Cinderia – Looks Generic… But It’s Actually Addictive

If you enjoy independent indie game coverage, consider supporting Indie-Games.eu on Patreon. It helps keep the site independent.

• DEVELOPER: MyACG Studio
• PUBLISHER: MyACG Studio, NPC Entertainment
• PLATFORMS: PC
• GENRE: Action / Roguelite
• RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2020
• STARTING PRICE: 17,49€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

Cinderia is yet another action roguelite, but it has something that instantly pulls you in. It was a really nice surprise. Yes, it’s from a Chinese studio, and yes, the English translation is a bit rough in places, with some leftover Chinese text here and there. Not everything is perfectly localized, but once you look past that, the core gameplay is genuinely tight and well put together.

What really stands out is how well the abilities are connected. You’ve got your active skills: your basic attacks on left and right mouse click, plus three additional abilities and a dash, but the real depth comes from how your passive abilities interact with them. Everything feeds into each other. On top of that, you have around four playable characters, each with a distinct playstyle. One uses guns, another throws knives, and so on. The whole point is to create builds that synergize properly, and the game gives you plenty of tools to experiment with.

Decent amount of content that makes you want to come back for more

There’s a huge variety of skills, abilities, and items, but the game keeps things balanced through a curse system. Once you cross a certain threshold, you can’t just spam everything endlessly. You actually have to think about your build, manage your resources, and adapt. A lot of the gameplay revolves around stacking effects and triggering chain reactions, which makes each run feel satisfying when everything clicks together.

Items work like relics, with different rarities ranging from common to legendary, and they boost your base stats, things like intelligence, strength, energy, crit chance, and more. Each run feels slightly different, even though you’ll be revisiting the same biomes and fighting similar enemies and bosses. The variation comes from branching paths, random events, and different encounters. Events, in particular, can be quite impactful, offering bonuses or useful trade-offs that can shape your run.

Another system that surprised me is the base-building element. After each run, whether you win or lose, you return to your shelter. As you explore, you rescue NPCs scattered across different biomes, and they help expand your base. You can upgrade various parts of the shelter, like the library, tavern, or telescope and each upgrade provides bonuses for future runs, such as extra rewards or helpful buffs at the start. It all ties into multiple resource systems you collect during gameplay, and everything feels interconnected in a really satisfying way.

For an early access title, it has a very strong foundation

There’s also a simple skill tree that gives you small but meaningful upgrades: extra health, a revive, more starting gold, additional inventory slots, and so on. It’s not overly complex, but it complements the rest of the progression nicely. The game does a great job of making builds feel important without overwhelming you, and because everything is so well balanced, it rarely feels like you’ve made a “wrong” choice. Most skills are viable, and many can be upgraded up to level four, which adds another layer of depth.

Runs themselves don’t drag on too long. You can finish one in around two hours, with a structure that cycles through a few combat rooms before a boss fight, then repeats with increasing difficulty. The enemy variety improves as you progress, starting simple and gradually introducing tougher mechanics. There are also environmental hazards like traps, bombs, and saws that keep you on your toes.

For an early access title, there’s already a decent amount of content here. That said, progression can get a bit grindy, especially when farming key resources like candles, which are essential for upgrading your shelter. It gets easier after around the 10-hour mark once you’ve unlocked more systems, but there is still some grind involved.

The final verdict

On the presentation side, the game is great. The visuals, animations, and overall vibe are really polished. It’s fast-paced, so responsive controls are crucial, and thankfully, they are. Dodging attacks, reacting to enemy indicators, and navigating projectiles all feel smooth and intuitive. The character designs also have a lot of charm, with a kind of chibi aesthetic that fits the tone nicely. There’s a lot of attention to detail in both enemy design and skill animations, which makes the whole experience feel lively.

The developers are also actively updating the game, which is a good sign. There’s already a solid foundation here, and it’s only going to get better with more content and fixes over time. It doesn’t necessarily reinvent the roguelite genre, but it executes its ideas extremely well.

At the end of the day, Cinderia might seem like a familiar roguelite on the surface, but it’s so well designed and enjoyable that you stop caring about that pretty quickly. Most importantly, it’s fun. It never feels overly frustrating, and it constantly encourages you to come back for another run. With four distinct characters, a wide range of builds, and a strong sense of progression, it’s absolutely worth the current price.

Review copy provided by the publisher