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Cladun X3 drops you into Arcanus Cella, a pocket dimension that stitches together worlds, dungeons, and eras into one strange nexus. NIS America’s action RPG presents an unusual premise: villains from across the multiverse have been pulled here to participate in a death game designed to achieve world peace. The reasoning is delightfully twisted.
By concentrating evildoers in one location, their home worlds become safer. As these villains battle to the death, their numbers thin, theoretically making the multiverse a better place. There’s something darkly comic about the whole setup, and the game doesn’t pretend otherwise.
You step into the boots of one such villain, which immediately shifts the typical hero narrative. Your motivations mirror those of your enemies, creating an interesting dynamic where survival matters more than righteousness. The dungeons you’ll explore are packed with monsters, traps, and hazards that can end your run in seconds. The game lets you create allies who fight alongside you and provide crucial support, softening what could be an overwhelming challenge.
Cladun X3 wraps this experience in a retro pixelated aesthetic that recalls 16-bit RPGs, and the dungeon-crawling focus is unrelenting. What makes this stand out is the sheer amount of customization available. This is a game that lets you decide how deep you want to go, whether you’re a casual player or someone who lives for spreadsheets and optimization.
Building Your Villain
Character creation in Cladun X3 gives you surprising control right from the start. You name your character, select gender, choose idle animations, write descriptions, and even add up to three lines of dialogue that define their personality. It’s a small touch, but it makes your villain feel personal before you’ve even entered a dungeon.
The job system offers seven starting classes. The Warrior provides a balanced experience with a focus on power and a sword for quick work. The Wizard wields a magical staff for midrange homing attacks, keeping enemies at bay. The Saint carries a massive hammer that deals devastating critical hits while having access to healing and support spells. The Guardian can use hammers or spears, heal allies, and gains defense boosts when blocking with a shield.
The Ranger switches between a bow for long-distance combat and a dagger for close encounters. The Merchant combines low-level healing and support magic with versatile attack options, and here’s the kicker: it retains up to 90% of gold upon death, which becomes invaluable during tough runs. The Swordmage blends nimble attacks with offensive and support spells, featuring reduced cooldown times of up to 50%. As you progress, you unlock three advanced classes: Ninja, Dragoon, and Shaman.
Combat mechanics require precision and understanding. Movement uses the analog stick or D-Pad, while the R button lets you run at the cost of halving your defense. This creates constant tension between speed and safety. While running, you can slide to dodge attacks. The shield system adds layers of strategy. Blocking boosts your defense stat by adding the shield’s value to your own, and the same applies to elemental resistance. Reach 200 resistance to negate damage from that element entirely.
Hit 201 or higher, and attacks of that element heal you instead. Shields degrade with each hit, reducing their defensive value, and you’ll need to return to Arcanus Cella or advance to the next floor to restore durability. Amulets offer an alternative: they deploy magic barriers that drain your max SP while active, balancing defensive utility against your ability to cast spells and use special attacks.
Jumping helps you avoid traps scattered throughout dungeons. Basic attacks use the A button, while abilities and spells are mapped to ZL, ZR, and X buttons. SP fuels both abilities and magic, creating resource management decisions. You can set abilities in six slots and toggle between them on the fly using the L button and right analog stick. Each ability has a cooldown, preventing spam and forcing tactical thinking about when to unleash your most powerful moves.
Arsenal and Arcane Circles
Weapon variety ties directly to your class choice, and each weapon type changes how you approach combat. Swords deliver quick three-hit combos across a wide area, perfect for crowd control. Hammers can be charged by holding the attack button, and they’re capable of destroying cracked blocks in the environment. The trade-off? You can’t equip a shield while using one. Staves fire projectiles at midrange as long as your staff gauge hasn’t depleted.
When it runs dry, you’re stuck swinging the staff in melee. Different staff types attack with different elements, adding another layer of tactical choice. Spears let you attack from midrange but deal reduced damage if enemies get too close, encouraging you to maintain distance with their two-hit combo. Bows excel at long range and can be charged for piercing shots that tear through multiple enemies, maximizing damage per attack. Like hammers, bows lock you out of shield use. Daggers favor speed, allowing fast close-range strikes with high critical hit potential. Equipping a dagger also increases your movement speed, making them ideal for aggressive, mobile playstyles.
The Magic Circle system is where Cladun X3 reveals its true depth. You create additional characters who function as support batteries. By positioning these sub-characters in unlocked Magic Circles, they absorb damage meant for your main character while granting passive bonuses based on their arrangement and the specific Magic Circle you’ve equipped. Artifacts slot into these formations to further tweak your stats, and with numerous Magic Circles to experiment with, the customization possibilities multiply rapidly.
