Dark story-driven roguelite RPG Annihilated launches to “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating. Save only one member of a broken adventurer party

Japanese indie development team Death Kumiai released their highly anticipated roguelite RPG Annihilated on November 10 via Steam. As of November 13, just three days after release, the game boasts an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on the platform, with 96% of over 600 reviewers rating it positive.

Annihilated had reached over 200,000 Wishlists just a day before its launch, and judging by the positive reactions of players, it seems that the hype was well worth it.

The game puts you in the shoes of the last survivor of a rescue party sent after the hero’s party who went missing. Venturing into a cursed dungeon where the party is supposedly stranded, you finally manage to find them, though all of them seem to be left in a “bizarre state,” likely due to the curse. The hero cannot speak, the mage cannot use magic, the warrior’s strong physique became that of a doll, and the priest…we don’t talk about the priest.

You can only carry one of them out of the dungeon, so right off the bat, the decision you make determines the route the narrative will take. The story unfolds in a visual novel format, and each route has multiple endings you can get depending on how close you become with your newfound partner. Throughout the four different perspectives, you’ll get to learn about the secrets of each stranded party member, and what actually happened to them in the first place. According to the Steam store page, each of the four routes takes about 6 hours to clear and features multiple endings.

On the other hand, combat segments take the form of roguelite card battles. After selecting an action card from your hand, you can engage in a short minigame where you must stop a filling gauge at a specific point, kind of like in Undertale. Stopping the gauge at just the right moment allows your attacks to hit multiple enemies. Of course, each of the four partners you can choose has their own special ability and fighting style which you’ll have to leverage in order to beat all four routes.

All of your items-turned-cards have a limited number of uses before they break, so you’ll have to be mindful of how you manage your resources as you progress through the dungeons. However, since each item becomes the strongest on its last use, shattering them on purpose can often pay off in the long run.

Annihilated is out now for Windows (Steam).