FuRyu has a busy 2026 ahead of the company, with three new games showing up worldwide. One of these new projects is CRYMELIGHT, an installment in a series that includes the action-RPGs CRYSTAR and CRYMACHINA. However, this one breaks tradition and is a roguelike instead. Siliconera spoke with Producer and Director Takumi to learn about its development and this new direction.
Jenni Lada: When did development on CRYMELIGHT begin?
Takumi: I believe development began around the latter half of 2024. And it’s already been so long since then… It makes me realize how quickly time flies.
CRYMELIGHT is a roguelike, while both CRYSTAR and CRYMACHINA were both action-RPGs. What led to the shift in direction for this entry?
Takumi: In the core of the story, the idea of “time repeating itself” is very important. And when we considered the game experience itself in relation to the scenario, the roguelike genre naturally felt like a good fit.
It wasn’t a case of “because the previous games were an action RPG,” but rather, we arrived at the roguelike format as the “most natural fit” to allow players to fully experience this world and story.
How connected will CRYMELIGHT be, narratively, compared to CRYSTAR and CRYMACHINA? Will we see some obvious ties or callbacks?
Takumi: I will… leave that up to your imagination. That said, we’ve been developing CRYMELIGHT from the ground up as a completely new title, making sure even newcomers who haven’t played the previous games can fully enjoy it.
CRYMELIGHT leans in to the Alice in Wonderland design both in terms of characters and the Wonderland and Tea Party realms. Will this also be reflected in Alice’s Skill Cards?
Takumi: Exactly as you have mentioned, the aesthetics of this game are based on “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” So, it’s not just the characters’ names and costumes that are influenced by it, but also the mechanics of the game itself. The poker system is also one of those “Alice elements.”
Which other roguelike games did you look to for inspiration when developing CRYMELIGHT?
Takumi: Of course, I didn’t want to lose the fundamental cycle and satisfying feeling of a “roguelike,” so I played and thoroughly analyzed quite a lot of roguelikes for reference. (I had played roguelikes before, but I played them again as part of my research.)
On top of that, we had extensive discussions within the team about “what makes roguelike fans feel satisfied” and “what is the core of what makes the game fun,” and then incorporated those ideas into a form that is uniquely CRYMELIGHT.
CRYMELIGHT has Battle View and Wonder View (formerly known as Action Mode and World-Immersion Mode) perspectives. How did you come up with the two possible viewpoints, and how did you ensure they’d be designed in a way to ensure both felt equal and balanced?
Takumi: To begin with, there actually aren’t many roguelikes that “focus heavily on story and character presentation” like JRPGs do. Because of that, for this game we started by building a foundation that offers a “rich narrative while still maintaining the fast-paced, streamlined feel of a roguelike.” At the same time, we wanted players to first and foremost enjoy the characters and atmosphere, so we began development with a closer camera perspective and more subtle damage number displays.
However, once the action starts to take shape, players might also start thinking, “I want to see it from a wider perspective” and “I want to display damage numbers to prioritize visibility and game feel.” In reality, players’ preferences vary considerably. Some want a zoomed-out view, while others want to balance out the view to see the characters up close as well.
Therefore, instead of having just two fixed camera patterns, we made it possible to adjust the settings more precisely, including HP and damage displays, so that players can customize the UI to something that is “easy for them to play on.”
That being said, this would make the default settings a bit tricky to decide on, so instead we’ve made it so that the player can select a mode from the start. Of course, even after the player has made their selection, they can fine-tune it in the options.
Crying was tied to gameplay mechanics and narrative importance in previous games like CRYSTAR and CRYMACHINA, so will we see the emotion carry the same weight in CRYMELIGHT?
Takumi: Yes, but with CRYMELIGHT the theme is sin. What kind of madness or distortion gave rise to the sins these girls committed in their lives? And how will they repent those sins, accept them, and transcend them? The player must help give meaning to their sins.
Roguelikes can sometimes have a reputation for being difficult. What will the difficulty level look like for CRYMELIGHT, and will players get options to make it more or less challenging?
We plan to offer players the option to choose from two difficulty levels at the beginning of the game.
We’ve prepared different difficulty levels to satisfy the play styles for both those who want to savor the scenario at their own pace and those who are looking for a challenging roguelike experience.
CRYMELIGHT will be the first Switch 2 game in the series. How did developing for that console compare to preparing games for the Switch?
Takumi: With more memory to work with than before, we were able to make greater use of particle and fog effects, allowing us to create a more beautiful and dreamlike world.
The challenge is that with so many more things we can tweak now, it’s easy to get carried away adjusting every little detail, and before we know it, we lose sight of where to stop.
That said, as a result, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback about the game’s visuals, such as “the art style is very beautiful,” even from the debut trailer and the demo build, so it’s been really encouraging for us.
CRYMELIGHT will come to the Switch 2, PS5, and PC on November 5, 2026.