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Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 24th, 2024. We’ve wrapped up another week, and that means we’ve got some new releases to check out and a list of new sales to dig into. But today we also have a little bit of news and a full-sized review from our pal Mikhail to round things out, so that’s nice. Plenty here to keep you entertained and bereft of spending money, to be sure. Let’s dive in and put this week to bed!
News
iam8bit, Geometric Interactive, and Annapurna Interactive Launch Physical Release of Cocoon with Vinyl Soundtrack
Cocoon, one of the best puzzle games in years, has finally gotten a physical release on Switch and PS5 for $29.99. A collector’s edition is also available on iam8bit for $74.99. All editions are here. If you’ve not gotten the game yet, read my review of it here. I’m going to try and get the vinyl and Switch physical release for sure. It is good to see Annapurna Interactive continue to do retail releases for its games, and I’m looking forward to buying one for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes in the near future hopefully. -Mikhail Madnani
Reviews & Mini-Views
Library of Ruina ($39.99)
“Can you believe Library of Ruina from 2021 is actually my game of the year for 2023?” is when I first heard of Library of Ruina from a friend who is yet to disappoint me with game recommendations. I bought it around that time, but didn’t play it much as I kept seeing people say you need to have played another game for it. Fast forward to today, Library of Ruina has been available for about a month on both PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, with two updates behind it.
It is a very very long game, and was in a rough state at launch. The two updates have fixed certain issues including the newest one which you can read about here, but Library of Ruina still needs some more updating before it can reach its full potential on Switch.
If you’re completely new to Library of Ruina and are wondering what makes it worth caring about, it is a superbly challenging blend of a card game and simulation experience with fantastic characters, music, and art. When I first played it, I must’ve spent about five hours just trying to understand all the mechanics because the game keeps throwing things at you. Spending time with it and replaying parts to understand things better helped, and I fell in love with Library of Ruina.
What I didn’t fall in love with was the Switch port’s UI and stability issues. The latter has been addressed to some degree with updates, but the text size is tiny and borderline unplayable in handheld mode. The lack of touchscreen support is even worse because I was hoping this would be the best portable version that I could play using touch.
I’m not going to bother trying to explain the Library of Ruina progression because I wanted to focus on the console version and how it compares to the Steam release that I also own. Library of Ruina is a very deep and complex game, but one that I never got annoyed by.
After replaying a lot of the game on Steam Deck, I learned that the Switch version was missing some scenes as well, and lacked the ability to use custom names in parts. I wasn’t sure if this was a Switch limitation or not, so I got a PS4 code to try out on PS5 from Arc System Works as well. The PS4 version on PS5 hasn’t crashed and it is a much smoother experience, but it will take a good amount of time to get used to the interface.
Without direct control over different elements through a cursor or touch, Library of Ruina has you using the shoulder buttons to switch between tabs. The interface works well once you get used to it, but I expected more for a port that arrived on PS4 and Switch a few years later.
If you’ve already played Library of Ruina on PC and are curious how the console version stacks up, the performance on Switch is nowhere as good as PC, but even the PC version doesn’t feel as optimized as it should be. The big differences are the new Japanese voiceover option which is incredible, full controller support, and the inclusion of the artbook and soundtrack within the game. You can access this from the main menu.
As a value proposition, Library of Ruina at $40 on console with the new voice option and the bonus content included is absolutely worth it on paper, but the port issues, especially on Switch are a big caveat.
I can usually look past many issues if I’m enjoying certain aspects of a game a lot, and I’ve been doing that while playing Library of Ruina, but it still needs to be fixed in some areas on Nintendo Switch for it to be
