Japanese indie circle Death Kumiai has a pretty nasty question for players in Annihilated: if an adventuring party is already destroyed, who do you save?
The upcoming Windows game has now crossed 100,000 Steam Wishlists, which is a strong signal that its pitch is landing with fans of dark visual novels, roguelite card battlers, and emotionally stressful fantasy stories. No cheerful guild vibes here, bro. This one starts after everything has already gone wrong.
Instead of playing as a standard hero charging into a dungeon, Annihilated puts you in the aftermath of a party wipe caused by a dungeon curse. Your first major decision is also the one that defines the run: choose one surviving adventurer to rescue.
The choices are all messed up in different ways. The Hero can no longer speak normally and is limited to simple “yes” or “no” replies. The Wizard has been stripped of their magic. The Warrior’s soul is trapped inside a human-sized doll. The Priest has lost something deeply important, though the game keeps that mystery hidden at the start.
That setup is what makes the game interesting for visual novel fans. You are not just picking a class or build. You are choosing which broken person’s story you want to carry forward. The character you save changes both the narrative path and the way you approach the game.
Combat is built around roguelite card battles, but there is also a timing element to keep things from becoming purely menu-based. After choosing actions through cards, players enter a quick gauge-stopping minigame. Hit the timing properly and your attacks can connect with multiple enemies. Miss it and, well, good luck lah.
It sounds like the kind of system that could appeal to players who enjoy card strategy but still want a bit of hand skill involved. There is also equipment durability to worry about, so you cannot just spam your best options forever. Your gear can break after limited use, which should make dungeon runs feel more desperate.
Between battles, Annihilated leans into visual novel-style conversations. Most of your time is spent with the adventurer you rescued, and your dialogue choices influence your relationship with them. Some conversations may be casual, but others can trigger events that affect the ending.
For Malaysian and SEA players, this is worth keeping on the radar especially if your Steam library already has stuff like dark fantasy indies, psychological VNs, or card-based roguelites. We do not always get huge marketing pushes for smaller Japanese indie titles in this region, so Wishlist milestones like this matter. They help games surface on Steam, get community attention, and hopefully make launch discoverability less brutal.
The premise also feels very anime-adjacent in the best way: cursed dungeon, damaged party members, relationship routes, multiple endings, and that deliciously painful “who do you save?” hook. If the writing lands, this could become one of those niche games people recommend in Discord with “trust me, just play it” energy.
Death Kumiai announced the game last year, and with launch coming soon, the studio says it is working to meet the expectations built by the growing Wishlist count.
Annihilated is scheduled to launch on July 22 for Windows via Steam.
Source: Automaton Media