CiniCross

About

CiniCross is a single player tactical management game with fantasy and dark fantasy themes. It was developed by Hydrobates and was released on February 11, 2026. It received positive reviews from players.

CiniCross is a dark fantasy roguelite built around nonogram puzzles (also known as Griddlers). Descend into a cursed dungeon where every puzzle solved brings you closer to powerful enemies, and greater rewards. Increasing difficultyThe deeper you go into the dungeon, the more complex the puzzles become. Solve procedurally generated nonograms of various grid sizes from 5x5 to 20x20. Risk grows…

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85%

Audience ScoreBased on 317 reviews

gameplay11 positive mentions

grinding5 negative mentions

Innovative and addictive mashup of picross/nonograms and roguelike elements creating a fresh puzzle experience.
Engaging progression with various classes, items, and boss fights that offer unique mechanics and keep gameplay interesting.
Polished presentation with appealing pixel-art visuals, satisfying sound design, and responsive developer support for updates and improvements.

Balance issues where time-related items can trivialize the challenge, leading to runs where puzzles solve themselves and making the roguelike aspect obsolete.
Lack of mid-run saving or suspend functionality forces long continuous play sessions, which frustrates players due to run length and difficulty spikes.
Some boss mechanics can feel frustrating or unfair, including overly punishing or annoying effects, and performance issues/lag occur in late game or endless mode.

