Kirby and the Ruby Compass

Kirby and the Ruby Compass (also known as Kirby Tales: Rainbow Ruby in Japan) is an action-adventure roleplaying game in the Kirby franchise, developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo on the Nintendo Switch. It was later ported over to the Nintendo NX.
== Story ==
The game starts off somewhere in the galaxy, where a flying ship of space pirates slowly flies through the cold, empty void of space. Suddenly, the ship's crew is persued by a member of the Dark Matter tribe. One of the crew's leaders tries to fight off the Dark Matter by themselves, while the others disagree and instead want to flee. As the Dark Matter takes over the ship, the pirates try their best to fight them off, only to be captured and corrupted, except for one of its captains.
It then cuts to Kirby abruptly waking up, only to sigh in relief realizing it was just a dream. He then hears a knock on the door, which was Bandana Dee. The waddle dee claims that the Star Festival in Cappy Town is today, and the two head out. After passing through Green Greens, they eventually make it to Cappy Town, where they are two minutes before the main parade. A cappy comes over and says the king has made a float just for the Star Warriors, to which he prepares and boards the float as it begins.
Everything goes smoothly, with Kirby alongside other Star Warriors waving at the large crowds of people. Suddenly Meta Knight, who is also on the same float as Kirby, notices a strange black hole in the sky slowly replacing the sun and alerts the others on the float. More and more people take note of the hole and try to take cover as more of the town gets shadowed by it. Eventually, an eye with a red pupil appears, looks down, and starts showering down beams of darkness upon the town and consuming citizens.
The Star Warriors and a few others try to fight back, only to be claimed by the beams or knocked out. After a while of pitch black darkness, the screen cuts to Kirby being woken up by a Bronto Burt. They notice that the area has been destroyed from the debris and decide to explore for any other survivors. Eventually, they find a crater where a little girl lays unconscious with a red crystallized compass in her hand. After waking her up, she introduces herself as Paige and claims she doesn't have any other memories besides that. After looking at the compass, which has all pieces except for one broken, she remembers about the crystals her team was delivering to a powerful guardian and suggests they head to Whispy Woods Forest. With no other choice, Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee follow her.
== Gameplay ==
Kirby and the Ruby Compass takes inspiration from Paper Mario, especially with its battle system and arts-and-crafts visuals. Similar to level select screens from other games, the game's navigation system is built through a world map, and the player is allowed to move freely around the map to reach non-level areas. 
Occasionally, Kirby will have to recruit some allies along the way for some support on his journey. For both overworld and battle purposes, the player can only use three partners at a time. Main partners are ones that stay with Kirby during the rest of the main game after their encounter, whereas optional partners are recruited by the player and can disband from the party if told to or if their friendship level is low. 
=== Abilities ===
An element-like feature that determines various aspects of an enemy/ally both during and outside of battle such as its movesets and resistance towards certain hazards, though only Kirby is able to switch between abilities, which are referred to as "copy abilities." While units can only have one permanent ability, they can have an additional second ability temporarily from another teammate.
=== Friendship Meter ===
A Friendship Meter is a special meter between Kirby and/or between other party members that determines their compatibility in battle as well as how they would interact outside of battle.
== Battle System ==
Like many RPG titles, The Ruby Compass has a battle system of its own, and can be activated when Kirby moves into an enemy's hidden sight bubble and approaches them. Battles are usually set in a stage-like version of the player's current area, with an audience of various Kirby enemies watching, though they are only used for visual effects, unlike its inspiration.
=== Attack ===
After selecting an attack, the player must first choose their target before confirming if there are more than one opponent. Every attack earns a small amount Superstar Points (SP) by default, though some moves may require a certain amount of SP to be performing. When the attack is being performed, certain prompts may appear on the screen that will deal more damage and earn more SP if done correctly. These include:
*Timing: Before landing on an opponent, press A at the right time.
*Charge: Tilt and hold the left joystick until the star prompt flashes.
*Aim: When the cursor is at the right target, press A to lock.
*Mash: Repeatedly press or hold the correct buttons in a certain sequence.
*Slider: Press A at the right time to lock. The closer to the green spot deals more damage.
*Symbol: Draw the symbol with the joycon or left joystick accurately.
Attacks can also depend on the attacker's element. For example, a unit with the ice ability has attacks revolving around freezing and other blizzard-element moves. As with Kirby, he has two moves exclusive to him: Inhale, which inhales the selected enemy, copying their ability if they have one, and Drop is used to drop the current ability, even having a chance to summon a common enemy which said ability.
Special attacks have their own interface, and are highlighted with a gold nametag and sparkly particles when there is enough SP to perform them. When used, they use up a majority if not all of the SP. 
=== Avoid ===
This move is somewhat hidden and can be only used during an enemy's turn, at the right time they attack. However, in the first five battles of each stage, there would often be a button prompt telling the player to avoid by either guarding or dodging. 
