Ruined King: A League of Legends Story Review: the perfect popcorn RPG

Overthrown king: A League of Legends story had stacked the cards against it. As a stand-alone RPG firmly established in the world of League of Legends, it has to appeal to both hardcore league Fans and players who have never touched the game. This is not an easy task and it would be easy for Overthrown king to oversteer too much in one direction or the other. But developer Airship Syndicate keeps the controls tight the whole time and guides the player through a fantasy RPG full of characters.

In Overthrown king, I’m taking control of a roster of champions from league Lore borrowing some of their tools from the original MOBA design. Illaoi, an octopus priestess, increases her power over time by summoning more ghostly tentacles with which she can then heal her friends or destroy her enemies. Braum, a friendly guy with a massive shield and bigger biceps, serves as a tank for my team. Meanwhile, offensive characters like Miss Fortune – a pirate captain with a pair of pistols – focus on dealing damage from the defenses.

Image: Airship Syndicate / Riot Forge

Building a party and experimenting with different combos are the pillars of turn-based RPGs in long form and Overthrown king

Once I’ve chosen my lane skill, I have three options to choose from: a speed, balance, or power attack. The labels are pretty self-explanatory, but the interesting thing is how they affect the character’s position in the “Initiative” grid. A power attack can hit hard and feel good, but it could also leave my character in a dead zone of poisonous mist. Some enemies are vulnerable to certain attacks; a speed attack could, for example, defuse a bomb. All of this makes the fight a delicate dance.

I spend a good part of my time in Overthrown king in battle, but much more time in the overworld. Overthrown king takes place in two regions: the pirate town of Bilgewater and the mysterious ghostly shadow islands. I speak to residents, collect knowledge documents, solve puzzles and explore detailed environments. It’s a typical RPG tariff where exploring the overworld is half the fun and I scour every inch of both worlds in search of secrets. Airship Syndicate creates the illusion of a cutthroat, thriving port incredibly well. These islands rarely appear in League of Legends right, but Overthrown king succeeds in making them feel like real places with their own history.

Image: Airship Syndicate / Riot Forge

While the upper world is alive and welcoming Overthrown king plays it too safe on the narrative side. Everyone league Champion is introduced with a short biography, so league Newbies can get caught up while veterans don’t have to watch cutscenes about already known revelations. But while some of the characters have solid stories, many of them offer little more than color commentary on what went on.

Sure, the gang banter and get to know each other is fun, but if you’re looking for the character choices and deep, philosophical trees of conversation you get from one Divinity: Original Sin 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3, Overthrown king never dives that deep. Some actors get a satisfactory story and others remain in stasis for much of the game.

It does not help that the overworld dialogue remains largely the same, regardless of which party member I live in. Braum can occasionally throw a little poro beast down a small corridor or Illaoi can read her people’s language on objects, but every time I speak to a quest giver I get the same polite – and limited – dialogue trees. In contrast to this, the written records stored around the world tend to be a bit more adventurous. I found documents ranging from desperate messages from doomed adventurers to Sapphic poetry.

Image: Airship Syndicate / Riot Forge

Overthrown king is also filled with side quest content – including a fishing mini-game – but much of it is redundant on lower levels of difficulty. If you play on Normal or Story difficulty, you can ignore many of the lane mechanics in bossless combat, and overworld systems like crafting and cooking quickly become superfluous. On Normal, I am constantly collecting dust and leather that I don’t care about when I raid temples and ruins.

Then there are some nasty little issues, like having to watch the same short cutscenes every time I use a character’s Ultimate, or keep telling the game that I don’t want to go through a map tutorial. (I know how to handle a card!) I also had to sigh every time I sat down because despite manually saving it, I had lost a few fights or I had to manually increase the fight speed every time.

But these problems don’t detract from a fantastic RPG adventure that’s full of beautiful creatures and enjoyable pulp. Sure, there are some ancillary systems that come across as filler material, and the narrative isn’t the most impressive script, but that’s fine. Overthrown king is a fun romp through beautiful surroundings with a team of likeable outsiders. Airship Syndicate isn’t reinventing the wheel, but neither did it – Overthrown king still manages to serve as a great driveway for both of them League of Legends Stories and role-playing games in general.

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story was released on November 16. The game was verified through the Epic Games Store using a download code provided by Riot Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect the editorial content, although Vox Media can earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. you find more information on Polygon’s ethics policy here.