Roguelike deckbuilder Vivid Knight to release on Nintendo Switch Jan. 2022

Written by. Ryuki Ishii partially based on the original Japanese article

Japanese game developer Asobism has released the Nintendo Switch version of their roguelike deckbuilder Vivid Knight in Japan and Korea. The developer plans to release the game in Europe, North America, and Australia in January 2022.

Vivid Knight is a roguelike adventure game where you explore randomly generated dungeons, “aiming to defeat bosses lurking on the lower floors.” You play as a princess named Amelie who must descend into the underground labyrinth to save the people of her kingdom who have been transformed into jewels and kidnapped by the Black Witch.

A variety of monsters await in the labyrinthian dungeon that changes with every playthrough. You must explore the dungeon and collect jewels (= units) to form a party in order to defeat powerful foes. Up to six jewels can be allocated to your party and matching the “color” or “design” of the jewels will activate powerful symbol abilities during battles. “The more symbols you gather of the same type, the more powerful the effect.”

For example, forming a party with three blue jewels will activate the Freeze ability during battles (reduces physical damage dealt). “As long as the conditions are met, multiple effects can be activated at the same time.” Furthermore, jewels may be upgraded by collecting a certain number of duplicates. Upgraded jewels have perks such as being able to activate their symbol abilities even while outside of the party.

The battles are turn-based and each unit fights automatically. Amelie can support your party by manually using magical gems. If your party is wiped, it’s game over. Managing the symbol abilities and jewel upgrades are the keys to success.

Vivid Knight initially launched for PC (Steam) in May of this year. A number of post-launch updates have rolled out to add end game content and a game speed modifier, along with multiple balance adjustments. The game has received over a thousand user reviews on Steam with 92% of them being positive.

Vivid Knight is available on PC (via Steam). The Nintendo Switch version is currently available in Japan and Korea with the western release planned for January 2022. Asobism aims to release the game on iOS and Android as well.