Crypt of the NecroDancer

Crypt of the NecroDancer is a hardcore roguelike rhythm game where every move follows the beat. Descend into a deadly dance dungeon, fight to survive, slay the NecroDancer, and reclaim your still-beating heart—or become a slave to the rhythm forever.

In the main game, players control Cadence, the daughter of a famous treasure hunter who has gone missing. While searching for him, she falls into a crypt ruled by the NecroDancer. He steals Cadence's heart and forces her to battle his minions to get it back. To survive and push deeper into the dungeon, Cadence must fight and move in rhythm, with every action tied to the beat of the music and her heart. Near the crypt’s core, Cadence encounters a minion called "Dead Ringer." After defeating him, she discovers he is her missing father. Freed from the NecroDancer’s control, he joins her, and together they defeat the NecroDancer. They take his magical Golden Lute and use it to kill him, then use its power to resurrect Cadence’s dead mother, Melody. But the lute is cursed: Melody must keep playing it forever to stay alive, and over time it will consume her humanity, just as it did to the NecroDancer. Seeking answers and a way to break the curse, Melody returns to the crypt. At the end, she uses the Golden Lute to resurrect the NecroDancer to question him, but he attacks and she defeats him. As he tries to flee, he is cast into a crevice by Aria (Melody’s mother), who is discovered in a coffin with a dagger in her chest and is revived by the lute. Aria reveals she knows how to break the lute’s curse, but says the NecroDancer betrayed her and left her for dead. Determined to finish what she started, Aria climbs out of the crypt in search of a shrine that can destroy the lute for good. At the shrine, the lute itself attacks, mutating into a massive monster to save itself from destruction. After Aria defeats its monstrous form, she sacrifices her life to destroy the cursed instrument. This restores Melody fully and allows her to return to her family, who later bury Aria together.