Realm of Ink review
Realm of Ink is a new roguelite and the first game from the Chinese game developers at Leap Studio. The developers drew inspiration for this game from their Chinese culture, and this is particularly evident in the ink art they used to tell the story and the characters.
In the game, you encounter characters such as the fox demon, peony fairy, and mirror sprite. Together with your ink pet, you battle all kinds of monsters and try to break out of the story scroll you live in.
Het spel
Realm of Ink is one of the many roguelites that have been added in the last few years and has clearly drawn inspiration from games like Hades. Fast-paced gameplay, upgrades that have an impact, and a good variety of enemies make for a great gaming feel.
Like most roguelites, this game is divided into dungeon runs and an area where you can customize your character. A run consists of 4 chapters and a final boss. These chapters are divided into a number of rooms, camps where you can rest and get upgrades, and 2 bosses. The chapters you get vary by run, and every possible chapter has its own enemies and bosses you will have to fight. These enemies and bosses also all have their own identity and provide a reasonably good variety.
To become stronger yourself during a run, there are several options offered to you in the form of ink gems, perks, abilities, elixirs, and food. Each of these upgrades has its own impact on how your run progresses in terms of HP, damage, attack types, dodges, etc.
The area between runs, called the Spirit Fox Inn, allows you to make more permanent adjustments to your character. Think of things like more HP at the start of a run, higher damage, a revive, etc. In this area, you can also switch characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can find your own play style in the game or try out different styles.
Accessible of niet?
If you look for an accessibility tab in the settings, you unfortunately won’t find one. Does this mean it’s not accessible? Certainly not! If you look further, you’ll find standard settings such as aim assist, which you can turn on or off, or screen shake, which you can turn on or off.
Looking further, you will also find keybinds that allow you to configure which buttons perform which functions on your controller or mouse and keyboard. This gives you complete control over how you want to play. You can perform a standard attack by pressing the button repeatedly, or you can simply hold it down, which is certainly useful if you are a bit slow at pressing buttons or if repetitive movements are not feasible. This works on both the controller and with a mouse and keyboard.
For this review, I played the game with a mouse and keyboard, the Proteus controller, and the 8BitDoLite, and the game was playable with all three.
The game does have a somewhat higher game speed. The fights are short, and you need quicker reflexes here and there to react with the dodge. However, a large portion of enemy attacks are clearly indicated so that you can react. You have 2 dodges by default with a fairly low cooldown, so you could use them almost continuously to avoid attacks.
The fast game speed does mean that you either have to play very cautiously from a distance or become very good at the dodge button.
Visueel & Cognitief
Visually, the game can quickly become overwhelming due to the many effects of all the different attacks. You can adjust this per type in the settings, allowing you to decide for yourself what you do or do not want to see clearly. You can also turn the damage numbers on or off if you find them too much on your screen.
The game has subtitles for everything that is narrated. However, I have noticed that here and there, what is said is not reproduced literally in the subtitles; the essence remains the same, but the wording is different. Also, not all conversations are voiced. At the moment, this seems fairly random, but let’s hope this is because it is still in early access and not yet the game’s release. If it remains as it is now, that would be a shame, as it has consequences for people for whom reading is more difficult due to a cognitive or visual impairment.
The font, for both subtitles and menus, is unfortunately not very dyslexia-friendly and cannot be adjusted. Also, some text colors are not always well-chosen in relation to the game behind them. This is particularly a problem during some conversations.
Cognitively speaking, the sheer number of different upgrades in a run could also become quite overwhelming. Especially since perks and elixirs, for example, seem to do the same thing but have been given different names. With the food, you have to remember that it only applies to two rooms, though fortunately always before a boss fight. And Inkgems interact with each other regarding your ink pet, so you need to keep an eye on that as well. There is also a lot to read regarding these upgrades. However, it is essential that they explain certain terms in a second text box alongside the upgrades.
The game has a timer in the top right corner of the screen. This is nice for people who like to speedrun a game or constantly improve their own time. For people who prefer to take their time or don’t handle time pressure very well, it would have been nice if this could be turned off.
Play, yes or no?
Realm of Ink promises to be a visually stunning roguelite with a good variety of enemies and play styles to try out, clearly drawing inspiration from Hades. The game’s pace is on the high side, which felt very pleasant to me, but might be a bit more challenging for those with slower reflexes.
In terms of accessibility, it already has a decent number of settings you can play with to adjust the visuals and ensure it doesn’t become too overwhelming. Keybinds have also been considered, as well as the option to play with a controller or with a mouse and keyboard, and it works well with the adapted controllers I use.
Available on: PC (Steam)
✅ controller and mouse+keyboard rebinds
✅ subtitles
✅ aim assist
✅ settings to reduce visual effects
❌ font not dyslexia-friendly
❌ many different types of upgrades
❌ not all conversations voiced
❌ timer cannot be hidden
❌ Higher game speed, so you must be able to react quickly