Ring of Red has received a mixture of praises and criticisms. Game Rankings lists it at 77%. Metacritic lists it at 82/100. Gamespot gave Ring of Red 7.9/10, saying it "is easily the best strategy game out on the PS2 at this time." IGN criticised the dialogue and the overall translation, but praised the game as "a very satisfying strategy experience." Gamestyle rated Ring of Red 8/10, criticising the translation but said the game was "essential for anyone who has a love for strategy war games...even with its minor underlying faults." Game Revolution gave the game a B-, criticising the pace of the gameplay and the graphics, while praising its simplicity and depth. Eurogamer rated the game 7/10, criticising the soundtrack, lack of voice acting and translation, but praised the graphics and gameplay, saying "People who enjoy involving battle strategy romps...will definitely find Ring of Red captivating." GamePro called it "repetitive and sometimes even boring...yet it manages to be hypnotically fun.", rating it 3.5/5. GameCritics.com gave the game a 7.5 out of 10, praising the 3-D graphics seen either in combat or in the field. Anime News Network stated in a review that Ring of Red would make an interesting anime series by using "political and social interplay straight out of Mamoru Oshii's Kerberos films, even if anime directors normally use alternate history to show Japan as a blameless victim."
However, the game was criticized for having lots of errors in its localization, such as misspelling, factual errors and incoherent dialogue. The problem of not saving in the middle of the game is also criticized, as it give players a hard time when fighting in scenarios for long hours. Ring of Red was also faulted for not having any voice acting.
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