"Be kind rewind!" is the core experience of CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story. Mastering Ekko's time-based combat and platforming skills becomes incredibly rewarding for those wanting a new metroidvania experience. For Ekko mains, CONVERGENCE should be a no-brainer as it faithfully implements Ekko's power in inventive and satisfying fashions. For other League fans as well as those unfamiliar with Riot Games' other titles, CONVERGENCE will offer you memorability, challenge, a thoughtful story, and another blissful audio experience Riot (and Riot Forge) are known for.
I may be low health, but I have some fight in me yet. I’ve been jumping from platform to platform, some disintegrating within seconds, to a safe haven of a rooftop. I jump down into a gang of neon-clad enemies wielding clubs, hammers, and bombs, unaware of my presence or any threats from above. I strike one, blink away to another, then roll out of a third enemy’s bat swing. Unfortunately, I roll into a bomb that was lobbed my way, knocking me off the platform and into a death pit. Instead of perishing, I press a button, and the combat sequence I just described reverses course and rewinds several seconds, placing me back on the rooftop. Time to try again, Ekko.
This combat sequence I described is the core experience of CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story. Double Stallion’s collaboration with Riot Forge has created an action platformer with metroidvania starring League of Legends‘ Ekko, a child prodigy from the streets of Zaun who can rewind time for a few short seconds using his Zero Drive strapped to his hip. CONVERGENCE is nothing short of fun given the stellar gameplay, integration of time-based abilities, and platforming players can utilize, and it’s out on May 23.
For those of you familiar with League of Legends‘ Ekko, you may be expecting to rewind time, slow down and/or stop enemies in their tracks, and blink to and from enemies. You will do all of these things in CONVERGENCE, albeit over time as you advance through the story and unlock new abilities. In League, I’ve often described Ekko as slippery, suave, and mechanically complex. CONVERGENCE emphasizes the best of Ekko’s abilities and lets players experience this power in new ways in a platforming setting. Of League‘s current roster of champions, Ekko is a fantastic platforming protagonist and playing as him feels rewarding, powerful, and just as masterful as you might experience in League. Even better: It is so much fun playing as Ekko in CONVERGENCE.
CONVERGENCE‘s gameplay loop is a mixture of combat and platforming nestled within a metroidvania-setting. Think of your prior experiences playing a Metroid title, Hollow Knight, Guacamelee, or even Aeterna Noctis. At first, combat is clunky and movement is sluggish. You lack abilities like a dash or double jump, and you’re left with exploring a small portion of what looks to be a gigantic map. I began CONVERGENCE under the assumption that I would be playing as a full-powered Ekko — this was not the case. However, as I stuck with it, Ekko’s traversal and power grew quickly, and I was zipping through Zaun with ease. If you’re coming into CONVERGENCE as an Ekko main or mild familiarity with the boy who shattered time, don’t let the first hour or so cloud your opinion of what the game will be. Once you get your first set of traversal upgrades, you’ll feel right at home. Be sure to unlock the parry ability early, too. You won’t regret it.
CONVERGENCE implements time-based combat and abilities really well. So well, in fact, that I was reminded of Aeterna Noctis‘ delightfully difficult platforming and its utilization of slowing down time and teleportation. CONVERGENCE required me to make thoughtful decisions on dodging/parrying enemies while in combat and jumping through hazardous rooms with disintegrating platforms. For instnace, I could delay enemies, open up blocked pathways, and create temporary platforms that would otherwise instantly disintegrate using Ekko’s Parallel Convergence. Pairing the Parallel Convergence with wall-running and rail grinding creates an incredibly satisfying and fluid experience if your timing is right. Completing a timed Scrambot trial and/or difficult jumping section feels especially rewarding after several instances of trial, error, and rewinding time. CONVERGENCE is less difficult than Aeterna Noctis by many leagues, sure, but the satisfaction is just as similar and there’s much less frustration once you get used to the learning curve of time mastery.
Yes, the learning curve of CONVERGENCE will take players some getting used to. While trying to figure out enemies’ attack patterns, I found myself getting flustered by when to use a rewind, as how long to do so. Using the Z Drive to rewind a few seconds can restore health and even bring once-slain enemies back to life, so you shouldn’t always be kind and rewind unless you’re mindful of the consequences of doing so.
Throughout the story, Ekko’s skills can be upgraded and gadgets can created/swapped out at-will. An NPC in Ekko’s hideout can be visited to “train” Ekko in exchange for bits picked up while exploring. These skills are permanent, and range from expanding Ekko’s chain of attacks to parrying enemy attacks. Gadgets, on the other hand, function similar to Hollow Knight charms in that you can create them whenever you want, but you can only equip so many at a certain time depending on the number of slots you have available. These gadgets enhance Ekko’s abilities, like making enemies slowed by Parallel Convergence more vulnerable to giving Ekko another rewind charge.
