Library of Ruina

Library of Ruina is an indie deck-building turn-based RPG officially released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One on August 10, 2021. It would later become available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. It was developed and published by South Korean studio Project Moon and is the direct sequel of their previous game Lobotomy Corporation. Project Moon's third installment, dungeon RPG Limbus Company, takes place sometime after the events of Library of Ruina and was released in February 2023.

Library of Ruina
Developer(s)	Project Moon
Platform(s)	PC, Xbox, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Release	August 10, 2021
Genre(s)	Deckbuilding, Turn-based combat, Visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

The side story light novel The Distortion Detective takes place during the events of Library of Ruina. Another light novel, Leviathan, was illustrated as a comic. It takes place between Library of Ruina's true ending and the start of Limbus Company.

Gameplay

Reception

The titular Library is split up into ten floors, each starting with a number of librarians upon unlocking. As the player progresses through the game's storyline, they will gain access to more floors. On the top left side of the main menu, players can open a side tab where they can send an invitation, burn books, read Key page stories, and replay cutscenes and past Abnormality battles.

Invitations are how guests are brought to the Library for battles known as receptions. In the story, anyone who receives one is destined to come. Before the start of each reception, players enter the preparation phase where they can change equipment and inspect opponents' stats, such as HP, Stagger Resist, resistance values, and equipment. A reception may span over multiple acts; players upon clearing an act will return to the preparation phase for the next act. Librarians' equipment cannot be changed in-between acts; they lose status effects that retain from the last act, but will keep their HP and Emotion level, and their Stagger Resist is recovered to full.

Library of Ruina's story is primarily shown in a visual novel format. Once a reception starts, the player will get a cutscene about the guests and their motivations for entering the Library. After the reception ends, they will get another one of Roland and Angela holding a discussion relating to the guests and other specific characters.

Key and Combat pages

After clearing a battle, the player will receive books of the defeated enemies. Burning these books randomly gives the player Key pages and Combat pages. Pages are color-coded based on rarity and quantity. Key pages will have a symbol relating to the group or individual it is from, while Combat pages usually have an image of one or more characters from where the burned book originated.

Key pages serve as the game's "armor" and can be assigned to the librarians. Equipping one will give them unique stats, damage resistances, and passives. Key pages can only be obtained in limited amounts.

Key Page
Rarity	Color	Maximum page amount
Paperback	Green	5
Hardcover	Blue	4
Limited	Purple	3
Objet d'art	Yellow	1

Combat pages are the game's "weapon" items, actively used to attack and defend in combat. Some combat pages are unique to a specific character and their Key pages. Unlike Key pages, Combat pages are only limited by the amount a librarian can bring into battle (3 per page, 1 per an Objet d'art page), and thus has no limited capacity outside of receptions. Pages will have at least one offense (attacking an enemy), block (defending to reduce or negate damage), or evasion (dodging an attack entirely) die. The yellow-colored Counter dice are a special type of dice; they are played against an unopposed Combat page and can replay upon winning a clash until the unopposed Combat page ends. While most Combat pages are melee, there are ranged Combat pages that take action before Melee pages, and Mass Attack pages that take first action regardless of Speed.

The three types of damage in Library of Ruina are slash, pierce, and blunt damage. They deal both physical and stagger damage, affecting characters' HP and Stagger Resist respectively. If a character's stagger reaches zero, they will be unable to move the next turn and receive fatal damage from all attacks regardless of resistance. Characters will have different resistances and weaknesses based on their Key pages. For game progression purposes, players' Key pages may not share the same strengths or vulnerabilities with the characters as enemies.

Amount of damage received

Ineffective	Endured	Normal	Weak	Fatal
x 0.25	x 0.5	x 1.0	x 1.5	x 2.0

Combat

A screen shot depicting gameplay for Library of Ruina during a reception.

In battle, every character has dice and dots of 'light' above them. Upon starting the Scene by clicking the symbol on the top middle of the screen, each dice will randomly roll a number or value. The amount determines a character's 'Speed', determining which character moves first. By hovering over an enemy's dice, the player will see an arrow pointing to one of their librarian's dice with the Combat page the enemy intends to use. Players can have a librarian with higher Speed redirect an attack meant for one of their other librarians.

The player needs to carefully manage available resources, namely 'Light' (a form of combat stamina) and Combat pages, which return into the deck to be randomly picked upon usage. If the librarian runs out of Light points or does not have a zero-cost page, they will be unable to act. The same situation occurs if the librarian has no Combat pages to initiate action, even at maximum Light. Light points and Combat pages are naturally restored by one unit per turn or by raising the Emotion level of that character, which will restore all Light points.

When engaging an unstaggered opponent, characters will enter a clash where their page actions interact with each other. Two dice will roll and the highest value will act, in the event both dice roll the same value actions will be canceled out. Winning with an attack or shield action will also deal stagger damage to the opponent. Failing a dodge will result in the character getting hit.

Emotion level is a mechanic that raises whenever a character wins or loses a clash, or when their dice rolls its maximum or minimum value. The group will gain an emotional level-up after their average emotion level reaches a certain point. When the emotion level rises, the player must choose one Abnormality page to apply to a librarian. Abnormality pages come in two colors, green and red. Green pages (Awakening) have purely beneficial effects but give small advantages. Red pages (Breakdown) are more powerful but also have negative drawbacks. The emotion level can rise up to five times per battle, with a total of six Abnormality pages to be picked.

Abnormality battles

Players can fight in abnormality battles, boosting the respective floor's realization level and overall power. Many of the abnormalities present in-game originate from Lobotomy Corporation. Every abnormality battle has a certain gimmick or mechanic the player must figure out to defeat them. There is no cost to enter battle, and they can be retried an unlimited amount of times.

