I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with variations on the roguelike deckbuilder. I love the genre as it is, but it’s interesting to see developers iterate on the basics by including different mechanics, whether that’s dice instead of cards, match-3 mechanics like in Demon’s Mirror, and so on. So when I played the demo for CiniCross during a past Steam Next Fest, I was intrigued once again, as the twist here is that this game replaces the card battles and deckbuilding with… nonogram puzzles.
For those of you who don’t know, nonogram or picross puzzles are empty rosters where you have to fill in the correct fields based on the numerical hints on top and on the side of the roster. Usually, these are very relaxed. There are no time limits, and solving one of these puzzles feels as challenging as a good sudoku puzzle does. But developer Hydrobates took that relaxing base and made it more intricate by adding more features and challenges.
Just like in most roguelike deckbuilders, the start of the game sees you picking a character to play as. When starting out, there’s only one class to choose from, but you will soon unlock the other classes just by playing the game. Each of these characters has their own pros and cons, so it’s up to you to decide which gameplay style you prefer. Figuring that out is, once again, a question of playing the game and discovering what it feels like. There’s very little handholding done by the game, and you have to discover almost everything on the go.
And there is a lot to discover. Starting out at the bottom of the dungeon, the nonogram puzzles start out easy enough, with 5×5 puzzles, but difficulty can ramp up quickly at times, so it’s important to plan out your trip through the dungeon carefully. Especially as you have to consider two important factors: a health bar that can deplete and a timer that is ticking away.
Beating a puzzle will grant you more time, as well as maybe giving you consumable items and relics. Consumable items are rewarded if you land on the right side of a spinning circle, while relics are dealt out through a slot machine-style game: it spins a number of relics, and then you can only choose a select number of those, depending on how many spins you get. It’s a very addictive loop if you’re one of those people who likes to see numbers go up, as while you’re spinning the slot machine and the circle, you’re also getting time added on and money coming in on a very satisfying post-game screen.
As you might expect, relics are much easier to come by than in some other games in the same genre. The reason for this is that a lot of them have to be built up: one relic will give you a 1% chance of something happening, but when you collect multiple copies of that same relic, that percentage goes up. It’s an interesting way of adding some ‘deckbuilding’ features to the game, as this will heavily influence your strategy throughout your run.
There are plenty of elements that are similar to other games in the genre as well. You’ll find campfires along the way to take a rest and restore some HP; there are shops to buy items or extra slots to carry items, and at the end of each floor of the dungeon, a boss awaits you. Sadly, these bosses are where most of my critique of the game begins and ends.
The basic setup for boss battles is simple: keep solving puzzles to deal damage to the boss until their health bar is depleted. But every boss comes with an additional rule. These can vary wildly, and that’s where the problems begin. Some of these battles are almost impossible to lose, while others are incredibly hard. The balancing in the boss battles is off, which is a shame, as it can feel infuriating. You can have a great build with your relics and still not stand a chance with certain boss encounters.
But it’s not just the bosses that throw this curveball at you. At times, puzzles at higher levels can get thrown in, even on the first floor of the dungeon, that will take you so much longer to solve, and you simply won’t have the time to solve it. When the clock runs out, you start taking damage per amount of time you go over the limit, so it might be impossible to finish before you die.
It’s such a shame, because the base game of CiniCross is excellent. The presentation especially is a high point, with it reminding me a lot of Loop Hero, if a bit more minimalistic. The nonogram puzzles are a delight to play, and the interplay with the diverse characters’ own characteristics and the relics is delightful. The added challenge of having a timer – that becomes faster the deeper into the dungeon you descend – is interesting for sure.
I do hope developer Hydrobates continues to develop the game even after release, because with a few tweaks to some of the bosses and puzzles, CiniCross could become a standout in the genre. For now, it’s an amazing game that you shouldn’t miss out on despite its flaws. There’s a lot of fun to be had, and the search for ways to break the game will give you endless amounts of fun.
