Having enjoyed the original Regions of Ruin - an action RPG in pixel-style - it would be years of silence and then a couple of years with news to anticipate the follow-up.

RoR's gameplay mechanics is a unique melting pot that blends in functions of an action platformer, RPG feats for the playable character, resource management and home base building. Despite the mixture, the game eased me in without too much hand-holding and went from a challenging start to becoming god-like towards the end.

With RoR: Runegate, the end results showed how much effort and time the devs took to put into it: The pixel graphics are retained but made in even more beautiful detail. A good amount of love has been given in the making of the soundtrack, influenced by contemporary folk bands I follow such as Wardruna and Heilung. There's also arabic-style soundtrack done tastefully, considering the world building coming up later.

Runegate's story focuses on a group of dwarves - having escaped their old home from goblin invaders - which finds a new place to settle and from there, sets out to find answers behind the mysterious Runegate portal. Exploring the world map is done by spending food and uncovers a portion with new locations to visit. And every location has something worth to explore; the remains of past events at the least and some quest or puzzle at the most. Even the numerous quests, mainline and side, have their story background to some extent and vary in both length and complexity, resulting in something fresh to provide alike games I've seen in. (Runescape comes to mind)

Speaking with NPC's, it's quite impossible to ignore the voice sounds to cover their dialogues, which is my nitpick in this game. When I recognize Swedish words being mixed in, I couldn't help but find it both funny and immersion breaking at some point. It doesn't help when the calm tone clashes with the dramatic scenes, as well.

During the launch week, there have been bugs that ended up breaking a few quests and puzzles (not the main quest, fortunately). The devs have been quick to take in the reports to work in the fixes, though I'm afraid that some are still unsolved or would require restart/fix-around.

All in all, it's still 99% functional and has been addicting to play through. Curious readers can play the demo to feel it out, while there's mod support and ongoing updates for veteran players to get the most out of the game. It's been worth the wait.