RecommendedSteam player
I saw a review accusing an investor of the game for making a bunch of fake positive reviews. Looking at how empty some of them are, I see why. However, this game doesn't really need it. Is Rubinite a hidden masterpiece that will utterly blow your mind? No. It's fairly short. Considering how many bosses I have left (going from achievments), I expect it to clock in around 7-8 hours with ~13 bosses. That is pretty small for a boss rush game, with cuphead having roughly twice that at the same price. However, the bosses are mostly fun and unique. Aside from one rematch fight so far, every boss has been unique with it's own gimmick and identity. The important part is that the gameplay feels really good. It's in a genre of games that encourage precision, with the closest comparison I can think of being Nine Sols. While the price is a little high, you're not really burning money either. I've seen games charge more for less. Anyways, here's my standard review: 1. MUSIC AND ART There's no reason to drag out the point, Rubinite looks and sounds great. Every sprite is expressive with a huge variety of different actions. For the main characters, there's basically a new animation every scene. The movement is both fluid yet sharp, which is critical for such a precise game. Most bosses (except plaguebearer lol) have vivid, memorable designs and a diverse moveset. Something that stood out to me particularly are the arenas, which are simple enough to not be distracting yet pretty enough to contribute to the atmosphere. The music is good. It does it's job, and some tracks are genuine bangers, but it's not exceptional. You're not gonna go out of your way to listen to most of them. Not that that's particularly unique for a game of this genre, though. 2. GAMEPLAY Rubinite is a precise boss rush game, with a focus on perfection and patience. Ruby has a diverse moveset, with the main focus being the observe gimmick. Instead of trying to just hit the boss, you're encouraged to sit back and watch the boss to build up marks. Once you have enough, you can do a critical strike for big damage. You can also build them up through a variety of defensive options, including a perfect dodge (basically your parry), a sunder slash (comparable to a mikiri counter from Sekiro but for grabs), and a dart to hit airborne attacks. Like with most hard games, bosses feel kinda bs at first. They are fast with huge hitboxes and can take half your hp in a single hit, so the extremely generous dodge window feels like more of a mercy than a mistake. After learning which counters you need and their timing, the game feels really good. While the bosses can get pretty hard, it's not obscenely brutal. I got walled by some of the early bosses, but things got easier as I learned the mechanics. I am a person who is pretty decent at these sorts of games, so your mileage may vary. There's also a skill tree and Hollow Knight-esque charms system, which are unremarkable. Nothing revolutionary, but nothing egregious either. 3. STORY I've compared Rubinite to several other games, with the closest I can bring up in terms of gameplay being Nine Sols. Unlike Nine Sols, Rubinite's story and world doesn't make me actively hate the game. That doesn't mean it's a masterpiece, though. Barring some massive late story twist, it's fairly... inoffensive. The characters are flat, the world is simple, and everything is fairly standard for dark-ish fantasy. That doesn't mean I'm not invested in what it does have. The character's expressive animations carry otherwise bland scenes, and the flashbacks in the monastery are well put-together. The antagonist is by far the most interesting character because of them, and there is still time for that aforementioned late story twist. While I'm not utterly enraptured, I am at least interested. To summarize, Rubinite is a solid 7/10. it's fairly small and unambitious, but fully executes what it sets out to do. If you're bored and this game is on sale, it's a solid recommend. It takes the precise, reactive gameplay made popular by games like Sekiro and puts it's own spin on it. Rubinite is polished and put together in that regard, but fails to put in the heart that makes a game truly groundbreaking. It'll give you a good time, but it won't change your life or anything. ADDENDUM: Alright, I've beaten the game and my opinion is mostly unchanged. Rubinite is good, great even, but not necessarily exceptional. It took a little under 9 hours for me to reach the end, and I was going rather fast. The reason I made an update, along with final story developments, will be the spoilers marked here. To summarize, the gameplay has an unexpectedly fun twist after the "final boss" and the story is marginally more interesting than I expected. When you think you've beaten the final boss, it turns out the entire game was an illusion and you have to do it again. Hitless. I kept waiting for this to annoy me, but it didn't. You keep all your upgrades, and the short story makes it bearable. It also feels natural, making bosses you previously facetanked through (Ghost and Faye II) an interesting challenge. Like, the entire game was built around beating it hitless and previously odd fights finally click. It also comes with large story developments, and two new incredibly cool bosses. The story itself is actually quite interesting with themes I personally really enjoy in other works. Aline is a genuinely interesting villain, a girl who could not let go of the pain the world caused her and instead of fighting for change, sought to erase it all. It's actually quite similar to the villains in Library of Ruina, which is my favorite game of all time. It's a fun premise for a villain. At least, it would be if the game had spent any time setting up it's premise or building themes and characters. It feels like the mere shadow of a good story, bringing up cool ideas but not doing much with them. This removes a lot of the emotional weight it could have had. Still, it did manage to surpass my incredibly low expectations and it's not unusual for games of this genre to have an excuse plot for cool bosses.Show moreShow less
9 hours at review98 people found this helpful