If you've ever wondered what The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past would be like if you added a bunch of modern roguelite elements, randomly generated its dungeons and threw local and online four player co-op into the mix, well, wonder no longer, as Heliocentric Studios' Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos is pretty much exactly that. Here is a delightful top-down dungeon-crawler that makes no secret of its biggest influences, taking the wonderfully addictive gameplay loops and instantly recognisable graphical stylings of Nintendo's 1991 classic, adding a bunch of its own tweaks and tricks and delivering a proper indie treat in the process.
The land of Tasos, so the story goes, was once ravaged by a hundred year war against evil titans which was brought to an end when its goddesses sacrificed their powers in order to lock these enormous enemies away in four great big dungeons. As time has passed the magic seals holding the titans in their lairs have begun to come undone and so the weakened goddesses have returned, making a desperate plea for warriors to step forth, delve into the depths of Tasos’ underworld, and defeat its festering evil once and for all.
The comparisons to A Link to the Past are easy to make from the get-go here as your little adventurer begins their journey tucked up in bed in their tiny wooden home before quickly being ushered – sword and shield in hand – towards the game's first labyrinthian dungeon and a face-off with its enormous crab-like titan boss. Zelda fans who love nothing more than to chuck porcelain pots and shrubbery around as they rudely trash NPC homes and gardens for treasure and health items will be in their element here, and the controls will be instantly familiar to anyone who's ever zapped a (hopefully River) Zora, throttled a Tektite or battered a Buzz Blob.
The overworld of Tasos is also hugely reminiscent of old-school Hyrule and it's equally well-designed to boot, with progress towards each of its four main dungeon challenges cleverly gated off behind broken bridges, wooden blockades and great big ruddy boulders that will require your ever-expanding arsenal of weapons and gadgets to bypass. Indeed, one of Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos' main strengths is Heliocentric Studios' decision to have you spend so much of your time exploring this game's delightful swamps, forests, villages, cemeteries and so on rather than simply flinging you endlessly into its underground challenges, as so many other roguelites tend to do. You get to take a breather here, change up the pace a bit and just wander around, talk to village folk or maybe even just grab a seat and have sit down for a while. There are lots of quirky little side quests to complete in the downtime between dungeons too; you might help a ghost rescue his family from a mausoleum, for example, search for a villager's shipwrecked husband or rescue a bunch of Croakers from captivity in exchange for the ability to ride around in their mouths in order to navigate the world's deadly mud lakes.
There's an expandable central hub area, Intori Village, that you'll gradually build up from a couple of wooden shacks into a thriving little town complete with a blacksmith, various shops, labs and even a farm where you can plant and grow your very own food. In order to create all of these outlets you'll need to gather coins and gems from the game's deadly dungeons, loot that you'll keep upon death, and return to the town's resident builder, Griff, who'll happily whip you up whatever building you can afford in a frenzied blur of smoke and hammer bangs. All of these stores then feed directly into your abilities, allowing you to purchase and upgrade bows, bomb bags, health potions, boomerangs, magic wands, grappling hooks and every other gadget and tool you'll need to survive and successfully navigate the entirety of Tasos. There's a ton of bits and pieces to get to grips with here and every single one of them has its very own upgrade tree to spend your gems unlocking and powering up. Indeed, if we did have one slight niggle with the game, it's that its plethora of skill trees can be a little confusing with perhaps a few too many places to pump your precious gems.
You've got a selection of warrior classes to unlock with magic threads you'll find littered around the world too, a fun little addition to proceedings even if the various types don't particularly differ all that greatly in actual practice. We spent most of our time playing solo as a ranger, a class that gives you slightly more power in your bow shots and a dash ability to dodge in and around enemies with, but you can also choose from a knight who can soak up more damage and has a slam attack, a mage who can blink through objects, a witch, thief, pirate and even a reaper, none of whom play so differently that party composition in co-op ever becomes a factor. Combat and special ability usage are also both tied to upgradeable stamina gauges which gives enemy encounters a nice little rhythm of attacking and then stepping back to take a breather.
And what of the titans themselves and the labyrinthian dungeons that house them? Well, they're a delight! Each of the four main dungeon areas here have their very own bespoke set of clever little puzzle room templates which are thrown at you in randomly generated order, preventing things from growing stale over the course of the many, many attempts it will likely take you to reach the boss that lurks behind their final locked titan door. These rooms are uniformly well designed, full of opportunities to put your various tools and tricks to good use as you work out how to press forward and almost always striking a nice balance between being tricky enough to keep you engaged whilst not so difficult that you'll end up tossing your controller aside in frustration. There's a wonderful selection of enemies to get to grips with in these subterranean areas too with shielded skeletons, mud monsters, electric jellyfish, great big horrible teethy worm lads and absolutely tons more that can all, very cleverly, be added to your ever-expanding bestiary by finishing them off during a fight with a bonk from your book of beasts.
There's lots of nice little quality of life touches here too with portals dotted around the world map in order for you to instantly transport yourself back to whatever area you're working on should you come a cropper, and access to a dungeon's multiple levels can be unlocked permanently with coins as you clear them so you don't have to restart from scratch every time a cheeky snake takes you by surprise.
