Library of Ruina

Library of Ruina is a deck-building role-playing game from indie developer Project Moon, who also published it. Released on August 10, 2021, for Windows, it follows the 2018 game Lobotomy Corporation. An Xbox version (for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One) launched later on November 4, 2022. On PC, reviews were generally favorable, while console reception was more mixed to negative.

The game’s story unfolds in a visual novel style, with cutscenes at the start and end of each battle—called a "reception"—mostly through dialogue between the two main library residents, Angela and Roland. The library itself has ten floors, each unlocked over time, where players fight guests. Before a reception, players prepare by adjusting equipment and checking enemy stats like HP, Stagger Resist (SR), resistances, and gear. Receptions can span multiple acts; after clearing an act, players return to preparation for the next. Librarians keep their HP and Emotion level between acts, but lose status effects and have their Stagger Resist fully restored.

Combat relies on Combat pages, which are used to attack or defend through preset actions. The number of pages a librarian can use per scene equals their Speed Dice count. Attacks deal both physical and stagger damage, affecting HP and SR. If SR hits zero, the character is stunned and takes extra damage until SR resets next turn. A character dies if their HP reaches zero. At the start of a scene, Speed dice randomly roll a value to determine action order. Librarians can redirect enemy attacks toward themselves if they have higher Speed. Most characters start with one or two Speed dice, except bosses.

When a librarian redirects or opposes an attack, a clash occurs: both sides’ dice roll, and the higher value wins; equal rolls cancel each other out. Otherwise, the attack becomes one-sided and unopposed. Resources like Light (combat stamina) and Combat pages must be managed carefully. Pages return to the deck after use and are drawn randomly. If a librarian lacks enough Light or pages, they cannot act. Light and pages restore by one per turn, or fully when a character’s Emotion level rises.

Emotion level increases when a character wins or loses a clash, or rolls a die’s maximum or minimum value. When the group’s average Emotion level hits a threshold, everyone levels up, and the player picks one Abnormality page for a librarian.