It isn’t all first-party titles on the Nintendo 3DS’ horizon, some third-party companies are also getting in on the action, companies such as Square Enix and their venture on the 3DS: Heroes of Ruin. The seemingly Action-RPG title does not have a concrete launch date or a set price, but there was a good amount of the features released at E3 by Square Enix.
Heroes of Ruin marks Orlando-based developer studio n-Space’s first Nintendo 3DS title. n-Space was involved mainly with making PlayStation titles like Duke Nukem: Time to Kill until about 2001 when they switched over to developing handheld titles for primarily the Nintendo DS, sporadically working on PS2 titles like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 in 2009 and also Wii titles.
Heroes of Ruin did have a teaser trailer at E3, but it is a bit light on the details and gameplay footage. Nevertheless, it did its job as a teaser trailer, leaving us with just enough of the big “who, what where when?” questions and not enough info to answer them satisfyingly (those clever, dastardly people).
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What we do know about Heroes is a bit of the plot. There was a land engulfed in hundreds of years of war, until the appearance of these powerful guys called Lords came in and ended the fighting, establishing a fragile peace (always the best kind in an RPG, eh?). Well, one of these Lords, Ataraxis–the Lord of the city Nexus–is stricken by some sort of lethal curse. Word is sent out that if a cure is found for the curse, a large and worthwhile reward would be in order for the discoverers. Enter four brave–or greedy–mercenaries who hope to claim the reward. To do so, they leave the city of Nexus and venture into the very dangerous lands beyond the city in hopes of finding the cure.
The four mercenaries are unique in their basic approach to combat, but collectively form the standard core classes for RPGs. First there is the Gunslinger, the ranged damage class who is eerily similar to Han Solo in description (large debt hanging over his head) and uses guns and bombs to take care of business. Second is the Vindicator, the standard fallen-from-grace soldier who wields a big weapon to kick butt and take names. Third is the Alchitect, your standard spell-caster with high intelligence and a sharp wit. Finally there is the Savage, who is the archetypal close-range fist-to-fist combatant with claws and cares only about spilling blood
The four different “classes” are your standard fare for RPG play: the ranged DPS, melee/weapon-based DPS, martial artist, and spell-caster. Aside from their basic differences in combat type, the player is given options to customize their appearance, weapons, combat skills and fighting style. In less flowery and PR-friendly words, the basic RPG elements of gear-building and class skills. In that regard, it doesn’t seem to be much different from most other RPG titles, hopefully there’s some innovation to the combat system announced as the game gets closer to release.
In regards to gameplay aspects (such as combat and the like) not much was disclosed during E3, except that layout of certain locales in the game won’t give the same experience twice, possibly hinting toward some sort of randomizing dungeon system similar to what we’ve seen in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. For now combat and how that will work out remains to be seen, we’ll hopefully have more on that as it gets closer to launch.
There was, on the other hand, a lot of info to get around regarding the multiplayer capabilities of Heroes of Ruin, and how it is to make use of the 3DS’s wireless functions to support the multiplayer experience. For one thing, Heroes will make used of the Nintendo WiFi Connection to connect players together for trading items, chat (over the built-in mic) and assist one another in four-player drop-in/drop-out co-op mode. It was also revealed that Heroes will make use of the 3DS’ StreetPass to help players trade items and unlock new weapons/armor and the 3DS’ SpotPass to help distribute new content similar to how Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky did their extra content via the Nintendo WiFi Connection in order to extend the game beyond the story mode.
We’ll have more info on Heroes of Ruin as more details become made available (including a launch date and price with all luck), at this time we only know we can expect Heroes some time next year. To whet your appetite until we have more on this title, please check out the screenshots in the gallery below.
