Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D platformer through which you play as a bear and his diminutive flying companion. Collectively, you will need to discover a sequence of semi-linear environments, looking for 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 bit of nod to the bear and fowl in one among Ruffy‘s secret areas.
After all, Ruffy and the Riverside is not only a Banjo knockoff (a Banjo riff, if you’ll). It is bought a relatively 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 parts grate.
Ruffy and the Riverside Provides Enjoyable Throwback 3D Platforming
At its core, Ruffy and the Riverside is a 3D collectathon platformer that has you combing giant, semi-open areas for numerous goodies. It’s extremely a lot within the spirit of its forebears (no pun meant); you will really feel proper at dwelling 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 nicely. Its controls are stable, its ranges are full of issues to see and do, and it is bought loads of wacky offbeat characters to take pleasure in as nicely.
The central hub, the titular Riverside, might be the place you will be spending most of your time on the subject of attempting to find secrets and techniques and sidequest goals. 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 basic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door, in addition to descendants like Bug Fables. It is huge, colourful, and easy, which is precisely how video games like this could look.
Swapping in Ruffy and the Riverside Works Properly
Most of Ruffy and the Riverside‘s puzzles are pushed by its core swap mechanic, which is sweet and easy. Some objects have textures you possibly can swap with others. That is just about it, however it’s the driving engine behind some fairly intelligent and enjoyable challenges.
As an example, you would possibly come throughout a weight that is too heavy to elevate, so you will have to swap its present stone texture with a picket one to can help you transfer it out of your approach. Alternatively, to get the higher hand in a race, you might have to swap water with mud that may sluggish your rivals down.
Whereas the variety of textures you possibly can swap is restricted – you can’t, as an example, steal the feel of a brick wall, or of a residing creature – you possibly can swap most objects’ colours, and a few puzzles name so that you can do exactly that. It is enjoyable to mess around with textures to resolve puzzles, however it’s additionally enjoyable simply to experiment with swapping by yourself.
Swapping additionally kinds 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 parts of Ruffy and the Riverside work nicely, there’s one space the place it decisively stumbles, and that is the story. You would possibly suppose the narrative in a recreation like this is not significantly vital, 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 examine you have not fallen asleep.
Narratively talking, your quest is to avoid wasting Riverside and its environment from an enormous evil dice known as Groll. There is not any actual depth or complexity past that setup; Groll dangerous, your staff good, beat up dice to win.
Ruffy‘s story is not significantly deep or attention-grabbing, and its dialogue is not terribly amusing both, though I did get one or two chuckles out of a number of the extra left-field jokes. On the entire, although, there’s actually no want for the story to take middle 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 parts of Ruffy and the Riverside as nicely. All too usually, I might be wandering round Riverside, on the lookout for puzzles I might remedy, once I’d occur upon a very attention-grabbing conundrum.
I might spend a couple of minutes making an attempt to work out methods to remedy 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 remedy till the narrative gave me what I wanted.
This proved extraordinarily irritating, and it stopped me from desirous to discover ranges; in any case, why attempt to remedy puzzles when there is not any motive to consider I’ve bought all of the items? In equity, there are nonetheless many non-obligatory areas and challenges ready for you in Ruffy and the Riverside, however these roadblocks are too quite a few to totally calm down.
I do not need Ruffy to be The Outer Wilds or Elden Ring, however coming throughout these roadblocks is demoralizing and unusual. It appears 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 Assessment | Closing Ideas
Regardless of its points, I loved my time with Ruffy and the Riverside. It is a enjoyable sufficient strategy to whereas away a couple of hours, and its central hub is enjoyable to discover. With a bit of extra natural exploration and so much much less dialogue, this formulation 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 in the course of the technique of overview.