Edit: The developer ProjectMoon has been involved in an unfortunate controversy, which you can find details of elsewhere. Use your own judgement, but at the very least don't play a fucking gacha game.
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This is a direct sequel to Lobotomy Corporation, before playing Library of Ruina you must finish that first or watch a story summary video! Also consider installing this collection of mods that fix bugs. (Mass Attack targeting change is balance-affecting and probably not needed)
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Strangely enough, the video game that came to mind most when playing Library of Ruina was Persona 3. It's been many years since I played it, and I would almost certainly have massive problems with it now, but in theory there are aspects that I admire. The game takes multiple gameplay modes that are seemingly separate, and tries to frame them all around the core themes of malaise, time, and death to create a cohesive whole.
I recall Persona 3's final boss being a major high point of the game, but after going back and watching a video of the fight, it's clear just how much the combat system is holding it back (and a credit to the other elements which can pick up some of the slack). When you are limited to simple loops of attacking and healing, there's not enough space to evoke the kinds of different experiences that the mood and themes are calling for, and the monotony is even sabotaging the intended effect!
Library of Ruina is by no means perfect, and in a certain sense is less ambitious than Persona 3. But it executes that vision with far more craftsmanship, in a way that allows it to both function on a moment-to-moment level and integrate its elements together. Once again, as I mentioned here and here, mechanical and experiential appeal isn't a real tradeoff: on the contrary, they complement each other!
The most obvious improvement, and my usual area of "expertise", is the combat, and though my experience is limited, it's probably the best turn-based RPG without positioning I've ever played? (Someone I know with more RPG experience corroborates this) I suspect the reason is actually simple: instead of looking to other RPGs, they took inspiration from tabletop games (Source - Lobotomy Corp spoilers) while ditching a lot of superfluous structural elements like throwaway encounters and exploration that aren't central to the goal of the game.
Very quick mechanics rundown to give context, don't worry about understanding it all (also I'm leaving a lot of stuff out). You have 5 characters, each with HP, stagger meter, speed dice, light, emotion level, and their own hand and deck of cards. HP is self-explanatory. Empty stagger meter = staggered for the rest of the turn and the next one, which prevents taking any actions and doubles damage received. Speed dice are a character's "turns" to play cards and have a random number assigned each turn, higher goes first. Light is basically mana and is consumed to play cards, regain 1 per turn. Emotion level determines max light, mainly raised by clashing (more in a second). Hand and deck self-explanatory, 9 cards in deck, start with 4 in hand, draw 1 per turn.
Each card has a light cost and some amount of dice (example). Cards are played by assigning them to a speed die and targeting an enemy speed die. Enemy cards and targets are shown at the start of the turn, and higher speed dice can forcibly redirect the targets of lower speed dice to themselves. If two cards target each other's speed dice, then their dice clash, which means the higher roll uses its effect and the lower roll doesn't (in ties, neither use their effect). Example: if the above card clashed with this card, the above card would likely win and deal blunt-type damage equal to the dice roll, but there is a chance they tie or the other card wins and deals pierce damage. Clashing dice builds progress to the next emotion level for both participants. Cards can have multiple dice (example) which are rolled in order, and uncontested dice simply have their effects occur.
Apologies for vomiting the manual at you. There are obvious similarities here to tabletop games, of course (cards and dice). But more fundamentally, the game is about resource tradeoffs and options, in the sense of something like Magic the Gathering. Unlike Slay the Spire derived card roguelites, in Ruina, light/mana and cards in hand persist across turns, putting more emphasis on complex short vs. long term value. Trade cards for life and damage (use powerful cards to clash with enemy attacks), trade life for cards (take a hit and don't play anything), trade life for emotion level (take many clashes, some of which will probably be unfavorable), trade cards for light (play weak cards that restore light), and so on. The many timing-sensitive variables like speed dice values mean you'll be constantly having to evaluate the relationships and efficiencies of each opportunity within a turn.
How does this relate to all that stuff I wrote at the top though? Well, it's precisely because the mechanics are deep and solid that the game can actually make use of them in an experiential way. Abnormalities, the SCP-likes returning from the previous game Lobotomy Corporation, are a shining example of this. Fighting them is more puzzle-like than most encounters, and there is enough room in the possibility space for them to bend the normal game rules in idiosyncratic ways that evokes their characters and moods while still keeping you engaged with the fight itself. Pinocchio copies your cards while trying to sneak incorrect versions past you, the cannibalistic Fairy Queen tries to eat its own kind for health unless you distract it, and Little Red Riding Hood flies into a frenzied rage if you kill the Wolf before she can. Each fight emphasizes a different aspect of the mechanics, which feels viscerally different and allows you to actually connect that with the context! When this dovetails with story events, the result can be surprisingly immersive and moving.
