The new game from Square Enix will attempt to utilize the Wi-Fi capabilities of the 3DS.
Square Enix has announced Heroes of Ruin, an action-adventure RPG that will take full advantage of the 3DS’s “StreetPass” and “SpotPass” Wi-Fi functionalities. The game boasts a full co-op campaign with drop-in/drop-out play, the ability to interact with the game’s online site through daily challenges, and a Traders Network amongst other online functions.
The story focuses on an unlikely band of four Thundercat-like heroes who set out to help cure the dying ruler of Nexus, but the game currently seems to be more about social functions than it is about narrative. The online connectivity provides players with daily challenges new weapons, armor, and class-specific items will become available as you work with other players. It’s promising concept, but story and gameplay details are sparse so we’ll have to wait until E3 to see what the game actually has to offer. We do know that it will be a real-time action RPG with over 200 unique enemies, and that the game will use the eye-numbing 3D technology of the 3DS.
The problem is that any game that depends on community suffers without a critical number of sales, and it might be tough to create a stable user base given the mediocre sales, limited Wi-Fi hotspots, and short battery life of the 3DS. Games like Monster Hunter Portable have succeded in the past and Heroes of Ruin shows potential as a test of the 3DS’s social functionality, but we still haven’t seen enough of Square’s next title to make any meaningful predictions.
