A game that I’ve been following for more than three years, from when it was still called Rogue Hero and promoted by Square Enix Collective, is Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos . In appearance, another impersonator of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but with an interesting twist (today common, yes) in between: it is a roguelite .
To this must be added the possibility of playing with three more people , both locally and online, in the vein of The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, heir to the Game Boy Advance Four Swords. And of course, given that Team 17 plans to release it on February 23 on Steam and Nintendo Switch , I had to try it to dispel any doubts I might have. And I have completely dispelled them.
Discovering the idiosyncrasies of Rogue Heroes
There are many games inspired by Zelda, especially within the indie sector, but it is also true that most try to do their bit to distance themselves from one of Nintendo’s masterpieces of the unforgettable 1986.
In the case of Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos, it is obviously that element of randomness in its dungeons , which vary every time we return to them. And, also, without the possibility of getting out of there until we complete them … or they kill us. Because here it will be more common to die. Its innocent appearance is deceiving, since it hides many traps inside, from vases with snakes inside to tiles that can drop bombs from the ceiling or arrows from behind.
Here, on the other hand, it has a more marked RPG component, when seeing how the parameters of our character evolve based on passive improvements that we will unlock based on gems. And where are these gems found? Yes, in the dungeons. The good news is that even if they kill us, we will keep them, so we will never have the feeling of wasting time.
We have one of its most attractive points in its town , since we will give it life by building a good number of houses all over the place, choosing the area at will. From basic positions such as a clinic or a forge, through others (not available in the demo), such as an orchard and a port, which will surely rob us of many hours of life, this region offers a lot of play.
Intori, which is the name of said region, will be our base, from which to manage the hero’s progress, but also to see what missions are available by talking to its inhabitants, being able to follow them later very comfortably from one of the character’s own menus. . And here it is striking, despite the fact that its monitoring in the demo is not enabled, the large number of challenges that there will be, from the basic ones such as cutting bushes or traveling a certain distance in kilometers, to others such as completing dungeon rooms or opening chests .
Like all roguelite , there is a part of pique and of hitch evident in this Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos , both for what we can build in the town, and for everything we can improve later so that our character is more powerful and has, for example, a larger attack radius (low start).
The dungeons will force us to be careful
Once inside a dungeon, the game becomes more aggressive . We do not know what each room will bring us, mainly because of that essential randomness of this genre. Now, if we pass a plant, we will have the option to unlock a shortcut by dropping more gems. And it is something that interests a lot, of course.
Every room will have enemies and traps, varying greatly between each one. Sometimes we can run into skeletons with shields, in others some balls with spikes … The fact is that there will always be bad slime, being able to lose life in the blink of an eye if we trust ourselves, especially if we do not pay attention to where we step. … something of vital importance in rooms with less lighting.
It should be said that if they kill us, despite keeping the gems and passive improvements, what we lose are the objects that use magic, such as the bow with its arrows, the bombs or some essential gadget in advanced areas, such as the hook. This means that if we want to improve these kinds of objects, we have to leave the dungeon alive and thus be able to optimize them later (with more gems) in the town.
On the other hand, you have to watch the resistance of the character, since he gets tired when attacking . This causes that we cannot give many blows at high speed, seeing how our hero “weighs” more to hit the opponent. The same thing happens with its main ability, associated with its class: it has a recharge time.
Because yes, there are more classes to unlock , such as thief, archer, magician, pirate … And if we add that it can also be played in the company of three people (local or online), we have an adventure to consider for lovers of the genre.
Its demo is not short , precisely, being available both in the Switch eShop and from Steam, liking that complete desire for each of the rooms, until the game itself “colors” it green on the map to tell us that it is at 100%. Because some rooms will have puzzles inside that are not so obvious to the naked eye … For my part, to the wish list .
- Platforms : Nintendo Switch (analyzed version) and Steam
- Multiplayer : yes, local and online (four players)
- Developer : Heliocentric Studios
- Company : Team 17
- Released : February 23, 2021
- Price : 19.99 euros (eShop)
