Winds Of Arcana: Ruination

A video review can be watched by following this link: https://youtu.be/X-hKybbGRCA For those who don't want to watch the video: Playtime: 11 hours (all side quests done, few collectibles missing) Pros: - The setting is comprised of a good number of different biomes, each one functioning as a piece of the enigmatic puzzle that is the world of Lirna, with all of them doing a good job of making you feel like you’re traversing a place that used to boast marvels, now reduced to a massive ruin hiding unspeakable dangers. - I’m happy to say that Lirna has a decent amount of optional collectibles for you to locate and claim, most of which will go a long way toward helping you get stronger, thus making venturing off the beaten path a worthwhile pursuit. - The map of the game is actually quite useful and logistically accurate, featuring several quality-of-life elements that will make your life easier. There's a snapshot feature, called the Mind’s Eye, that allows you to take a picture of your current location which is then immediately placed on the map, effectively granting you the option to manually mark points of interest. In terms of automatic marking, the game notes down merchants, fast travel portals, save shrines - which also function as healing points - as well as, thankfully, quest locations, thus making it efficient to pursue side quests, if you so desire. - Combat-wise, Winds of Arcana: Ruination has a lot of good things going for it, though it comes with its downsides. On a basic level, Aryn has three different weapons at his disposal, namely a sword, which is your starting armament, as well as a Chakram and a two-handed Hammer, both of which you find later in your journey. Switching between weapons happens instantaneously, with each one bringing its own perks and disadvantages to the table. The sword is the balanced choice, offering decent speed and damage but requiring close proximity, the Chakram allows a ranged approach in dealing with your foes but does slightly less damage, and the Hammer is slow but deals massive hurt to your enemies. Each weapon type also has additional armaments you can find, with the difference between each variation lying in their traits. More specifically, every arm has a set of three passive advantages you can unlock for it by taking out a certain number of enemies, effectively allowing you to choose the one that suits your battle approach best, which I thought was a really cool element. Each weapon can be upgraded a total of two times with the help of a merchant, which I did find limiting though not that problematic. Your offensive approach is complemented by the Soul Crests, artifacts that enforce your arsenal with different kinds of arcane attacks, such as a dragon-shaped fireball, a flame geyser or a tactical spell that allows you to manifest a stationary doppelganger and then teleport back to it. In addition, Relics (think charms and notches of Hollow Knight) bring an extra layer of strategy into the mix by having you pair different passive abilities together, depending on your preferred gameplay style. Healing is carried out via the use of potions, which are refilled at save points and whose number and potency can increase through merchant purchases. - Several accessibility options that allow you to tailor the experience to your own tastes, including a total of five different difficulty settings, ranging from the mild Story challenge level, all the way to the hardcore Ruination experience. Cons: - Platforming is definitely one of the game’s standout aspects, as well as the point where certain issues start rearing their ugly head. I want to preface this section by stating that Winds of Arcana: Ruination has some of the most imaginative and impressive acrobatic gauntlets I’ve seen in a metroidvania game and, under normal circumstances, I would have had a blast in my attempts to conquer them. That being said, things are anything but normal here, courtesy of two major problems, namely a good amount of jankiness and, even worse, a convoluted control scheme that, at times, is unresponsive. Regarding the former, the game’s movement and animations feel abrupt, choppy and largely lacking the fluidity and smoothness necessary when it comes to doing elaborate gymnastics in order to pass through its hellish platforming ordeals, where one wrong move can frequently send you back at the start of those segments. That being said, this issue is nothing compared to the control scheme present here which, at times, almost made me tie my fingers to a knot in my attempts to brave these nightmarish sections. More specifically, and taking into account that I played the game with a PS4 controller, the game uses a sort of layered system when it comes to traversal abilities. In essence, the majority of your movement skills are accessible only after holding down the right trigger button and then pressing the circle, square, triangle or X buttons, whereas other move-sets, such as the double jump, are also allocated to those buttons but only usable when the trigger is not pressed. Now, imagine having to go through a lengthy platforming challenge that requires the use of nearly every single one of your skills, while in constant danger of one of those skills failing to trigger. I lost count of how many times I accidentally kept the trigger button pressed while meaning to do a double jump, as well as how many times I did press the trigger button in order to open my parachute only for the input to not register and for me to fall to my demise. - The best way for me to describe the boss-fights in this game is a chaotic, janky, hectic, glitchy, fun mess, and do allow me to explain. For starters, the big-bads here, especially during the first half of the game, are ridiculously difficult, but not on their own merit. Every single villain in Winds of Arcana suffers from dementedly broken hitboxes that make it incredibly hard to avoid even their most basic of attacks unless being way too pre-emptive about them. On top of that, many of their special attacks leave little to no response time for a dodge, leading to frequent hits against you that feel completely cheap. Speaking of cheap, after losing to a boss and then re-entering the arena, almost every single one of them is expecting you with open arms and already locked in for battle, which led to me sometimes dying seconds after getting back into the fold instead of having a few moments to breathe before the fight restarts. In addition, many of the clashes are chaotic beyond belief, with many different projectiles flying around and bosses just doing special attacks with no rhyme or pattern which, in combination with the horrendous hit-boxes, leads to nightmarish bouts where you fight tooth and nail for survival, but for all the wrong reasons. - While I understand that a lot of people are comparing this game to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, in my humble opinion, Winds of Arcana draws more inspiration from Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong, and said opinion stems from the fact that all three of those games are simply packed to the brim with an obscene amount of bugs! Check out comments for details. TL:DR: Winds of Arcana: Ruination is one of those games that I really, really want to recommend, but simply cannot do so in its present state. Its metroidvania foundation is beyond solid and its gameplay loop is very addictive, but everything is bogged down by technical issues and problematic controls. I do suggest that you keep an eye on it if it interests you, and go for it once several more patches have been released. Winds of Arcana: Ruination could have been an awesome metroidvania experience had it spent at least a few more months in the oven but, as things currently stand, it feels more like a missed opportunity. Final Grade: 5.8/10

