Ruffy And The Riverside Review – A Beary Good Time

Ruffy and the Riverside can take a moment to start getting good. A slow intro that appears to start in the middle of a story, rather than start with the character relaxing before everything goes wrong and they have to spring into action, like the classic Rare titles, the game feels so aptly pays homage to. Even then, you still need to commit to a slight wade through the world before the game sinks its hook into you. If you commit your time, though, it becomes a great example of what Indie titles bring to the party.

Ruffy is a little bear, though you would be forgiven for not realizing it, like I did, until a character explicitly says it later on. In some ways, he looks like a watercolor Ewok with the hood over her head, but I digress. He lives in the titular town of Riverside, where he uses his power of image swapping to create duplicate pictures with his mentor to make a slight profit, but seeing this power in action earlier, saving him and his adventuring companions from a fall to their death by swapping an entire waterfall with vines to clime, you can tell her is destined for something more. This comes to a head when, on one of his adventures, Ruffy accidentally sets free an ancient evil. This forms the crux of your journey, finding letters that Hold Power, and powering up a Hollywood-style sign overlooking his town, to return power to the world core.

If this story sounds a little familiar, it should. At its heart, Ruffy and the Riverside is a nostalgic romp that draws inspiration from experiences like Banjo-Kazooie or Jak and Daxter. Ruffy has a small but jam-packed world to explore where you platform around to solve puzzles to progress on your journey. As you progress, you will unlock new areas, some of which offer additional exploration, while others are smaller puzzle-based areas that don’t add much once you finish them. Either way, your exploration is rewarded at every turn with more and more to enjoy. Even from the first moments of getting to take in the world, there are puzzles and challenges galore to tackle.

The only shame of these puzzles is why they can be figured out as soon as you reach them; some will require you to wait just until you understand the rules of the power central to your journey. At first, I absolutely hated this texture-swapping skill because it was so unique that I just wasn’t getting it, but once you solve a puzzle or two where it is central, it grew on me and dragged me in. There is some unevenness to the rules of it, such as one puzzle requiring me to copy a TV screen, free up a frog to help me, or copy an arrow to open a door by reversing the direction it is moving, despite not realizing that’s how that works. The game only has tutorials to explain what Ruffy can do, not all the rules for it, which means discovery is rewarding every time, but occasionally, you walk past something unclear, and you can tackle it now. It also makes the occasional mandatory puzzle annoying as you wander around for the one missing piece, like turning the entire ocean into lava to help lower a platform.

The world itself is a joy to explore, making the inevitable running around in circles as you attempt to solve the mysteries set before you all the more enjoyable. Characters, including the lead, are presented in 2D watercolor art style in a 3D world that has a wacky and wonderful way of being engaged with. As you explore, the world is brought to life by a soundtrack by Zockrates Laboratories that makes the entire experience feel like a lost gem from the early 2000s. This is the kind of game that feels in every way like I have some emotional connection to it from my childhood, despite knowing better.

The only shame of the puzzles, and this might sound counterintuitive, is that there might be too many. That part where I had to convince the frog to look away from the TV? This was the start of multiple puzzles with varying difficulty. He tells me I need 5 messages in a bottle to progress. None are just lying around, but one requires the door puzzle I mentioned earlier, easy enough now that I understand it. Two of the messages needed me to solve wall puzzles, which are reminiscent of those in Super Mario Odyssey. These themselves require solving a puzzle to gain access. One just required entering, while the other was in and of itself a puzzle requiring the use of Ruffy’s power to traverse. Then another one required a pretty simple solution, but again, the texture swap power can be a little confusing about how to actually tackle a task. This leads to a straightforward puzzle, then another, which isn’t really a puzzle but isn’t solved through texture swapping, so it can easily confuse you, given you just solved 5 puzzles by doing that.

Again, these puzzles aren’t always hard, and the feeling of being able to solve something quickly because you pieced together because you understand the rules of the task cannot be understated. In fact, most puzzles have simple solutions hidden in a sea of possibilities, which is why they are great, but these can add up, constantly creating a feeling of stopping and starting. Some puzzles allow you to buy hints, but others, you just need to try everything until you get the confirmation that you can progress. You are bound to hit one, given the sheer number thrown at you, where it just doesn’t click in your brain, and you are suddenly running around in circles and driving yourself crazy.

The game begins feeling like it is all puzzles, but that is not the case. Eventually, other tasks diversify gameplay, though they can take a little while to reach, hence why one might call the intro slow. That one part of the above puzzle I enjoyed, a fast-paced segment rolling across the water and dodging twisters. Another portion sees the camera turn to a side perspective as you jump and avoid traps and enemies, feeling like Crash Bandicoot. In addition to his swapping powers, Ruffy has a punch attack he can do to fight the enemies you encounter, though it feels like it lacks importance until you get to these moments. All of these gameplay transitions are presented seamlessly as well, with cool stage moments such as the action where I did this being brought and pulled to the platform next to it. There are minor locations you need to transition to a new area, but they are few and far between.

The checkpoint system can be, at times, annoying to contend with. While there is no punishment for death, even the coins that can be used to purchase items are not lost, and coins you gained respawn, allowing you to milk that for collection. However, many multi-step tasks only checkpoint you at the beginning of them, meaning if you lose, you will have to do it all over again. This is even more annoying when you realize the heart system in the game is only applicable to enemies that wander around. Most hazards will instantly wipe you out rather than let you lose a heart and continue where you were.

Verdict

Ruffy and the Riverside might have had too many puzzles, as it constantly barraged me with them, but it didn’t have bad puzzles. The world that was offered was one that I loved exploring and getting lost in. Even when I was running around in a circle, the likelihood of my stumbling onto something that would distract and delight was very high. The palette swapping that I didn’t understand at all quickly grew on me, with the game making organic learning the abilities worth the effort. A trip to Riverside should be in your future, as Ruffy and the Riverside is a puzzle worth solving.

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