Realm of Ink Is a New Roguelite That’s Hades Meets Chinese Mythology [Review]

With a title like Realm of Ink, I’m not sure anyone’s going to read this before they full-speed sprint to Steam to buy this new action game, but in case you’re actually here reading, then allow me to break down just how much fun this game is.

A Masterstroke of Gaming

Realm of Ink is an exceptionally cool roguelite action RPG with plenty of characters to meet and interact with, a beautiful world to explore and fight in, and a huge number of builds to mess around with. There are even multiple different characters to play around with, and you get a little pet that changes form based on what kinds of ink you have equipped.

You can equip two different kinds of ink at a time, one on each bumper if you’re playing on a controller. These not only allow you to access special attacks, like a floating head that shoots out darts that deal bleed damage and a fiery circle that lets you blast our waves of flame when you attack, but also offer substantial passive buffs. The idea here is to make sure they support the items you’ve been getting, or vice versa, and often complement each other.

My favorite builds so far in Realm of Ink have all been damage-over-time based because I simply love to hit something once and then just dodge as there’s a constant stream of burning, blood, and poison procs. However, there are shield builds, money builds, standard crit builds, and more. Your little pet even gets different abilities based on which two you have equipped, which is a great little feature.

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Write Carefully

Combat is very akin to Hades. You’ve got a light attack, your heavy attack, which can be charged, and a dodge. These function a little bit differently depending on the character you’re using and can also be altered with new effects based on the aforementioned ink, as well as relics to give you new passive buffs and abilities. Crafting a powerful build is incredibly good fun, as it should be, and most of my losses so far have been because I dug too deep and too greedily and took a cursed relic or something and suffered.

You then have to battle through different rooms, each with a different reward listed, and eventually work your way through mini-bosses and bosses as well. The big battles are simple enough to learn but pretty hard to master. One of the coolest bosses is three different stone heads fused together that shoot out beam attacks, but then also throw in other attacks based on the color of the crystal above its head.

Then, there’s possibly the biggest draw of the game, which is that it’s just stunning to look at. There’s not a single moment where you won’t be a little bit in awe of the way Realm of Ink looks. Everything’s wonderfully fluid, character art looks like it was drawn with ink on paper, and it’s just a wonderful game to immerse yourself in.

I can’t get enough of Realm of Ink at the moment. While I don’t think it’s quite as good as Hades, it’s also only just hitting Early Access, which means it’s got plenty of time to grow, and also plenty of time to iron out the odd bit of translation mixups. If you love action roguelikes, then do not miss out on Realm of Ink.

Verdict: Highly Recommended

Realm of Ink releases on September 26 for PC. A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PC.