FuRyu, the Japanese developer behind the divisive but oddly compelling Reynatis, has announced Crymelight - a roguelike that takes clear inspiration from Supergiant's Hades and drops players into a hellish underworld as the White Rabbit, chasing Alice and fighting for freedom against personal sins.
According to Rock Paper Shotgun, the premise alone is enough to raise eyebrows in the best possible way. The Alice in Wonderland mythos gets a dark reimagining here, with the familiar white rabbit cast as the protagonist navigating what sounds like a deeply personal and punishing gauntlet.
FuRyu's track record of 'interesting' games
FuRyu occupies a fascinating niche in the games industry. They're not a AAA studio, but they consistently punch out titles with genuine creative ambition that sit somewhere between cult curiosity and hidden gem territory. Reynatis drew comparisons to Kingdom Hearts and polarized players, but it had an undeniable energy that kept people talking.
Crymelight looks set to follow that same pattern - a game that probably won't outsell major releases but carries enough of a distinct identity to carve out its own audience. The roguelike genre is crowded right now, but leaning hard into literary horror theming and a Hades-style structure is a smart play if the execution holds up.
What we know so far
Details are still limited at this stage, but the core loop appears to center on combat-driven runs through hell-adjacent environments, with the White Rabbit protagonist squaring off against manifestations of Alice's sins. If FuRyu can bring the same scrappy creative energy they showed with Reynatis and pair it with the satisfying run-based progression that made Hades a genre benchmark, Crymelight could be worth watching closely.
No release date or platform details have been confirmed yet. Rock Paper Shotgun notes that even the game's name is a pronunciation puzzle - which, honestly, feels very on-brand for a studio that seems to delight in being just slightly left of center.
