[Steam] CALX — A soulslike 3D action game with Journey-level visuals. Sprint through the ruins of a dead planet
Atmospheric 3D action inspired by visionary sci-fi art. Sprint, dash, and grapple through the haunting ruins of planet Syro while unraveling the mystery of a lost civilization. 10–15 hours. Japanese supported. Steam, June 4, 2026.
Game Info
💴 All prices are shown in Japanese Yen (JPY).
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | CALX |
| Developer / Publisher | True Colors / Dear Villagers |
| Release date | June 4, 2026 |
| Price | TBD (update after release) |
| Genre | 3D Action / Adventure / Soulslike |
| Language | English ✅ / Japanese ✅ |
| Playtime | ~10–15 hours |
| Players | Single-player |
| Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Buy | Steam |
Trailer
Who this game is for
Dash, double-jump, levitate, and grapple your way through the sprawling wreckage of an alien planet. That pull of "I wonder what's over there" never quite lets up.
Crystal megastructures, crumbling ancient machines, endless wasteland horizons — every corner of planet Syro is framed like a painting. If Journey or Flower hit you right, this will too.
The devs describe it as "stillness and frenzy." Quiet exploration suddenly erupts into intense combat — the rhythm keeps you on your toes without being relentless.
No cutscene dumps the lore — you piece it together by scanning ruins and reading the environment. Dark Souls fans will recognize the style of storytelling immediately.
Might not be for you
- Players who find soulslike difficulty and repeated deaths frustrating
- Players who want story delivered through dialogue and characters
- Players who prefer short sessions — this is a 10–15 hour game
Overview
CALX is a 3D action-adventure set on planet Syro — a world shattered by warp contamination, where crystal structures and ancient technology lie scattered across haunting ruins.
You play as the Seeker, an investigator sent to uncover what the warp did to the Quos civilization. Your toolkit: double jump, dash, levitate, and grapple. Chain them together and the ruins become a playground. The movement is the game's greatest pleasure — fluid, expressive, and always rewarding.
Combat follows a rhythm the devs call "waves of stillness and frenzy." Quiet exploration gives way to sudden, intense encounters. Scan areas for lore fragments, solve environmental puzzles, and slowly reconstruct the truth of what happened here.
Italian indie studio True Colors spent five years building this. Publisher: Dear Villagers. Kotaku called it "the soulslike I never knew I needed." Playtime is around 10–15 hours.
Why it's fun
🏃 Four movement tools that turn traversal into a skill
The best feeling in CALX isn't killing enemies — it's moving through the world.
Double jump to clear a gap, dash to close distance, levitate to stick a landing, grapple to swing across a chasm. Combining all four makes the complex geometry of Syro's ruins feel navigable and satisfying. Each new area presents a slightly harder geometry puzzle, and landing the solution never gets old.
🎨 Visuals that get compared to Journey — and earn it
Planet Syro is a vision: towering crystal spires, corroded machinery, and wide-open landscapes stretching to the horizon.
A five-person team spent five years getting every frame to look like this. It shows. The way light filters through crystal, the scale of the ruins relative to the player, the color palette — it's cohesive in a way that big-budget games often aren't. If you've ever felt the urge to just stop and stare in an exploration game, CALX delivers that constantly.
⚔️ Soulslike combat in waves of calm and fury
Combat in CALX arrives without warning and leaves just as suddenly.
Enemy encounters pulse in waves, pushing you to manage positioning with the same traversal tools you use to explore. No permadeath, but tight and demanding enough to feel earned when you clear a tough fight. The alternation between quiet exploration and intense battles keeps the 10–15 hour runtime from ever dragging.
🔍 A civilization's story told through ruins and scannable fragments
CALX doesn't explain its world — it asks you to read it.
Scan an area and fragments of the Quos civilization surface: how they lived, how the warp spread, what they tried to do about it. It's the Dark Souls method of worldbuilding — voluntary, cumulative, and rewarding. By the end of the game, the pieces fit together in a way that lingers.
About the game (from the store)
Traverse planet Syro — warp-ravaged and unforgiving. Master the Seeker's movement: double jump, dash, levitate, and grapple through atmospheric ruins.
Related games on Steam
- Clockwork Ambrosia — a steampunk metroidvania 14 years in the making, with 100+ weapon mods
- Codename: Black Crow — a top-down shooter RPG with 100+ areas to clear, full Japanese support