If asked to name a fun roguelike, 'Hades' is the first that comes to mind. By layering exceptional action and narrative onto a structure of repeated death and incremental progress, it became a benchmark for the genre. Meanwhile, 'Vampire Survivors' used simple controls to define the 'Vampire Survivors-like' subgenre. Countless games have followed in their wake, though many have failed to find their own identity, settling for being mere 'Hades-likes' or 'Vampire Survivors-likes.
Flyway Games (CEO Kim Su-young), a creative studio under KRAFTON (CEO Kim Chang-han), grappled with that very question and found their answer in 'time.' The result is 'Ascend to ZERO,' launching globally on July 13.
Of course, games featuring time are nothing new. The concept of 'saving the world in 30 seconds' was explored by the PSP title 'Half-Minute Hero,' and 'SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE' was the first to combine time manipulation with roguelike mechanics.
What sets 'Ascend to ZERO' apart is how it utilizes time. In this game, time is a resource to be spent, recovered, and invested; a weapon to be paused and wielded; and a target for growth as you repeat your runs. Time is not just a single mechanic—it is the language that permeates the entire game.
'Ascend to ZERO' is an action roguelike centered on time manipulation. Set in the year 2,225, the world has been destroyed by an invasion of intelligent machine lifeforms. Players take on the role of a survivor with the ability to manipulate time, traveling back to the past to rescue comrades and restore the world.
The game will be available on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, with support for the ROG Ally X. Notably, it is confirmed for a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass. Developed using Unreal Engine 5, the project was led by PD Heo Tae-wook and AD Lee Young-kwon.
In the End, It's Time
If you had to summarize the combat of 'Ascend to ZERO' in one sentence, it would be: 'In the end, it's time.' The thrill of defeating a boss with only one second remaining is the core of the experience.
While other roguelikes are built on the two pillars of player control and character growth, 'Ascend to ZERO' adds a third: a 'time limit.' Even with perfect controls and a fully leveled character, you cannot survive if you fail to manage your time.
Eliminating enemies makes your character stronger while extending your remaining time based on specific conditions; if time runs out, your progress collapses. The timer at the top of the screen is a resource as desperate—if not more so—than your health bar.
Added to this is a 'time stop' ability that can be triggered at any moment. With the press of a button, the world freezes, allowing the player to calmly navigate through bullet hells, find the optimal position, combine skill chips, and unleash explosive firepower the moment time resumes.
Crucially, the short cooldown means you can use it frequently without hesitation. Time stop is not an ultimate skill to be hoarded, but a basic move used as naturally as breathing. Predict, stop, counter, annihilate. Once this rhythm becomes second nature, 'Ascend to ZERO' transforms from a simple shooter into a strategic action game where every moment is a calculated move.
Even death is converted into time. If your character falls, you can spend a portion of your remaining time limit to revive on the spot. Time is life, and life is time. The experience of burning your remaining time to revive during a boss fight and taking them down with one second left is the game's peak moment.
In an interview with international media, PD Heo Tae-wook noted, "If 'Vampire Survivors' asks 'how long can you survive?', 'Ascend to ZERO' asks 'how far can you go within the given time?'" This perfectly captures the game's essence. It proves that even with the same auto-attack foundation, a different question leads to a different game.
Time Management Through a Roguelike Lens
When you first start the game, you are greeted by the slogan, 'Save the world in 30 seconds.' If you go in without any prior knowledge, you might naturally worry whether it's actually possible to save the world in such a short time.
However, a little playtime reveals the truth: 30 seconds is just the initial 'condition,' and the real game lies in how you manage and expand that time. While other roguelikes focus on growing character stats, 'Ascend to ZERO' adds a layer of 'roguelike-style time enhancement.' Whether to recover 10 seconds immediately or choose an option to gain 5 seconds per boss kill—time itself becomes the subject of your build.
Choosing between immediate gain and long-term investment is a classic roguelike trope, but the fact that the subject is 'time' adds a unique tension, offering a somewhat realistic lesson that time is ultimately about management.
As you follow the game's design, you will encounter points where the developer intentionally forces you to hit a wall. Just as you start wondering how to break through, new NPCs join, and new abilities and upgrade paths are unlocked. When you return to that same difficult section with your new powers, you'll find it much easier to overcome.
This rhythm of frustration and unlocking is meticulously designed. The story flow—where the protagonist travels back to rescue comrades one by one, and those comrades open new functions in the bunker—aligns perfectly with the system unlocks. Because the moments you hit a wall are also the moments the story progresses, the narrative and gameplay never feel disconnected.
The most unique, and initially questionable, element is the growth curve. 'Ascend to ZERO' features an inflationary growth model. It doesn't climb steadily; it skyrockets exponentially. You might worry at level 1 how you'll ever reach level 20k to unlock a NPC, but a few hours later, you'll find yourself there.
Crucially, this inflation is different from the accidental balance issues seen in online games. It is clearly an intentional device designed to multiply the thrill of growth by letting players see their stats explode.
