RuinsMagus Review – The first JRPG in VR?

Let’s get started on this RuinsMagus Review.

What is RuinsMagus?

RuinsMagus is an action JRPG developed especially for VR.  Enter a fantasy world and work your way through the city’s local guild. You will explore the ruins beneath the town of Grand Amnis where you will fight the many Guardians that defend all the treasures found within.

Who Makes RuinsMagus?

RuinsMagus is developed by Character Bank Inc. They are a Japanese-based VR developer creating games since 2019. They are a small team of currently 5 people.

They have created several VR experiences including Mysperyence, and Ansuz.

Which VR Headsets is RuinsMagus On?

You can play RuinsMagus on Steam VR and Meta Quest 2.

RuinsMagus Tutorial

The initial menu screen definitely has some anti-aliasing issues. The text is blurry, hard to read, and flickers something horrible. Don’t let this stop you though, in a brief moment you will be immersed in the extremely beautiful game world that thankfully looks nothing like this menu screen.

There are 3 different difficulties to choose from Easy, Normal, and Hard. There are also 3 save slots if you have other people in your household who want to play the game without affecting your progress too.

The tutorial is very in-depth and is basically all of Chapter 1. You will go over how to use all your skills, spells, and movement in great detail, allowing you to practice everything successfully before moving on in the story.

The controls are also rather different and complicated. All of the Quest 2 buttons will be utilized in one way or another.  It may take you a few tries through the tutorial to fully grasp how to reload or how to quickly switch to the health potion. For the first few levels, there is a reminder located at the start of the dungeon on how to do things.

You will take everything you learned in the tutorial and apply it to the first dungeon. Everything is pretty straightforward. You will finish this chapter off with a Boss, and that’s when things really start to heat up.

RuinsMagus Review Gameplay

Before we get into a more detailed review, we need to cover exactly what a JRPG is. Western RPGs tend to have large open-world stories, the ability to customize your character, and hyper-realistic graphic worlds like seen in Fallout or Skyrim. That is NOT what you will get here.

Everything in RuinsMagus is designed as a JRPG. It has all the things you would expect from that style.

There are quirky and fun anime characters with detailed story-driven Japanese dialog, a powerful extremely linear story, a cartoonish but beautiful anime world, and intense combat with a multitude of items, spells, and techniques. This style of game will not be for everyone, but those who enjoy it will be totally in love here.

Onward.

RuinsMagus takes place in the city of Grand Amnis. You are a Magi, a novice one, that sets out investigating the ruins in the area.

You will enter the various dungeons and face off against some enemies that will require you to use your different spells and skills to beat them. Overall, none of these guardians will be too difficult, but you will require using all your spells and skills to beat them. At the end of the dungeon, you will be given a rank on how well you did based on completion time, how many times you died and how many enemies you killed.

A charming, linear story will start to unfold about your role in this world. There are 25 story-driven quests to explore in the Ruinsmagus world.

The dungeons do start to feel repetitive. There is not much variety in the bad guys you encounter, or how the ruins look, and this is one area where it feels more like a VR shooter, and less like the turned-based combat systems usually found in JRPGs.

There is also no loot to collect or secret passages or tunnels in the dungeons which really seems odd. It is just a very linear point A to point B with some bad guys along the way.

Even with these issues, I still found Ruinsmagus fun. You have such interesting spells and magic is just so well suited for VR. It is a lot of fun to blast a fireball from your fingertips at the guardian in front of you, even if you’ve already done it a few times.

Ruins Magus Graphics and Sound

This is a very beautiful anime world. The main lobby area has lots of interesting character animations, sounds, and voices happening. It really is one of the most stunning games I’ve seen on the Quest in this lobby area.

The dungeons unfortunately are the exact opposite of this. They are extremely plain, with minimal changes to them. It is noticeable and I wish the developers spent a tad more effort here.

The characters can speak in Japanese with English or Japanese subtitles. There is no English dubbing. I personally don’t want English dubbing for this heavy JRPG content, but some players will not like the lack of English dubbing. There is lots of reading.

There is beautiful background music that helps you transport to the fantasy world.

Ruins Magus Multiplayer Experience

There is no multiplayer experience in Ruins Magus at this time.

Who Will Enjoy Playing Ruins Magus?

RuinsMagus is rated E for Everyone 10+. There are fantasy themes as well as violence like attacking with spells. This is a Japanese Role-Playing Game or JRPG. This means the game is more story-driven, and text-heavy, with lots of dialog for a slower-paced feel. Younger players who enjoy this style of anime shows will fit right in. People of any age who are looking for a story quest game with some magical combat.

What Games are similar to Ruins Magus?

RuinsMagus is similar to other JRPG like Final Fantasy, Persona 5, or Kingdom Hearts. Similar VR Games would be Zenith The Last City, Sword Reverie, Demeo, and ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos.

How long is Ruins Magus?

This is a JRPG which means there is a LOT of text to go through, read and listen to. If you skip this text (don’t it’s the point of this genre) the game will be finished a lot faster.

You can beat the game in about 5-8 hours.

Can you play Ruins Magus Sitting Down?

Yes! You can play Ruinsmagus sitting down. There is a seated option in the settings. You may have issues interacting with a few items, that require you to recenter your play space. You do not need a large play space or room movement.

Does RuinsMagus cause motion sickness?

Ruinsmagus has in-game movement. You can adjust the settings to use teleportation, free-movement, snap turning, or free motion turning. Adjust these settings if you feel any uncomfortable motion sickness feelings.

RuinsMagus is Moderate for Motion Sickness but should be fine for most players when using in-game settings.

Final Thoughts On Ruins Magus Review. Is Ruins Magus Worth It?