Lost Ruins is a very simple, but still exciting game, which offers a complex magic system and exciting opponents. Probably, by the release on new consoles, it will become even more polished, and some animation flaws and sections with jumps on platforms will be corrected. But even now, Lost Ruins delivers a lot of nice emotions and fun.
I wouldn’t immediately recommend Lost Ruins in the way that I might with other Metroidvanias, but it’s still a fun time overall. If you’re looking for a different kind of Metroidvania and don’t mind intentionally awkward controls, then give Lost Ruins a try. It’s honestly a nice feeling when you get all the way through it.
Lost Ruins manages to stand out from others in the genre and establish itself as a unique experience. The masterclass of pixel artwork alongside the conceptually engaging gameplay ideas more than shows that much effort and care went into this adventure. Still, implementation is everything, and sadly, Lost Ruins doesn’t seem to have a clear idea of what it wants to be. Opting instead to throw everything at a wall and see what sticks.
The visuals are strong and most of the elements are competent, but this is a middle-of-the-road game that squanders its potential with some baffling decisions.
Lost Ruins is nothing more than a cumbersome, unnecessarily frustrating and unbalanced video game. In short, it is a jumble of excellent ideas thrown to the wind, but which at least is a feast for the eyes.
Lost Ruins is a retro-inspired cautionary tale. For every Metroid or Double Dragon back in the day, there were a hundred clones that just did not get it perfectly right. Even 30 years later, developers can’t always figure out the secret sauce or how to make it all work. In some ways Lost Ruins is a proper testament to the classics, they were just so much more nuanced than their visuals let on. This game has some great ideas and a concept that works on paper, and from time to time it works in the game too. But all too often it stumbles when it should have soared.
Can cute/sexy anime girls be mixed with the dark fantasy world of Dark Souls and the like? Sure… but that's no promise of a fine product. Now, there are many indies out there that try to sell through fanservice alone, but Lost Ruins is actually not one of those. Yes, it has waifu bosses with big bouncy assets, and they drop swimsuits as the reward, but to be perfectly honest this isn't the main thing here. Actual effort has been made during this title's creation, with the fanservice (or whatever you want to call it) being just the cherry on top of it all. It's just that the end result isn't really a good, or finely polished game, with the slow, cumbersome combat definitely taking the biscuit.
SummaryLost Ruins is a 2D side-scrolling survival action game, where you play as a young girl that has awoken in a strange and foreign place without her memories. Explore a dark and dangerous world, battle hideous monsters, and topple incredible bosses.