The developers have stated they were inspired by Japanese 'Inflation RPGs.' The system of carrying over powerful equipment from previous runs to the next is designed with the same logic, meant to alleviate the emptiness of starting from scratch. While it may be a matter of taste, it is not a flaw that detracts from the game's quality. It is rare to see a game push the fun of growing numbers this explicitly, yet in such a controlled manner.
The deck-building variety is also generous. Each avatar has unique weapons, skills, and combat styles, as if to say, 'Surely one of these will suit your taste.' Whether you prefer a melee style with a sword or a ranged damage dealer with firearms, you can follow the avatar's traits or build your own skill deck.
Depending on the combination of equipment, skill chips, and devices, you can even create extreme builds that forgo time stop entirely for other advantages. The developer's promise of 'infinite growth and infinite combinations' has been faithfully realized.
The bunker that connects runs is another pillar of this cycle. When time runs out, the player returns to the destroyed underground bunker, where they convert equipment salvaged from the previous run into permanent assets and prepare for the next run using new functions unlocked by rescued comrades.
Converting temporary items into permanent ones involves success rates and costs, maintaining the tension of choice even in the bunker. There is plenty of incentive to rotate through different avatars, and with new avatar packs and an infinite mode (Tower of Infinity) DLC planned post-launch, there is ample room for expansion.
The graphics feature high-quality 3D voxels with a familiar Minecraft-esque charm. The way the cyberpunk city, built of square blocks, collapses and scatters highlights the unique physical properties of voxels, and the visual contrast when walking between bullets and debris frozen in mid-air during time stop is impressive. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the combination of simple voxel forms with modern lighting and effects strikes a perfect balance between pixel-art sentiment and 3D presentation.
The character art is also noteworthy. During development, the team completely overhauled the original SD (two-head-tall) style into full-body, cartoon-style illustrations, which makes each avatar's personality stand out much more clearly. However, the screen can get a bit cluttered when enemies, effects, and projectiles flood the screen at once, especially with the information-heavy combat UI.
Personally, I was interested in the optimization for handheld gaming. The clear top-down view and short, loop-based play sessions are a great fit for portable devices. Considering the ROG Ally X support and Xbox Cloud Gaming compatibility, it seems the game was designed from the start with 'pick up and play' in mind. The time-based run structure, starting from 30 seconds, fits the grammar of portable session play so well that it feels like a deliberate design choice rather than a coincidence.
KRAFTON's New Grammar from a 'Well-to-do' Studio
Another notable aspect of 'Ascend to ZERO' is its path to release. From the first demo in April 2025 to Steam Next Fest (June), public playtests (December), and three limited demos in 2026, the game has been refined through over a year of user testing and feedback. It reached 65th place in 'most played demos' at Next Fest, and the Steam demo user rating remains 'Very Positive' (92% positive).
Traces of feedback-based updates—such as reduced grinding, added difficulty systems, revamped onboarding, renewed stat information, and a redesigned codex—are palpable in actual gameplay. The polish of the aforementioned time management options and the rhythm of frustration and unlocking are clearly the products of iterative verification.
In this sense, 'Ascend to ZERO' means more than just a single game. Flyway Games is a studio specializing in soft-launching, established by KRAFTON in 2023 alongside their 'The Creative' project proposal system. The goal was to quickly bring ideas to market regardless of platform or genre, verify them through user response, and officially launch the projects that pass.
'Ascend to ZERO' is a representative case where that methodology has completed a full cycle from demo release to global launch. For KRAFTON, which relies on the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds IP for most of its revenue, it is worth watching how these small-scale new IP experiments accumulate as they cross the finish line.
Clear Flaws, Yet a Distinct Identity
Of course, it is not without flaws. Some systems, such as upgrades or grade tiers, still have unfriendly in-game explanations, leaving sections where you have to learn by trial and error. Despite several onboarding overhauls, the layers of the growth system—equipment, skill chips, devices, and stat chips—can act as a barrier to entry for newcomers.
It is also worth noting that the early movement tempo can feel slow. Before the strategic fun of time stop fully opens up, the first hour or two might feel somewhat flat. Due to the randomized nature of the battlefield, some runs feel smooth while others can be frustratingly difficult. Even if it is the fate of the roguelike genre, there are moments where it feels like a gamble.
The sense of repetition that comes with the late game is also a drawback. As powerful as the 'time stop' hook is, how diversely the game maintains play after players get used to it will depend on post-launch updates. The promised infinite mode and new avatar packs must provide that answer.
Nevertheless, 'Ascend to ZERO' is a game with a distinct identity among the many roguelikes available. The shift in the core question from 'how long can you survive' to 'how far can you go in the given time,' the build design that treats time as a subject of growth, the rhythm where frustration and unlocking align with the narrative, and the thrill of defeating a boss with 0.1 seconds left all stand out.
Considering the 20+ hours of playtime in the full version and the accessibility of a day-one Game Pass release, it is well worth a roguelike fan's time to play. After all, within this game, that time can always be turned back.
- Unique combat using time as a weapon
- Design where frustration and unlocking align with the narrative
- The thrill of inflationary growth where levels explode
- Wide range of avatars, deck-building, and handheld optimization
- Somewhat flat early tempo
- Randomized battlefield variance and late-game repetition
Review Platform: PC (Review Build)
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