This review contains spoilers
Ruina and the SMT franchise are two of the game series I think just sum up my taste in media as a whole. They're both, on the surface level, very "cool" media. They are very hard, but they are cool. It's cool to use Yesod in endgame where he absolutely demolishes everything. It's cool to defeat the Reverbration Ensemble Distorted, where the Library is falling apart but your LIbrarians are still fighting, as a tried and true victory lap (despite the major difficulty), it's cool to fight the Head and Claw while Binah's third theme plays, in a tried and true conclusion of everything the game's been building up to. Roland's furioso is an amazingly satisfying finishing attack. It's cool. It's satisfying.
It's satisfying because there is so much context dripping with everything we do. Everything in this game builds up to something else. YOU are learning, developing, struggling, to grow the Library, to get stronger, and to eventually reach the end point. The very process of winning a reception and burning the books to use is contextual. Just losing a fight is contextual. Everything fits into this grand narrative, where we are putting everyone's wills and emotions against Angela's thirst for knowledge and power. It's the same thing as Shin Megami Tensei, where we, both as players and in the narrative, grow and develop. But while Shin Megami Tensei excels at this grand, suffocating atmosphere, with world-changing implications, Ruina excels at much more personal development.
The emotional crux of Ruina is entirely dependant on three things; Angela, and how she's changed from Lobotomy Corporation (which is also an excellent game, although for different reasons), Roland, and his perspective on the City, and the denizens of the City, all with their dreams, wills, and personalities. It's not a stretch to say every character you meet in Ruina has their own motivations and personality that expands much more on how the City operates, and how these are pit against the City. Even the Rats, which are worthless bums in the eyes of the City, have their dreams. Pete wants to become a Finger, for exampe; it's these small things that make it become a personal fight between the Library and the denizens. Even larger scale fights, like Xiao, are personal fights, where she wants to tear down a Star of the City as vengeance as she burns herself alive.
Roland also has his own motivations, although these aren't really explored until mid to endgame, with his Realizations and everything from the Reverbration Ensemble and onwards. His entire motivation is revenge, as a pseudo reimagening of Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso, as the Twelve Knights of Charlemagne are now twelve Fixers led by Roland (or Orlando, for his original name), where his wife Angelica dies and he lashes out in revenge. Project Moon seems to be a very big fan of reusing these novels to tie them into the thematic narrative of the universe (especially Limbus Corporation), but it never exactly feels like a lazy rehash, but as if it were an original idea, because it links to what the City is.
And to explain what the City is, we'll be moving quickly to Angela. Angela's is a bit of a hard topic to talk about, as it's entirely founded on her development in Lobotomy Corporation, and that game is a lot. But to expand on it in a simpler sense; Angela is about breaking out of a cycle. Lobotomy Corporation was a literal time loop for Angela, and she struggled to realize the Seeds of Light project. She was, once and for all, able to realize it, but that only lead to the Library, another cycle. This time, on her terms, as she employs the same skills as she did in LobCorp, gaining through death and tragedy. She's entirely about breaking out of her selfish desires and understanding what Ayin's goals were, as she eventually understands and reinstates the original Seeds of Light project, creating, once again, a ray of hope for the denizens of the city.
At the end of the day, that's what Ruina is. It's breaking out of a cycle. Everyone is stuck in a cycle of tragedy for various reasons, such as revenge for Roland, but it's only by breaking it that the cast was able to shine and gain a "happy ending". Despite the harsh circumstances, everyone we fought and killed had their own reasons to succeed. Despite Angela desperately wishing to become human, she still discarded it to finish Carmen's work. It's all just about breaking from a cycle.
Gameplay's really fucking fun it's probably my favorite gameplay out there.
Music's amazing yeah.
Art is great too.
Fuck XBox.
It's satisfying because there is so much context dripping with everything we do. Everything in this game builds up to something else. YOU are learning, developing, struggling, to grow the Library, to get stronger, and to eventually reach the end point. The very process of winning a reception and burning the books to use is contextual. Just losing a fight is contextual. Everything fits into this grand narrative, where we are putting everyone's wills and emotions against Angela's thirst for knowledge and power. It's the same thing as Shin Megami Tensei, where we, both as players and in the narrative, grow and develop. But while Shin Megami Tensei excels at this grand, suffocating atmosphere, with world-changing implications, Ruina excels at much more personal development.
The emotional crux of Ruina is entirely dependant on three things; Angela, and how she's changed from Lobotomy Corporation (which is also an excellent game, although for different reasons), Roland, and his perspective on the City, and the denizens of the City, all with their dreams, wills, and personalities. It's not a stretch to say every character you meet in Ruina has their own motivations and personality that expands much more on how the City operates, and how these are pit against the City. Even the Rats, which are worthless bums in the eyes of the City, have their dreams. Pete wants to become a Finger, for exampe; it's these small things that make it become a personal fight between the Library and the denizens. Even larger scale fights, like Xiao, are personal fights, where she wants to tear down a Star of the City as vengeance as she burns herself alive.
Roland also has his own motivations, although these aren't really explored until mid to endgame, with his Realizations and everything from the Reverbration Ensemble and onwards. His entire motivation is revenge, as a pseudo reimagening of Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso, as the Twelve Knights of Charlemagne are now twelve Fixers led by Roland (or Orlando, for his original name), where his wife Angelica dies and he lashes out in revenge. Project Moon seems to be a very big fan of reusing these novels to tie them into the thematic narrative of the universe (especially Limbus Corporation), but it never exactly feels like a lazy rehash, but as if it were an original idea, because it links to what the City is.
And to explain what the City is, we'll be moving quickly to Angela. Angela's is a bit of a hard topic to talk about, as it's entirely founded on her development in Lobotomy Corporation, and that game is a lot. But to expand on it in a simpler sense; Angela is about breaking out of a cycle. Lobotomy Corporation was a literal time loop for Angela, and she struggled to realize the Seeds of Light project. She was, once and for all, able to realize it, but that only lead to the Library, another cycle. This time, on her terms, as she employs the same skills as she did in LobCorp, gaining through death and tragedy. She's entirely about breaking out of her selfish desires and understanding what Ayin's goals were, as she eventually understands and reinstates the original Seeds of Light project, creating, once again, a ray of hope for the denizens of the city.
At the end of the day, that's what Ruina is. It's breaking out of a cycle. Everyone is stuck in a cycle of tragedy for various reasons, such as revenge for Roland, but it's only by breaking it that the cast was able to shine and gain a "happy ending". Despite the harsh circumstances, everyone we fought and killed had their own reasons to succeed. Despite Angela desperately wishing to become human, she still discarded it to finish Carmen's work. It's all just about breaking from a cycle.
Gameplay's really fucking fun it's probably my favorite gameplay out there.
Music's amazing yeah.
Art is great too.
Fuck XBox.