LogFAQs > #969150526

Lost Ruins (Steam)

What a weird game. It's kind of a Metroidvania, but there are no real movement abilities. It's kind of a Souls-like, but there aren't corpse runs or bonfires. It IS fun, though, if you can get past all the jank. There are certain quirks (like how attacking in the air cancels all your momentum immediately) that you'll just have to get used to, but if you can, the combat ends up being pretty satisfying. There's also an incredible amount of tension to the whole game because save points don't restore your HP or MP -- in fact, there's no way to do so without spending resources or time. It makes the whole game feel like one big endurance run, which is probably not for everyone but is very unique and interesting. It also really highlights the different standards I have for 2D and 3D games, because if a 3D game had these mechanics I'd call it a piece of shit and drop it immediately. But in a 2D game I'm just like, "okay, challenge accepted."

Unfortunately, I don't think it really makes good on its promise to be an extremely difficult survival game. It starts that way: in the beginning, each enemy is a threat, there are a lot of traps, and you'll really have to pay attention and find in-game notes to gather info about situations before just jumping in. But sometime between the first and second boss it just becomes a fairly standard 2D action game. Once you get a strong weapon and equipment that passively heals you, it's pretty much GG. Almost every enemy in the game can be easily dispatched by the same one or two strategies. And by the end I was so overpowered that I could kill the last couple bosses in a few hits each.

The story is pretty whatever. I will give it credit for not being as poorly written as I initially thought, but then the ending kinda makes no sense, so... I dunno, it's just not great. There are also a couple really skeevy little details. The character designs are one thing and generally forgivable, but the permanent upgrades you collect are mostly children's underwear. It's easy enough to ignore but yuck.