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Into the Restless Ruins

The roguelike, deck-based dungeon builder Into the Restless Ruins may not be a big budget spectacle, but strategy game fans will find it a solid addition to their game library.
Into the Restless Ruins Game Cover
85%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:gameplay, music
Most mentioned negative aspects:story, grinding
89% User Score Based on 110 reviews
Critic Score 78%Based on 5 reviews

Platforms

Xbox Series X|SPCXboxSteam DeckWindows
Into the Restless Ruins Game Cover

About Into the Restless Ruins

Into the Restless Ruins is a single player tactical role playing game with fantasy and mystery themes. It was developed by Ant Workshop Ltd and was released on March 20, 2025. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

A roguelike deckbuilder where you create the dungeon you fight through. Each night use your cards to expand the ruins then battle through them, harvesting Glimour from the lost souls and improving your deck. Can you reach The Warden and defeat it, so The Maiden will grant your heart’s desire?

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Looking for games like Into the Restless Ruins? Here are top tactical role playing recommendations with a fantasy and mystery focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with Pyrene, Emberward or Die in the Dungeon.

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Reviews

89%Audience ScoreBased on 110 reviews
gameplay8 positive mentions
story3 negative mentions

  • Innovative and unique gameplay combining deckbuilding, dungeon construction, and auto-battler styles, offering a fresh twist on the roguelike genre.
  • Highly addictive loop of building and navigating your own dungeon under time pressure, creating tense, strategic, and rewarding gameplay moments.
  • Rich thematic elements inspired by Scottish and Welsh folklore enhance the atmospheric world, supported by charming pixel art and a strong synthwave soundtrack.
  • Combat is generally considered simplistic, repetitive, and lacking depth or meaningful progression, which may reduce long-term engagement.
  • Deckbuilding can feel counterintuitive as adding more cards often dilutes the deck with less useful options, limiting strategic synergy and risk/reward balance.
  • Exploration becomes tedious in larger dungeons due to lack of minimap and complexity in navigation, leading to frustration when trying to escape before torch runs out.
  • gameplay

    31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    26% positive mentions, 64% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The gameplay of this roguelike deckbuilder is praised for its innovative dungeon-building mechanic, combining card placement, push-your-luck elements, and strategic risk-reward decisions that add depth and freshness to the genre. Players enjoy shaping their own labyrinths and managing resources like torchlight, although some find mechanics like the torch system annoying and note occasional technical issues. Overall, the gameplay loop is intuitive, engaging, and offers a satisfying blend of strategy and exploration.

    • “Released in 2025, the game distinguishes itself through its unique mechanic that allows players to shape the dungeon layout itself using a deck of cards, rather than simply battling through a pre-designed environment.”
    • “This brilliant roguelike deckbuilder stands out from the crowd with its innovative dungeon-building mechanic, which adds a highly satisfying layer of strategy to the play experience.”
    • “The gameplay revolves around nightly excursions into mysterious ruins, where players expand the dungeon by placing cards that represent rooms, corridors, and other elements.”
    • “But as is, the game is missing a critical aspect of its own gameplay, and is fairly incapable of presenting risks to weigh.”
    • “Some have noted occasional technical issues such as performance dips and crashes, which can disrupt the flow of gameplay.”
    • “The gameplay loop consists of placing rooms from your hand like a typical deckbuilder.”
  • music

    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    41% positive mentions, 45% neutral mentions, 14% negative mentions

    The music is widely praised for its cool synthwave and thematic Celtic/Welsh influences, with many describing the soundtrack as excellent, catchy, and immersive. However, some users note it can become repetitive, especially in longer play sessions. Overall, the soundtrack strongly complements the pixel art and enhances the game's atmosphere and enjoyment.

    • “The music is nice and thematic, plus it is nice to have a game themed off of Celtic and Welsh lore.”
    • “Great music, lovely pixel animations, and an incredibly enjoyable gameplay loop make each night on the way to the wardens nothing but fun!”
    • “From the pixel graphics to that killer synth soundtrack, you'll be bopping your head along as you power-walk down the winding corridors that you yourself have placed.”
    • “The music, although fine enough, is very repetitive.”
    • “The music gets repetitive.”
    • “In later levels, I heard the same song repeating forever due to longer playtime.”
  • graphics

    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    43% positive mentions, 57% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The graphics feature a simple, retro pixel art style that is minimal yet colorful and appealing. Users appreciate its neat and charming aesthetic, which complements the game's atmosphere and depth as it progresses. Overall, the visual style is well-loved for its nostalgic and straightforward design.

