The characters and enemies are made of pixelated 2D sprites but there can be some nice lighting and effects happening throughout. It basically equates to having three set loadouts that you can switch between on the fly but it does change up the gameplay a little in that you can access some stuff earlier than you can in the normal game thanks to the boss abilities. This isn’t a boss rush as you might think but you actually get to play as three of the bosses through the same environments with their own story. There’s a mode which stops you from using magic, another where you can only use magic and, more interestingly, a boss mode. There are multiple difficulties to try and once you’ve beaten the game you unlock more modes. Initially I thought it was going to be incredibly short as I hit the 33% map completion almost as soon as I started but that slowed down a little as I progressed. Things can be difficult but you won’t need to complete long sections of gameplay between saves which is a decent balance. There are full blown save stations as well, but in between those are statues that will create an autosave. To counter this checkpoints tend to be quite close together. Enemies can be quick and combined with your slow attacks it doesn’t take much to drain your health, you can even be juggled to death. With that adjustment period things can be quite tricky. It feels intentionally that way and you can adjust to it but there are times when I’d have liked it to be a little tighter. You can dodge roll which has invincibility but there’s a recovery time on everything that stops this from being a true action game. The basic combat is also quite clunky, with very stilted attacks and even the fastest weapons aren’t that fast or smooth to use. Similarly you have quite a small pool of health and mana and you have to go into the menus to use replenishing items which are just in a big list, some categories or shortcuts would be helpful. If you want to change up your loadout the menus can be quite clumsy and slow to work through. There are lots of different elements at play in Lost Ruins but they don’t all blend perfectly. Naturally these are also hazardous to you but if you’re aware and able you can use these effects to your advantage. If there’s oil on the ground then fire will set it alight, electricity and ice will carry through water and what have you. Spells have different elemental affinities and effects and interact with the environment too. Weapons have different ranges, attack power and speed which will really influence how you play and can offer their own passive buffs and debuffs. You can have two weapons equipped at once, two spells and, initially at least, one piece of equipment which will give you different passive bonuses. Artefacts are passive buffs that automatically apply and usually drop from bosses but the rest come in a wide variety that can really change up your playstyle. These come in the form of weapons, magic, equipment and artefacts. In each area you can get new equipment whether by finding it or buying it from venders. A Metroidvania style map draws in as you explore and you can teleport between set areas once you’ve found them but this isn’t a true Metroidvania in that you won’t be unlocking powers to access new areas but there is a sense of exploration with some secret areas and doors locked behind puzzles or requiring keys. You run around a 2D world, doing a bit of jumping, killing enemies who get in your way and then defeating a boss at the end of each section. The gameplay is where Lost Ruins will either grab or lose you. There is a bit of chatting as you encounter bosses and NPCs but the story isn’t the draw here, though there are multiple endings. You encounter Beatrice shortly afterwards who tells you to defeat followers of the Dark Lady to get your memory back whilst also stopping them from summoning the big bad in the process. You play as a girl simply known as Heroine, who wakes in a dungeon with no memory. The pixel graphics and school girl protagonist might lead you to believe that this is a cutesy platformer but that is not the case. It’s been out on PC for some time but Lost Ruins now lands on PS4. Jin PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d / boss battles / combat / difficult / dodge roll / loadout / lost ruins / map by Gareth
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