Ruffy and the Riverside Review

Anything But Copy & Paste

Written by Dallas

Posted on: June 25th, 2025

Developed by Zockrates Laboratories UG

Published by Phiphen Games

Released on June 26th 2025

(PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch)

Woooooohoooooo! A theme song so good, it’ll be stuck inside your head. You’re greeted with it as soon as you start up Ruffy and the Riverside, and it’s an indication of the joy you’re about to feel. While I have some grievances with Ruffy, it’s a fun and worthwhile experience for those that crave a platformer of yesteryear. Let’s get into it:

One day Ruffy, this will all be yours.

Everything the SWAP touches is your kingdom…

Careening off a cliff. Yupp, the game puts you in immediate danger. Cue the flashback! to 22 days prior, where are story *actually* begins. You’re Ruffy, a bear with the ability to SWAP, which allows you to swap the textures of the world! But it’s only when your home is put in danger that you have to use your ability to stop Groll, the villain of our story, who has returned to bring about only destruction. So you and Pip, your bee companion (yes! this adventure keeps the trope of the sidekick!) run off in an attempt to save the Riverside!

Along the way you’ll encounter friends in need. Some with quests to give, hints about the world, and others that will give you a good chuckle. The cast is small, but enough to tell the story at hand. Don’t expect any deep dives into any real lore here. You’re mainly told what'll get you from point A to point B, with some fun dialogue about your immediate quest. It’s easy to follow and gets the job done. Just don’t go in expecting more and I’m sure you’ll have a great time.

“Pip. Are you PAWsitive you can handle my weight?”

Now let’s get to the meat and POTATOES (this will comeback, just wait). Like I mentioned earlier, Ruffy has the ability to “Swap” which is essentially a copy/paste mechanic. For example you can grab lava and paste it onto a section that has water, effectively making that area now lava. Swap is the mechanic that Ruffy and the Riverside is built upon, I was a little underwhelmed by its use cases. You can select almost anything, but you’re limited in your options of where it gets pasted. Colors being swapped with other colors, shapes to other shapes, etc. No getting creative here.

Adding to the limitations, are cases when something “should” work (especially when it did earlier for a different puzzle) but won’t work for another section because it could effectively break the current puzzle at hand, is a little disappointing. And the only way you’ll come across these restrictions is by making said attempts.

You’ll want to try from the get go too, because Ruffy and the Riverside lacks a proper tutorial. You’ll be told some of the basics, but then are left on your own to figure the rest out. This ends up being fine once you get a handle on what the game wants of you, just wish it was a bit more guided in the beginning, as I could see this leading to some frustration. When it comes to puzzles in general, I do genuinely like the lack of direction, especially when talking about the optional content. That’s cause discovery is truly half the fun.

Now even though these limitations are there, it’s still fun to solve puzzles with the swap mechanic. There’s some really interesting physics based ones that are used to open new areas, when you come across the first it’s almost like a shrine from the newer Zelda titles, and you have to solve multiple of these physic puzzles in succession to unlock the area. So imagine my disappointment to find out this is only time it happens. You will solve other physic puzzles to open other areas, the difference being those are a one and done… walk in, solve it, walk back out. I felt let down each time based on what I experienced during their introduction. They were good! I wanted more!

Though don’t worry, there are optional collectibles to be found of course! Like the Etoi, adorable little fuzzballs hidden throughout the Riverside that are able to heal nature. ETOI PLUSHIE WHEN?! Ahem. Sorry about that. As I was saying… there’s also optional puzzles too, for instance the Potato Patterns (told you it’d comeback), which are plentiful! But others, like the 2D wall drawings, while very neat, only a few exist, so they’re never given the opportunity to be expanded upon.

It might sound like I’m only highlighting negative aspects towards Ruffy and the Riverside, but it’s only because I thoroughly had a blast with it. At the end of the day it’s an indie with a lot of heart. It is a small scale experience that you can wrap up fairly quickly, as I was personally able to 100% it just under the 20hr mark. Finding all the collectibles, rescuing the Etoi, solving the world’s puzzles, all of it pull a smile on my face. And at the $19.99 asking price, you really can’t go wrong.

Just look at it. See this map. This is one of the greatest maps of all time.

Ruffy has A LOT of flair and personality whe it comes to its art direction. Characters are these 2D cutouts, with a hand drawn / colored in aesthetic. While the 3D world you’re in takes on the style of the Nintendo 64 era of platformers, blending to create a vibrant and cartoony world. Absolutely adore it. Even the map is impressive, it reminds me of a poster with the vibe of a Saturday Morning Cartoon, with small little moving details for added spice.

There’s no advanced settings, so I was pleasantly surprised with how well it ran on both my PC and Steam Deck. I’m glad to see a well optimized experience without having to fiddle with options. Though be warned there were no Cloud Saves at the time of review, so my review consists of mainly only playing on the Desktop.

Unfortunately I did run into quite a few number of bugs in my playthrough. Most were visual, some NPC related, and another of me falling through the map (though I could not replicate this again!) and while none of them were game breaking I think it’s still good to note. The early release version I was playing was getting updated quite frequently, so these have a high chance of already being patched out when you boot up for the first time, or soon after launch.

Cute characters, a unique art style, interesting mechanics I haven’t seen elsewhere, and just utterly charming. Unfortunately it’s all over so quick, with no chance to really explore everything it put on display. If Ruffy and the Riverside taught me anything it’s that we need more collect-a-thon’s, and I’d welcome a sequel with an expanded runtime to fully delve deeper into what was presented here. Because I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ruffy and the Riverside, I just wish there was more of it!