After completing an abnormality battle, a new librarian will be unlocked for the floor. Including the Patron Librarian, five characters in total will be available per floor. Players can change a librarian's name, appearance, and combat dialog outside of battle. Completing abnormality battles also grant Abnormality pages used in battles.

Floor realizations

After the player has gone through all of the abnormality battles on a floor, they can choose to complete a floor realization. During a floor realization, the player will take part in a multi-segmented battle against Angela or Roland as they suffer from an emotional meltdown. In each phase, Angela or Roland will resonate with the floor's abnormalities, taking after their appearances and abilities. Completing the floor realization will grant exclusive E.G.O. pages, which are powerful combat pages that follow the theme of their respective abnormalities. While not mandatory, only through completing all 10 floor realizations can the player unlock the game's true ending.

Plot

Setting

Library of Ruina takes place in a dystopian world known as the City, which is made of twenty-six districts, each further separated into a Nest and the Backstreets. Nests are run by Wings, mega-corporations that harness powerful technologies known as Singularities. The backstreets are crime-riddled areas controlled by syndicates. Throughout the City, there are many offices run by Fixers, mercenaries regulated by the government. Fixers are defined by grades with the weakest being Grade 9 and the strongest Grade 1. In special cases, Fixers who are a cut above the rest gain the rank of a Color Fixer along with an epithet.

After the events of Lobotomy Corporation, Angela creates the Library out of the light produced by Lobotomy Corporation's Seed of Light. Before she opens the Library, Roland, a self-proclaimed "washed-up" Grade 9 Fixer, appears in it and is forcefully recruited by Angela to be her guide to the City. Angela wishes to find the "one true book" that contains the answers she desires and turns her human. She sends out Invitations and has Roland and her other librarians fight the guests. If the guests win, they are allowed to take a book; if they lose, they become a book themselves. Canonically, the Library never loses a battle.

Characters

Aside from Roland, all Patron Librarians are returning characters from Lobotomy Corporation. During the events of Lobotomy Corporation, Angela was an AI acting as the manager's assistant. The Patron Librarians were known as Sephirah and each one was in charge of one of Lobotomy Corporation's departments. The previous Sephirah and their floors are modeled after the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and the colors are based on the Queen Scale colors.

• Angela - The Library's Director. An advanced AI that seeks "the one perfect book", she desires to become human and wants revenge against Ayin, the founder and manager of Lobotomy Corporation.
• Roland - Patron Librarian for the Floor of General Works. Relaxed, casual, and adaptable to different situations. A previously washed-up Grade 9 Fixer demoted to the bottom, he is knowledgeable about the City and its many factions.
• Malkuth - Patron Librarian for the Floor of History. Cheerful with a confident feeling of leadership and control, she is faithful to her past actions.
• Yesod - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Technological Science. Strict, rational, and logical, he respects the effort of his work, past and present.
• Hod - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Literature. She is calm, cooperative, and prudent, and tries to understand Angela's goal.
• Netzach - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Art. He is lazy but reflective and empathetic to the Guests and Librarians. Does not like killing Guests.
• Tiphereth - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Natural Sciences. Blunt, direct, and easily bothered when teased.
• Gebura - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Language. Rigorous, wary, and hotheaded. She is direct with her speech and intentions.
• Chesed - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Social Sciences. A coffee enthusiast, he is relaxed, casual, and takes situations lightly.
• Binah - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Philosophy. Mysterious, calm, and collected, she supported Angela's decision to leave the facility and take revenge to other Sephirah's dismay.
• Hokma - Patron Librarian for the Floor of Religion. He is determined, unfazed, and loyal to Ayin.

Various other major characters make their presences throughout the story.

• Argalia - The Blue Reverberation. A "certified lunatic", he and his Syndicate, the Reverberation Ensemble, serve as the game's main antagonists, though they only become prominent in the later half of the story. Leading the Ensemble, Argalia aims to steal the Light from the Library to overthrow the City.

Story

Roland, a "washed-up" Grade 9 Fixer, finds himself inside the titular Library and is forcefully recruited as the library director Angela's servant and guide to her journey towards the one perfect book that turns her human.

The story chapters are broken up into the following scenes: Canard, Urban Myth, Urban Legend, Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, Star of the City, and Impuritas Civitatis. In Urban Legend, the storyline splits into two paths after the Zwei Association. Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, and Star of the City have four paths, divided based on factions and plot points. There is no required order; all paths must be completed to progress to the next rank.

Development

Music

Library of Ruina's soundtrack was created by two music studios, South Korean game sound studio Studio EIM and Japanese indie band Mili. Studio EIM composed music for the general guest battles including the floor, abnormality, and realization themes. The background music changes throughout a battle rising with the emotion level. Mili made a mini album, To Kill A Living Book, with seven out of the eight songs being tailored to specific characters. The eighth song in the album, Salt, Pepper, Birds, and the Thought Police is not a part of the official soundtrack. The first song, String Theocracy, is Library of Ruina's opening theme song.

Releases

Library of Ruina was originally available on PC through Steam and Xbox One. It had an early access.

On March 14, 2024, the Arc System Works Asian branch uploaded a Twitter post announcing the release of Library of Ruina to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch on April 25, 2024, which was later retweeted by the official Project Moon Twitter account.

Reception

Xbox Hub writer Richard Barker describes the game as having an interesting storyline but terrible in introducing and explaining battle mechanics.

Nintendo Life echoed similar sentiments in their review, which was met with substantial criticism from fans, causing a flood of negative comments on the review, Nintendo Life later stated that they would continue their playthrough.