What the Nintendo 3DS lacks this year are games and once Square Enix’s Heroes of Ruins releases sometime this year, that’s when 3DS owners will know that it’s time for the handheld to shine. Ever since the game was announced last year, Heroes of Ruin was one of the games that caught my attention and today, I got a chance to sit down with the game and play through it for nearly half an hour.
I myself is a huge RPG fan and playing Heroes of Ruin on a Nintendo 3DS puts a smile on my face. For gamers who have played and loved action RPG games such as Diablo or SOE’s Untold Legends, Heroes of Ruin will already have a place in your heart. In the short time I spent with Heroes of Ruin, I pretty much grasped what the game has to offer.
In the build that I played, I started a new game where I had to pick one from the four classes available; since I’m more likely a Warrior type, I picked the one that resembles as a warrior. As soon as I got my character all set up, the introduction scene kicks off with a nice voice over. From what I understand from the build that I played, Heroes of Ruin focuses on the character you choose in the beginning that somehow got stranded in an island where the adventure starts.
As with all hack and slash RPG games like Diablo, there are quests that players can undertake. The quests that I get to do varies from collecting three pieces of wood to clearing out an area of enemies. For every quests that players complete, the character receives an XP where it can be used to level up. Once the character levels up, deep customization will then commence where the players can level up their skills, based on the current level. Let’s say for example that the player is level 5, that means that if you wish to get the character much stronger and teach them some powerful skills, simply tap the Skill Tree icon on the bottom screen and learn the skills that are available for your level only.
Based on what was told to me by the representative of Square Enix, Heroes of Ruin doesn’t end right after you finish the forty hour adventure. At some point after the game releases, there will be additional content that will be released and will vary from quests and items that players can use. As the players can see, customization is very deep in a game like this, therefore, grinding for levels and looting enemies for good equipments are what you’ll most likely do in Heroes of Ruins.
In terms of visuals, Heroes of Ruin looks absolutely phenomenal. Especially with its 3D effects, the characters and the environments pop out wonderfully. The dungeon designs may look a tad the same but since I’ve only seen one dungeon, it would be unfair for me to judge on this right away. As for the enemies, the ones that I got to fight are sea creatures, turtles and some kind of a Piranha. Using the dual screens of the Nintendo 3DS, the bottom screen acts like the menu for the game where the map of the dungeon appears and the icons for each options are there. You can tap the Journal where you can see your quests, or you can tap the equipment section to change the armor of the character.
Similar to any dungeon crawler / hack and slash games, Heroes of Ruins has a home base and it’s called Nexus. In Nexus, think of it as your primary town where you’ll most likely spend all of your time here where you can purchase equipments or take quest. When the player thinks they have enough quests in their log book, simply go to the port and ask the Sailor to sail to the players destination. Once there, the dungeon crawling begins.
What I didn’t get to try in this playthrough is the promised multiplayer. However, from what I was told, the multiplayer can be done both locally and through WiFi. Up to four players can team up and do a quests together. I was hoping we’ll get to try it but everyone got busy.
Heroes of Ruin doesn’t have a definite release date but it’s coming this year exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS.