    • “From the pixel graphics to that killer synth soundtrack, you'll be bopping your head along as you power-walk down the winding corridors that you yourself have placed.”
    • “The retro graphics style is possibly a factor in that, but I personally like this style.”
    • “Easy to get into, love the art style, plenty of depth as the game progresses.”
  • story

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    25% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 75% negative mentions

    The story aspect receives mixed reviews, with many games rated as decent (C tier) for providing solid narrative motivation and context that enhances the roguelike experience. However, a significant number of titles fall into lower tiers (D and F), where the storytelling was less engaging or even strongly disliked, suggesting inconsistency in narrative quality across the genre. Overall, while some games use story effectively to enrich gameplay, others struggle to deliver compelling narratives.

    • “This storytelling framework provides motivation and context that elevates the roguelike experience beyond simple dungeon crawling.”
    • “Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale wasn’t sold on it.”
    • “Shapebreaker was strongly disliked for its story.”
    • “Griftlands has a strongly disliked story.”
  • atmosphere

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    75% positive mentions, 25% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The atmosphere is richly immersive, blending folklore-inspired themes, pixel art, and 8-bit music to create a mysterious, gloomy, and authentic Celtic adventure. This strong thematic world enhances the experience, making the journey through the ruins feel both challenging and rewarding.

    • “These elements enrich the atmosphere, making the journey through the ruins feel like a true folklore-inspired adventure.”
    • “Though not without its flaws, the game’s strong foundation, rich thematic world, and abundant content make it a rewarding title for players seeking a challenging and atmospheric roguelike adventure.”
    • “The atmosphere is mysterious and gloomy, as if you are unraveling an ancient Celtic curse step by step.”
  • grinding

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Grinding in the game becomes increasingly tedious and frustrating as progress is made, with dungeon exploration feeling repetitive and unenjoyable. The inability to upgrade characters or retain decks between stages contributes to this sense of repetitive grind.

    • “But it gets more and more frustrating and tedious as you progress.”
    • “I see the vision, and it's definitely an interesting one, but the execution is tedious and not very fun.”
    • “But since you can't ever upgrade your character and your deck doesn't remain between stages (you build a new deck throughout each stage), it can get tedious unfortunately quickly.”
  • replayability

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Replayability is a strong aspect of the game, driven by character leveling, unlocking new cards and abilities, and meaningful interactions during runs. The meta-progression system enhances this by rewarding players with relics and cards that influence future runs, creating varied and engaging experiences that sustain long-term player interest.

    • “There's lots of replayability here, with your character leveling up as you play through scenarios, unlock new cards and cantrips, and interact with characters during your run.”
    • “The meta-progression system adds further depth, rewarding players with new relics and cards that can shift how future runs play out, maintaining long-term engagement and replayability.”
    • “Into the restless ruins can eat up all your free time, because there's endless replayability with many game twists and turns.”
  • stability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game demonstrates strong stability, running smoothly without issues, including on portable devices like the Steam Deck. Users report consistent performance, making it suitable for extended play sessions on various platforms.

    • “Also runs great on a Steam Deck.”
    • “I've not got a lot of time on this yet, but I can see this featuring heavily on my Steam Deck (on which it runs great, too!)”
  • optimization

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The optimization is generally adequate but marred by occasional performance dips and crashes that can interrupt gameplay.

    • “Some have noted occasional technical issues such as performance dips and crashes, which can disrupt the flow of gameplay.”
  • humor

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor is appreciated for being fascinating and genuinely funny, complemented by its simple and straightforward graphical style.

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Play Times

2h Median play time
2h Average play time
2-2h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Into the Restless Ruins is a tactical role playing game with fantasy and mystery themes. Common tags for Into the Restless Ruins include indie, trading, roguelite, pixel graphics, deckbuilding and others.

Into the Restless Ruins is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, Steam Deck, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 2 hours playing Into the Restless Ruins.

Into the Restless Ruins was released on March 20, 2025.

Into the Restless Ruins was developed by Ant Workshop Ltd.

Into the Restless Ruins has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Into the Restless Ruins for its gameplay but disliked it for its story.

Into the Restless Ruins is a single player game.

Similar games include Pyrene, Emberward, Die in the Dungeon, SpellRogue, Roguebook and others.