Guarding is performed with the B button, and the guarder may still receive less damage than normally, even if it's performed correctly. After an attack is blocked, there's a chance that it'll reflect and hit an enemy. Dodging is performed by pressing the A button, which prevents damage entirely if done perfectly. However, it can also hit an ally and lower your Friendship with them.
=== Strategies ===
While similar to tactics from Paper Mario, this option is set as a miscellaneous for other options, as well as non-violent yet distracting methods of defeating the opponents. Default choices for this action include:
*Run - If performed well enough, the player's party will flee the battle. The opponent's stats will stay the same on Easy, but will reset on Hard. This option cannot be performed for Bosses or Mini-bosses.
*Skip - The currently selected ally skips a turn and gives it to the next ally or enemy in line. The party can only skip an ally's turn once during their overall turn.
*Hint - After selecting an enemy and aiming the cursor at the right time, it would read out it stats, current ability, ways to defeat it, and other information about the enemy.
*Combine - Special team attacks that require two or more allies to perform, as well as a friendship level over 3. Combine attacks would usually hybrid their two abilities or have a powerful Miracle ability if all allies decide to join in.
*Social - These are usually non-violent actions that the selected character can perform on both enemies and other allies. These actions can raise the Friendship level of two allies and lower positive stats from the enemy. Each character has their own SOCIAL acts.
For a list of unlockable or exclusive strategies, see Kirby and the Ruby Compass/Strategies.
== Characters ==
=== Playable ===
Kirby 	Ability	Description 	Main Attacks
 	Neutral	The pink-puff hero of this daring tale! While as simplistic and friendly as he looks, it is easily to be fooled by his unique ability to inhale enemies whole and gain their abilities, thus claiming him as a formidable fighter. He is also quite the eater!	
*Inhale
*Tackle
*Hover Pound
*Hypernova (special)
Bandana Dee	 	 	
 	Spear 	While this fellow may seem like an ordinary Waddle Dee with some extra cosmetics, but his spear is nearly as strong as Kirby's inhale, and with it, is on par with the pink puff's strength and determination. 	
*Spear Jab
*Skyward Thrust
*Moon Fling
*Waddle Barrage (special)
Adeleine 	 	 	
 	Artist 	A talented traveling artist who settled in to Planet Popstar to study the arts of... well, art. She carries a magic paintbrush and easel that can paint pictures that come to life, which Nero Eye uses to an advantage. 	
*Brush Slash
*Paint Thrust
*Easy Easel
*Rainbow (special)
Gooey 	 	 	
 	Neutral	A small blue blob with an incredibly long tongue that may seem docile, and he really is during free times. However, though his origins are unknown, they could be traced back to a far sinister race... 	
*Lick
*Protection Bag
*Dark Laser
*Mock Matter (special)
King Dedede	 	 	
 	Hammer 	Dreamland's penguin(?)-like ruler who hosts the Star Festival before the pink puff's adventure. Though less noble and more self-absorbed, he joins Kirby's quest after being corrupted by Nero Eye. 	
*Hammer Swing
*Hammer Throw
*Hammer Whirl
*Mega DDD (special)
Meta Knight	 	 	
 	Sword 	A mysterious swordsman who works as a servant of King Dedede and easily contrasts with the vibrant Popstar. After being transported, he refuses to be infected and tries to fight back, but is corrupted anyway. 	
*Slash
*Knight Beam
*Meta Dive
*Multithrust (special)
Rick 	 	 	
 	Animal 	A round and orange hamster who resides in Whispy Woods Forest and becomes playable in the Rainbow Royale DLC. In its story mode, he alongside his good friends Coo and Kine join a reality show for the prize of one million Gem Apples. 	
*Paw Slap
*Spicy Tongue
*Protective Bag
*Boulder Ball (special)
Coo 	 	 	
 	Wing 	A purple-feathered owl who is the eldest of Rick's team in the Rainbow Royale, as well as Kirby's Animal Friends. He is rather praised in Cappy Town and Whispy Forest for his wisdom and wide knowledge. 	
*Feather Attack
*Down Dive
*Featherang
*Para-Cyclone (special)
Kine 	 	 	
 	Water 	The third member of Rick's team in the royal Rainbow Royale. Out land, he is just simply a fish-out-of-water, but when put in spacious water, he can swim at agile speeds. 	
*Fish Flop
*Frosty Kine
*Forward Splash
*Tsunami (special)
=== Major NPCs ===
NPC 	Description
Paige 	
Channel PPP 	
Chef Kawasaki	
Escargoon 	
=== Enemies/Bosses ===
See Kirby and the Ruby Compass/Bestiary.
== Worlds ==
== Collectibles ==
== Trivia ==
Category:Kirby Games
Category:Fan Games
Category:Games
Category:Role-Playing Games
Category:Kirby (series)
Category:Spin-offs
Category:Kirby Spin-offs