Paint and Punish in the Realm of Ink

Some Hades clones neglect one crucial quality: they don’t provide an arsenal that feels truly powerful. Fortunately, that’s not the case with Leap Studio’s Realm of Ink, which is currently in Steam’s Early Access program. With the obligatory dashes to sidestep enemy attacks, randomized ability drops, and pick-your-own perks, Realm of Ink might feel familiar. But distinction is rooted in merciful difficulty levels and as the title implies, an aesthetic rooted in ink wash painting.

Instead of forcing players to sit through a front-loaded exposition, Ink lets players loose with Red the swordswoman right from the start of the game. Gradually, you’ll learn more about her dogged pursuit of the Fox Demon, her motivations, and well as the game’s cast of secondaries, though an ambitious narrative.

Your Whole Life is a Lie Told by Others?

But Leap Studio is more interested in hooking you with play rather than plot, so you won’t be burdened with much dialog until after your first run. Even then, characters can extend perks and upgrades without conversion, if you’re here for the roguelike action. But if you do enjoy some solid storytelling, the game obliges, offering an existential journey through a world where inhabitants are unaware that they are characters in a fictional story. Much like Hades, there’s a staccato rhythm where dialog breaks up sections of intense, engrossing action.

Conventional light, heavy, and heavy+charge attacks are only part of your arsenal, helping Ink’s combat to avoid a reliance on button mashing. Across each run, you’ll encounter different ink gems, that allow an accompanying ability to be mapped to the trigger buttons of your controller. Regulated by cooldown timers, these can dispense powerful area-of-effect attacks or even drones that spit out projectiles. And here’s the really cool thing about Realm of Ink: you’re accompanied by a pet whose form changes with the ink gems you’re carrying. Expectedly, your companion won’t do much harm to enemies but is useful for splintering the murderous mobs into smaller groups.

Build Your Own Brush Warrior

There are plenty of opportunities to cultivate your own build, with incentives that range from gem upgrades, character perks, base stat-boosting elixirs, and even a meta-progress tree. Save for boss battles, you can select what kind of room advantage you’ll want to earn, recycle unwanted ink gems for upgrade currency, and amass wealth to purchase revisiting meals and additional advantages before boss fights. It’s evident that Leap Studio appreciates player autonomy. You can craft defensive builds with regenerative shielding, hit-and-run chronic damage dealers, or all-around assaulters constructed from the best aids. But at present, there is a bit of imbalance. Subsequent runs seemed to favor certain gems like Needle Ink and alternatives just didn’t measure up, at least not for my playstyle. I found more distinction across the game’s cast of six playables, which is due to add three more characters.

But other than the balance imperfection, Realm of Ink is undoubtedly one of the better action roguelikes out there. Most importantly, your attacks feel potent, with the game striving to eschew basic button combos as much as it can. Courteously, it is one of the more accommodating entries in the sub-genre. Some might find the default difficult to err on the side of easiness, but half-hour runs allow you to explore the stat-modifying perks on offer. If you are looking for a challenge, Realm of Ink can scale things up.

If you’re a fan of roguelikes, I’d definitely give the Steam demo a try. Feel free to ignore the lack of confirmed Steam Deck compatibility; this runs perfectly on Valve’s hardware.