “exquisite and rare” soup with which to hustle foolish aristocrats.
Freeze! You are under arrest!
Players begin by choosing one of four (awesome) classes: Alchitect, Gunslinger, Savage, or Vindicator. Beyond customizing the character’s appearance, each of these classes feels unique and offers point distribution via level-ups for the skill tree and the statistics. Abilities must be initially purchased and can then be upgraded three times. Because the level cap is 30 and re-spec’ing isn’t an option, make sure the righteous ability you choose is worthwhile. Speaking of abilities, my favorites are as follows: the Alchitect can shoot a magical vortex that sucks in and stuns enemies, the Gunslinger can throw a stun-bomb forward while leaping backwards, the Savage pulls enemies to him (Scorpion-style) with a meat-hook on a chain, while the bipedal lion with a great sword — I mean Vindicator— does exactly that. He vindicates with extreme prejudice . Oh, and the Vindicator can also throw down a healing circle for the whole party to enjoy.
Heroes of Ruin’s level design maintains a steady flow at a good pace. Hacking through hordes of monsters through the same level feels familiar, but is never the same. The dungeons are linear in design and randomly generated, complete with a start and finish. Length of dungeons increase as the players progress through the story, including fun side quests and a few optional puzzles. The monsters will respawn, but players won’t feel overwhelmed; I never grew bored of killing and I never ran out things to kill.
What makes the game even cooler is that it’s designed for a four-player drop in/out multiplayer experience. For instance, a Gunslinger can pull a group of enemies and throw his stun-bomb to escape, the Alchitect can pull them all together with the magic vortex, the Vindicator can obliterate this group with a sword strike that does extra damage against stunned foes, and adding insult to injury, the Savage catches any stragglers with his trusty chain-hook. Even better, this is only one specific way out of many to efficiently commit mass murder.
Whether you’re playing the Sims or World of Warcraft, playing virtual dress-up is a necessity. That necessity doesn’t change in Heroes of Ruin. Players can customize their characters before they enter the world, but loot also alters their appearances. I was skeptical about this at first, as mismatched armor can look extremely lame, but the armor that I found generally complimented the classes and furthered their badassery. The weapons are also drastically different. As a Vindicator, I had a great sword with miniature blades jutting out from the side that froze people; when playing through as the Gunslinger, I found some fantastic dual fish guns and later on a pair with four barrels on a each pistol. That’s eight total barrels.
“Please, just take whatever you want. Do you have eight barrels?”
Even though this might secretly be a compliment, the game is too short. This hurts the game because there isn’t an option for a “new game plus” or something similar. There are plenty of different levels and environments in which to trounce magical creatures, but after you top out at level 30, there isn’t really a point to keep playing aside from trying new classes or finishing skipped side quests. A patch, a new dungeon, hell, even making the bosses respawn would go a long way toward revitalizing the entire game. Besides the shortness, the game is also extremely easy. Somehow, being too easy is not a bad thing, as the game retains its fun factor. But creating something like a limit to the amount of potions a character can carry would force players into a more conservative play, thus creating a more challenging game that encouraged cooperative play (and made healing spells worthwhile). The 3DS has access to a virtual store, it needs only to utilize its resources. If you own the game or are planning on buying it, make sure to spam the community board with requests for DLC and updates.
A contest was recently announced offering a free copy of the game for the best pictorial explanation of what you would do to get a free copy of the game. Obviously, a picture of cosplayers robbing a Gamestop at gunpoint for a sack full of Heroes of Ruin would win (see: in-game example above). Snag a free copy if you can, but give the game a shot regardless. It may be somewhat short and a little too easy, but I had a great time playing through it. As these are the biggest gripes I have, a simple DLC patch could yet fix these issues in one fell download.
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