I'm a big fan of games with a big amount of replay value, and I feel no genre accomplishes this better than that of roguelikes/roguelites. I also get a lot of enjoyment out of a good action RPG, and I love the timelessness of super stylized games. FuRyu's CRY series of action RPGs has always featured a heavily stylized bishoujo aesthetic, and with the latest entry being a roguelite on top of it, I figured it would be right up my alley, and now that I've given it a go, I'll be sharing my thoughts on it.
Story
In CRYMELIGHT, we find ourselves with no memories whatsoever in a secluded part of Limbo in the afterlife called Wonderland. We're informed that no one uses their original names in Wonderland and assigned the name Alice, then told that we'll be participating in a death game. We're also informed that the lack of memories is abnormal and that challengers in the game are meant to retain them.
After meeting the other challengers in the game, we're informed that the goal is to defeat the Queen of Hearts who rules over Wonderland, and that the first to do so will be the winner, and be granted freedom to leave Wonderland for anywhere, whether that be a better afterlife, back to life, or what have you.
While it is a competition to see who can defeat the Queen first, there doesn't appear to be any hostility between the challengers, who will often have tea parties when not actively participating in the death game. Over the course of the game, Alice will regain her memories and we'll get to know more about her, and more about the other challengers and their reasons for wanting freedom from the afterlife.
Visuals and Score
CRYMELIGHT has an incredible amount of style and is definitely one of the prettier games I've played. And it's a timeless kind of visual beauty thanks to just how stylized the game is, which applies to the world, the effects, and the character designs. I particularly appreciate that the character designs reflect not only which Alice in Wonderland the character is based on, but incorporate aspects of their characters as well. Speaking of Alice in Wonderland, it captures that kind of aesthetic perfectly, and the score complements the visual style wonderfully. The visuals and music are absolutely a highlight of the game.
Gameplay
This game is an action roguelite. You participate in runs of the killing game, fighting your way through waves of using your Wonder Cryme, a weapon manifested from a wish, in an attempt to make your way to the Queen of Hearts. Your basic attacks can be chained together in a combo, strong attacks are slower but can be charged for extra power, you can grab and throw your enemies or parts of the scenery, or use Crymeride to move more quickly around the stage. During a Crymeride your defense is lower, so you're more vulnerable to attacks, but you can also perform ride attacks that can deflect attacks with the right timing. As you attack, the stage will also will with a phenomenon called Wonder Dimension; this increases your Cryme Gauge, which provides certain advantages the more it fills.
You move through stages, and after fighting all the enemies in a stage, receive a reward. Between each stage you're brought to a map to choose the next stage, which will determine the reward you get, whether that be in-run currency, items for meta progression, opportunities to buy items from a shop using the in-run currency, or various other enhancements I'll talk about in a moment. The last stage of each map culminates in a boss fight, which will be a fair deal more difficult than the rest and test if you're ready to start the next map.
Over the course of a run, you can obtain Cryme Cards, which have unique effects that enhance Alice's abilities during that run, whether that be strengthening your stats, adding effects to Crymeride and grabs, and more. Every five cards you get completes a hand, and with the right cards, you can form a poker hand, which will level that hand up and strengthen the effect of the cards within it. After forming a hand, you start a new one, so if you want to try and get stronger through the use of poker hands, you need to consider which cards you take.
You can also obtain Derived Skills during runs, which perform an active effect and can be activated during a normal attack combo. At first you can only use a couple, but you can upgrade your weapon in order to use three or four.
While you lose Cryme Cards and most items upon dying in a run, any "sin" items you gain will be retained and spent between runs for the purposes of meta progression, allowing you to do things like increase Alice's base abilities or improve her equipment, so while you likely won't win the first time around, each time you try you'll start out a bit stronger in the future.
Conclusion
I went in without any expectations, good or bad, just a hunch that I may like the game based on some surface level genre observations. That hunch turned out to be more than correct; not long after starting out I found myself absolutely enthralled by the style, combat, and characters of CRYMELIGHT, not realizing just how much time was melting away until I looked up at the clock and realized I should have gone to bed several hours before. This was one of the most enjoyable times I've had with a game in quite a while. It might not be for everyone, and I know a good deal of people aren't fond of roguelikes, but if that's not a deterrent for you, do NOT skip this game.
VERDICT: Essential
Reviewed on PC
Review Copy was Provided
Available On: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
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