[b][i]Метроидвания в атмосфере «Prince of Persia». Исследуйте мрачный мир, прокачивайте героя, выполняйте квесты, разгадывайте головоломки, сражайтесь с демонами и боссами.[/i][/b] Геймплей: https://youtu.be/kiw-dVmSLB8 Красивая, но довольно хардкорная игра, в которой вы будете многократно умирать. Тут множество сложных прыжков с рывками, куча смертельных шипов, множество проваливающихся платформ, атаки с парированием/перекатами/уклонениями, огромная карта и сложные боссы. По мере прохождения получаем различное оружие, прокачиваем умения и открываем проходы в новые области. Тут можно находить секреты и выполнять не только основные квесты NPC, но и побочные. Что лично мне не хватает в игре: персонаж не цепляется за края платформ, у обычных врагов нет полос здоровья (не понятно, сколько надо по ним колотить). У боссов здоровье показывает. [u] Вы можете почитать другие отзывы и подписаться на наших кураторов. Добро пожаловать! [/u] [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/25737869/] 5 minutes of game [/url]

update: Yeah I tried playing more. This is quite literally Temu PoP TLC. It also has the worst healing I've ever seen. I refuse to deal with this anymore. This has been an enormous dissapointment, I expected so much more from this. original review below: Oh my god, I thought the devs removed cornifer and corpse runs from the game after the steam next fest. Now obviously this is a low budget version of Prince of Persia the lost crown and thus a lower quality is accepted as part of the bargain, but to INTENTIONALLY make the game worse, there is no excuse for that! I can't think of a single person who would enjoy this instead of playing hollow knight or PoP TLC a second time. I will still try to complete this but I have already seen enough to know I cannot possibly recommend this.

[h2]超特盛バグ作品[/h2] くっっっそバグが多いです。 壁に埋まるわ技アイコン消えて出せないわ地図のスクショマーカー消したら別のとこも消えるわ。 再起動しても進行状態が保存されていたのでプレイしていましたが、ボス・アサシンで常にフリーズするバグになってしまったので断念。 ゲーム自体はマップが分かりにくくてどこに行けばいいか迷います。でもやれることが多いのでわりと楽しいです。 任天堂スイッチでやっていたプリンセスオブペルシャが任天堂DSで出たような劣化版というイメージでした。値段的にもこんなものでしょうね。 アップデートに期待。ついでに強制フルスクリーンやめてください。 -クリアしたので追記- 「中国語および韓国語でプレイしているユーザーにおいて、アサシン戦が不具合を引き起こす問題を修正」 というのがあったので設定言語をかえたらフリーズしなくなりました。 後半戦はギミックステージばかり。スキルが多いため、頭で分かってても指が動かない。 やった！壁がある休める！って思ったら壁を突き抜けてトゲに刺さるという、バグと融合して狂った難易度になってました。 人によってはコントローラーをぶん投げるぐらいブチギレそうなので、現状ではかなり人を選ぶ作品だと思います。

Игра недоделанная. Дропнул почти у самого конца (в последней локации). Платформинг душный. Нужно прям до миллисекунд рассчитывать время ловушек. непонятно куда идти, а если пришёл, то проходы закрыты, значит с другой стороны надо, но нигде не сказано. Управление багованное. Пока применяешь способность, то срабатывает действие (атака или прыжок). А иногда вообще не срабатывает способность. Инпут лаги. Хит боксы кривые. персонаж садиться не умеет, зато с зонтика на ломающуюся платформа приземляется и прогибается. тут либо в шипы под платформой либо ван шот от пилы или шаров. В добавок в предпоследней локации непонятно откуда ветер в комнате берётся и зачем он вообще нужен. Диагональный шар и пилы через зелёный круг - отдельное вид искусства.

