My playtime: 01:34:08 (last save before the ending)

Intro
Ruin Frontier 0 gives an interesting take on RPG Maker games with its heavy customization of drones for combat. You'll play as Quantevallion, an AI that is capable of controlling other drones, to escape a colony with a human child.

Graphics
I was surprised that this was made in VX Ace since the sprites remind me of 2k games at first glance. The sprites are looking great and the portraits suit the sci-fi theme with the "now talking" text in it. The game always uses a breathtaking background whenever it allows to, whether it's in cutscenes or the world map.



On the other hand, mappings are decent. Most mappings are taking place in dungeons and it's hard to tell which tile is passable due to the drone flying over most objects.

Story
I found it hard to get the story at the beginning since the text automatically advances before I finished reading it; I had to replay the story twice before I understood the prologue. The game tells a lot about escaping the colony and the human child's condition at the beginning and everything shifts into a tear-jerking scene at the end. Dialogues flow very well and the portrait conveys the feeling perfectly. The execution makes me immersed in the story that I felt how the "child" actually feels.

The Game
Mechanics
Due to its unique mechanics and stat parameters, the game offers a tutorial at the start of the game. A manual is also provided in the menu if you need it. Battles are mostly the same as other RPG Maker games with the difference in customization - you can customize almost everything in your party. It kinda reminds me of Zoids games where you can equip any parts that you want to a robot and design the best robot that you want.

Chassis will define the drone type, whether it's a fast attacker, heavy attacker, or somewhere in between. A support drone that has a lower stat than the other three that can use items in the inventory is also available free of charge. You can use different types of drones in your party to customize your needs, although you need to buy the chassis in advance if you want to use the first three.

Different robot type will have different weapon and module slot, which can be customized as you wish. Weapons will give a stat boost and an attacking skill while modules will give a stat boost and a support skill. Balancing both weapon and module is needed as some weapons require MP to cast, which can be obtained per turn based on your PWR. Other stats such as INI (speed), ATK, DEF, and HP also need to be taken into account since enemies will be stronger as you cleared a dungeon.

Combat
Exploration can be done in any order that you want and the difficulty will be increased after you clear one. The game has a touch-based encounter with a lot of enemies on one screen although they won't respawn unless if you exit the dungeon. Reentering the dungeon several times until you have enough money to upgrade your drones becomes the routine at the beginning of the game since you'll die easily.

That being said, I obtained every upgrade that I needed by the time I finished the third dungeon, including the tutorial one. Money becomes useless since you can only spend it to buy items, which doesn't cost much to begin with. I ended up rushing the last two dungeons instead.

Although enemies will be difficult to beat at the beginning, it will be easier once you upgrade your gears. However, the difficulty seems to be raised again after you reach the final dungeon, especially since you need to use healing items after every battle. The sheer number of enemies also doesn't help that I ended up save-scumming to finish the dungeon.



Pros:
- Highly customizable drones
- Breathtaking background artworks

Cons:
- Too many enemies in one screen, especially on the final dungeon
- Dialogues are automatically advanced

Final Rating: 4/5
Despite the enemies' numbers, the game has great storytelling. All my hard work to finish the final dungeon seems to be paid off after seeing the last cutscene. I even restarted the game again to see the connection with the prologue.

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Typo:
- After defeating the second area: "Theyre...scared?" should be "They're... scared?"
(There are also a lot of words with spaces after ' character, such as we're and let's)