Library of Ruina Review
I think one of the least appreciated forms of civil infrastructure is public libraries. Admittedly, I am a bit biased because I’ve worked in three different libraries and spent a large portion of my childhood in them, but they’re still undeniably important. They may not produce electricity or food, but they produce people who can make and improve those systems. Beyond teaching, they also give people a place to immerse themselves in incredible worlds and escape their earthly troubles, or even a place to exist in peace. But what if that promise was a trap? What if a library was a Venus flytrap of brick and mortar? This is the premise of Library of Ruina, a new game released by Korean developers Project Moon last week.
Library of Ruina follows Roland, a mercenary living in a futuristic nightmare world who accidentally stumbles into the titular library. After obliviously wandering past the library’s security, he’s met by the head librarian Angela who, after a very one-sided conflict, imprisons Roland in the library and forces him into servitude. In his new position, Roland is put in charge of receiving the library’s guests, meaning he and his fellow library staff do their best to murder the guests that have been invited to the library. If the guest survives, they are allowed to take any book from the library, but if they don’t, their souls are turned into a book. These murder books are then collected and studied by Angela who has her own enigmatic purpose.
In spite of the language differences and geographical distance, I suspect Project Moon decided to target me specifically when they made Library of Ruina. I say this because almost every aspect of this game is something I like. To start with, the core mechanics of the game are a turn-based strategy game using a player-built deck of cards and several dice. The deck isn’t assembled in the same way as deckbuilding games, instead it’s more like putting together a deck of a trading card game such as Magic: The Gathering. When players kill a library guest, their essence will be transformed into a book which can then be harvested for cards representing the slain guest’s personality and abilities. These cards are then put into a nine card deck, with Roland and each other librarian getting their own deck. This means that each character the player controls can be a unique amalgamation of the slain guests to explore new strategies and I had a blast putting together and using new decks.
But I don’t just love the mechanical aspects of the game, I love the entire cast and world Library of Ruina. Roland is a fascinating protagonist because he is a cynical mercenary who has suffered through a life in The City, the main human habitat in the world, which has left him with a strange fatalist acceptance of whatever happens to him. In the first five minutes of the game, he discovers a supernatural library, has the majority of his limbs severed and then restored magically, and is conscripted into what is effectively a homicidal scam, and he accepts all of this with an easy going attitude that Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski would envy. Angela and the other library staff are well written, but I was more impressed by the various guests. This is because players don’t get much time with them before they’re killed so the writing being able to flesh out these characters in just a few lines is remarkable. Beyond the characters, the world is fascinating. This is partially because players only see snippets of it in the guest vignettes, but also because it’s extremely creative. This is a world in which reality distortions can create otherworldly monsters, people can buy robotic replacement bodies, and public transit runs on warp drive technology. Plus, the whole game is set to a delightful electronic swing soundtrack that gives the feeling of a slightly more energetic noir film. Lastly, I’m pretty sure the voice acting is very good. I can’t be sure because I don’t speak Korean, but I can understand tone and that was always spot on.
If I had one complaint about Library of Ruina it is that it’s extremely easy to get overwhelmed by everything in this game. The game tries its best to give players all the information they need to succeed but it does it a little too well, throwing so many new concepts at the player in just the first few minutes. Because Library of Ruina has some unique ideas and puts other more well-known ideas to new uses, there’s a lot to cover. Players have to learn what light is and how much is restored each turn, the differences between the three kinds of attack dice, the differences between the two different types of defense dice, what key pages are and how to equip them, managing the emotion levels of both their forces and the enemy’s, and unlocking and equipping battle symbols. Once players get a handle on that, then they need to deal with the near constant influx of new cards that accompany each of their many victories. Not counting the times where I would backtrack for more of a specific card, I suspect I was getting four to seven new cards every two hours I spent in Library of Ruina, which meant constantly revising the decks and character sheets of each of the growing number of library staffers I had at my command. For players who like to fiddle with and tweak their characters for maximum performance, the steady influx of new stuff might be a very seductive poison.
I don’t think Library of Ruina is the best game of this year but I know for a fact it’s going to be on my end of year top 10 list thanks to its excellent adaptation of proven fun tabletop mechanics, great music, and enthralling world. Apparently, this game is a sequel to the studio’s previous game, Lobotomy Corporation, but I’ve never played, or even heard of, that game and I didn’t feel at any sort of disadvantage. I doubt I would have even known had the game’s promotional material not mentioned it. Rounding out the endorsement, this game has got one of the best theme songs I’ve encountered in a while. I think unless you are seriously uncomfortable with violence and mild gore, or if you don’t want to mount the one inch tall barrier of subtitles, there’s no reason not to pick this game up at $30.
Buy this game at full price
It’s worth every penny they’re asking
