Rescue missions in role-playing games usually end with everyone walking out together. Annihilated, the new roguelite deckbuilder from small studio Death Kumiai, takes a bolder route: you head into a cursed dungeon to save a lost party of heroes, and only one of them gets to come home with you.
The game launches on Steam on November 10 through publisher Flashlight Games, priced at $16.99 or €17.25, with a 10% discount during its first two weeks. It supports English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese from day one, and PC is the only platform confirmed so far.
The premise is an easy one to get invested in. A legendary hero’s party has disappeared deep inside a dungeon, and you are the last survivor of the team sent to find them. You can’t fight on your own, so you rely on whatever strength the broken heroes have left. Each of the four main routes centres on a different companion and reveals another piece of how the party fell apart. Choosing who to save means leaving the others behind, and that one decision gives every run real emotional weight.
That focus on story is what makes Annihilated stand out. Deckbuilding roguelites have been a busy space since Slay the Spire, and most new entries compete on mechanics. Death Kumiai is putting character first, with a script the studio says runs to around 200,000 words, presented in a visual novel style. For players who love a roguelite but wish the genre came with more story, that is an exciting amount of writing to dig into.
Combat brings fresh ideas of its own. Battles are turn-based, but they also reward timing, so quick reflexes matter alongside smart card choices. Weapons wear down with use, and you can shatter one on purpose for a short power boost, which turns your gear into a resource you manage. Defeats and broken weapons earn curse points, which you can spend on items, stat upgrades or surviving lethal roulette events. Instant-death traps keep the tension high, and fast retries mean a bad run never costs much time.
The art style is one of the game’s strongest draws. Its adorable character designs clash with horror imagery in a way that is instantly memorable. Lead artist and writer Sabotenshi lists Fire Emblem, Super Mario RPG, Undertale and The Legend of Zelda as influences, along with the layered character writing of light novels and JRPGs from around 2010. The Undertale comparison fits especially well, since both games use a charming look to make tough choices hit harder.
With four routes to uncover and only one hero to save each time, Annihilated looks like a strong candidate for the kind of game that keeps you coming back for one more run when it arrives in November.
