Library of Ruina

Library of Ruina is a strategy game with RPG and card game elements from ProjectMoon studio. This is not the first game of this independent developer, as it has already created a warm welcome for Lobotomy Corporation. We play the role of Roland, who one day wakes up in a mysterious library and is forced to work in it. From now on, the player's job is to turn people into books.

Plot

Library of Ruina takes place in the same universe as the previous game (Lobotomy Corporation), and the storyline is about the events taking place after the previous game (however, this is not a direct continuation, and the games themselves are very different). We play the role of Roland, who works as the equivalent of a private investigator in the City. In this world, magic and technology go hand in hand, so the hero is not too surprised when he wakes up in the library in unexplained circumstances.

It turns out that the place he's been to is not ordinary, and you can only get to it with a special invitation. Due to the mysterious circumstances of the arrival of the protagonist Angela, the library owner, decides to stop the man and give him a job. From now on, the player's task as Roland is to turn people into books, all in order to find one ideal position to crown the book collection.

The story in the game is told by static pictures in which decisions are made for us and we have no influence on the plot.

Mechanics

Library of Ruina is a strategy game with RPG elements and a card game where the writing is the most valuable asset.

The currency of the game are books, which can be used in many ways. As a librarian, our protagonist has the task of sending invitations and receiving guests. Each person visiting our library (from a simple street carnage to a high-ranking person) requires a different book to encourage them.

But this is not their only use. Destroying successive volumes, we expand the floors of our library; this is necessary to unlock new levels of the building and to learn more about the complexities of the plot. For destroying books we also get cards that allow us to perform actions during fights and those that give us passive bonuses.

The only way to get the valuable and only resource in the game is to beat the visitors coming to the library. The skirmishes are divided into stages (equivalent to turns). At the beginning of each turn there is a dice throw, which determines the initiative of the character. Warriors with a higher ratio can choose their enemies. The main task of the player during the fights is to choose the right skills, which are presented by means of randomly drawn pages every turn. They have their specific cost in points of light (equivalent to action points) and complexity (which determines how many actions our hero can perform). Within one scene, the character attacks and defends himself, and the number of times he does so depends on the skill chosen. Movements of ours and our enemies are made simultaneously and their final strength is determined by the throw of a dice.

During battles, the game also introduces Emotion mechanics. The ratio depends on how we handle the fight. It allows us to use powerful modifiers from time to time, which depend on the mood of the character and can have positive or negative effects. Emotions have a different function: our opponents become stronger as they grow, but after defeat they turn into better books.

The game also has a character development system. Librarians (because as the game progresses we can unlock helpers) can equip themselves with pages that have a similar effect to armor and give different bonuses to statistics. Our "armor" can evolve by burning other cards. They have their strengths and weaknesses, so you should keep a few of them. As the fights continue, the protagonists also gain levels that increase the basic statistics.