Heroes of Ruin from Sqaure Enix and N-Space takes the MMO experience onto the handheld consoles. The developers said “They were excited to make a game specifically for [the 3DS] that makes use of its great connectivity and social features.” while also combining elements from other popular dungeon crawler series. There is now a playable demo for people to download and see how the experience translates onto a handheld.
The storyline has up to 4 people playing as 4 different mercenaries who are on a quest to find a cure for the ruler of the City of Nexus Ataraxis, who is dying from a curse. Players can join together to form an alliance together or can adventure on their own.
The demo has about 6 uses before it expires.
Before you start playing you need to create your character. In the demo you can only play as a Vindicator who is a lion warrior who uses a sword and healing magic to deal close range damage. The Gunslinger class on the other hand uses a gun at a long range and can drop bombs onto unsuspecting enemies. You can edit their face and skin features and change their colours to your tastes.
Heroes of Ruin is an Action RPG where you wonder around the world fighting monsters, meeting other players and helping out to complete quests. It works the same way that other MMO games have done before. Quests involve talking to NPC's and they will request your help. Quests will involve collecting a set number of materials or targeting a certain type of enemies till you reach the required number then you'll talk to the NPC again to finish it. You'll have many different optional sidequests but you'll have to eventually deal with the main story boss. In order to fight the boss you'll need to gather up your other allies in the game you're playing online. This is because most of the boss battles in the game are bound to be very challenging later on so you'll need the manpower in order to win.
The battles in Heroes of Ruin are engaging and challenging to master. On the Top screen it shows the gameplay and chaotic action going on while item setup, skill icons and quest information interface are handled on the touch screen. Like other RPG's you do need to spend some time fighting monsters so that they can drop items and EXP to make your character stronger. Enemies can also drop gold but selling unneeded weapons can give you plenty more Gold. It's probably used to buy better weapons later on in shops.
The battle controls are B button is your standard attack while Y, X and A uses different attack skills that you can perform. As your character levels up you'll earn skill points where you can raise your character stats and and learn new skills. You can have up to 3 different skills equipped and you swap for each new one unlocked as you see fit. Holding the B button does a charged up attack which is helpful for breaking enemy shields and for clearing out blockages in your way. The R button blocks while walking forward does a roll which helps to get out the way of enemy attacks. Your special attacks drain your energy but it slowly regenerates overtime. Your Health will also regenerate as well but however like in fighting games there's a bar that helps slowly recovers your health as long as you avoid damage for a couple of seconds.
In the game the battles can be handled with proper teamwork if you are willing to survive later on in the game. The great thing about the cooperative aspect of the game is that people can drop in and drop out on any game at any time. The battles are incredible fun with friends and it has plenty of Spotpass, Streetpass and also voice functionality which are in the full version.
The layout of each in Heroes of Ruin are supposed to be randomly generated making the experience very different. The details are quite decent with fine animations, spell effects looking very nice and each character looks are very impressive. The framerate does drop down when there more people playing and you'll might experience some lag from time to time on the default wireless connection. The Music track is great but however the voicework is very flat but overall Heroes of Ruin is a great looking game for the 3DS.
Heroes of Ruin is a nice alternative choice from Diablo 3 with the way it emulates the style and fell of the game. With the drop in and drop out coop play and the ability to take the game online with other players around the world makes this game one of the more refreshing experiences for the 3DS. As for me it looks like a decent option for me to pick up but however I'm going to stick with AQWorlds on the Web due to my heavy progress on it.
Game Title: Heroes of Ruin
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: Role Playing
Developer: N-Space
Publisher: Square Enix
Demo Released: June 8th 2012 (Europe)
Date of Full Game Release: June 15th 2012 (Europe), July 17th 2012 (North America)
Age Rating: ESRB: T, PEGI: 12
Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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