Ruffy and the Riverside Overview – Swapping Spree Players Area

Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D platformer wherein you play as a bear and his diminutive flying companion. Collectively, you have to discover a sequence of semi-linear environments, trying to find collectibles and assembly the world’s wacky however lovable inhabitants.

If all of that is beginning to sound acquainted, it is since you’ve performed Banjo-Kazooie or its sequel Banjo-Tooie, and that is a comparability Ruffy and the Riverside developer Zockrates Laboratories is raring to encourage. There’s even a little bit nod to the bear and hen in one in all Ruffy‘s secret areas.

After all, Ruffy and the Riverside is not only a Banjo knockoff (a Banjo riff, if you’ll). It is received a somewhat intelligent and distinctive central mechanic that differentiates it from its closest inspirations, and that is simply sufficient to raise it above mere homage, even whereas sure components grate.

Ruffy and the Riverside Gives Enjoyable Throwback 3D Platforming

At its core, Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D collectathon platformer that has you combing massive, semi-open areas for numerous goodies. It’s extremely a lot within the spirit of its forebears (no pun supposed); you will really feel proper at house right here if you happen to’re a fan of the aforementioned Banjo video games, in addition to the likes of Spyro the Dragon.

As a 3D platformer, Ruffy and the Riverside works completely properly. Its controls are strong, its ranges are filled with issues to see and do, and it is received loads of wacky offbeat characters to get pleasure from as properly.

The central hub, the titular Riverside, might be the place you will be spending most of your time in relation to attempting to find secrets and techniques and sidequest aims. It boasts that all-important “ooh, what’s that?” issue; you will be chasing down one sidequest, you then’ll get hopelessly sidetracked by different quests and ambient puzzles.

It is all wrapped up in an enthralling papercraft aesthetic that calls to thoughts Nintendo’s RPG traditional Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door, in addition to descendants like Bug Fables. It is massive, colourful, and easy, which is precisely how video games like this could look.

Swapping in Ruffy and the Riverside Works Effectively

Most of Ruffy and the Riverside‘s puzzles are pushed by its core swap mechanic, which is good and easy. Some objects have textures you’ll be able to swap with others. That is just about it, but it surely’s the driving engine behind some fairly intelligent and enjoyable challenges.

As an illustration, you would possibly come throughout a weight that is too heavy to raise, so you will must swap its present stone texture with a picket one to mean you can transfer it out of your approach. Alternatively, to get the higher hand in a race, you might must swap water with mud that can sluggish your rivals down.

Whereas the variety of textures you’ll be able to swap is restricted – you can’t, as an example, steal the feel of a brick wall, or of a residing creature – you’ll be able to swap most objects’ colours, and a few puzzles name so that you can just do that. It is enjoyable to mess around with textures to resolve puzzles, but it surely’s additionally enjoyable simply to experiment with swapping by yourself.

Swapping additionally varieties the idea of Ruffy and the Riverside‘s all-too-brief boss battles, and whereas I do not need to spoil, suffice it to say the mechanic is utilized in some fairly attention-grabbing methods to assist Ruffy defeat his foes. You will just about by no means simply be punching bosses to loss of life right here.

Ruffy and the Riverside Will not Shut Up

Sadly, whereas the collectathon and swapping components of Ruffy and the Riverside work properly, there’s one space the place it decisively stumbles, and that is the story. You would possibly suppose the narrative in a sport like this is not notably essential, however sadly, that is an opinion Zockrates Laboratories would not appear to share.

To place it bluntly, none of Ruffy and the Riverside‘s characters will shut up. One line of dialogue won’t ever suffice; each dialog drags on interminably, with characters usually repeating sentiments or ideas, presumably to verify you have not fallen asleep.

Narratively talking, your quest is to avoid wasting Riverside and its environment from an enormous evil dice referred to as Groll. There isn’t any actual depth or complexity past that setup; Groll dangerous, your workforce good, beat up dice to win.

Ruffy‘s story is not notably deep or attention-grabbing, and its dialogue is not terribly amusing both, though I did get one or two chuckles out of a few of the extra left-field jokes. On the entire, although, there’s actually no want for the story to take heart stage like this.

Story Usually Dictates Exploration in Ruffy and the Riverside

The suffocating presence of the story proves to be an issue within the exploration components of Ruffy and the Riverside as properly. All too usually, I might be wandering round Riverside, searching for puzzles I might clear up, after I’d occur upon a very attention-grabbing conundrum.

I might spend a couple of minutes attempting to work out learn how to clear up stated head-scratcher, earlier than mentally submitting it underneath “return later” and being distracted by a passing collectible. Upon progressing the story, I might then uncover this was a puzzle I actually could not clear up till the narrative gave me what I wanted.

This proved extraordinarily irritating, and it stopped me from eager to discover ranges; in any case, why attempt to clear up puzzles when there isn’t any motive to consider I’ve received all of the items? In equity, there are nonetheless many non-compulsory areas and challenges ready for you in Ruffy and the Riverside, however these roadblocks are too quite a few to totally loosen up.

I do not need Ruffy to be The Outer Wilds or Elden Ring, however coming throughout these roadblocks is demoralizing and unusual. It seems like the extent designers have not fairly completed constructing the stage but, and so they need you to go away to allow them to end the job.

Ruffy and the Riverside Overview | Closing Ideas

Regardless of its points, I loved my time with Ruffy and the Riverside. It is a enjoyable sufficient solution to whereas away a number of hours, and its central hub is enjoyable to discover. With a little bit extra natural exploration and so much much less dialogue, this system might actually shine. Because it stands, although, too many phrases, your honor.

Ruffy and the Riverside was reviewed on PC with a replica supplied by the developer over the course of round 8 hours of gameplay. All screenshots have been taken through the technique of evaluate.