Skylanders: Ring of Heroes was a mobile role-playing game in the Skylanders franchise. It was developed by Com2Us of Summoners War fame, and like its predecessor, it was a turn-based RPG using a team of various Skylanders facing against other known enemies from the series.
The revamp of Ring of Heroes was released on December 3rd, 2020[4], changing various mechanics, dialogue and forcing all players to start over. Over a year later on December 29th, 2021, Com2Us announced that Ring of Heroes would cease services on February 28th, 2022, KST.[5]
Story[]
Skylanders Ring of Heroes features a story where players assume the role of a Portal Master. Having actually landed in Skylands for the first time ever, they will need to go after Kaos who has disrupted time and space using the Book of Dark Magic. Players are able to customize their Portal Master, embark on various PVE and PVP adventures throughout Skylands, and collect and raise Skylanders to battle against countless villains. Players will also be able to Evolve and Awaken Skylanders to increase their stats, and gain new skills. All Skylanders are separated into 10 different elements. The semi-turn-based battle system allows players to plan their combat strategically through elemental synergies, elemental weaknesses and strengths, and unique Skylanders’ skills. In addition, players are able to trap Companion Villains and bring them along to fight side by side with the Skylanders against Kaos and the Doom Raiders.
Gameplay[]
Reassemble the Squad. Master your Skills. Awaken your Champion.
The ALL-NEW Skylanders mobile turn based RPG is finally here. Join Spyro, Stealth Elf, and many more of your favorite Skylanders in this epic adventure of Skylanders: Ring of Heroes.
The mobile role-playing game (RPG) developed by Com2uS is based on the Skylanders™ franchise from Activision. The game features an epic tale with over 80 different characters. Players will be able to use these characters of different elements and make use of their skill combinations to engage in exciting strategic battles.
Build the ultimate Skylanders team[]
- Collect 80+ in-game Skylanders from 10 different elements.
- Level up, evolve, and awaken your Skylanders to make them stronger than ever before.
- Equip your Skylanders with up to 10 magical Rune abilities.
- Summon Skylanders and Villains alike to battle by your side.
Become the #1 champion[]
- Mix and match Skylanders with unique skills and abilities to create the ultimate team.
- Time your attacks and use mana wisely to overcome your enemies.
- Use elements to your advantage and knock down your enemies defenses.
- Intuitive game play for on-the-go: just tap on skills and your Skylanders are ready to fight.
- Test your strength against Portal Masters from all over the world in the PvP Arena.
Watch the Skylands come to life[]
- Experience the rich and colorful world of Skylanders.
- Reimagine Skylands and give it your personal touch.
Versions[]
On February 20th 2020, it was announced that the game will be rebooted.[6] On July 7th 2020, the Com2Us company announced that this revamp will include the removal of Soul Stones, add new content updates and an update to the runes.[7] The reboot was later released on December 3rd.
Plot[]
After many skirmishes between villains and Skylanders, Skylands appeared to have entered a rare time of peace. However, it didn't last when Kaos discovered the vault holding the Book of Dark Magic and attempted to use its power to gain control over every Portal at once. Instead, his spell backfired, and instead blocked off the Portals and once again spread unstable Rifts, with new realms shattered and brought over - including parts of Earth, dragging the Earth Portal Master into Skylands.
Their rift dropped them in the middle of a friendly skirmish between Awakened Skylanders in the arena, right after Kaos attempted to strike and destroyed the area. Aroused by Awakened Whirlwind, the Portal Master directed the Skylanders to fight back, causing Kaos to run away with Glumshanks not far behind; and without noticing, Kaos lost the Book of Dark Magic in his escape.
With the immediate threat resolved, the Portal Master was guided to Sky Island, where Master Eon introduced them in person to Hugo, Cali and Flynn, who agreed to help them find the Book before it caused more destruction, and discover a way to return the human home. With the unstable Portals lingering about, they couldn't go directly to Kaos's lair, and had to instead venture through each of the Shattered Islands to take short trips between them safely, fighting off villains with summoned Skylanders.
