Library of Ruina

Library of Ruina
Developer(s)	Project Moon
Platform(s)	PC, Xbox, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Genre(s)	Deckbuilding, Turn-based combat, Visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

Library of Ruina is an indie deck-building turn-based RPG officially released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One on August 10th, 2021. It would later become available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. It was developed and published by South Korean studio Project Moon and is the direct sequel of their previous game Lobotomy Corporation . Project Moon's third installment, dungeon RPG Limbus Company , takes place sometime after the events of Library of Ruina and was released in February 2023.

The side story light novel Distortion Detective ^[1] takes place during the events of Library of Ruina. The other light novel Leviathan ^[2] was illustrated as a comic. It takes place between Library of Ruina's true ending and the start of Limbus Company.

Gameplay

Reception

The titular Library is split up into ten floors, and each floor automatically starts with a patron librarian upon unlocking a floor. As the player progresses through the game's storyline they, will gain access to more floors. On the top left side of the main menu, players can open a side tab where they can send an invitation, burn books, and read key page stories.

Invitations are how guests are brought to the Library for battles known as receptions. In the story, anyone who receives one is destined to come. Before the start of each reception, players are brought to a screen that shows their librarians and the guests. Selecting any character will display their stats, weaknesses, passive skills, and combat pages. Before starting a reception players can change equipment and combat pages, changes cannot be made after a reception has begun. Librarians will keep whatever damage they take until the reception is over. Library of Ruina's story is primarily shown in a visual novel format. Once a reception starts, the player will get a cutscene about the guests and their motivations for entering the Library. After the reception ends they will get another one of Roland and Angela holding a discussion relating to the guests. Some cutscenes are unrelated to receptions and focus on a specific character within the Library.

Key and Combat pages

After clearing a battle, the player will receive books of the defeated enemies. The two types of books that can drop are named after a character or their group. Burning these books randomly gives the player key pages and combat pages. Pages are color-coded based on rarity and how many of the same page a player can have. Key pages will have a symbol relating to the group or individual it is from, while combat pages usually have an image of one or more characters from where the burned book originated.

Rarity	Color	Maximum page amount
Paperback	Green	5
Hardcover	Blue	4
Limited	Purple	3
Objet d'art	Yellow	1

Key pages are equipment that can be assigned to the player's librarians, equipping one will give them the stats of the key page's character. Each page gives different stats, damage resistances, and passives. Combat pages can be used to attack, defend, or both. Some combat pages are unique to a specific character and their key page. ^[3]

The three types of damage in Library of Ruina are slash, pierce, and blunt damage, they affect both a character's health and stagger. If a character's stagger reaches zero they will not be able to move the next turn, they will also receive fatal damage from all three attack types regardless of resistance. Characters will have different resistances and weaknesses based on their equipment. Their health and stagger may not share the same strengths or vulnerabilities.

Amount of damage received

Ineffective	Endured	Normal	Weak	Fatal
x 0.25	x 0.5	x 1.0	x 1.5	x 2.0

Combat

A screen shot depicting gameplay for Library of Ruina during a reception.

In battle, every character has dice and dots of 'light' above them, by clicking the symbol on the top middle of the screen, each dice will randomly roll a number or value. The amount determines a character's 'speed', speed determines which character moves first. By hovering over an enemy's dice, the player will see an arrow pointing to one of their librarian's dice with the combat page the enemy intends to use. Players can have a librarian redirect an attack meant for one of their other librarians. Combat pages vary and have different light costs that the player needs to carefully manage, most pages require a minimum of one light. If the librarian runs out of light or does not have a zero cost page they will be unable to act. Light points are regained once per turn or in some cases refunded by winning certain clashes or raising the emotion level of that battle. Pages will have at least one attack, defense, or evasion action. These three actions follow the following rules: attack an enemy, defend to reduce or negate damage, and evade to dodge an attack entirely.