If we did have a few issues with Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos, besides the over-abundance of skill trees previously mentioned, it's that the main character lacks the winning personality of a preset hero such as good old Link. Indeed, the story here is the weakest part of proceedings overall and although we understand why the main protagonist isn't more complex, this game is designed to be played through with various classes and up to three other players after all, it would have been nice to have a little more in the way of a personality and narrative to carry things along. It's a small issue given everything that the game gets right, of course, and we guess perhaps it's a sacrifice well worth making for the fun of co-op. We didn't get a chance to test out the online aspect of things for this review, as the servers aren't up and running just yet, but local co-op is a blast here; easy to jump in and out of and with plenty of challenge for a group of players to dig into.
In terms of performance, this is a cracking-looking adventure with a gloriously colourful overworld and lots of atmospheric little dungeons and caves that are every bit as delightful to explore as those found in its most obvious inspirations. In both docked and handheld modes everything runs smoothly, we didn't encounter any bugs or glitches whatsoever during our playthrough, and the whole thing just suits portable play right down to the ground; digging in here and there to make a few dungeon runs, collect some gems and level up your gear, strength and stamina in order to inch ever closer to a titan next time around.
Honestly, there's such an overabundance of roguelites and roguelikes around these days that it genuinely is quite difficult to get particularly excited about the prospect of diving headlong into yet another, but Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos pulls all of the expected elements of this genre together with such style and polish here that we found ourselves absolutely addicted to its dungeon-crawling delights regardless. If you're in the mood for some old-school Hyrule adventuring with a bunch of thoroughly modern roguelite mechanics slapped on top, this one's for you.
Conclusion
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos is a delightful Zelda-inspired roguelite that's chock full of secrets, surprises, and some top-notch dungeon crawling action. There's an excellent central hub area to evolve and expand here, lots of fun little side quests to indulge in and a well-designed overworld that takes full advantage of your hero's ever-growing armoury of weapons, skills and gadgets. There are perhaps a few too many skill trees and upgrade mechanics for our liking and the story is entirely forgettable, but overall this one comes highly recommended for co-op and solo adventurers alike.
Comments 29
Sounds decent overall, I like what I'm seeing.
Hey it's got coop im down
I would like to see a links awakening style remake for link to the past. this could be a great hold over.
This sounds great! Hope online co-op is solid!
When did no-story in a game become a bad thing? =/
Great Gameplay is king.
Is the local co-op couch co-op or wifi co-op?
I'm tempted to pick this up, but only if we can play 3 players on one or two Switches (preferably one).
BTW - If you like co-op (online) dungeon crawlers definitely check out
Heroes of Hammerwatch
It is excellent blend of rogue/gauntlet/co-op/online/town upgrade/class upgrade/replay dungeoncrawl. These gems are too far and few between.
Theres a demo of the game, u can try before you buy, I pre ordered the game.
I hope we get a review of Four Swords this year because this is great.
I am still upset this is not called Ruins of Tacos.
@OmegaDestroyer
That made me think of a murder of crows. A group of tacos can be called a ruin. I like it.
@kukabuksilaks both, according to DekuDeals: https://www.dekudeals.com/items/rogue-heroes-ruins-of-tasos
I am generally not into Roguelikes or Roguelites, but am very into top-down Zelda style games and this looks quite charming...think I'll pick it up.
I've been looking for some good roguelites recently, to see what I like about the genre. I enjoy a good card or board game, and the strength of those comes entirely from the rulesets and how they sustain different setups and different playthroughs, so it seems worthwhile to check out the video game analogue.
This looks great.
I still wonder when Nintendo will make a Zelda rogue-lite
This looks great. I'm currently trying to get a clear in Undermine (which is a lot of fun) and will check this out next.
Are we sure there isn't a mistake on the price? 16 USD and 20GBP? This seems like an Apple currency conversion.
Finally a game with my name in it
It sounds and looks good but "roguelite" in this game puts me off. I like a few choice games in the genre only
I played the Demo and instantly decided to pre order it. It's that good and I absolutely enjoyed playing with my brother. If you've ever played Four Swords adventure on the gamecube, this is the "sequel" you've been looking for.
@Saints Here it's that there IS a story present but it's uninteresting. That's different than no story, or little story (like Mario)
@Alienfreaks04 Possibly! I find in multiplayer games with friends that story means very little, there is always someone that wants to skip through it, be it something like Destiny, Diablo, or even an MMO etc.
Played this a few hours last night with friends and the story did enough, though the fun was really had in the fantastic co-op.