gameplay
77 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
77%
9%
The gameplay combines classic picross puzzles with roguelike elements and time pressure, creating an engaging but sometimes frustrating loop that challenges players to balance speed and strategy. While the core puzzle mechanics are solid and enjoyable, issues with balance, overly powerful items, repetitive bosses, and limited build diversity can diminish challenge and variety. Overall, it offers a fresh, fast-paced twist on picross that appeals to fans, though refinement in difficulty scaling and mechanics integration is needed.
- “The gameplay loop is awesome.”
- “Having an incentive to solve puzzles quickly makes the well tread picross gameplay feel fresh, and the various items and passives are fun to play with.”
- “This game takes the calm and relaxed gameplay of picross and nonogram puzzles and turns it into a really stressful and rewarding game loop that I'm obsessed with!”
- “I like the idea of being able to tackle harder puzzles early to scale harder but with the way the limited time mechanics work you can sometimes just get an impossible node on your map where it's a puzzle that's too big and difficult to reasonably solve in the couple minutes you have.”
- “Fun game but please remove the golden fishing rod from the game, it's too good; every run I do it eventually makes the gameplay braindead by how overpowered it is.”
- “Very derivative rogue-lite gameplay paired with poor balance makes this an easy thumbs down for me.”
music
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
37%
19%
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality and complements the spooky 8-bit aesthetic well, though many users find the soundtrack repetitive due to limited tracks. While some recommend muting the game and playing their own music to avoid monotony, the existing songs are highly appreciated and considered surprisingly good for a debut title. Overall, the music enhances the atmosphere but would benefit from a broader variety of tracks and better in-game audio options.
- “Great music, lovely animations and graphics, 10 out of 10, highly recommend!”
- “It has great music and sound and I'm impressed this seems like the first game of the developer.”
- “This game has incredible art, music, animations and a super fun gameplay loop.”
- “Presentation is solid, but a couple more music tracks and level themes might have helped reduce monotony.”
- “Still, there's many slow loading screens you can't skip (boss intro, game over, floor transitions), no good ending, no way to look at a finished nonogram (to appreciate your efforts), performance issues on higher floors and the soundtrack becomes repetitive rather quickly.”
- “There's also no way to adjust options in game, so the music gets infuriating after a long run like this.”
optimization
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
46%
27%
The game suffers from notable performance issues, especially in late-game floors and certain reward screens, with slow loading times and occasional crashes that impact progress. While the core gameplay remains enjoyable, optimization is inconsistent and hampers the overall experience, highlighting the need for urgent performance patches and improvements.
- “Overall the game is well built from a quality/performance perspective (although I did see one major performance hiccup with a specific relic configuration).”
- “Lastly, as of patch 1.0.4, I am still seeing performance issues in later floors (like 9+).”
- “I do wish there was a bigger item pool and there are some performance issues as of the writing of this review, but I'm hopeful that those will be addressed as the developer seems very responsive to feedback.”
- “Entertaining but very buggy and poorly optimized.”
- “There are performance issues at the late game with loading each puzzle.”
- “Still, there are many slow loading screens you can't skip (boss intro, game over, floor transitions), no good ending, no way to look at a finished nonogram (to appreciate your efforts), performance issues on higher floors and the soundtrack becomes repetitive rather quickly.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The graphics are generally praised for their lovely animations, cool retro and 8-bit aesthetic, and engaging visual effects like explosions and puzzle reveals. However, some users find the 8-bit style detracts from clarity, making elements like numbers hard to read, and note the game's art style closely resembles other titles. Overall, the graphics contribute positively to the game's atmosphere but are sometimes criticized for originality and readability.
- “Great music, lovely animations and graphics, 10 out of 10, highly recommend!”
- “You get the artifacts you need, you get good look on your paths through the levels, and by the time you reach the depths, you are just so powerful; solving the puzzle becomes a bit of a glorious graphical overload, as every few marks a column auto-fills, or an error causes a burst of explosions that reveal patches of the puzzle, while healing you.”
- “It has a cool retro aesthetic.”
- “The 8 bit graphics are a detriment; it's hard to read the numbers.”
- “My main complaint, and this is in 'we can't do anything about it at this point' territory, is that the game apes Loop Hero's aesthetic a little too much.”
- “My bitterness is not helped by the out-of-place gambling aesthetic; despite a lonely delve into a dungeon, rewards are doled out via slot machine and roulette wheel.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is described as time-consuming and somewhat tedious, especially for achieving high-level goals like beating floor 15 and completing difficulty achievements. While challenging, the grind can feel more like a chore than an engaging challenge.
- “Has some very grindy and very challenging achievements.”
- “Grinding achievements: yes, beating floor 15 and the difficulty achievements are grindy.”
- “The most grindy achievements are for floor 15 (this is just time-consuming, because by that time, the timer isn't the challenge anymore) and mostly the difficulty achievements.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is generally entertaining but suffers from stability issues such as frequent freezes, bugs, and poor optimization. Some glitches affect UI and gameplay balance, causing inconsistent outcomes. Despite these problems, players still enjoy the experience.
- “Entertaining but very buggy and poorly optimized.”
- “9/10 (please solve the freezes. I think they may be due to some bug with the item's bonus stat because I generally have 5+ items per slot on the rewards screen when it happens).”
- “The pendulum does swing pretty wildly between outcomes being decided by puzzle skill or item interactions, and there are definitely some UI glitches.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
50%
The game's replayability is mixed; while it offers a solid initial experience, players tend to see most content within a few runs and may lose interest quickly due to balancing issues and repetitive puzzle mechanics. Higher difficulties can feel frustrating, limiting long-term engagement.
- “The replayability is largely there.”
- “It's a really cool game with tons of replay value, but it lacks a proper clue algorithm, turning many puzzles into guessing games that challenge runs on higher difficulties.”
- “For a roguelite, it doesn't have very long replayability; you'll see everything the game has to offer in only a few runs (provided you win them). While it's a good time, it may not be stellar in replay value.”
- “For a roguelite, it doesn't have very long replayability; you'll see everything the game has to offer in only a few runs (provided you win them). While it's a good time, it's nothing really all that stellar.”
- “If the game was balanced better, then perhaps it would be more playable, but I got bored after just 3 hours once I had enough of everything to not care about damage.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by amusing and cleverly designed bosses, particularly the jester boss, which adds a comedic yet sinister tone. However, some players found that excessive in-game items, like golden fish, occasionally caused technical issues that detracted from the overall fun.
- “Some of the bosses are genuinely evil and/or funny but still evil.”
- “The jester boss is really funny.”
- “It was funny until the game was on the verge of crashing several times due to having so many of those golden fish items.”
story
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users feel the story is underdeveloped and wish it focused more on narrative rather than roguelike gameplay, hoping for a stronger integration of story with the core puzzle elements.
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional experience is mixed: the early and mid-game offer engaging challenge, but the late game feels tedious and repetitive, particularly the endless mode. Players appreciate the difficulty but recommend familiarity with nonograms beforehand to fully enjoy the game.