The Legend Of Rufa

Evil witches are a quintessential part of fantasy stories, because they can be the perfect villains to keep the story balanced between good and evil. Hence, they rarely have anything in mind but total destruction and as much death as possible, which makes them easy to hate. On top of that, it’s even easier to see them in a negative light when a band of brave heroes tries to stop her.

A girl and her golem friend on a dangerous mission

The Legend Of Rufa is a 2D platformer with RPG elements, in which you can play with two separate characters and use their combined powers to overcome a variety of obstacles. There’s a lot of action involved as well, since all sorts of enemies try to stop your progress along the way. Thankfully, the two unlikely friends are well-equipped to deal with most attackers.
The whole story revolves around a nasty witch who wants to destroy the world, and she uses cold to do so. Hence, your heroes must keep warm along the way, since the cold is constantly draining their health. You can pick up various power-ups to increase your health, on the other hand, but it’s still pretty stressful to know that you can die just because you don’t move quickly enough.

Annoying mechanics and awful controls

Most of your time is spent walking and avoiding traps, but combat often enters the equation. The girl has a bow and an axe that can be used to deter attackers, while the golem uses his powerful fists to annihilate any threat. Unfortunately, the bow is very difficult to aim and use properly, while the axe is almost useless at melee range, because you get damaged no matter what.
Speaking of which, the controls are awful as well, because there’s a lot of delay between input and the characters reacting on screen. This is not ideal in a game that technically encourages you to move quickly, and frustration is surely going to get to you after a while. In addition, the levels are very simple and repetitive, making it difficult to stay excited after the first few minutes.

A few nice ideas ruined by bad implementation

In the end, The Legend Of Rufa could have easily offered a lot more, but the developers lacked the skills or the dedication to make the game feel more polished. Hence, it’s highly unlikely that you can play it for more than a few minutes at a time.