Vivid World Review Overview
What is Vivid World?
Vivid World is a party-building, roguelike strategy game where players take on the role of Lemuria, a mage student whose world is suddenly turned upside down by a mysterious attack on her school, sending her and her spirit-transformed friends and classmates into the Underworld. Here, she attempts to escape its clutches, restore her peers’ human forms, and return to their surface world…only to encounter more than a few obstacles along the way, as well as some strange truths.
It is the second installment and follow-up to 2021’s Vivid Knight, adding onto the foundations of the original and adding several QoL improvements for a better gameplay experience.
Vivid World features:
⚫︎ Tons of Jewel Characters
⚫︎ Numerous Strategies and Combos To Play With
⚫︎ Roguelike Dungeon Exploring
⚫︎ Vibrant Visuals
⚫︎ Mysterious, Intriguing Plot
⚫︎ Sticker, Perfume Collecting
| Digital Storefronts | |
|---|---|
 Steam |
|
| $19.99 | |
Vivid World Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Engaging, Strategic Auto-Battling Combat Fascinating Narrative Tons of Gems to Collect Aesthetically Pleasing Visuals |
Little Voice Acting RNG Can Be Brutal |
Vivid World Story - 8/10
Vivid World is blessed with a fascinating story, sprinkled with just the right amount of mystery that gets you going. Its way of storytelling urges you to explore, as bits and pieces of lore gradually unfold and make the plot with every new dungeon cleared. Lemuria herself is also a compelling character, who initially is lost at first, but her determination to get to the bottom of it all and to save her classmates shines through.
Vivid World Gameplay - 8/10
Its roguelike dungeon-crawling gameplay with auto-battler mechanics is engaging enough to keep you on your toes and to keep you going. Auto-battlers have it rough by being stereotyped to be boring, but Vivid World instead nails that formula by adding a hint of interactability and careful strategy. Each run even in the same dungeon won’t feel exactly as the last, allowing for tons of replayability.
Vivid World Visuals - 9/10
Visually, it’s aesthetically pleasing, from the whimsical color scheme to the variety of character designs and cartoon-y look. It takes on an art style with no harsh black outlines, making the overall visual calm and soft, cozy even. Performance-wise, it plays out smoothly, with barely any technical lapses.
Vivid World Audio - 8/10
The soundtrack is catchy and feels otherworldly, mystical. It’s a good soundtrack to listen to as you think up strategies for your party-building. There’s no voice acting story-wise save for little exclamations, but all of your Units have battle voice lines that they cry out, each with unique voices and nuances to their tones befitting of their appearance.
Vivid World Value for Money - 8/10
For $20, it’s a sweet deal for nearly endless replayability and the gameplay experience that doesn’t stale immediately. It doesn’t break the bank, you get to play an aesthetically pleasing game. It can easily entertain for hours on end, and even has the option for multiplayer.
Vivid World Overall Score - 82/100
Vivid World is a charming roguelike strategy auto-battler title that further improved on its already solid foundations from the first game, lending itself to an engaging and fun gameplay experience. Fun gameplay, intriguing story, visuals that are pleasing to the eyes, and a mystical background soundtrack that ties it all together, this title is definitely worth a play.
Vivid World Review: Shining, Shimmering, Splendid
I’ve had my fair share of delving into bright, vibrant roguelikes like Neon Abyss and Hades (to an extent, yes?), so Vivid World looked just right up my alley—and let’s be real, the soft yet vibrant (haha) lolita-like art style is simply adorable.
However, further reading into it, found out it’s not exactly a roguelike, but more of an auto-battler. I’m not going to lie, auto-battlers don’t have the best reputations (or at least the sloppy ones, not counting Teamfight Tactics) with me and I’m not the biggest fan of them, but again—look at it! It’s so cute. And anything cute must be good, right? At least, for Vivid World, that’s true.
Vivid World is actually the follow-up to Asobism’s first title in the series, Vivid Knight. Unfortunately, I’ve never had the chance to play the first entry before, but seeing how much I loved my time with Vivid World, I might just take up the chance to delve into its origins.
A Vivid Underworld
Vivid World starts off with a quick prologue—you play as protagonist Lemuria, a budding young mage at a magic academy, who was just going about another normal day when suddenly, mysterious shadow creatures take over the school. She is forced to flee and she finds herself in a strange, otherworldly forest…which happens to be part of the Underworld.
She meets a helpful Grim Reaper named Anansi, who then explains to her that she has a certain gift that no other demon (or human) in the Underworld could use. She has the power to wield Gemma Magica, summoning both human Units and weapon Units encased inside Gems in combat.
Using this special ability, Lemuria is then thrust into a journey across the dungeons of the Underworld in order to save herself and her classmates from turning into spirits…and to find out what really happened during the day of the attack, as well as find out the hidden secrets the Underworld has been keeping under lock and key.
Mixing and Matching Gems
Its main gameplay focuses on clearing numerous dungeons through party-building and strategy, picking a suitable combination of Units to use in its auto-battler combat, echoing titles like Teamfight Tactics and Auto Chess. The main team is composed of up to six units, although additional team slots from the second to the sixth must be purchased through Coins. There are also six reserve slots for holding dupes or other Units.
Each Unit has their own color and symbol attributing to their origins or theme, and when put in the team with Units that have the same color or symbol, unique buffs will be granted onto the party. For instance, Red-colored characters together will add the Might buff that increases damage for physical attacks in varying degrees depending on how many Red characters you have.
