Image credit: Cup Dog Games

If I've learned anything from years of dark fantasy, it's that there's no force in this universe more terrible than a puny-looking girl with a kitchen knife. Just ask Katana Man, or the Queen of Hearts. Or the lolloping wolfbeast I've recently disembowelled in Rubinite, a pretty slick and engrossingly evil boss rush action game from Gameworks Ventures and Cup Dog Games, which is on sale today.

In Rubinite, you play Ruby, outcast princess of a Scarlet Kingdom that has been conquered by a sorceress who really enjoys plucking out people's eyes. To defeat the sorceress, Ruby must first annihilate a menagerie of sentinels that range from an overclocked caterpillar to a swordswoman in the approximate vein of Elden Ring's Malenia.

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Ruby's knife inflicts minimal damage by itself, but usefully, she has the ability to identify and mark each enemy's weak points by holding a controller trigger and aiming with analog stick to fill a bar. She can do this up to three times, before performing a devastating attack. The catch is that she can't move while marking weak points, though she can dodge with exact timing during the process to immediately fill up the bar. If she takes damage, any marked weakpoints will be dispelled.

While not without precedent – see Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice's deathblows system – it's a refreshing break from the attritional exchanges you get in a lot of bossfights. There is no block button to cower behind, so you'll need to memorise the animation timing. It's also not as simplistic as it may sound: you'll level up and acquire talismans that stun opponents or convert chip damage into health potions, among other customisation options. Each boss also adds wrinkles, such as projectiles you can bounce back to sender.

I'm basing this on an hour or so with the demo, mind, so please freely upend your salt shaker over these foolishly confident assertions about the combat's evolution. One thing I can say for sure is that I like Rubinite's world. It serves up lip-smacking pixelgore and august architecture with alarming outbreaks of whimsy. It reminds me a fair bit of Blasphemous.

Between bossfights, you'll return to a shattered tower to level up and bandy words with a handful of NPCs. There's a lizard blacksmith for comic relief, and a lean warrior with an owl-faced helmet. Early on, Owl Face asks you to take soup to a hooded figure tied to a cross in the gaol. The hooded figure begs you to kill him. Are we actually the baddies, Owl Face? The hub area expands as you butcher bosses, with treasures to recover from side rooms.

Again, it's on sale now via Steam. If you need a little more dungeoneering with your boss battering, Death's Door is a fine substitute.