When engaging an unstaggered opponent, characters will enter a clash where their page actions interact with each other. Two dice will roll and the highest value will act, in the event both dice roll the same value actions will be canceled out. Winning with an attack or shield action will also deal stagger damage to the opponent. Failing a dodge will result in the character getting hit. ^[4]

Abnormality battles

To progress through the story players will have to fight in abnormality battles, there are three to four per floor. Many of the abnormalities present in-game originate from Lobotomy Corporation. Abnormalities on each floor share a common theme with each other or the floor's name, for example, the abnormalities of the Floor of Philosophy are a trio of birds that can combine into one being. Every abnormality battle has a certain gimmick or mechanic the player must figure out to defeat them. Players are limited to the floor's librarians. There is no cost to enter battle. The player does not lose any books if they fail, these battles can be retried an unlimited amount of times.

After completing an abnormality battle, the floor realization will rise one level and a new librarian will be unlocked for the floor. Including the head librarian, five characters in total will be available per floor. Players can change a librarian's name, appearance, and combat dialog outside of battle.

Emotion level is a mechanic that raises whenever a character deals or receives damage, naturally their “emotions” rise. After a certain point, the group will gain an emotional level-up. Players choose one abnormality page to apply to a librarian. Abnormality pages come in two colors, green and red. Green pages have purely beneficial effects but give small advantages. Red pages are more powerful however they also have negative drawbacks. When the emotion level rises again, another abnormality page can be picked. The emotion level can rise up to five times per battle. ^[5]

Floor realizations

After the player has gone through all of the abnormality battles on a floor. They will have the opportunity to complete a floor realization. During a floor realization, the player will part in a multi-segmented battle against Angela or Roland when they have an emotional meltdown. In each phase, Angela or Roland will have the abilities and appearances of one of the floor's abnormalities. The final phase will have players fighting a new abnormality form that wasn't a part of the previous realizations. The floor realization for the Floor of General Works can only be entered if all of the other floors have been completed and is required for the true ending.

Plot

Setting

Library of Ruina takes place in a dystopian world known as the City, which is made of twenty-six districts. A Nest and the Backstreets further separate each district. Nests are run by a Wing, mega-corporations that harness powerful technologies known as Singularities. The backstreets are crime-riddled areas controlled by syndicates. Throughout the City, there are many offices run by Fixers, mercenaries regulated by the government. Fixers are defined by grades with the weakest being Grade 9 and the strongest Grade 1. In special cases, Fixers who are a cut above the rest gain the rank of a Color Fixer along with an epithet.

After the events of Lobotomy Corporation , Angela creates the Library out of the light produced by Lobotomy Corporation's Seed of Light. Before she opens the Library, Roland, a self-proclaimed "washed-up" Grade 9 Fixer, appears in it and is forcefully recruited by Angela to be her guide to the City. Angela wishes to find the "one true book" that contains the answers she desires and turns her human. She sends out Invitations and has Roland and her other librarians fight the guests. If the guests win, they are allowed to take a book; if they lose, they become a book themselves. Canonically, the Library never loses a battle. ^[6]

Characters

Aside from the Floor of General Works, all patron librarians are returning characters from Lobotomy Corporation. During the events of Lobotomy Corporation, Angela was an AI acting as the manager's assistant. The Patron Librarians were known as Sephirah and each one was in charge of one of Lobotomy Corporation's departments. The previous Sephirah ^[7] and their floors are modeled after the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and the colors are based on the Queen Scale colors. ^[8]

• Angela - The Library's Director.