@PJOReilly I read this review (and others, all praising this game) and played the demo hoping it would fill the Four Swords void. Honestly I don't understand the praise. The graphics and some text boxes are unpolished, the music is putting me to sleep. This game feels like a web browser Flash game from 2002. The progression of your town and character are all set in stone with predetermined progression hurdles and no RNG stats (think random drops with random stats like Diablo); in other words, you either have this permanent perk unlocked or you don't because you can't yet afford it. Keep dungeon diving, keep buying these rudimentary and repeating stat boosts until you become god and beat the game. And yes, I've just described a ton of other good games but usually they have skill trees where you can choose a path; this game is just either "you've unlocked the perks on the one skill tree or you haven't." There's nothing about this game that would make me feel like it's "my" town or "my" character; I'm just carving this predetermined path set before me. And when this happens in a game, the world and the story had better be engaging and interesting, and it's not. It reminded me a bit of Moonlighter which had the same mechanics of predetermined progression hurdles; I would have quit that game too but the story was mildly interesting.
Also, I kind of hate the attack stamina meter but I could get over that if I knew your stamina could be upgraded (which I don't see anywhere that it can).
My overall opinion is the graphics, the level of polish, and the music are all terribly lazy. The gameplay mechanics are just busy work of unlocking what the developers have placed right in front of my face. The game is absolutely not worth $20.00; I would maybe consider this for $10. But several online reviews would tell me that I'm wrong. So my question is, am I missing something? Is the first dungeon really boring and the rest are amazing? I've constructed all the buildings the demo will allow, I've played with all of the glass tools, and I even played a bit of co op. The demo doesn't allow other character classes to be unlocked but your review says they aren't really all that different. So what the heck am I missing here?
For comparison's sake, Hades, Dead Cells, Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, Cross Code...these are indies that are worth $20 (or more).
@Panopticon Sometimes a game just doesn't grab you, and that's okay!
The big sell for me is co-op, like Game Cube's Four Swords.
Games like this are so few and far between, the closest thing I can compare it to is Heroes of Hammerwatch and that came out a few years ago. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of games that feature any kind of dungeon crawling online co-op progression that came out in the last 15-years.
If you're going in as a single player experience, then you have plenty of options elsewhere. However the online 4-player Zelda like combat with replayability and meaningful progression is a rare treat indeed.
@Saints I completely agree. I would love for Nintendo to bring Four Swords to the Switch, it would be an instant buy for me. And I really wanted Rogue Heroes to fill that void. That's why I'm looking for someone to tell me what I'm missing. How can all the reviews be nothing but great, and I find it to be so bad? Surely I must be missing something.
I should also mention, it was my best friend's birthday a couple days ago, and I was actually going to buy Rogue Heroes for the both of us to play together. He is also an avid Zelda/Four Swords fan, and he agreed with me on pretty much all of my points I listed above. So I should say, we can't both be so wrong about a game that everyone loves, can we?
Edit: Also, can you show me where you found meaningful progression?
@Panopticon Well, I feel gameplay is king, and this does a fine job of melding that with a personal level of skill - blocking attacks, out maneuvering enemies, etc.
So you have a solid mix of that as the combat and dungeon puzzles are random. In fact, it is quite fun bringing along a non-Zelda friend that may not see floor traps or triggers to set off more chaos.
Progression comes in with with town upgrades, class unlocks, collectable material drops that you then use in your town to enhance and grow your character.
You're right, it isn't Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, or Hades.
If anything, it is more bombastic chaos like an old 4-player arcade game like TMNT or Simpsons - seemingly best in burst sessions.
So if it isn't grabbing you and your friend - sometimes games just don't do that. I have a have a difficult time when something just doesn't because I seemingly enjoy most things.
In a more elaborate opinion (that you didn't ask for heh) Dungeon Crawlers are only second to MMOs for me, and FFXIV drives me crazy for so many reasons - especially because I genuinely love FFXI. I know it's not the same game, don't expect it to be, but to just feel.... nothing... for it? I have a difficult time grasping why - especially because that is one of the most popular MMOs.
Try checking out Heroes of Hammerwatch - there is a deeper progression system, character levels, town upgrades, perma death with risk/reward, more diverse classes and skills. The graphics are really the only hold-back imo.
It starts out a bit slow feeling through the first area, but if you can clear that and progress further, you'll find a very addictive and satisfying gameplay loop that is great fun for a co-op experience.
@Saints I appreciate your input, it sounds like you are probably right. This isn't a Four Swords / Crystal Chronicles type of co-op adventure that I'm looking for. Your assessment that it's closer to arcade/Simpsons seems pretty accurate.
I've had Hammerwatch on my wishlist for years now, but I will check out Heroes of Hammerwatch (I assume they are related but different)
Took a chance on this and I loved it! A very nice homage to 2D Top-Down Zelda that has a simple yet fun gameplay loop. Just wish they’d integrate drop-in/out co-op instead as I have no luck finding partners online. And also that they’d finish the couple clearly unfinished areas. Fun game I really sunk a lot of hours into.
… Wun can only hope.
I just bought this game because it was on sale. It's the most fun game I've played in a long time. Any review you read of 8 or below is just plain wrong. It's a 10 in my view. If you love the classic top-down Zelda games, you will love this. Get it!
Just picked this up in a sale, really enjoying it. I usually steer clear of roguelikes/lites, but thought I'd give this a shot. I think the consistent overworld combined with the procedural dungeons is a good blend and stops it all feeling too random. There's enough upgrade/progress made each loop to feel satisfying, too.
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