English
German
Portuguese
Spanish
Romanian
The Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is, like many of Riot’s recent projects, an effort in translation. League of Legends remains one of the biggest games in the world, despite its rampant community toxicity and the tremendous time investment required from most players—but things like The Ruined King and Riot’s recent Netflix series Arcane allow people without a death wish to dive into Runeterra. The results are really promising.
The Ruined King is a turn-based RPG for Xbox One/Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Switch, and PC, set in Bilgewater, a major location in League of Legends’ setting, Runeterra. The city is layered, wet, and hungry—to paraphrase Illaoi, one of the game’s main characters, it is a city built on desire in all of its many forms. You play as a handful of League’s Champions as they push back against the encroaching black mist and the titular Ruined King.
The Ruined King acts as a brilliant introduction to Bilgewater, and Runeterra by proxy, through its near unwavering focus. Not every character you’ll meet will be from Bilgewater—characters will talk about other parts of the world, but you’ll never go there yourself. But the game’s camera basically never leaves the city. This is a story about one place, which means that it’s an incredibly easy introduction for new players. Learning the rules and rhythms of a single city is far more approachable than having to learn the rules, customs, and cultures of an entire world.
And those rules and rhythms are worth learning. The game’s level and environmental design is incredibly detailed and there’s small things to find just about everywhere—from short side areas with simple puzzles and interesting narratives, to new equipment and gorgeous vistas. A mansion off the beaten path in the game’s first major dungeon, for example, treated me to a short story about a family of ghosts coming back together, before leaving the site of their haunting to travel the world.
Read the full article on Kotaku