Winds of Arcana: Ruination is a 2D Metroidvania about Aryn and his mission to save the world and his family from corruption. The game offers a huge interconnected map with different biomes that will each test your platforming and exploration skills. There are many secrets in every corner for you to find out. Improved combat system which has released post launch which has addressed many bugs and fixed many issues that players were facing, the game is polished is much more enjoyable. Solid controls and responsive combat. The music and OST is relaxing and calm and gets intense during boss battles which will ensure fun exploration and combat. The boss battles will really bring out the best in you due to the challenge they offer, each boss has it's own unique design and set of attacks which will keep you guess during the fight which is something I loved. The Devs are hard at work non stop to polish the game even more, It's good to see the Devs being super active at fixing remaining bugs / issues if any. Very recommended 2D Metroidvania if you're a fan of the genre, this will be a good one to try out. Overall Rating 10/10

This review is from a playtester who played the beta earlier this year. I had a good time playing this game. Although the devlopers did not labelled the game as "Made in India" and targeted metriodvania community, I was expecting a polished build on release. I completed the main story along with several side quests in around 10 hours. The level design was fantastic, with well-connected biomes that encouraged exploration. The game is clearly inspired by Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The abilities, traps, and platforming mechanics feel very similar. However, I encountered some collision and hitbox bugs, which made the platforming experience somewhat frustrating at times. There is one bug makes player stuck while resting on the shrines (I had to restart the game and reset the progression when the bug occured.) The game’s balance is a major issue—hard difficulty is not recommended. Boss encounters were largely unmemorable, and the overall presentation felt undercooked due to weak sound design. The absence of player grunts, boss growls, environmental audio, and the repetitive background music significantly impacted immersion. The game also ends rather abruptly with a simple “Thanks for playing” message, without any ending cinematic. This made the conclusion feel awkward and unsatisfying. Despite these issues, I was still motivated to finish the game due to its platforming mechanics and story. Overall, the game feels average, especially considering there are many strong platformers available at a similar price point (Rs.500). Pick this game on sales for around 200-300 Rs. My Rating 6/10

I am about 12 hours in and here are my first impressions- This is more of a yes and no recommendation. The Good The graphics and overall artwork are amazing. I really enjoy the combat and having different weapons to utilize for different enemies etc. The beginning is pretty intuitive and the map is pretty forgiving The Bad The game has crashed twice, both times my save would not load and I had to restart entirely. Luckily I had not progressed to far and I am hoping it will not happen again but we will see. There are a ton of camera and physics bugs Switching platforms on and off is difficult to get the hang of because it is awkward to jump with B the press RB+B to turn off the platform you were just on and activate a platform above you and then have to do the second jump in your double jump sequence all the while avoiding traps. It just feels off The Map def needs some work. You cannot zoom in on the map, Icons on the map are too small, and it is weird that in order to open full map I have to double tap the down key on the D-pad. Just make it open the full map with one click?? Overall it is fun for now but really needs some major adjustments in the first big patch. I would for sure recommend the game but wait until a lot of the issues are fixed before you spend your money.

This game has so much positive sides. Aesthetics, dialogue, voice acting and overall feel are on point. I loved it. It's hard to not compare it to PoP - Lost Crown. Understandable smaller team doesn't have such resources so it's not as fine tuned and it has it's pitfalls, but for the price it's a really recommended buy with these disclaimers 1) You must enjoy challenging metroidvania-type games Just finished the game and achievement says that 2,9% of players have finished the game. 2) You must enjoy challenging platforming (they are skippable if they feel too hard, but at least my self respect doesn't let me do that). I mean, some parts are seriously hard. You need to master controls by heart and they're not one of the easiest ones. Maybe Aeterna Noctis would be the first comparison to come in mind. Also some minor annoyances in controls makes the platforming even more challenging. At least I found that recovery time from dropping little too high was unnecessary and somethimes when you wall jump you may or may not have the second jump ready. This kind of things may be polished in future patches. 3) Bosses are really challenging even on normal difficulty. Actually, that depends a lot on RNG, since bosses abilities seem to come purely by random. IF you get lucky, boss only uses it's "easy ability" and you can just spam it to death while standing next to it or on the other side, you may have to dodge difficult patterns for minutes without being able to do any damage. Game lenght felt just right. I don't know my exact game time since i left it on pause many times while doing other stuff. Developers estimated it to be 11 hours experience depending on players skill, but I would say it's longer for most of people. I was little disappointed that it ended without any ending cutscene, just "Thanks for playing" screen. TLDR; if you look for a challenging game, I think it's a steal for the price. Devs also just launched an update that polished a lot of things (for example combat) and it's seems that they are really listening and pushing out patches also in the future. I assume this will be even better experience after few patches.

It's a good metroidvania. It is and I really like the graphics, vibe, platforming, combat (in general) and sound. BUT At the moment game is full of bugs that make it a ragefest rather than good experience. And I don't mind small bugs like on occasion I fell below textures and have to restart from last save. No - that's not the big issue for me. What is really grinding my gears are bosses encounters and how buggy they feel. Hitboxes are a joke in here, your character freeze abnormally after avoiding or countering and then getting two shotted because you can't do anything and the longer the fight goes the less responsive controls feel like - they become more sluggish (?), like they become delayed a bit? That makes finishing boss encounters feel more like "I've got lucky" rather than earned. Also dash doesn't engage sometimes (which adds to boss encounter frustration) and sometimes platforming hitboxes (?) don't work properly i.e. you jump on platform and don't stick on it, while said platform starts moving without you. Anyway, as it is I can't recommend this game even if I enjoy it apart of bosses and some platforming.