Raiders of Ruin

Raiders of Ruin is a combat-focused RPG about a group of adventurers on a quest to dethrone Erethann, arbiter of the Underworld. Although the game focuses almost exclusively on battle, it’s very long, has lots to do, and a wide variety of mechanics and gimmicks to keep you on your toes. [u]Let’s Talk About Assets![/u] As a commercial project, all its assets are either original or free to use. The artwork comes from a variety of sources, notably the enemies are from Ækashics Librarium, so they’ve turned up in a couple other games I’ve played. While the art style isn’t unified, it comes together well enough with no serious complaints. The soundtrack is fully custom and put to good use. Despite the gameplay being nearly all battling, it doesn’t have a dedicated battle theme. Instead, the theme of each area plays over regular battles while bosses get their own treatment. What theme plays depends on what kind of boss it is, as each chapter has its own boss theme, while chapter bosses share one between them, and special themes exist for the extra and final bosses. These songs get more intense and oppressive the deeper you go, adding to the sense of scale. While the music isn’t especia…

Fantastic game. The boss fights are well designed, and will often force you to rethink which classes you're using, to deal with specific mechanics. Combat has a low amount of randomness and is very satisfying. Some critiques... - There's no visual customization for your characters at all. It ruins the suspension of disbelief a bit when changing classes and suddenly your characters look entirely different. - The trash fights between bosses are pretty much pointless when you get to midgame. The exp and gold they give are pitiful. There's a certain class unlock that allows you to destroy them all in 1-2 rounds, though, so at least they don't waste much time. - I would have loved to see some sort of skill tree per class. Overall 9/10 would play an expansion, or maybe I'll try a locked-classes challenge run.

I don't normally play tactical RPGs, but this game - this game I am obsessed with. My partner will ask me to join her in bed, and I say, sure honey, just give me two minutes to beat this siren and her team of dastardly fish. Two hours later, once I've tried several team combinations and a few strategies and still haven't beaten said siren and her team of dastardly fish, I'll roll into bed and she'll ask if I won, I'll say no but that I honestly had fun. Each level and boss is a genuine pleasure to figure out the best way to beat. I love reading the descriptions on the weapons and armour, as the creator clearly had fun writing them. The music is pleasurable to listen to, and I adore the character design, especially for the rogue.

If you enjoy turn-based JRPG combat, highly specialized preset classes, carefully designed boss battles, and unlimited reclasses, then this is a boss rush made for you. Raiders of Ruin is a work of love whose benign retro graphics belie a well-crafted challenge.

I finished the game and all optional bosses. Overall very enjoyable and satisfying game. I played purely for the gameplay, i just skipped through the dialogue to be honest. It feels amazing to finnally overcome a boss when at first it seemed impossible. If you enjoy heavy strategy turn based RPG's, you will love this one. Hope to see more unique games like this from the developer!

Best $2 game ever.