I first played Vivid World at Pax Aus 2023. It was machine translated as it was still a work in progress and was visiting Australia from Japan. It was alright, but it was a little hard to understand with the unclear instructions. Now a year has passed, and the demo is in the current Next Fest so I thought I’d check it out to see what has changed.

A Sparkling Gem

Lemuria happens to fall asleep in class and when she wakes up, everything is suddenly spooky! In a panic, Lemuria runs out the classroom only to find herself in a grassy area. It’s here she meets a guide who explains that she’s in a dungeon in the underworld. She needs to use the jewels she picked up while in the dungeon to fight the demons that inhabit it. Gems and Jewels are special, as they contain the spirits of warriors, healers, fighters and more. As Lemuria picks up multiple of the same gem fighter, she can upgrade that gem to a silver star fighter. Three silver star fighters can then be upgraded into a gold. Gems can be found scattered throughout the dungeon, hidden in chests. When a chest is opened, Lumeria can pick between the three gems offered.
The fighter gems aren’t the only ones though. At the bottom of the screen, there are six gem slots. These are where players can input attack, defence, item and spell gems. While fights can be done AFK, players can also decide whether they want to focus on attack, or maybe use an iron defence to survive a big attack. These gems can be exchanged for crystals, something that is found scattered around the dungeon. They are also a reward for finishing the dungeon floor.
While the aim is to complete the dungeon, players are encouraged to explore, but with limited mana dedicated to movement it pays to not be too greedy. Each move through the dungeon uses two mana. In the early dungeons it’s easy to explore everything, but as the player reaches harder levels, choices will need to be made.
At the end of a dungeon, Lemuria will be in the overworld. From here she can choose a dungeon to explore and complete. The reason Lemuria is doing all this is because her classmates’ souls were split. By raiding the dungeons, she’s gathering the soul pieces so that they can eventually, hopefully be saved. Each delve into the dungeon resets so players can try different team make ups and find what works for them.
Vivid world is an easy roguelite dungeon delver with delightful art and a world of possibilities. It’s not normally my type of game but I found it enjoyable enough that I considered buying it. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t release for another quarter at least.