In the Singing Forest, they discovered Chompy Mage scheming something, but the wizard refused to explain why he was working for Kaos despite the conflict between him and the Doom Raiders, and escaped. Suspicious, the group proceeded to the Misty Bog, briefly losing track of Hot Dog, and fought The Gulper, but were unable to get anything out of the clueless Doom Raider and continued to Infernal Volcano.
There, once Chef Pepper Jack and his spicy concoctions were defeated, he informed them that the Doom Raiders would harness dark power in trade for Eruptor taste testing his food, giving away to the heroes that they found Kaos' lost Book of Dark Magic and intended to use it to alter reality as they saw fit. With Master Eon's guidance of their next target, Dreamcatcher, the group proceeded to the Highland of Mirrors and fought off her attempts to break their will, but were too late since Dreamcatcher had already passed the Book of Dark Magic to her leader in The Golden Desert.
Taking the portal to the Desert themselves, Cali was initially taken aback by the memory of being turned into gold in the same place by the Golden Queen, but they continued on regardless knowing that they would have an advantage getting to her before Kaos. Despite the Golden Queen's malicious taunts, they defeated her, only to discover that she passed the Book once again on to Dr. Krankcase so he would amplify its powers. With more haste as his experiments could cause more trouble than controlled destruction, the group went off to the Abandoned Factory. Meanwhile, Kaos and Glumshanks left their lair to rendezvous with someone in the Rainbow Valley, still believing the Doom Raiders to be guarding the portals between the islands and that the Book's location was still unknown.
Though the group reached Dr. Krankcase while his experiments were still unsucessful, he used their battle to set off Hat Bots with the book to a safer lab, but unable to pursue him because of his green goo attacks, they had to cut their losses and go to the portal to Rainbow Valley. There, unknown to the heroes, Kaos recruited Pain-Yatta on behalf of the Doom Raiders with the promise of more candy and becoming a high ranking member. Eager to get his rewards but enraged by Blackout and Spotlight's attempts at pity, he absorbed leftover dark magic from the power to fight, but when defeated, he realized that he was tricked into stopping them and turned himself in. Relieved that one of their enemies changed sides, they took his advice to search for Wolfgang in the Bone Grave Village.
Before getting there, however, the Portal Master was approached by Enigma, a sorcerous Skylander who wasn't as willing as the others to fight along them. After watching them fight with certain requirements, he was slightly more amicable, and guided them on various missions, though hesitant to join in and instead keeping an eye on trouble happening on other parts of the Shattered Islands. With the Skylanders and their allies enroaching on Wolfgang, the werewolf revealed that he knew of their arrival for some time, fighting them off with his new song of pain. But the book was lost yet again in the scuffle, with Nightshade taking it and taunting the heroes before taking his leave. Following him into the Mansion of Gloom, even Stealth Elf and Jet-Vac were angered by his attitude, yet they continued further into the dangerous building.
When they found the thief, Nightshade presented to them the Book of Dark Magic, defying the Doom Raiders to forever display it in his mansion as proof of his skill. However he was perfectly willing to fight the Skylanders for the artifact. However, the thief wasn't as honest as their previous battle, and revealed the Book on display was a fake and the real one had been sent to Luminous as the last line of defense. Though the Dark Doom Raider was defeated, Master Eon was quick to make the heroes aware that his Light counterpart was irrational and angry because of his pursuit to eradicate darkness, and they entered the final portal - to the Shrine of Light.
