Realm of Ink Early Access Review

Realm of Ink is a simple and lightweight roguelike that has you traversing a beautiful ink drawn world. Similar in style to Okami, Realm of Ink focuses on attractively drawn landscapes and characters as you make your way through room after room collecting countless upgrades. Multiple characters, paths and ways to play create a fulfilling experience every time you restart the loop.

You enter a room, fight, choose the next room and repeat until you lose at which point you get to hang around a bunch of rather fun characters. A neat and compelling story is mixed in, involving Red vs. the Book Keeper, but we’ll stay away from the story for those who want to play.

Much Like Hades

Comparison can be a good or bad thing, but for Realm of Ink the comparison is I would say fully devoted to being a Hades-esq game. The mechanics, gameplay and almost combat mirror Hades, but with a Chinese twist and beautiful ink-drawn artwork. If you loved Hades you can stop here, Realm of Ink is a must get.

If you didn’t like Hades, then I would argue to give Realm of Ink a look. It’s not exactly the same as Hades and offers a much more intuitive experience. You’re able to heal, build defensive builds, etc. from a very early point in the game making the new player experience really smooth.

Gameplay in Realm of Ink

The gameplay loop is as mentioned. Pickup perks, skills and currency and move room to room. Stop to shop, fight bosses, fail and return to square one. It’s a cozy experience that even lets you return to rooms so you can put the game down and come back, making bite sized gaming experiences all the better.

The combat is tight, controls work fantastically. I can’t really offer any complaints or noticeable bugs in our experience playing the game. You get an ink pet, an endless mode after you’re done with the 4-acts and 8 bosses and tons of weapons, pets, gem skills, perks just in the early access.

You can turn the difficulty up if that’s something you’re interested in.

Visuals and Sound

The visuals are crisp. The ink drawn world comes to life as you move through and take on the inky enemies as they spawn. The sound is really strong too with the voice acting and character design to be decent, especially at this early stage of the game.

Community Feedback

Players are quick to highlight the game’s beautiful ink-drawn world and fast-paced combat, comparing it to Hades but with its own distinct flair. The evolving pet companion, Momo, is a favorite feature, adding depth to each run alongside the variety of Ink Skills you pick up. There’s plenty to explore, and the smooth, addictive gameplay loop keeps players coming back for more, even in this early access phase.

That said, there are some bumps. A few players noted that as you progress, things can get a bit overwhelming with all the AOE attacks and visual chaos during tougher fights. Dodging becomes tricky, and progression can feel a bit grindy at times. But even with these challenges, the consensus is clear: Realm of Ink is off to a strong start, and people are excited to see where it goes next.

Conclusion

Realm of Ink isn’t finished yet but even without the version 1.0 polish, it’s a fantastic time and it’s only going to get better. At an entry price of $15, it’s well worth the cost when you consider the amount of content just in the early access release.

If you’re not super convinced yet, keep it on your wish list and keep track of the development. We’ll keep our eyes on updates and provide more opinions as the game continues to polish and make its way toward a release.

You can learn more and get yourself a copy over at Realm of Ink on Steam (steampowered.com)

We received a copy of the game from the developer.