Annihilated Review – Charming JRPG With a Sinister Soul

Annihilated Review

Annihilated is a story-driven JRPG roguelite that tries to deceive the player every step of the way. For starters, it’s far more JRPG than roguelite. For another, every single character is hiding something. The result is ambitious but charming.

In a typical JRPG setup, there is a hero with a group of stalwart companions. Annihilated begins with the hero’s party having gone missing in a dungeon. The players take on the role of the Soldier, the only survivor of a search party looking for them. Soon, the Soldier discovers the missing party… but they’ve already given up.

The Hero’s voice has been stolen, and the Mage has lost her magic. The Warrior is stuck in the delicate body of a doll. And the Priest has converted to worshipping an ominous new deity, leaving him emotionally brittle and low on sanity. Their defeat has left them all in a state.

The player can choose one to take back to the surface, but the dungeon won’t make it easy. And the hero’s party may not be telling the full truth about what happened to them in its depths. Who will you choose to fight by your side? And can you really trust them?

A Story that Starts with a Bad Ending

Annihilated is a turn-based card-battling roguelite. This is definitely more of an RPG than a traditional roguelite. While you may occasionally lose out of sheer attrition, that loss isn’t very punishing for most of the game. The difficulty spikes toward the endgame and dying becomes much more common.

The game offers two distinct combat styles: first, Resolve and Will. Second, Choice and Destiny. The first requires timed attacks, while the other uses percentages to determine hit rates.

Either way, this title is a roguelite deckbuilder with no deck. All the cards you have must be carried in your hand. Over time, they will lose durability and break. Items are always most powerful in the moment they break.

You gain more item cards through events or by defeating enemies with a Fatal Attack. This means weighing which items you can afford to burn carefully. Sacrifice items ruthlessly, but not meaninglessly.

After the opening, players choose which character they’ll partner with on a given playthrough. Each has different items and abilities, but they also come with different drawbacks. You then advance through the dungeon, choosing which randomly generated challenge you’ll face. Possibilities include battle, random events, rest spots, and more.

Annihilated is a Loving Tribute to JRPGs

Annihilated features over 200,000 words of branching narrative. That means plenty of short encounters and conversations that turn out differently depending on your choices. It also offers over 100 weapons to use and break, turning into curses.

It features four routes, each with multiple endings. The choices you make will determine the outcome of your journey. Each route can be cleared in about six hours, but there’s a ton of replay value.

This game is a dark parody of JRPGs, so it’s no surprise that it looks quite a bit like a classic JRPG. The cute character designs have a subtle creepiness to them. The monsters are both adorable and unsettling. And there are over 400 hand-drawn illustrations to show off all these designs.

The music is also clearly inspired by classic JRPG soundtracks. It features a treasure trove of fun battle themes, somber background music, and eerie tunes to ponder your choices to.

And speaking of that nice art, there’s some fun interface screw. If you think the game has crashed or frozen, wait a moment. It may be doing something interesting.

There are some very clever moments of gameplay and story integration. Each boss fight becomes both a puzzle to solve and a story you’re writing the conclusion to.

The Real Evil is This Translation

Annihilated is a great game. However, the bad translation is really dragging it down right now. It feels machine-translated, and while the story still makes sense, the dialog and narration are awkward and full of typos. The game’s creepy atmosphere and focus on communication issues make it somewhat fitting.

I’d still like to see a better translation patch. Seriously, two different status effects have the same name. This is ridiculous.

The tutorial is a video accessed from the main menu. The game defaults to Japanese, so set it to your preferred language in Settings first.

Unlike many roguelites, this game allows saving mid-run. Combined with its focus on RPG battles over roguelite-style gradual progression, this means you can save scum through tough battles rather than restarting.

The combat feels somewhat unbalanced. If you’re good at timed events, you can get past the second boss on your first run. This feels more like a tricky and merciless JRPG than a proper roguelite. That said, I’m still having fun.

All in all, Annihilated has the makings of greatness. A little more polish would make this title truly special.

***Steam code provided by the publisher***