Here’s where risk enters the equation. If your sub-characters fall in battle, their buffs vanish. Some of the most powerful Magic Circles have brutal penalties: one character’s death triggers a cascade that takes down the entire formation, stripping away your defensive and offensive capabilities in an instant. For skilled players, this risk pays off with incredible power. For those still learning, simpler Magic Circles that don’t rely heavily on the system work just fine.
The game makes it clear that the Magic Circle system is optional for completing the main story, but mastering it becomes necessary if you want to tackle the hardest content. Titles, which are special traits applied to gear, provide mana to fuel Magic Circles, though you can build strong characters without ever engaging with mana systems if you prefer.
Shops become your lifeline between dungeon runs. Standard vendors sell useful upgrades that keep pace with the escalating difficulty. Hiyo’s Black Market operates as a shadier alternative, offering rare and powerful equipment at premium prices. Investing wisely in gear makes the difference between clearing a dungeon and getting crushed within the first few rooms. The game respects preparation, and the deeper you push into Ran-geons and Map-geons, the more crucial proper equipment becomes.
Depths and Customization
Main story dungeons are single-floor challenges that introduce optional speedrunning objectives. Clear these floors quickly, and you earn fame points. Fame unlocks bonuses like additional shops, and for players uninterested in chasing times, you can simply purchase fame with gold at a steep exchange rate. It’s another example of the game accommodating different playstyles without forcing anyone down a specific path.
Ran-geons test endurance in a different way. These randomized dungeons stretch to 100 floors, with enemy levels escalating the deeper you go. Map-geons generate from Mystical Maps you acquire and feature different rule sets that keep each run feeling distinct. Both dungeon types scatter exit portals across certain floors, presenting a constant push-your-luck decision.
Death costs you all loot and half of your gold and experience. Do you press forward for better rewards, or do you take what you’ve earned and escape while you still can? This tension keeps runs exciting even after dozens of hours. You’re always weighing potential gains against very real losses.
Customization extends far beyond gameplay mechanics. The pixel art editor lets you create custom character models and gear visuals, giving you control over how your party looks. The music editor is genuinely complex, resembling a simple programming IDE more than a typical in-game tool. You can compose custom tracks for dungeon exploration, though this requires patience and some willingness to learn a basic command system. For those who prefer simpler options, the game lets you choose between pixel or smooth fonts and toggle between modern arrangements or retro chiptune music for the soundtrack.
Visually, Cladun X3 embraces 16-bit era pixel art with vibrant character designs that pop against the dungeon environments. There’s genuine charm in the simplicity, and it complements the mechanical complexity rather than conflicting with it. The trophy list offers a full Platinum for completionists, requiring you to unlock all advanced classes, fill the bestiary, learn all Magic Circles for every class, clear the 100th floor of both Ran-geons and Map-geons, and complete the story.
Cladun X3 offers remarkable freedom in how you engage with it. Hardcore min-maxers can spend hours tweaking Magic Circles, titles, and artifact placements to squeeze every advantage from the systems. Casual players can ignore most of that complexity and focus on upgrading gear and clearing story dungeons. Combat has a learning curve, particularly with alignment-based hit detection that requires you to position yourself carefully relative to enemies.
Once it clicks, the flow feels satisfying. The combination of deep customization, varied dungeon types, risk-reward mechanics, and retro presentation creates an experience that rewards dedication without punishing those who want a lighter touch. Pixel RPG fans and dungeon crawler enthusiasts will find plenty to love here. Cladun X3 is available for $39.99, and for players who appreciate games that respect their time and choices, it’s worth exploring the twisted logic of Arcanus Cella.
The Review
Cladun X3
Cladun X3 succeeds by respecting player choice. Its Magic Circle system offers remarkable depth for those who crave optimization, while simpler paths remain viable for casual dungeon crawlers. The combat demands precision, and the risk-reward balance in randomized dungeons creates genuine tension. Extensive customization tools, from pixel art editors to music composition, let you shape the experience. The retro aesthetic charm persists throughout. This is a game for players who appreciate freedom in how they engage with systems, making it a standout in the dungeon-crawling genre.
PROS
- Exceptional customization depth across gameplay and aesthetics
- Magic Circle system offers optional complexity
- Multiple dungeon types with distinct risk-reward dynamics
- Seven starting classes plus three unlockable advanced jobs
- Respects different playstyles without forcing specific approaches
- Charming retro pixel art presentation
CONS
- Combat has a steep learning curve with alignment-based hit detection
- Music editor complexity may intimidate less technical players
- Shield durability management can feel tedious
- Death penalties (losing loot and half of gold/experience) can frustrate
