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Convergence: A League of Legends Story is the latest game published by Riot Forge, following Ruined King and The Mageseeker. This recent arm of Riot exists to expand the League of Legends universe by loaning out their Champions to indie developers. While these side games offer players a greater insight into familiar characters, they serve a secondary purpose. By expanding the property into different genres, they’re hoping to bring in a new audience.
I am that new audience. My knowledge of League of Legends amounts to knowing there’s a character named Jinx and that the game inspired a Netflix show. Prior to playing Convergence, I had no idea who Ekko was and had never heard of a place called Zaun. However, I do like Metroidvanias, and Convergence definitely has appeal in that regard.
Fortunately, this lack of prior knowledge did not hurt my experience. While the story starts up in the middle of the action, it doesn’t take long to get up to speed. The game does a great job of providing plenty of context for its various concepts and factions. For the few times it doesn’t, there’s a helpful glossary to explain everything further.
Convergence focuses on Ekko, a young inventor living in the murky underground city of Zaun. After witnessing the collapse of a huge central building, Ekko rushes to check on his friends. At home, he finds a mysterious stranger that turns out to be a future version of himself. This future Ekko is here to prevent a bad future, and the Ekko in the present can help stop the oncoming disaster.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Stopping this bad future involves a lot of 2D platforming mixed in with some brawler-style combat sequences. Fighting is a lot of fun, using a basic combo attack along with a few additional moves like a boomerang-style tool. It’s a decent challenge too, where you’re encouraged to use every bit of kit to gain the upper hand in hectic fights. Despite how busy these bouts can get, the combat always remains clear and easy to follow. It’s still challenging, but failure consistently feels like your own fault.
Speaking of those various abilities, these are gained throughout Convergence as you explore new areas. This is where the game feels most like a Metroidvania, as these abilities frequently open up new routes and secrets. There are two types of ability, and they’re divided into movement and time powers.
Ekko’s movement abilities include a grind, a wall-run, a double jump, and a dash. Every single ability is a joy to play around with, and the movement offers the same degree of responsiveness as combat. The developers knew it too, as there are a ton of parkour sections that show off how well these moves can be chained together. Some of these sections can be a little tricky, particularly in later parts of the game, but once you nail them, it feels extremely satisfying.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Added to these elements are Ekko’s time powers, during which he uses various gadgets to manipulate the flow of time. The most basic of these, which you’ll be using a lot, is the rewind function. Hold a button and time will reverse, allowing you to correct any mistakes you made. It is limited use ability and will need to be recharged, but it does help a lot in some of the game’s trickier portions.
Ekko also gains other ways to manipulate time. There’s a move that creates a pocket of slowed time for everyone except you. One is a blast of temporal energy that comes in handy when surrounded by enemies. You get a special move where Ekko can move back along his timeline so hard it implodes time around him and does huge amounts of damage to nearby enemies.
What’s impressive is how useful Ekko’s kit is across the board. Every power in Convergence becomes essential from the moment it is unlocked, to the point where I don’t know how I functioned without each one before. However, one complaint I have about the game is how little I got to play around with these powers.
Screenshot by Siliconera
Convergence doesn’t really seem to know if it wants to be a Metroidvania or not. It has several hallmarks of the genre, but the world isn’t as interconnected as it could be. Instead, there is a single hub area around Ekko’s hideout in the Entresol district of Zaun. Each part of the story happens in a “dungeon” area that branches off it.
Every one of these areas usually unlocks a new ability, but most secrets are then found in that area with that ability. While some hidden objects in the Entresol hub make use of your new abilities, it would have been nice to have more of that appear in the wider world. One of the joys of unlocking a new ability in a Metroidvania is revisiting previous areas and seeing what secrets you can discover. That feeling is largely absent here, as it’s possible to clear out each of these areas on your first visit and then never return. A linear game would have been fine, but the hub area hints so heavily at how it could have been so much more.
This is especially noticeable with how short Convergence is. I managed to beat the game in about nine hours, and that was with my attempts to uncover secrets every time I got a new ability. The game moves at such a rapid pace that I found myself reaching the endgame and feeling like there could have been more to it. It made the whole experience feel a little rushed. Adding in more backtracking and exploration would have made the experience feel more complete.
Screenshot by Siliconera
That said, it was hard not to love Convergence. Visually, it is a treat, with bold, brash character designs and the exact kind of cartoony sprite animation that I adore in games like these. Most areas also featured a ton of meticulous background details that made the world feel alive. Especially in Entresol, where characters would be hanging around market stalls and bars in almost every corner of the city.
I was also impressed at the story. While its main plot is relatively simple, there is a surprising amount of character growth happening within it. One story section sees Ekko attempting and failing to use his rewind ability to correct an awkward social situation. It was a bold choice narratively for a game so reliant on time powers. What’s more, the effect this sequence has on Ekko persists through the story. It’s an experience that deeply affects Ekko and causes him to re-evaluate himself. It leads to increasing tension in his interactions with his future self, who has not experienced this growth, and I loved how it was all handled.
All of this made me really connect with Ekko as a character. I found him likeable and charming, and I loved following his personal journey. Obviously, I cannot say how accurate this is to Ekko the Champion of League of Legends, but I personally found it a great way to discover the character.
Despite its occasional flaws, I liked Convergence a lot. It may not be the game that gets me into League of Legends, but it did provide a great introduction to the world and its cast. It’s a solid platformer, combining satisfying movement and combat with a surprisingly heartfelt story.
Convergence: A League of Legends Story is out now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