In the depths of the shrine, they confronted Luminous, who could only rant about how the darkness was to blame for his previous defeat; a far cry from Trap Team. He planned to use the Book of Dark Magic to extinguish it from the world, and later he would destroy the artifact as well. Defeating him regardless of his powerful assault, Luminous cursed the book once again and tried to take out his frustration with it, only for Kaos to swoop in and snatch the Book at last
With a taunt, Kaos readied a spell to destroy the heroes, but the Earth Portal Master took a stand to protect Hugo, Cali and Flynn. Kaos stopped to mock the other sorcerer's attempts to fight back, but this gave the player enough time to summon Stealth Elf, Spyro and Barbella at point blank. Spyro promptly snagged the Book of Dark Magic from Kaos and Barbella threw the evil Portal Master and Glumshanks off the island. With Skylands at last safe from both Kaos and the Doom Raiders, Master Eon used the book to restore the rifts and send the Earth Portal Master back home, but not before saying goodbye to their emotional companions who helped them along the way. With the Portal network restored, the Earth Portal Master had the chance to return to Skylands at their own free will. After all, the Shattered Islands were still around, and Kaos was still at large, most likely plotting.
See also[]
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- The characters' Awakened forms is similar to the SuperChargers versions of older Skylanders, where they gain a new outfit.
- However, some characters have awakened forms of their SuperCharger counterparts instead or both appearances, despite Supercharging being a temporary form change.
- The game's plot mixes elements from both the game canon and the Skylanders Academy canon.
- In the game's beta, the story mixed up and contradicted elements of both, but some plot holes were fixed in the final release. In the 2.0.0 update, many elements were also changed from the original story mode, making the story extremely inconsistent in itself.
- The 2.0.0 also added reworded versions of Skylander backstories with many inconsistencies and outright wrong information, such as inverting the entirety of Air Strike's backstory.
- Various events in the game imply that it took place before Imaginators, most likely because both games were in development at similar times, and Hugo suggests that the usage of Runes might allow Mind Magic to seep back into Skylands. However, Senseis are part of the cast, though unlike other Skylander teams they were never sent to Earth by a cataclysm.
- This is the first game to show art of the human Earth Portal Masters, giving the players a "canon" appearance as late teenagers to young adults. The Portal of Power was also given a redesign, being turned into a pocket watch-like amulet rather than the slightly big and heavy accessory it is in real life.
- Several character relationship bonuses in the original version were references to previous stories in the series.
- You Make Me Smile is a reference to a short story in Book of Elements: Life and Undead, where Trigger Happy made Hex laugh for the first time since her zombification, when he tricked Slam Bam into getting shot into a pile of snowballs.
- We Believe in You! and its description are a reference to the events of Cynder Confronts the Weather Wizard.
- Queen and Knight is a reference to Chef Pepper Jack's relationship with the Golden Queen in Skylanders Academy, where he is shown to be protective of her in their first appearance.
- Together, We Fly is a reference to Spyro and Cynder's relationship in The Legend of Spyro game series, as they are the only Skylanders who aren't original to the Skylanders games.
- Day and Night is a reference to Light in the Dark, where Knight Light and Knight Mare helped save Blackout and Spotlight despite their mischievous arguing.
- In the game's reboot, the new Relationships added new references:
- There's Someone Who Doesn't Belong here references Dino-Rang's pet peeve of being called a dragon.
- Combined Night and Darkness continues the references to Light in the Dark, as Spotlight and Blackout had to combine their powers multiple times to overwhelm Pain-Yatta with magic.
- Malefor, who previously appeared in the IDW comics, the Academy spin-off TV series, and as a Skystone in Skylanders: SuperChargers, was meant to make his full game debut in Ring of Heroes, but his dungeon wasn't released before the game's closure.
- Other villains who were planned to be in the game are Evil Glumshanks, Super Kaos, Kaos in his Emperor costume, Bobbin Rood, Olaf Crushersson and Runys Pointyboots.
- This game's boss battle theme comes from the Alpha version of Glacier Gully's level theme with new instruments.
- This is the only game other than Skylanders: Trap Team 3DS to acknowledge the events of the Mask of Power book series and its characters, except for a brief mention of the Eternal Archives in SuperChargers.
- By extension, this is also the first game to bring up Portal Masters other than Eon, his predecessor Nattybumpo and the player, with a cameo from Portal Master Wizbit.