This type of characterization should be somewhat familiar to anyone who has played around with a custom card generator, and reminds me of one of Magic's own famous city settings: Ravnica, the City of Guilds. Consult the Necrosages gives a window into the Dimir, focused on gaining and denying others knowledge in equal measure. Judge's Familiar shows how the Azorius's meticulous devotion to laws are used to obstruct others, for both justice and simple power-seeking.
Ruina often uses similar techniques to evoke its characters and setting through its cards. One of my favorite cards, Will of the Prescript, illustrates how the Index's acolytes strangely benefit (drawing cards) by subjugating themselves to its seemingly arbitrary dictums (only works if the deck has no duplicate cards).
Of course, much of this is resting on the story and writing itself pulling its weight. I feel very inadequate to discuss the story proper, but considering it's such a driving force in the game, I will try (in a spoiler-free way). Ruina is a game about the terror of humanity's reach finally meeting its grasp. Humanity as a collective could accomplish anything, but that collective is mediated by structures, and the structure of this world, The City, is both prosperous evolutionarily and nightmarish humanistically. Almost no one wants this, but fixing things would require awareness and sacrifice that is tantamount to reopening scars with a knife, and so the City grows. And if humans can simply modify themselves so their desires more deeply align with the vile rhythms of the City, then what purpose can such an anguished struggle really have? The question is psychological: what does one truly desire, what should one truly desire, and how can one bring themselves to seek it?
"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate... Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope." - Persona 3
"Use your own eyes to watch things as they are. Then you may see it. However, you will inevitably forget why you wished to see it once you reach that point. That oblivion is what creates anguish; that is why it is a tragedy." - Library of Ruina
"On some shelf in some hexagon (men reasoned) there must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest: some librarian has gone through it and he is analogous to a god... How could one locate the venerated and secret hexagon which housed Him? ...In adventures such as these, I have squandered and wasted my years." - Borges, The Library of Babel
Though my experience is limited, I would consider this to easily be the best RPG in this style ever made. Hopefully that's enough of a recommendation for you!
---
This is a direct sequel to Lobotomy Corporation, before playing Library of Ruina you must finish that first or watch a story summary video! Also consider installing this collection of mods that fix bugs. (Mass Attack targeting change is balance-affecting and probably not needed)
---
Strangely enough, the video game that came to mind most when playing Library of Ruina was Persona 3. It's been many years since I played it, and I would almost certainly have massive problems with it now, but in theory there are aspects that I admire. The game takes multiple gameplay modes that are seemingly separate, and tries to frame them all around the core themes of malaise, time, and death to create a cohesive whole.
I recall Persona 3's final boss being a major high point of the game, but after going back and watching a video of the fight, it's clear just how much the combat system is holding it back (and a credit to the other elements which can pick up some of the slack). When you are limited to simple loops of attacking and healing, there's not enough space to evoke the kinds of different experiences that the mood and themes are calling for, and the monotony is even sabotaging the intended effect!
Library of Ruina is by no means perfect, and in a certain sense is less ambitious than Persona 3. But it executes that vision with far more craftsmanship, in a way that allows it to both function on a moment-to-moment level and integrate its elements together. Once again, as I mentioned here and here, mechanical and experiential appeal isn't a real tradeoff: on the contrary, they complement each other!
The most obvious improvement, and my usual area of "expertise", is the combat, and though my experience is limited, it's probably the best turn-based RPG without positioning I've ever played? (Someone I know with more RPG experience corroborates this) I suspect the reason is actually simple: instead of looking to other RPGs, they took inspiration from tabletop games (Source - Lobotomy Corp spoilers) while ditching a lot of superfluous structural elements like throwaway encounters and exploration that aren't central to the goal of the game.
Very quick mechanics rundown to give context, don't worry about understanding it all (also I'm leaving a lot of stuff out). You have 5 characters, each with HP, stagger meter, speed dice, light, emotion level, and their own hand and deck of cards. HP is self-explanatory. Empty stagger meter = staggered for the rest of the turn and the next one, which prevents taking any actions and doubles damage received. Speed dice are a character's "turns" to play cards and have a random number assigned each turn, higher goes first. Light is basically mana and is consumed to play cards, regain 1 per turn. Emotion level determines max light, mainly raised by clashing (more in a second). Hand and deck self-explanatory, 9 cards in deck, start with 4 in hand, draw 1 per turn.