• Roland - Patron Librarian for the Floor of General Works. Relaxed, casual, and adaptable to different situations. A previously washed-up Grade 9 Fixer demoted to the bottom, he is knowledgeable about the City and its many factions.
• Malkuth - Patron Librarian for the Floor of History. Cheerful with a confident feeling of leadership and control, she is faithful to her past actions.
• Yesod - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Technological Science. Strict, rational, and logical, he respects the effort of his work, past and present.
• Hod - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Literature. She is calm, cooperative, and prudent, and tries to understand Angela's goal.
• Netzach - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Art. He is lazy but reflective and empathetic to the Guests and Librarians. Does not like killing Guests.
• Tiphereth - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Natural Sciences. Blunt, direct, and easily bothered when teased.
• Gebura - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Language. Rigorous, wary, and hotheaded. She is direct with her speech and intentions.
• Chesed - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Social Sciences. A coffee enthusiast, he is relaxed, casual, and takes situations lightly.
• Binah - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Philosophy. Mysterious, calm, and collected, she supported Angela's decision to leave the facility and take revenge to other Sephirah's dismay.
• Hokma - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Religion. He is determined, unfazed, and loyal to Ayin, the founder and manager of Lobotomy Corporation.

Story

In Urban Legend the storyline splits into two paths after the Zwei Association. Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, and Star of the City have four paths. They are divided based on factions and plot points. There is no required order, all paths must be completed to progress to the next rank. The story chapters are broken up into the following scenes: Canard, Urban Myth, Urban Legend, Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, Star of the City, Impuritas Civitatis, and Epilogue.

Development

Music

Library of Ruina's soundtrack was created by two music studios, South Korean game sound studio Studio EIM ^[9] and Japanese indie band Mili. ^[10] Studio EIM composed music for the general guest battles including the floor, abnormality, and realization themes. The background music changes throughout a battle rising with the emotion level. Mili made a mini album, To Kill A Living Book, ^[11] with seven out of the eight songs being tailored to specific characters. The eighth song in the album, Salt, Pepper, Birds, and the Thought Police is not a part of the official soundtrack. ^[12] The first song, String Theocracy, ^[13] is Library of Ruina's opening theme song.

Releases

Library of Ruina was originally available on PC through Steam ^[14] and Xbox One. ^[15] It had an early access.

On March 14th, 2024, the Arc System Works Asian branch uploaded a Twitter post announcing the release of Library of Ruina to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch ^[16] on April 25th, 2024, which was later retweeted by the official Project Moon Twitter account.

Reception

Xbox Hub writer Richard Barker describes the game as having an interesting storyline but terrible in introducing and explaining battle mechanics. ^[17]

Nintendo Life echoed similar sentiments in their review, which was met with substantial criticism from fans, causing a flood of negative comments on the review, Nintendo Life later stated that they would continue their playthrough. ^[18]

References

1. "The Distortion Detective : 포스타입 시리즈". ProjectMoon (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-02.
2. "Leviathan - ProjectMoon Comics (English) : 포스타입 시리즈". ProjectMoon (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-05-02.
3. Tack, Daniel. "Library Of Ruina Might Be The Best Game You Sleep On This Year – Don't". Game Informer. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
4. Black, Thomas. "Library of Ruina: The Best Game You've Never Heard Of". The Nugget. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
5. "Library of Ruina Delivers a Different Kind of Deck Builder". Game Wisdom. 2021-09-09. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
6. "Library of Ruina Review". Russell Troxel. 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
7. "What Are the Sefirot?". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
8. "Thelema Lodge Calendar for January 1996 e.v." www.billheidrick.com. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
9. "Studio EIM | 스튜디오 EIM | 게임 음악 & 사운드 스튜디오". eimnew (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-04-29.
10. "Mili official website". Mili Official Website. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
11. To Kill a Living Book -for Library Of Ruina- by Mili, 2021-10-29, retrieved 2024-04-29
12. "Library Of Ruina Soundtrack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
13. Mili - String Theocracy / "Library of Ruina" theme song . Retrieved 2024-04-29– via www.youtube.com.
14. "Library Of Ruina on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
15. "Buy Library Of Ruina | Xbox". www.xbox.com. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
16. "Library of Ruina coming to Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 on April 25, 2024 – Arc System Works". www.arcsystemworks.com. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
17. Barker, Richard (2021-09-12). "Library of Ruina Review". TheXboxHub. Retrieved 2024-04-29.
18. Life, Nintendo (2024-04-25). "Review: Library Of Ruina (Switch) - Potential Aplenty, But Just Doesn't Stack Up". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2024-05-24.