Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
I know some of you may be distracted by Hades’ Greek mythology thematic and its approach to making everyone and their parental units attractive to an ungodly degree, but its deep action-roguelite gameplay loop is what keeps folks enthralled despite losing over and over again. Now, imagine that gameplay loop with an East-Asian thematic. That is what Realm of Ink is giving – or at least intending to give. It’s entering Early Access later this year, giving players a taste of its delightfully gorgeous art and nuanced gameplay that’s sure to appeal to those who want to min-max their way into roguelite heaven.
I spent a few hours playing Realm of Ink during our preview period, and I’m more or less impressed with how well Leap Studio, 663 Games, and Maple Leaf Studio nailed the art and overall feel of the game. It’s quite action forward, meaning that if you enjoyed how Hades felt, Realm of Ink feels largely the same. It encourages the player to enact mild chains of attacks, dodging enemies’ clearly telegraphed attacks, and roguelike elements of mixing and matching abilities to keep the player alive. Dashing through attacks counts as dodging, and I could enact special abilities that differed based on the Ink Gems I came across. More on Ink Gems in a moment.
The preview period put me in control of one of the characters, Red, whose destiny was dictated by outside forces. Red is a swordswoman, accompanied by an inky spirit creature known as Momo, who fights to figure out how to change her destiny. Several NPCs in the hubs introduced themselves to me, but they didn’t tell me much about their relationships with each other or their backstories beyond their purpose if I spoke to them in the market hubs or my personal hub between runs.
Runs involved me clearing waves of enemies with Momo. Before starting a run, I could select between three available weapons (more are coming in later builds according to the Steam page) that shifted how I attacked. Upon clearing a room, I would be given currency, perks (that augmented my basic attacks), bonus stats (like additional health or damage reduction), or Ink Gems, or a combination of the above.
Ink Gems are Realm of Ink’s way of encouraging build diversity and enabling variance across runs. Two gems can be equipped at any time, can be upgraded to greatly enhance their effects, and can be swapped out throughout the run. They add passive traits (like bonus health, a potential to inflict poison), an active ability per gem, and also modify Momo’s appearance and attacks! The cool thing about mixing Ink Gems is that it greatly shifts Momo in a unique fashion. This preview has quite a lot of designs for Momo, so it was great to see how my little buddy would change and potentially evolve as I proceeded further in any given run.
On paper, mixing and matching Ink Gems should have a great return on investment and encourage Red’s power to ramp up the further she gets in a run. At several points in each biome, I could permanently upgrade an Ink Gem’s rarity using currency obtained from disenchanting Ink Gem rewards I had no interest in picking up. The issue is that by the third biome, I didn’t feel like swapping gems were worth it given that Ink Gems were rare rewards and the cost to upgrade Gems was quite steep. This meant that I often committed to a build very early on rather than freely swapping out gems with very little penalty.
I’m hoping that future updates make it so that the currency used to upgrade Ink Gems is easier to come by in later biomes, especially since higher-tier gems are so beneficial in clearing the biomes. Given their strength, players who opt into a new build of lesser-tiered gems makes it so that their runs will most likely end prematurely given that their power levels will assuredly drop. I also wouldn’t mind it if there were temporary buffs for swapping out gems to encourage folks to mix and match rather than stick with the first two gems they come across. An achievement system would encourage that build creativity, too.
As it relates to balance, Realm of Ink’s current state is far easier than I expected. I was able to complete a run in its entirety on my second run thanks to two Gems that granted me shields and scaled my power based on my currently active shields. It got to a point where my shields were almost always active, regenerating and soaking up damage from enemies while I could cleave through them one by one. I had fun feeling overpowered beyond all get out, but if the “challenge rooms” felt just as easy as a normal battle room, there’s an opportunity to up the difficulty or tune the gems to make them feel less overpowered early on.
Upon completing a run, I had the option of an Endless mode that basically pitted me against endless waves of enemies in a small arena. It functioned similar to Vampire Survivors in that staying alive and slaying enemies let me level up and gain a bonus. I lasted a whole ten minutes, somehow getting through a ridiculously large number of enemies whose presence caused my framerate to drop to single digits until I disabled the damage number indicators. I’m hoping that future iterations of Realm of Ink will improve its stability for longer runs. I like the idea of the Endless mode, though – being able to take my successful (and overpowered) build is a great way for me to stress test the limits of its power. Minmaxing for the win!
Realm of Ink is off to a good start with this preview build. I can’t assign it a score at this time, but I’ll admit that I enjoyed what I played. It’s gorgeous, too. Sure, I felt overpowered more often than not, but I’m genuinely intrigued as to how the game evolves as Leap Studio and Maple Leaf Studio refine it through Early Access. What will the additional characters bring to the table? How else can I change Momo’s appearance and powers? How else will I be rewarded for creatively building Red based on the Ink Gems I come across? Only time will tell, I suppose. Until then, I look forward to Realm of Ink’s development.
