CRYMELIGHT: A roguelike about sin, cards and the Queen
"You are all sinners." That is the blunt opening line of CRYMELIGHT, a roguelike action game that drops players into Wonderland, a prison for the souls of the dead. You play a girl who has lost her memories and is christened Alice by her guide, the White Rabbit. The rules are cruel and simple: only those who can defeat the Queen are granted freedom.
The setup leans into fairy tale imagery made unsettling. Alice teams up with other girls, including a mysterious companion named Mary, and learns that when she touches the sins of her comrades she can glimpse their painful pasts. The story promises questions about the Queen's motives and whether victory brings salvation or further retribution. "I'll make these sins mean something" is the story's emotional center.
Gameplay that mixes action, cards and repentance
CRYMELIGHT combines fast-paced combat with roguelike progression and a card-based skill system. The core loop pushes you to clear fights, collect skill cards, and adapt as the run evolves.
Roguelike action
Move across the Queen's domain and fight the royal army in melee-heavy encounters that demand both positioning and quick reactions.Wonder Dimension
When an enemy falls, an indigo Wonder Dimension spreads across the battlefield. As it expands your abilities grow and the action accelerates. How you build skills affects the expansion rate and what enhancements you gain, so your choices change the flow of combat.Poker System
Collect five skill cards to form poker-style hands. Better combinations create stronger effects, so deciding which cards to keep and which hands to aim for is a tactical layer on top of the action.Repentance System and Powering Up
Alice can confess the sins she absorbs from defeated souls. Tears of penitence become upgrade materials. Use them to strengthen weapons and accessories so even if a run ends, some progress carries over. The goal is to push deeper and survive longer on subsequent attempts.Mode Select
Players can switch between a close-up side view and a wider overhead camera, and toggle the information UI on or off. Whether you want immersion or full readouts of your data is up to you.Tea Parties
Between runs or encounters Alice can share tea and conversation with other girls. These scenes reveal regrets, backstory and sometimes surprising details about foes you have defeated.
Characters, voices and the creative team
CRYMELIGHT leans into characterization and atmosphere. The game features a fully voiced cast in Japanese and supports English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean for text.
Notable cast and lines from the promo include:
- Alice voiced by Sayaka Senbongi: "Wishes? I don't even remember anything about myself."
- Mary voiced by Hitomi Sekine: "I hope I can return home someday..."
- Cheshire voiced by Yukina Shuto: "I hope I get to see my friend again."
- Mad voiced by Nao Ojika: "Living is painful, isn't it? Death is salvation."
- March voiced by Yurina Amami: "I just want to keep having tea parties..."
- White Rabbit voiced by Yu Sasahara: "Please, by all means, kill her... Kill the Queen of Hearts!"
Story supervision is credited to Naoki Hisaya, music is by Sakuzyo, and character design is by YOGISYA. That creative lineup suggests a strong focus on mood, character moments and soundtrack-driven tension.
Add it to your wishlist
CRYMELIGHT asks players to wrestle with sin as a gameplay mechanic and as storytelling fuel. If you like roguelike action with a strategic card twist and a cast of haunted characters, this one is worth watching. The game is fully voiced in Japanese and offers multiple text languages. For now the safest move is to add CRYMELIGHT to your wishlist and keep an eye on release updates. Please give those sins meaning.
➡️ Check out CRYMELIGHT now on Steam
