Roguelite action games have a long history, yet they continue to enjoy steady popularity. Countless titles are released every year, and while masterpieces like 'Hades', 'Skul: The Hero Slayer', and 'Dungreed' emerge, there are countless others that fall short. As a critic who loves roguelite action games, I have often felt more disappointment than joy when playing new releases.

Then, 'Cinderia', which was released last March, caught my eye. The contrast between its charming, fairy-tale-like design and the dark fantasy world, along with its fast-paced combat, was quite appealing, so I clicked the purchase button without hesitation. Although it took me four months to finally play it, I found myself regretting that I hadn't played it sooner; it has been a long time since I've been this deeply immersed in a roguelite.

Cinderia is set in a dark fantasy world where a witch has burned everything, leaving civilization in ashes. Here, the player becomes a survivor who endured the catastrophe and tracks the witch to uncover the truth behind the world's destruction.

In this process, four playable characters with their own stories appear: Lou, Rivet, Uma, and Isdra. Each has distinct characteristics, leading to significantly different playstyles. Looking closely, Lou is a rogue character who uses daggers. She can launch melee attacks at high speed or throw blades for ranged attacks. She can also add red sword energy to her weapons for extra damage and summon shadow clones to overwhelm enemies, providing a satisfying experience.

Rivet is a ranged character with a mechanic concept. She deals damage by firing cannonballs or striking directly with a cannon, and can also summon turrets to support combat. Like Lou's sword energy, she can also trigger chain lightning upon attacking to deal additional damage.

Isdra is a female knight who commands an ice dragon, specializing in piercing attacks and counter-attacks using a spear and shield. If you block an enemy attack at the perfect timing, a parry is triggered, dealing massive damage. She can also charge with her spear or summon the ice dragon to deal ice-attribute damage.

Uma is a druid character who uses nature magic and fights alongside animals. A special gauge called 'Summon Gauge' fills up when attacking, and when full, one of a wolf, hedgehog, or owl is randomly summoned to fight alongside the player for a certain period. Additionally, she can plant flower beds to charm enemies or increase evasion for stable combat.

In addition to these characters, as you continue your adventure, survivors will join you, allowing you to expand the scale of your base. As the base grows, various facilities are unlocked, which can be used to upgrade stats like attack power and health, or increase currency drop rates, adopting the familiar roguelite method.

Looking at the gameplay, Cinderia faithfully follows the formula of Hades-style roguelite action games. You can obtain passive/active skills and equipment by defeating all enemies that appear in each stage, and sometimes random events occur to provide currency used for shops or equipment upgrades. The goal is to grow your character through this process and defeat the boss that appears at the end of the stage.

Up to this point, there is almost no difference from other works, but Cinderia's strength lies in the passive effect called 'Ash Ember'. Ash Embers can be obtained randomly during stage progression, and they have many powerful additional effects that go beyond simple stat increases, such as changing skill mechanisms or significantly boosting combat tempo. For example, attacks may hit twice with a certain probability, combat motions may be compressed from 3 stages to 2, or shadow clones may be summoned to join the battle with a certain probability upon attacking.

As such, the passive performance is excellent and there are no rarity grades, so the moment a powerful build is completed is faster than in other roguelite action games. Usually, it takes at least until the mid-game for a build to take shape, but in Cinderia, a high-performance build is completed to the extent that you can wipe out normal monsters just by clearing the first chapter. In other words, you can quickly feel the pleasure of wiping out enemies with a powerful build, which is the core fun of roguelites.

I prefer the Rivet character, and among them, I love the lightning turret build. By combining the active skill that summons rapid-fire turrets with the passive that triggers chain lightning with a certain probability upon hitting, it is very easy to complete from Chapter 1 because only two skills are needed. The basic performance is decent, and if you add a passive that increases lightning damage and increase the maximum number of turrets, it shows a reliable appearance even in the late game.

However, in this case, there is a concern that the game difficulty will become too low and become boring quickly. The device prepared for this is 'Pollution'. Pollution accumulates every time you acquire an Ash Ember, and every time the value exceeds 100, a debuff is applied to the player. For example, when opening an equipment box, there is a 20% chance that it contains a banana with no effect, or the damage is randomly determined between 75-105%, and enemies have a certain probability of not dying and enduring.

The more powerful the passive performance, the higher the pollution accumulates. Therefore, there is a risk that the battle will become too difficult if you choose a passive that is too powerful from the very beginning, so strategic judgment is required by synthesizing various factors such as remaining pollution, number of stages, and character performance.

Bosses are also quite difficult compared to other roguelites. Because overall stats such as player tracking performance, attack speed, and damage range are quite high, you will see your health being shredded in an instant if you are careless. It balances the hack-and-slash pleasure of wiping out enemies in normal monster stages and the chewy tension of exchanging attacks and defenses in boss battles.

Overall, Cinderia is a work that maximizes the charm of roguelite action games. The attractive worldview and charming characters add to the viewing pleasure, and the combat fun is excellent because you can equip powerful builds from the beginning. The difficulty balance is also appropriately adjusted through pollution and bosses.

Another positive part is that the production team is continuously updating by reflecting feedback. There were many evaluations that Isdra's performance was somewhat disappointing compared to other characters, but it was upgraded through a rework on the 7th. Although there are some awkward parts in the Korean translation, it does not hinder play, and continuous improvement has been promised. In addition, as patches are made steadily every week, it is a work that is even more expected for its official release.