Heroes of Ruin Review: Very Simple Though Addicting

Heroes of Ruin Review: Very Simple Though Addicting

Heroes of Ruin
Nintendo 3DS
Square Enix
Action/Adventure (A Dungeon Crawling Lootin’ Good Time)

Heroes of Ruin is an action/adventure title in form of a dungeon crawler available for the Nintendo 3DS system. You play one of four roles which include a vindicator, gunslinger, alchitect and savage, each class skilled with their own abilities and weapons along with their own shops in the main town of Nexus. There is a decent storyline that keeps you interested, it never gets too deep, but it does feed you enough to enjoy the setting in which you will play. Plus, by the end, I think you will be satisfied overall with its progression. It has a nice artsy style that tells the story by using lovely 3D effects. The voice acting is also very good within the scenes. There are a ton of side quests to partake in as you travel along the main quest, however, they don’t feel like side quests at all as you can easily complete them while in the process of the main quest.

Launch Trailer

I am a huge sucker for these types of games and this one proved to be just as addicting and fun. However, this game is very basic and doesn’t add much to improve the genre. There are 5 different dungeons locations, each with multiple areas. Each area will feel pretty much the same, so it’s a nice change once you move on to a new location. The size of the dungeons are just about right, they feel big at first, but are not that large after you have had a chance to explore them. I do wish they had more variations within each dungeon, which is one of my disappointments with this game.

There are a variety of enemies, each posing their own unique threat to you. The bosses are decent enough, but if you play the game right and you are able to build your character with a lot of strength, you will be able to blast your way through this game with great ease. Only a couple of battles towards the end may slow you down a bit. This was another disappointment of mine as the boss battles where very weak. In some cases they can be threatening, but they won’t make you think too much or give you that good of a challenge until the end. In fact, the game is so easy that the only time I had to purchase health and magic potions was at the very end of the game and I only did that once.

You will be able to level up your character to level 30 and you will be able to beat the game before reaching that maximum level. I ended at level 26 with my character by the time I beat the game. So there will still be incentive to keep playing with that character after you beat the game so that you can max out your characters level. There are a ton of weapons, armor and other accessories for you to collect as you play through, each giving you different ways of building your character as you level up. I like going for straight power over defensive abilities, so I equip items with higher attacking power and might, over items that increase my health and armor. The level up system is a good one and every step of the way you will have something that excites you as you level up. There is almost always an item available during each ranking that increases your abilities. Each character type is a lot of fun to play with and also neat to see how each one progresses. Plus, as you rank up you will be able to purchase and improve on new abilities depending on how you want to play the game. There are plenty of options for those who like strength and for those who like magic.

A lootin’ good time is what I had with this game! There is a lot of loot to collect in terms of items and money bags. Each dungeon has 1 hidden treasure room for you to find. It’s usually easy to find and always towards the end of the dungeon. I wish this aspect of the game was a bit more random and more challenging as well. The overall game is very simplistic and I wish there was a hardcore mode to unlock at the end. That would have made the game more enjoyable afterwards if you beat the game and you had the ability to play the same dungeons again, except this time against more challenging opponents.

One of the great features with Heroes of Ruin is the online playability with up to four players. This makes it a great and enjoyable time and it runs very smoothly. It also features voice communication through the 3DS as well. You will be able to set up rooms very easily to join others around the world or specifically those on your friends list. Another thing you can do is link your 3DS to the official website where you will be able to get daily challenges and much more. All of these features easily make this game a winning and must own title on the 3DS. We finally have that great online adventure that you and your friends can embark on by connecting to online play.

Multiplayer Trailer

Visually the game is solid but not overly impressive. It does have some nice 3D moments, but it also has times where you will want to turn the 3D half way down or completely off. This is probably the most I’ve ever adjusted any 3DS game in terms of the 3D slider. I did find myself annoyed on a few occasions with the surrounding. I had my overhead view blocked so that I couldn’t quite see how my battle was going. Only a couple of times did that happen and it wasn’t a horrible thing, just an annoyance. It has a wonderful soundtrack with it that most should enjoy. However, the sound effects take a hit every now and then; multiple times I had my character’s sounds disappear on me, at which time my character wasn’t making any noise at all. There was another instance where the background noise would do strange things by getting loud and then being gone in a second – Just a little glitchy.

It didn’t take me much over 8 hours of time to beat this game, but there is still a lot of decent replayability by playing online with friends, leveling up a new character and of course the daily challenges that are offered. It’s a very easy and simplistic game without much of a challenge. It also doesn’t offer much that is too different from what we’ve seen from other dungeon crawlers, but this is still just as addictive and something that every 3DS owner was waiting for in a great online adventure with friends. This game will easily have you drawn in and addicted until you beat it, but once you do I just don’t know how much you will want to keep playing it. However, it is a great experience on the 3DS and worth the play-through.

Score: 8/10