Our associate SirBaronSand played a new early access game called Realm of Ink. In the rest of the article, we present his impressions.
Realm of Ink is an action roguelite seemingly heavily inspired by Hades. The game has a pleasant start with a relatively easy first segment, but with each new map the difficulty increases aggressively. Along with classic light and heavy attacks and dodges, we are accompanied throughout the game by Momo, a pet that helps us in the fight.
The basic combat works very well and smoothly, but the first encounter with the game would be significantly more challenging without previous experience with similar games already in another zone. The pleasing visual style of attacks and abilities adds significantly to the game experience, but unfortunately the lack of room variety in multiple playthroughs is very apparent. The mechanics are simple and understandable without overanalyzing the options and abilities that can be unlocked, but a better understanding of them allows combinations with which the normal and later unlocked slightly harder levels of the game become significantly easier.
Through the maps we find Ink Gems that bring active abilities on cooldown, but also passive abilities that are in the Ink Gem theme. By choosing specific combinations of Ink Gems, our pet Momo changes form, gets her own passive abilities, but also various other abilities that she uses at will, or we activate them. By developing Ink Gems, they unlock more active and passive options, but our pet Momo also grows and becomes an increasingly important addition to the game.
Another important mechanic are perks that bring minor passive effects and greatly influence the direction in which we develop the character during the journey. Tertiary temporary mechanics are elixirs that passively boost various character attributes, they are simple and straightforward.
All these aspects have different levels of rarity that depend on their influence, Ink Gems can be easily upgraded, but we have a maximum of two of them. There is no limit to how many perks and elixirs can be taken and with them it's just important not to miss one that we need for a target build, or in the early game one that builds value significantly over time. We also have access to various buffs that can be obtained through food in temporary rest areas. On the way through the zones, we can encounter various NPCs that offer various advantages, or exchanges that can help or relieve.
The last mechanic, the choice of which remains with us only until the end of the attempt, depends on the weapon we carry. With each last boss of the zone, we get a choice that can specifically affect that fighting style and improve, or replace some aspects of the style. In the end, you can only succeed with good reflexes or good builds.
As in every roguelite, through the game we get currency with which we can permanently strengthen the character between attempts by building a fairly simple talent tree. We also collect currency to power up our pet Momo and currency to unlock more “skins” that carry their own passive abilities and completely change the fighting style (like carrying a different weapon in Hades, it just changes the character's appearance). With each failure we get a bit of new dialog in the main hub and occasionally unlock new features that weren't immediately available. So even if we fail the first time, the next time we come back with slightly bigger advantages and potentially a new fighting style.
Boss fights are simple at first, but as you would expect they become more complex and stronger as you progress through the game. There are some interesting design choices and mechanics, and many of the later ones significantly penalize less defensive, or less mobile builds and require more skill without them.
The visual style is pleasing and has visually well designed characters and maps. The abilities aren't too flashy, and the various fighting styles of the skins we can unlock are a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the dialogue is not completely voice-actan, it often does not match the written text. Also, the text in the dialogs and menu sometimes contains grammatical errors and typos, so we hope that this is just a consequence of early access.
With all the pros and cons, this is an excellent early access game that we hope will get a lot more new options and fix minor impracticalities and flaws. Surprisingly after successfully completing all maps and the final boss several times, I didn't encounter any bugs. At the time of writing, the game has a demo available on Steam and is definitely worth a try regardless of previous experience with the genre, but the full game is more than worth your time.
A copy of the game was provided by the developer Leap Studio for review purposes.