Aside from strategizing buffs through color- and symbol-matching, Units can be directly upgraded as well. There’s a bit of a match-3 mechanic going on—three copies of the same Unit will turn that unit into a Silver Star version of itself, and three copies of a Silver Star Unit will make it evolve into a Gold Star with the best stats and skill upgrades. Quite easier said than done—I’ve been at the game for several hours now, and my crappy luck (and some misclicks) and I’ve only unlocked two Gold Star versions, so RNG, as with most roguelikes, play a huge part in party creation.
Dungeons are separated into levels, growing larger in number as the difficulty of the dungeons increase. To clear a level, Lemuria and her team must traverse the level to find and defeat the enemy with the key, which will grant access to the level right below it. However, exploring the Underworld saps up her energy, and thus you are only given a limited amount of Mana to move around. Moving from one area to another within a level uses up one Mana point, and if exhausted, it will instead take HP from your Units, so players must be strategic in mapping out their movements.
Aside from finding the key, you will also encounter other map events and characters like the Jeweler (to buy, sell, and upgrade Units and equippable Orbs) and the Alchemist (to create Gems that Lemuria can use in battle to aid her Units), among others.
Semi-Auto-Battler That Lets The Player…Play
Given the stereotype of auto-battlers being boring and insanely tedious the farther you go, gamers might dismiss Vivid World as another one of those slop-like titles. Luckily enough, Vivid World takes the foundation of auto-battlers up a notch and adds in a bit of turn-based strategy gameplay, which allows the player (as Lemuria) to dive into combat and help out her Units through the use of magic gems that are separate from the Unit gems. The battle pauses to let you choose which gem to execute, which adds a bit of interactivity into the main combat portion. Will you dish out damage on multiple targets, or will you use a healing gem to put your Units back up?
Aside from the placements and synergies of the Units themselves, you also have to make sure your arsenal of Lemuria gems (as I’d like to call them now to differentiate) fits your party. After all, you only have eight slots to fill up and about a dozen or so gems to choose from. It’s a nice feeling getting to "play" an auto-battler and having a hand in ensuring your team’s victory.
A Deeper Plot Hidden Behind Colors and Vibrancy
Don’t let the brightness and cuteness of it all fool you, the plot of the game actually delves deeper into a darker narrative. It begins all whimsical and fun, especially with how the Grim Reapers and inhabitants of the Underworld treat Lemuria and her spirit classmates, but there’s clearly something else hiding behind it all.
The deeper you go, the more conversations you unlock with the entities around you, and you slowly start to discover that there’s more going on behind the scenes—why the school was attacked in the first place, the reality of Lemuria’s presence within her school, and more. I won’t delve into spoiler territory, but the narrative is gripping enough to make you keep wanting to play, a factor not usually found in other auto-battler-types.
Everything reveals itself to the player by piecing together bits of lore from the conversations that occur around you, and the little changes in your environment. That sprinkle of mystery in its way of storytelling is intriguing enough to make you want to keep going and reading.
RNG Is Both Your Friend and Enemy
Of course, that goes for all roguelikes and their RNG, but in Vivid World, it feels more emphasized with the need for strategic decisions. For instance, maps are procedurally generated, and with the limitation in exploration because of Mana (you get 19 Mana use, expending 1 Mana per area movement), you’d need to plan how to map the entire area—if you can even do that. Other dungeon-crawling roguelikes usually go on a linear path or you can go back and forth freely, unlike Vivid World.
You sometimes get Mana replenishes when moving towards another area, but you can’t predict that because…well, it’s random. You can also grab a Mana Potion gem from the Alchemist—again, if you’re lucky enough to get that. Additionally, the game won’t let you go over the 19 Mana cap, even if you manage to restore 5 Mana, so excess Mana is wasted. So if the RNG decides to put the Jeweler and the exit of the level leagues far away from each other and you’re unlucky enough to not run into a Mana spring or roll for a Mana Potion, good luck trying to get your Units there in one piece.
Yet, in that way, it keeps things from growing boring quickly, and adds an extra challenge too. Not just the map generation, but the RNG also affects the Units you’ll be able to get in the Jeweler. Risk refreshing to try and upgrade your Silver Star Unit or take the loss and change strategy? Strategy and resource management is definitely key.
Is Vivid World Worth It?
A Roguelike Auto-Battler Gem
Vivid World is definitely worth it for its engaging story, easy to understand but tricky to master type of gameplay that keeps you on the edge, and its overall pleasing aesthetic. It’s decently priced for the content and replayability you’ll get, keeping you entertained for hours trying to find yourself that perfect team or whatnot. Let yourself be entranced by Lemuria and the Underworld, and dive right in!
| Digital Storefronts | |
|---|---|
| Steam |
|
| $19.99 | |
Vivid World FAQ
Will Vivid World be available on other platforms?
As of writing, there are no plans as to porting the game to consoles.
Game8 Reviews
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Vivid World Product Information
 |
|
| Title | Vivid World |
|---|---|
| Release Date | November 5, 2025 |
| Developer | Asobism.Co.,Ltd |
| Publisher | Asobism.Co.,Ltd |
| Supported Platforms | Steam |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, RPG, Simulation, Strategy |
| Number of Players | 1-2 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Vivid World Official Website |
