Uncut
Curated by taste and lineage

A sorceress builds a deck of fire, lightning, and ice, and releases it with one button whenever she alone decides, while every dodge and parry against what comes back is a card she never gets to draw.

A deckbuilding 2D action roguelike made solo by Studio Act One, working under the handle おにどら (Onidora), and published by Waku Waku Games, a one-person independent publisher based in Tokyo's Shinagawa ward. Per Steam's own listing, the sorceress girl Himari wanders into a world created by five witches and, with a devil girl named Eve, descends into dungeons to unravel the mystery of the world's 'first magic,' building a deck of elemental spell cards, fire for burn damage, lightning for raised crit rates, ice for freezing enemies before a heavy finisher, and releasing it with a single button whenever the timing is right, while defense and dodging stay entirely a matter of the player's own reflexes. Each run reshuffles the dungeon layout, cards, and enemies, and relics can combine into combos strong enough to break the game's own balance by design. The project began as a 2023 CAMPFIRE crowdfunding campaign that set out to raise ¥300,000 and drew ¥1,015,000 from 108 backers; on that same page, in the creator's own words, 'I'd been making a living through SES contract systems-development work, but now I'm burning through savings to focus fully on making this game.' Released February 12, 2025 at ¥1,800, it is Positive at about 91 percent over 33 reviews (30 positive, 3 negative), a paid title, not free, fully launched and not in Early Access, with no AI-generated assets, and per Steam's own content descriptors, nothing sexual. Only about 5 of its 33 reviews, some 15 percent, are in English, leaving it still largely unfound outside Japan more than a year after release.

Published 2026-07-17

01First, the one feeling

02Who this is for (and who it is not)

For you

  • You want a deckbuilding roguelike where attack is card-driven but defense is pure action-game reflexes: dodge and parry timing that no card can substitute for
  • You want a genuinely solo, crowdfunded Japanese production: Studio Act One's Onidora, funded through a 2023 CAMPFIRE campaign after leaving contract programming work, published by the one-person label Waku Waku Games
  • You want a Positive title (91 percent over 33 reviews) still barely found outside Japan a year after release, with only about 15 percent of its reviews in English

Not for you

  • You want a purely turn-based deckbuilder with no action-game reflex component; here defense and dodging are entirely real-time and skill-based, not card-driven
  • You want a title that's already built a large audience; this is a small, solo, crowdfunded production, paid and not free, not in Early Access, with no AI-generated assets and, per Steam's own content descriptors, nothing sexual

03The roots of this taste

91% positiveonly 33 reviews — yet almost no one has found it

Code Reactors Buried gem

Per Steam's own listing, the sorceress girl Himari wanders into a world created by five witches and, together with a devil girl named Eve, descends into dungeons to unravel the mystery of the world's 'first magic.' It fuses deckbuilding with 2D action: casting a spell takes no complex command, just building a deck of 'spell cards' suited to the fight ahead and releasing it with a single button, though timing that release against an enemy's opening is entirely up to you, with a fire deck for burn damage over time, a lightning deck for raised critical rates, and an ice deck for freezing enemies before a heavy finisher. Each dungeon run reshuffles the layout, the cards on offer, and the enemies, and 'relics' can synergize into combos strong enough to break the game's own balance by design, while attack stays deck-driven but defense and dodging remain entirely a matter of the player's own reflexes, reading enemy patterns for a just-in-time dodge or parry. Made by the solo developer Studio Act One, working under the handle おにどら (Onidora), and published by Waku Waku Games, a one-person independent publisher based in Tokyo's Shinagawa ward, it began as a 2023 CAMPFIRE crowdfunding campaign that set out to raise ¥300,000 and drew ¥1,015,000 from 108 backers; on that same campaign page, in the creator's own words, 'I'd been making a living through SES contract systems-development work, but now I'm burning through savings to focus fully on making this game.' Released February 12, 2025 at ¥1,800, it is Positive at about 91 percent over 33 reviews (30 positive, 3 negative per Steam's own review API), a paid title, not free, fully launched and not in Early Access, with no AI-generated assets, and per Steam's own content descriptors, nothing sexual. It supports English, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and only about 5 of its 33 reviews, some 15 percent, are in English, leaving it still largely unfound outside Japan more than a year after release.

Give it your first pass

Book of Demons The critical echo

The origin of this taste: Book of Demons, a 2018 hack-and-slash by Thing Trunk in which, per its own store text, you 'wield magic cards instead of weapons' to slay the armies of darkness beneath the Old Cathedral, replacing a traditional action-RPG's skill bar with a deck of cards you build before a run and play out with a click in real time. Code Reactors is not an official Book of Demons work, and this lineage is a comparison drawn by this site in outside critical commentary, not a stated influence from developer Studio Act One, but it carries the same shape forward into a new frame: a deck of elemental spell cards standing in for a weapon, released at a moment the player alone chooses, while dodging and parrying stay entirely a matter of the player's own reflexes rather than another card to draw.

Give it your first pass

04Make this gem shine

If it speaks to you, check it on Steam and give it your first pass. Your push is what makes a buried gem shine.

See it on Steam

05The bloodline of this taste