$4.99 (−75%)Crown Trick Chess With Monsters
Descend a shifting labyrinth where every step is a decision and the elements are your sharpest weapon.
Is Crown Trick worth it?
Crown Trick is worth it if…
- you like thinking through every move instead of reacting fast
- you enjoy roguelikes where builds and elemental combos change each run
- you want a dungeon crawler that punishes careless steps, not slow fingers
- you don't mind losing a run and coming back stronger
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The world waits while you think
Time here is strictly on your payroll. Nothing moves until you move, attack or act, so every room becomes a small tactical problem you solve at your own pace. You can stand still and trace a route around a trap, count the tiles between you and the archer, or wait out an enemy's attack pattern before committing. The catch: each step you take gives every monster a step too. Kill one enemy and the three around it all advance at once. It plays like chess where the pieces bite back, and a careless step can turn a winning position into a bad one in a single turn.
The terrain is a weapon rack
The dungeon floors are more than decoration. Pools of water, spilled oil and charged ground all react with your skills, and the game wants you to abuse that. Throw fire onto oil and the burning slick cooks everything standing in it. Zap water and the current runs through every soaked monster in the pool. Once you start seeing the room as a set of ingredients instead of a floor, fights change shape: you position enemies where the elements are, not where your sword reaches. With dozens of skills, relics and items stacking on top, no two runs build the same way.
Kill it, then learn its tricks
Some of the monsters you fight carry elite abilities called Familiars, and beating them is how you get those abilities for yourself. The best move in the enemy's deck becomes a card in yours, which makes every elite fight a small gamble worth taking. Around that core sits a lot of kit: over 40 active skills, 60 passive abilities, 170 relics and more than a hundred monster types across nine weapon families. Death sends you back to the start, but permanent upgrades carry over, so each failed run still makes the next one a little stronger.
What should you know before starting?
Is it hard to learn?
The first hours are rough: the game is difficult by design and it takes a while before the systems click. It does get easier once the basics settle in, and permanent upgrades between runs soften the early game over time. One honest warning: the game is stingy with explanations, and some keywords and values are never spelled out, so expect to learn a few mechanics by trial and error.
Do you need fast reflexes?
No. Combat is fully turn-based and the world freezes until you act, so success comes from positioning and planning rather than quick fingers. If you can read a board and count squares, you have the required skills.
How long does a run take?
Runs are built around short, contained dungeon rooms rather than sprawling maps, which keeps sessions tight and makes "one more try" an easy promise to break. Between runs you spend what you earned on permanent upgrades, weapons and relics, so progress stacks up even across failed attempts.
What does it look like?
Bright, saturated and stylized, with a top-down view and animated characters that give the nightmare setting a cheerful edge. The world itself is the opposite of cheerful: a dreamlike underground realm full of strange ruins and secrets, and the contrast between the two is part of the charm.
