Lost Ruins has successfully concluded its Kickstarter campaign, amassing nearly five million yen via the popular crowdfunding platform. As we previously reported, Lost Ruins is a Metroidvania-esque action-platformer starring a young, amnesiac girl who one day wakes up in a mysterious dungeon and tries to find a way out. What’s more, you can now experience a brief slice of her adventures yourself, as developer Altari Games has made a free demo available via the project’s Kickstarter page.
The demo starts out at the very beginning of the game and proceeds to teach you the basics in a rather speedy fashion: the protagonist can jump, dodge-roll and equip a variety of melee or ranged weapons, as well as different types of spells to help her on her quest. Instead of focusing on casual, light-hearted action, Lost Ruins instead seems to adopt a more survival-oriented, almost Soulslike approach: combat relies on well-timed doges, enemies can hit hard, and the map is riddled with traps and environmental hazards, forcing you to manage your tools and resources cleverly or risk being mercilessly killed off.
Overall, what I’ve personally played of the demo has left a positive impression on me and, in my mind, cemented Lost Ruins as a project very much worth keeping a close eye on.