
Effulgence RPG is a party-based RPG set in a unique character-based world where enemies are more than just obstacles - they ARE the resource. 💀 Destroy them to forge better gear!
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About
Early Access Note: Effulgence RPG is a compact sci-fi party RPG in a unique ASCII 3D style, where defeated enemies become raw material for new gear.
If you checked Effulgence RPG during the previous sale but decided to wait, the game is now better and more polished. Recent updates brought major performance improvements, a brand-new custom font, support for multiple writing systems at once, and new display modes like LCD-style screens and Black Paper mode.
The game is still available at its Early Access price, but the base price is planned to increase closer to the 1.0 release in June. That makes this sale one of the best chances to get the game at its current lowest price.
A first run currently takes about 1 to 1.5 hours, depending on how much you explore. The current build is short, but polished and fully playable. It already includes the core look of the game, the ASCII globe, party combat, and the main loop of breaking enemies into particles and printing gear.
If you want to wait for the full release, feel free to wishlist the game and come back at 1.0. But if you want to play a strange, focused ASCII RPG now — and help shape it during Early Access — you are very welcome.
🎧 Early Access bonus: Everyone who gets Effulgence RPG during Early Access receives the original soundtrack by Sergey Eybog as a free DLC. If the OST becomes paid later, Early Access owners keep it forever.
★ A truly unusual ASCII 3D visual style that feels alive in motion.
★ A compact RPG instead of a huge hundred-hour game.
★ Turn-based party combat with readable tactics and unusual tools.
★ A core loop built around destroying enemies, collecting particles, and printing gear.
★ A world of shimmering symbols, fragments of a broken signal, and dark sci-fi humor.
★ 50–100% performance improvements in many situations, depending on the scene and hardware.
★ A new custom font built specifically for the game.
★ Support for multiple scripts at the same time, including CJK characters.
★ New visual modes, including LCD-style screens and Black Paper mode.
These changes improve the game today and also make future updates more ambitious and easier to build.
Effulgence RPG is a party-based, turn-based RPG where enemies are more than obstacles - they are a source of resources.
Defeat creatures to break them into particles, then feed those particles into a matter printer to create weapons, gadgets, and mechanisms.
★ Explore a stylized ASCII globe of locations.
★ Travel between combat zones, events, upgrades, and shops.
★ Fight as a small squad in turn-based, party-focused combat.
★ Break enemies into particles and print gear during your run.
★ Watch environments and creatures shift and change through animated text symbols.
★ A compact, replayable slice that already shows the full core gameplay loop.
★ Roughly 1-1.5 hours for a first complete run.
★ A focused set of combat locations, exploration spots, and game systems.
★ Core systems already in place: party combat, particle-based crafting, the matter printer, saves, settings, and controller support.
★ More locations and mini-quests on the ASCII globe.
★ Additional enemy types and new mechanisms such as special encounters and bosses.
★ More tactical cartridges and more ways to build your party.
★ Expanded story scenes and quality-of-life improvements.
★ An overall target of a 3-5 hour campaign with room for experimentation and replay.
Effulgence RPG is:
★ A short, visually striking party RPG built entirely from text symbols.
★ Focused on atmosphere, strange sci-fi, and a unique look.
★ Tactical, readable, and punchy rather than huge and exhausting.
Effulgence RPG is not:
★ A giant open world or a content-complete hundred-hour RPG.
★ A hyper-complex tactics simulator packed with too many systems.
★ Finished at its current stage - this Early Access build is a polished slice that will continue to grow.
★ Gather crafting resources by defeating creatures and breaking them into particles.
★ Use those particles in a special matter printer to create weapons, gear, and mechanisms even in the middle of combat.
★ Use tactical cartridges to twist battles in your favor with bursts, shields, special effects, and more.
★ Experiment with different party builds and printed gear in a short, focused format designed for replay.
★ Plays well with a controller and has been tested on Steam Deck via Proton, with ASCII readability tuned for handheld play.
PC Gamer: "Sure, the ASCII art is cool, but I'm pretty into what the game seems to be doing with its RPG mechanics, too."
The Escapist: "Effulgence RPG is an ASCII-based party RPG that has visuals that remind me of both Dwarf Fortress and Geometry Wars at the same time, except it's an RPG."
Alpha Beta Gamer: "Effulgence is an incredibly cool looking ASCII-styled 2D RPG adventure where players explore a mysterious alien world rendered entirely through text symbols."
GamingOnLinux: "It looks like nothing else I've seen before, it really is quite impressively made."