- In the game's beta, the Portal Master Talents were known as Portal Master Powers (like their Superchargers counterpart) and were removed for the final release until the Hall of Chaos update, then retooled into the various Portal Master team leaders in the reboot update.
- Flameslinger and Deep Dive Gill Grunt were seen in banners for the original version of the game but were absent ingame. However, Flameslinger would later appear in the revamped version.
- Although they appeared in the original version, Light Jet-Vac and Shadow Spitfire are absent in the revamp version of Ring of Heroes.
- Chopscotch and Mysticat were temporarily absent in the game's reboot until a few weeks later.
- Light Hex and Shadow King Pen were temporarily absent in the game until a few months later.
- Awakened Form versions of Trap Shadow, Double Trouble, Dune Bug, Fright Rider, Wind-Up, Bat Spin, Bushwhack, Night Shift, Stump Smash, Rubble Rouser and Shroomboom were planned for Ring of Heroes, but were scrapped due to the game's closure.[8][9]
- Double Trouble, however, made a cameo on a banner in the Events section of Ring of Heroes.
- Bat Spin can be seen in the advertisement screenshots of the revamped version of the game.
- Renders of normal and Awakened versions of Bat Spin, Lob-Star, Fright Rider, Magna Charge, Fire Kraken, Boom Jet, Fist Bump and Rip Tide were also leaked.
- A datamine in the 1.0 version of Ring of Heroes indicates that Fryno, Ghost Roaster and Torch were also going to appear in the game. [10]
- Com2Us planned to create original Skylanders exclusive to Ring of Heroes before the game's closure.[11] This includes a Dark elemental mantis Skylander named Machetis, an Undead bat-like Skylander named BatGatling, an unnamed Kangaroo-like Skylander and an unknown green Skylander.[12]
- Additionally, two skin texture maps of an unknown dwarf character, regular and awakened, were leaked. [13]
- Though support for Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish-language translations was dropped following the game's revamp, assets and references to those translations still exist in the game's files following it.[14] Whether these were leftover assets or evidence of plans to reinstate those translations in the future is uncertain.
- In addition, references to planned translations in Arabic, Indonesian, Malay, Polish, and Vietnamese as well as a China-specific server can also be found in the game's files.[14]
External Links[]
- Official website: https://event.withhive.com/ci/skylanders/pre_register/en
- Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Skylanders-Ring-of-Heroes-2131805163719317/
- Official Pre-Registration Page: https://event.withhive.com/ci/skylanders/pre_register
References[]
- ↑ A portal to Skylands will be opening up in Australia, Canada and New Zealand!. (Date Posted - Dec. 20, 2018). Facebook.
- ↑ The Release Date Is Here!. (Date Posted - Feb. 19, 2019). Facebook.
- ↑ 컴투스, 신작 ‘스카이랜더스’ 10일 아시아 출시. (Date Posted - Dec. 4, 2020). Stock Naver.
- ↑ [1]. (Date Posted - Dec 1, 2020). Twitter.
- ↑ as of “Feb. 27th, 2022, PST”, the game will no longer be in service.. (Date Posted - Dec. 29, 2021). Facebook.
- ↑ 1 Year Anniversary Letter to Portal Masters. (Date Posted - Sep. 4, 2019). Hive.
- ↑ Revamp Roadmap Notice. Hive.
- ↑ Skylanders Ring of heroes concept art by RD LYS. (Date Posted - Feb. 10, 2021). Artstation.
- ↑ skylanders ring of heroes by Luckymaster. (Date Posted - Feb. 14, 2021). Artstation.
- ↑ ROH datamine characters
- ↑ Highlight: Community Q&A Time!, 46:16. Twitch.
- ↑ Scrapped Ring Of Heroes content
- ↑ Skylanders Ring of Heroes/Planned Content. The Cutting Room Floor.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Skylanders Ring of Heroes/Planned Content. The Cutting Room Floor.
Games | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|