Ruined King: A League of Legends Story

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
Developer(s)	Airship Syndicate
Publisher(s)	Riot Forge
Director(s)	Joe Madureira
Writer(s)	Frank Barbiere
Composer(s)	Gareth Coker
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch Xbox One
Release	November 16, 2021
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is a 2021 turn-based role-playing video game developed by Airship Syndicate and published by Riot Forge. A spin-off to Riot Games' League of Legends, Ruined King uses characters and a setting originating in its parent title.

The game is set in Bilgewater, a bustling pirate city, and the Shadow Isles, a cursed region filled with a corrupting force called the Black Mist. The player controls a party of six characters from League of Legends to find the source of the Black Mist.^[1] The playable characters are Pyke, Braum, Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Ahri, and Yasuo.^[2]

Originally revealed in 2019 during the 10th anniversary celebration of League of Legends, Ruined King's release was delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] A release date was not provided by the developer or publisher until it was launched, alongside Hextech Mayhem, on November 16, 2021, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. It is backwards compatible with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with free upgrades to the native versions to be available in the future.^[4]

Gameplay[]

Like Airship Syndicate's Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Ruined King A League of Legends Story is presented in a top-down perspective, with players directly navigating a group of characters, around the world to interact with objects and people. As the group travel, they encounters enemies and bosses. When an enemy is encountered, the environment switches to a turn-based battle area where characters and enemies await their turn to attack.

Dungeon Ability[]

Each of the main characters has a passive and active Dungeon Ability, that player can use while traversing the world map. At one time, only one character is presented on the map, give the player access to that character Dungeon Abilities.

Passive abilities are active most of the time. While active abilities have cooldown and will give player combat advantages when encounter enemies. Altering and choosing character for their dungeon abilities are sometimes required to progress or obtain rare items. For example, Illaoi is required to interact with Buhru devices, and therefore required to progress through the Buhru Temple.

Turned-base combat[]

Similar to other turned-base game, combats in Ruined King have characters take their turn participate in combat. Ruined King introduces a mechanic called Initiative Bar, where playable characters and enemies interact with through using abilities. Each ability have cast and turn time, deciding the position of player on the Initiative Bar, therefore deciding the order of the steps.

The game combat focus on Initiative Bar, with each ability has different time options, allow player to use a weaker but quicker actions, or stronger version but take much more time. There also special areas on the Initiative Bar that give advantages and disadvantages to character landing on these areas.

The game also reused the Overcharge mechanic from Battle Chasers: Nightwar, where during battle, non-magical attacks generates "overcharge" that can be used in place of mana.

Plot[]

Setting & Characters[]

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story takes player on the journey of 6 characters on Bilgewater and Shadow Isles, in the world Runeterra of League of Legends canon universe.

Bilgewater is a port-city on the Serpent Isles, a town of outlaws. This town welcomes everyone, a good place for a fresh new beginning. It is a town full of opportunities, free from shackles, government and any constraints. However, the rich and powerful pirate captains still rule over the whole town. Gangplank, a pirate captain of the Dreadway, did many cruel things while he govern over the whole town. Sarah Fortune, once a little girl witnessed Gangplank killed her family, avenged years later, blowing up his flagship while he was still aboard. Now the old king is gone, Sarah Fortune is taking grasp of Bilgewater. Unknown to most, Gangplank is still alive, rescued by his former lover, Illaoi, and is planning to take back the control that once was his.

Shadow Isles, are a group of islands near the Serpent Isles, covered by a dense black mist. The Mist shrounds the lands, corrupt all who perish within it into deaths. Each year, the Mist extends, reap more souls from across Runeterra. Bilgewater as such, has been a common target of the Mist, always struggle after each Mist attack. Shadow Isles were once the Blessed Isles, hidden from the rest of the world, enjoyed a golden age dedicated to knowledge, philosophy. However, Viego, a king from a faraway land, ask for the lands magic water to revive his lost love. Rejected, Viego gone mad, killing the natives. Grael, a monk of the land, lead him into the magic water. Viego lost love get revived, but reject her new reality, killing him. The death of Viego causing a powerful magical surge over the land, corrupting the isles magic, turning it into the Shadow Isles. Grael now turned into evil being known as Thresh.

Story[]

Gangplank listen to Thresh and collect many artifacts to revive Viego on the Shadow Isles. Most of the artifacts belong to the Buhru people on the Serpent Isles. Illaoi, a Buhru Priestess, have a vision from her goddess that she must travel to Shadow Isles. As she looking for Miss Fortune, the ruler of Bilgewater, Illaoi meet Braum and Yasuo, two travellers from far lands, also have their own reasons to travel to the Shadow Isles. As they travel, they found out Bilgewater was again attacked by the Black Mist from the Shadow Isles, and Illaoi's temple was invaded by Gangplank. They then meet Miss Fortune, and ,although having misunderstanding, the group was able to come to an agreement and set sail to Shadow Isles.

As the group sail on the sea and explore the Shadow Isles, the group meet Pyke, a cursed spirit of Bilgewater, who want to kill all captains. The spirit now target Gangplank and agree to join the crew to the Shadow Isles. As they reach the Shadow Isles, they explore the Coastal Academy and its Garden Academy and reach the Grove. Maokai, a giant treant stood on their way and attack them. As they are dealing the final blow, a fox lady interfere and save the treant from fatal damage. Ahri was Yasuo accompany, but left Yasuo all of a sudden, forcing him to follow her to the Isles. Ahri helped and the treant asked them to cure his roots. As the team explored further, they cured Maokai roots and found out Ahri race past. Gangplank, give Thresh the artifacts to awake Viego. The team then travel to heal Maokai seed using the Buhru magic. With power restored, Maokai clear the mist, allow the group moving forward. Elsewhere, Gangplank give Thresh the artifacts and successfully awake a weaken Viego. Viego was given time to restore his power while Thresh tricked Gangplank that Viego power will soon be of Gangplank's.

With the mist disappear, the team move to Thresh dungeons and release many lost souls. As they reached Thresh, Thresh was spreading the Mist all over Runeterra, and take his defeat as another step in his own plan. The team then reach Gangplank, persuading him to stop what he was doing and fail. Gangplank, still believe he can conquer Viego power, only to be possessed by Viego. Gangplank get defeated and realize Thresh tricked him this whole time. The team then take Gangplank imprisoned in Bilgewater, and find artifacts to stop the roaming Viego. As they travel the Vesani temple, they found Viego memories and use them against Viego. The final team break out, use the memories to weaken the Ruined King. When Viego defeated, Sarah Fortune whole to Buhru artifact, and although Viego has promised her power, with the team help, she woke up and trapped him inside the artifact. As they celebrate Bilgewater is saved, they learned Gangplank has escaped, and Sarah argued with Illaoi on Sarah future actions. The team then say good bye and go on their own paths.

Post-game[]

It is hinted that Sarah is affected by Viego promise and follow Viego in a near future event.

Reception[]

Ruined King received "generally positive" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Game Informer gave the game a seven out of ten, citing the game's action and imaginative characters as pillars that supported an otherwise conventional RPG with a forgettable story and uninspired level design. PC Gamer similarly called the cast of Ruined King an "entertaining bunch" and the combat "the heart of the game", while criticizing the uninteresting story and the lack of exciting content. IGN praised the game's art, voice acting, character development, and rewarding battle system while lamenting the presence of some major technical issues, the limited variety of locations, and the autosave system. GameSpot and Nintendo Life both called the game's story "incredible", and similarly lauded its world, characters, and battle system while deeming the technical issues and limited fast travel system to be annoyances.

References[]

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