The gadget and skill system add just the right amount of variance to combat, and I appreciate how the gadgets are gated by slots to ensure that Ekko doesn’t quickly become overpowered. I found myself unlocking gadgets and regularly swapping them out for others based on enemies I was encountering. I never once found that any particular gadget was overpowered, nor did I find any to be underpowered/not worth using. Instead, I found issue with how skills and gadgets overlapped in terms of their currency. Although gadgets required items and bits, skills cost bits, too. I realized this halfway through the game when I found that I had spent all of my bits (that were already few and far between) on gadgets alone rather than on a blend of skills and gadgets. I can understand that limiting how frequently skills and gadgets are to be upgraded encourages thoughful decisionmaking and weighing the value of skills versus gadgets, but it would have been nice for skills to be made a little more affordable given that I was able to basically unlock one skill per chapter. I would have liked skills to be upgraded in other places throughout the map, too, as there were multiple workbenches scattered throughout the world whereas there was only one NPC capable of training Ekko.
Metroidvanias can be solitary and/or quiet affairs, with naught more than a handful of NPCs to talk to and brief glimpses of a story in between boss battles, if at all. CONVERGENCE handles storytelling well, involving some sequences where Ekko offers commentary and witty comebacks to enemies who step in his way. At times, I felt like I was playing as Horizon’s Aloy simply because of Ekko having so much to say while taking down enemies. There were other sequences where an NPC would be interacting with Ekko remotely, adding color commentary. It was nice to hear exposition in-combat and as Ekko was making his way through Zaun.
For the sake of spoilers, I am opting to be intentionally vague about CONVERGENCE‘s story. I’ve read valid critiques of League of Legends’ lore being appealing but lacking movement. In other words, we know of where champions like Ekko come from, but we lack knowledge of what they’re doing now and where they’re going next. Luckily, CONVERGENCE tells a compelling story involving several characters from Runeterra and intertwines these narratives in a cohesive fashion. Players familiar with Runeterra will appreciate seeing other Zaunites and Pilties interact with Ekko and exist in ways other than on Summoner’s Rift. Does the overarching narrative pull on the players’ heartstrings like Arcane’s first season? Does CONVERGENCE give us a glimpse into the future of Ekko and others? To both of these questions, I say: Moderately, but not enough. It’s worth experiencing CONVERGENCE‘s story blind to get a better glimpse into the grunginess of Zaun, present and future, but I cannot help but want more from Riot’s Runeterra.
If you’re unfamiliar with League, any of Riot’s other Runeterra-based titles, and/or Riot’s Arcane (on Netflix) no worries. CONVERGENCE does an excellent job in getting an unfamiliar player up to speed on the who’s who of Zaun and setting a gritty atmosphere of economic disparity, ecoterrorism, and a world of folks who are trying to get by. Small pickups can be found throughout the story that expand Ekko’s codex and let players read more about Zaun’s citizens, enemies, and more. Keen-eyed League fans will be happy to find small Easter eggs, too, so keep an eye out for some familiar faces and other folks you may have heard of but have not yet met.
As a metroidvania, I found CONVERGENCE to be quite linear. Despite the map looking big, I was able to explore just about each biome in its entirety without needing to retrace my steps after unlocking an ability further down the line. The main map, Entresol, had portions of the map blocked off until I had unlocked an ability that would give me access to any given area, but just about the rest of the biomes were straightforward to the point of not needing players to return. There are secrets and small trial areas in each biome, so you can look forward to completing small challenges as you play through the main story, but very little reason to return to a previous biome after completing it the first time.
Riot Games is notable for putting out some incredible in-game soundtracks, and I’m pleased to say that Riot Forge and Double Stallion put together a good soundtrack that leans heavily in Riot Games’ original theme for Ekko. While I don’t find the soundtrack to be as expansive and deep as Riot Forge’s other work, such as Ruined King, but CONVERGENCE‘s soundtrack was earwormy enough to be stuck in my brain even after I turned off my Switch.
Before I conclude this review, I feel it’s worth mentioning CONVERGENCE‘s performance on the Switch. I conducted most of this review in handheld mode to gauge the game’s potential as a portable title and its visibility on a smaller screen. During the period, I encountered a few force closes that occurred during cutscenes rather than gameplay, and there were a small amount of visual artifacts that were present after defeating bosses. I was able to see everything just fine, even when my screen was full of enemies and bullets. If you’re worried about the Switch’s (or Steam Deck’s) smaller screen, don’t be. You’ll be able to see just about everything just fine once you become familiar with CONVERGENCE‘s bullet patterns and color schemes.
“Be kind rewind!” is the core experience of CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story. Mastering Ekko’s time-based combat and platforming skills becomes incredibly rewarding for those wanting a new metroidvania experience. For Ekko mains, CONVERGENCE should be a no-brainer as it faithfully implements Ekko’s power in inventive and satisfying fashions. For other League fans as well as those unfamiliar with Riot Games’ other titles, CONVERGENCE will offer you memorability, challenge, a thoughtful story, and another blissful audio experience Riot (and Riot Forge) are known for.
A review copy of CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story was provided by the publisher for the sole purpose of this review.