Each card has a light cost and some amount of dice (example). Cards are played by assigning them to a speed die and targeting an enemy speed die. Enemy cards and targets are shown at the start of the turn, and higher speed dice can forcibly redirect the targets of lower speed dice to themselves. If two cards target each other's speed dice, then their dice clash, which means the higher roll uses its effect and the lower roll doesn't (in ties, neither use their effect). Example: if the above card clashed with this card, the above card would likely win and deal blunt-type damage equal to the dice roll, but there is a chance they tie or the other card wins and deals pierce damage. Clashing dice builds progress to the next emotion level for both participants. Cards can have multiple dice (example) which are rolled in order, and uncontested dice simply have their effects occur.
Apologies for vomiting the manual at you. There are obvious similarities here to tabletop games, of course (cards and dice). But more fundamentally, the game is about resource tradeoffs and options, in the sense of something like Magic the Gathering. Unlike Slay the Spire derived card roguelites, in Ruina, light/mana and cards in hand persist across turns, putting more emphasis on complex short vs. long term value. Trade cards for life and damage (use powerful cards to clash with enemy attacks), trade life for cards (take a hit and don't play anything), trade life for emotion level (take many clashes, some of which will probably be unfavorable), trade cards for light (play weak cards that restore light), and so on. The many timing-sensitive variables like speed dice values mean you'll be constantly having to evaluate the relationships and efficiencies of each opportunity within a turn.
How does this relate to all that stuff I wrote at the top though? Well, it's precisely because the mechanics are deep and solid that the game can actually make use of them in an experiential way. Abnormalities, the SCP-likes returning from the previous game Lobotomy Corporation, are a shining example of this. Fighting them is more puzzle-like than most encounters, and there is enough room in the possibility space for them to bend the normal game rules in idiosyncratic ways that evokes their characters and moods while still keeping you engaged with the fight itself. Pinocchio copies your cards while trying to sneak incorrect versions past you, the cannibalistic Fairy Queen tries to eat its own kind for health unless you distract it, and Little Red Riding Hood flies into a frenzied rage if you kill the Wolf before she can. Each fight emphasizes a different aspect of the mechanics, which feels viscerally different and allows you to actually connect that with the context! When this dovetails with story events, the result can be surprisingly immersive and moving.
This type of characterization should be somewhat familiar to anyone who has played around with a custom card generator, and reminds me of one of Magic's own famous city settings: Ravnica, the City of Guilds. Consult the Necrosages gives a window into the Dimir, focused on gaining and denying others knowledge in equal measure. Judge's Familiar shows how the Azorius's meticulous devotion to laws are used to obstruct others, for both justice and simple power-seeking.
Ruina often uses similar techniques to evoke its characters and setting through its cards. One of my favorite cards, Will of the Prescript, illustrates how the Index's acolytes strangely benefit (drawing cards) by subjugating themselves to its seemingly arbitrary dictums (only works if the deck has no duplicate cards).
Of course, much of this is resting on the story and writing itself pulling its weight. I feel very inadequate to discuss the story proper, but considering it's such a driving force in the game, I will try (in a spoiler-free way). Ruina is a game about the terror of humanity's reach finally meeting its grasp. Humanity as a collective could accomplish anything, but that collective is mediated by structures, and the structure of this world, The City, is both prosperous evolutionarily and nightmarish humanistically. Almost no one wants this, but fixing things would require awareness and sacrifice that is tantamount to reopening scars with a knife, and so the City grows. And if humans can simply modify themselves so their desires more deeply align with the vile rhythms of the City, then what purpose can such an anguished struggle really have? The question is psychological: what does one truly desire, what should one truly desire, and how can one bring themselves to seek it?
"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate... Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope." - Persona 3
"Use your own eyes to watch things as they are. Then you may see it. However, you will inevitably forget why you wished to see it once you reach that point. That oblivion is what creates anguish; that is why it is a tragedy." - Library of Ruina
"On some shelf in some hexagon (men reasoned) there must exist a book which is the formula and perfect compendium of all the rest: some librarian has gone through it and he is analogous to a god... How could one locate the venerated and secret hexagon which housed Him? ...In adventures such as these, I have squandered and wasted my years." - Borges, The Library of Babel
Though my experience is limited, I would consider this to easily be the best RPG in this style ever made. Hopefully that's enough of a recommendation for you!
Yeahlookiehere
9 months ago
It's so hard trying to explain super complex games like this, but breaking down the trade-offs (health, light, stagger, etc) explains the appeal really well