Lost Ruins (PC) Review

It might simply be a problem of personal taste, but it's hard to care when the "trope" of kawaii/ecchi anime girls blends with a violent and dark fantasy world that players are supposed to take seriously. The Momodora series, as well as its "sister" title Minoria, are some of the rare exceptions to the rule. More often than not, however, waifu-centric narratives work better in comedy-flavoured games, like the ones in the Neptunia franchise. Long story short, it's hard to give a darn about what's going on, especially when the whole thing that goes on is nothing that well written or presented. It's the generic tale of an amnesiac schoolgirl, who must find out why she has ended up in a bleak labyrinth of interconnected dungeons and caverns, why she can wield weapons and cast spells, and why hybrids of bloodthirsty monsters and anime cuties are out to get her.

It's a tale complete with a few "shocking" twists, and tons of lore that few will bother to read. In other words, don't expect to get that engrossed to it all. In other words, all that's left is the gameplay. Concept-wise, this is a typical metroidvania through and through, with the main heroine exploring a maze, while finding key items and abilities that let her reach new areas. There has been an attempt to differentiate this from the many metroidvanias out there, by injecting an element of survival. Lost Ruins begins by telling you that this is a very dangerous trek. In practice, you'll heavily rely on whatever resources you'll accumulate while adventuring. Forget about regenerating save points and the like. Your only allies here will be small pieces of food, or healing potions.

Truth be told, however… no, this doesn't really play like a survival game. You are just forced to hoard many, many, many consumables in order to re-fill health and magic points, rather than going back to a safe place to do so. It doesn't really make the whole thing any more fun, or tactical. In fact, the awful balancing makes this aspect a really annoying one. Health goes down way too easy, and health items usually bring back just a couple of measly points. Magic is even worse. Two fireballs, and you are practically out of fuel, so players will either keep going back and forth between the inventory and the actual game, or straight up avoid the hustle, and focus on their sword swings, blocks, and rolls. Only these are even worse…

Battle is by far the worst aspect in here. The way the heroine slowly moves and handles her weaponry definitely works concept-wise, as she isn't supposed to be an experienced fighter but a normal schoolgirl, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. She is basically a turtle trying to fight a sea crocodile. Everything is way faster than her, with longer reaching attacks, while she attacks at a snail's pace, and has very poor range. Her rolls are almost laughable, and since there is no invulnerability after taking damage she can die in a few seconds. It's not hard to learn enemy or boss patterns. In fact, bosses are surprisingly easy once you learn how they move. However, it only takes a couple of hits, and you are dead. Unless you carry a bunch of apples, carrots, broccoli, and so on.

Aside from the odd resource drop here and there, there's not much point in fighting enemies, as there's no experience system, so you can safely run past most encounters - but that doesn't excuse how boring/annoying combat is. What's left is a game that feels and looks like a metroidvania… but actually isn't. Lost Ruins does the bare minimum of what's expected in such a game, as exploration is sleep inducing. The excitement of exploring around, getting new abilities, and then backtracking to discover additional paths and areas is almost nowhere to be found here, as the maze on offer is not exactly that mazy. It all lasts for only three to four hours, too, so it will take most people an evening or two to reach the end.

The only good thing to say about this is, is that it looks good. It uses fairly generic pixel art characters, that move in fairly generic pixel art levels, but through a variety of lighting tricks, shadow play, and other special effects, the view gets noticeably better. The bosses are especially impressive, although it should be noted that this is the part where the anime girl/waifu aesthetic is at its strongest, as they tend to begin their first phase as cute (or creepy) schoolgirl, with their second phase being an enormous, and usually busty giantess form, complete with breast physics and everything. In fact, one particular boss uses her enormous bosom as the main weapon, while performing a seductive belly dance.

This last sentence makes it so hard to be critical of the game…