Today, we’ll be taking a look Ravenlok‘s Legendary Edition, an updated version of this whimsical hack-and-slash adventure where players are taken into an Alice in Wonderland-style world.
Previously an Xbox and Epic Games Store exclusive, Ravenlok describes itself as an “action-packed fairy tale,” boasting a voxel-based 3D pixel art style, as well as serving as the grand finale for developer Cococucumber’s voxel trilogy.
Is this new release of the game worthy of being called legendary? Can Ravenlok fulfill its promises of exciting action and whimsy? Should we follow the white rabbit? Read our full review to know more!
Ravenlok: Legendary Edition
Developer: Cococucumber
Publisher: Cococucumber
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series XS, and Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: April 11, 2025
Players: 1
Price: $24.99
Ravenlok‘s art direction is possibly its strongest asset, as the game features a very unique look with its 3D voxel-based pixel art, also housing gorgeous environments that truly define its corrupted fairy tale mood.
Sadly, the game’s world is not fun to explore, since most of the player’s interactions are capped at either picking up quest items or fighting small groups of enemies every once in a while. Most levels are reasonably small and easy to navigate, which thankfully makes the gameplay loop a lot more tolerable, but it’s still not much, and even that goes away later on.
Ravenlok‘s environments and art are truly gorgeous, but unfortunately fail to carry a repetitive and boring experience. Every level has a few fetch quests for the player to complete, which barely require any brain power. It also doesn’t help that these quests are most of the time given by forgettable characters that don’t feel interesting to talk to.
Weirdly enough, Ravenlok attempts to loosely emulate a Souls game with its stamina-based combat system, making it so the player has to constantly watch their energy in order to attack and dodge, although this combat system is entirely lacking in intricacies.
Combat mostly boils down to one combo, as well as a block move that rarely comes into play. The player’s combat prowess is almost entirely dictated by a linear level-up system, as there’s not much finesse to its encounters.
Players can also throw out a couple of skills, which are cooldown-based. These skills make up a good chunk of the player’s damage, meaning there isn’t much strategy to using them aside from waiting for their cooldown to be over.
Despite loosely following a souls-like combat system, Ravenlok defaults to an easy mode, which is probably the way that it should be played on. The game doesn’t necessarily get harder on higher difficulties, instead just making it so encounters last longer due to inflated health pools.
During boss fights is when Ravenlok slightly peaks, although most of the time that is based on the boss and arena designs, rather than the actual fight mechanics. It’s a running theme that Ravenlok‘s environments are the best part of the game, while everything else is average at best.
Leveling up or throwing bombs is usually the easiest way to deal with the game’s combat encounters, although players always have the option to wait for their ranged skill to come back if the boss is too annoying to engage. Literally any strategy works, though, since most of the time spamming your one combo on the boss while dodging attacks is more than enough.
Overall, Ravenlok fails to provide players with enough novelty, and the few improvements added by this Legendary Edition do not justify how badly it cripples its own pacing with its new levels, which feel like filler more than anything.
It pains me to say this about a game with such nice art direction, but Ravenlok is simply less than average at almost everything it does. There is no impact to its movement or combat, its levels are not exciting to explore, and its characters and story are completely forgettable.
Maybe Ravenlok could have worked as a niche PlayStation 3 early-generation title when experimentation was high and the bar for games like this was somewhat low, but right now it feels outdated and unimpressive, especially with this tacked-on Legendary Edition.
