Realm of Ink Preview

thesixthaxis.com:

Realm of Ink first crossed our path in November, its art style and showcased gameplay looking both incredibly artistic and fast-paced. Having now had some hands-on time with Realm of Ink, the game shows a lot of promise. At its most basic, Realm of Ink sets out its stall like Hades but instead of fighting through the underworld gaining the favour of gods, you’re fighting through a storybook aiming for freedom.

The Book Spirit is the one in charge in the Realm of Ink, making sure every character follows their set path. In the demo, Red is the character that first realises that something isn’t right as she follows the same path over and over again. Red lives a groundhog day fighting the demons that are in her path, going through different paths and ending up at a boss.

When Red realises this her mission is to break free of the path, choosing her own destiny. As she does this, Red discovers she is immortal and on death ends up in the Fox Inn. Think of it as the Hades’ House of Hades, where Red can change weapon loadout and interact with different characters. In the full game, it will be the hub for all characters that you unlock to play as. The demo only shows a small portion of the Fox Inn, and that includes the weapon style change area and the exit to the story realms.

In the demo of Realm of Ink, only one of the four realms from the game was on show. That realm is the Monkey Kingdom, a place that has a wintry feel to it. There are various enemy types from archers that fire magical arrows, floating jar-like creatures that charge towards you, towering behemoths that dash towards you, and magical lion-like creatures that call down strikes in a wide area. They can all be dangerous to Red so you need to keep moving, dodging and attacking to survive.

There are no instant health packs, instead having to get to the correct room where there are merchants to buy health and other buffs from. The movement is fluid and combat is fast paced while the handdrawn ink style of Realm of