At first glance, you would consider Realm of Ink as a pupil at the Hades school of roguelites. You travel through different realms, gain power ups, and are on a mission to beat the big bad at the end. However, the first impression can be deceiving as Realm of Ink has its own depth to it with its different skills, curios, and elixirs that can lead to some fun builds.
Realm of Ink puts you in the shoes of Red, a book character who becomes aware of this and desires an escape to the real world. To do that, Red needs to fight through different acts, getting past bosses that will try to stop her. Red is not alone as she finds allies with who she can make trades with for food, curios, elixirs and ink gem upgrades. Red is also accompanied by Momo, an ink pet, who fights alongside her and Momo’s form is directly linked to the ink gems that you equip.
Red can only equip two ink gems, or one if you get the really powerful primordial ink gem, with each of these being linked to a different element such as fire, earth, water, and metal. The ink gems provide skills that you can use in battle as well as bonuses that could make your light attack and heavy attacks stronger, or your skills more powerful. The way you can make different combinations provides quite a bit of depth to experimentation.
While ink gems are the core parts of Red’s skill set, along with her attacks, finding curios and elixirs can really make Red powerful. Curios are items that Red equips giving additional passive skills and buffs, while elixirs can increase attack power, reduce the damage Red takes, and increase critical damage. There did not seem to be a limit on how many you can equip, and if you get a lucky run you can make Red near unstoppable. On one run, I was clearing out rooms and killing bosses within seconds due to how my bonuses had stacked up. I came close to this feeling in other runs too, so it can feel that Realm of Ink skews a bit too easy for the typical roguelite experience, even with unlocking higher difficulties.
Realm of Ink’s story is not over after you complete one run. There are six endings to unlock for Red and different stories to uncover for each of the characters you encounter. Between runs, Red is transported to the Fox Inn. This is a hub area where you can level up her abilities, find out about the world from different characters, and try different combat builds.
Unlike Hades, you do not just pick a weapon and go on your way. Instead, there is a character that has collected skins of other warriors, which you can unlock. You can then equip these skins which give access to new combat styles and abilities to use during runs. Some of the builds are good for close combat, others for range, and others are good for boosting the power of ink gems and ink pets. It is worth unlocking and experimenting with the different styles, as I found a ranged build that I enjoyed using. The Fox Inn is also where you unlock higher difficulties after successfully completing a run. Upping the difficulty for each successive run is worth doing to test your skills and try out new builds.
Realm of Ink’s action is generally fluid and fast paced, though there were a few moments of frame rate drops when things got a bit crowded on screen. The environmental and enemy design is very good as well, with a decent variety of enemies to challenge with tougher ones appearing as you up the difficulty. Bosses also unleash a more expansive arsenal attacks as you increase the challenge. The East Asian aesthetic and incorporation of themes that stem from such cultures is handled well. The music is well composed and complements the artistic environments well.
Realm of Ink will likely be considered an easy roguelite due to how quickly you can create a powerful build and steamroll enemies, even on higher difficulties. It is also relatively short as successful runs can be done in 30 minutes or less. Some runs will not be successful depending on how lucky you get, but it’s still an enjoyable experience.
