While every character in The Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is from League of Legends, they’re narratively distinct because I haven’t played regular League. With more than 150 champions in the game, getting close to these characters and understanding their personalities seems daunting, to say the least.
However, Ruined King offers players the chance to get to know these characters over the course of a story campaign, which makes it a lot easier to pick favorites. That’s exactly what I’ve done here, ranking the ten most prominent characters in Ruined King by how much I ended up liking them after a 60-hour campaign.
Let’s get into it.
10. Viego
In short, Viego is a lil’ b****. He’s every awful softboy that claims to be loving and sensitive while actually being a manipulative poser. I beat his a** once and I’d gladly do it again.
9. Thresh
Thresh talks a big game, but he ultimately goes out with a whimper. He sets everything into motion, condescends to you and then gets his butt whooped and disappears with some mealy mouthed threat. Boring.
8. Yasuo
Speaking of boring, it’s Yasuo. While he doesn’t suck nearly as much as Viego or Thresh, he’s just not that interesting. Wanderer with a dark past but a heart of gold is nothing new, and while Yasuo does see some growth throughout Ruined King, it’s fairly predictable. He does get points for not at all knowing how to deal with women being horny for him, though.
7. Gangplank
Gangplank is the villain of Ruined King and proves to be sort of a rube — but his struggle against Miss Fortune mirrors her in interesting ways, and I appreciate that even if I want to scream about how stupid his decision-making is.
6. Pyke
I find Pyke’s whole deal to be kind of trite, honestly — especially his edgy references to his implied mental health issues. He does have some cool character growth/change, and I dig that he’s an ocean zombie.
5. Ahri
As a notorious fan of monstrous women, I honestly have a bone to pick with Ahri. Her whole schtick is about being dangerous and a natural predator, but she’s just a basic catgirl except they say she’s a fox. Her design is boring, and the only thing that makes up for it is the fact that she’s fairly likable and her arc goes to some interesting places.
4. Maokai
I just love a funky tree man. What can I say?
3. Miss Fortune
I think Sarah Fortune gets a lot of character work, despite the fact that she doesn’t actually make that much change, which is absolutely to her benefit. We’re able to see her as more than a hot pirate, revenge-crazed husk, or besieged ruler. She’s all of these things and more, which demonstrates her various values, conflicts and pitfalls as a person.
2. Braum
Braum in Ruined King is peak himbo energy, and it’s fantastic. While a lot of Braum’s dialogue toes the line of being cringey in its earnestness, it manages to stay firmly in sweet and funny territory. Every interaction just made me more fond of this giant, kind man and his little poros. He also cannot handle being hit on by women, and that only adds to the endearment.
1. Illaoi
In short, Illaoi rules. She’s super strong, both physically and mentally, but that doesn’t stop her from having honest conversations with herself about her values and beliefs. Illaoi is very faithful, but she doesn’t let that faith obscure her vision, or at least not entirely. Ruined King is largely a dialogue between Illaoi and Nagakabouros, or at least her faith in the kraken goddess — and it’s really nice to see someone so devoted to their religion not be depicted as dogmatic. She also really wants to bang Braum and blatantly has a thing for himbos, and it’s perfect.
Published: Dec 29, 2021 12:00 pm