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese +1 more
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 40 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
Ever tried pouring an ICEE, but the liquid hadn't frozen, so it just splatters warm juicy sugar all over your pants? That's Effulgence. A prematurely-shipped proof of concept. Admittedly, it is Early Access and the dev did state beforehand that a run would only take 1.5 hours to complete. And you know, short doesn't mean bad. There's plenty of quick, early games with enjoyable conclusions that could nonetheless benefit from some QoL improvements and expansions. But Effulgence isn't quite that. It's running down a hall in the dark at a modest pace until you stop suddenly in your tracks (there was a wall). There are a number of issues beyond suddenly ending, too. There's not that much customization to your characters. It's not clear why you would buy weapons when you would make them automatically for free. There's not enough fighting and strategy and your fisticuffs are constantly interrupted by dialogue that is only OK (good is the enemy of the best, here). This is a game that would benefit from grinding but you can't grind. There's just little play time for the most interesting part of the game. There is a dice game, though. But, the game does not explain it. Now, that all said, yes, the game is beautiful. The developer also seems keenly aware that this is an ongoing project and has listed that they plan to make updates. The music, especially for Xycomb (I won't explain what this is as the game does not), is also fantastic. The fact is that I haven't refunded it shows that I do anticipate this getting better and want the dev to push updates (and will remove/edit this review accordingly). This is an amazing style that I want to see utilized more. But as it stands, it's frankly just too early to buy it. It's so early, that you'll probably ruin your experience of it, instead of whetting your appetite for more. And for that reason, I cannot recommend it. Unless you like warm ICEE juice seeping down your pants.
A strange comparison comes to my mind - this game reminds me of old mobile phones - you know, when everyone tried to make something unique in sahpe and features - twisting and turning, flipping and sliding, keybords and joysticks of awkward shapes, built-in radio or even TV to work without internet and what's not - so much unlike modern glass brick clones. This game reminds me of times, when games were a special art, each with a soul of its own. Looking forward for full version!
This game is a mess under the hood: The main map is a pain to navigate and requires a lot of backtracking. The combat % to-hit seemed way off. Grenades esp. told me 10-20% but always hit. Every battle was trivially easy. PCs lack interesting skills. Level up just gives stats. There are 'special' skills but it was just direct damage or heal. Current content took me 60 minutes to complete...
loved the intro for the demo but now it feels a bit convoluted. weird tcg game that keeps glitching me into a soft lock so i have to reset the entire game to get back to a playable state. no clear direction on where to go / what to do most times, especially in cities. def not an intro RPG, only play if you know what you're doing. EDIT: I keep wanting to love it and just can't. this tcg game is really bad and the UI in cities and overworld is hard to read with all of the cool art. truly, the most beautiful thing is what' capping it because it's EVERYWHERE all the time.
Нравится, очень нравится, и стиль такой обожаю, и жанр, особенно понравилась мини-игра XyComb. Жаль только, что игра короткая, взять бы её кор-геймплей и сделать нечто подобное (может быть попроще визуально), но с полной рандомизацией локаций, противников и бесконечной, насколько это возможно, прогрессией
[b]TL:DR;[/b] A beautiful 3D ASCII ART sci-fi rogue-lite game with potential. [h1]Pros[/h1] [list] [*] Beautiful ASCII ART but in 3D! [*] Funny and snarky dialogue. [*] Great music. [*] Developer has been receptive to feedback. [*] Interesting blend of turn-based and real-time combat. [/list] [h1]Cons[/h1] [list] [*] Can't replay completed zones to farm materials. :-( [*] What happens on death isn't exactly explained. Without the ability to replay zones you can technically "pseudo-soft-lock" your progress having no guns and only have health as a weapon. [*] No replay value (yet). [*] Not enough content (yet). Can finish of all Early Access content in an hour or two. [*] Can't skip the tutorial. [*] UI feels a little cluttered showing both Keyboard + Gamepad buttons for UI. [*] Some people won't enjoy the rogue-lite aspect. [/list] [h1]Bugs[/h1] [list] [*] For me, my Steam Library shows that I have the [i]ASCII Animations Supporter Pack[/i] but in-game it always shows I need to claim this. I also don't see a way to access this in Extras. [*] The [spoiler]Cyber Well[/spoiler] doesn't list your health so you don't know how much to heal. [*] Tutorial showcases [spoiler]The Injector[/spoiler] but doesn't mention you DON'T start with one. [/list] [h1]Score[/h1] [list] [*] Fun: 5/5 [*] Graphics: 5/5 [*] Music: 4/5 [*] UI: 4/5 [*] Replay: 0/5 (at time of writing) [*] Value: 3.5/5 (this will go up as more content is added) [/list] [h1]Summary[/h1] If you love old "skool" ASCII ART or rogue-lite games this is a gem in the making. Early Access can be a hit ([i]Satisfactory[/i]) or a miss ([i]Heartbound[/i]) but if the developer can deliver 1) content and 2) replayability this could be something special to keep your eye on! P.S. This game NEEDS a "screensaver" mode of the beautiful animated zones! EDIT: Move one con to a bug.
グラフィックがアスキーアートのRPG?とのこと たしかにグラフィックは個性的でゲームシステムもなんとなく面白 ただ、日本語対応と記載されているけれど文字化けしてて日本語対応は実質されてないに等しい 日本プレイヤーは英語がある程度できないとゲームをシステム込みで楽しむのは少ししんどそうかな 攻めたコンセプトのゲームを応援する気持ちで買う!ってひとは止めませんが 現状ボリュームもろもろを含めるとお勧めはしないかなぁ… 今後に期待します!
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Прошел весь доступный контент. Красивый визуал, простая и понятная система прокачки, простая боевка. В эту игру можно играть не напрягаясь Прокачивать персов и сражаться в локациях было приятно
Mais que ce jeu est beau ! Acheté pour soutenir la création. Testé pour être sûr que la promesse n'est pas vide (elle ne l'est pas, ce RPG centré sur les combats a un feeling délicieusement weird), maintenant j'attends la 1.0 !
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Trends
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Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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