If you thought breaking out of the underworld in Hades was an absolute headache, try getting hired by its HR department. Grim Trials, created by Indonesian developer Rolling Glory Jam, is a 2D, hand-drawn, heavy metal action-roguelite that asks a simple question: What if your coming-of-age happened after you died?
You play as Avelin, a young woman who meets an untimely end and finds herself recruited as an aspiring Grim Reaper. To earn her scythe and reunite with her still-living love , she has to hunt down impure souls, face the demons of her past life, and endure Yu Yu Hakusho-style Purification trials.
Demo vs. 1.0 Release
If you previously played the July 2025 demo, you’ve barely scratched the surface of the underworld. The demo offered a tantalizing but brief look at the game’s first biome, a handful of simple foes, and a single boss fight.
The 1.0 release blows the gates wide open:
- Under-the-Hood Fixes: The recent post-launch patches have rebalanced nasty boss summons (looking at you, Acedia) and tightened up melee telegraphing, so dodging actually feels fair. Plus, it’s now officially Steam Deck Verified.
- The Full Pantheon of Pain: You now face off against the “Seven Sinful Souls”, massive, multi-phase bosses that test your reflexes and build synergy.
- The Academy Expanded: The hub world is now a fully realized space. Between runs, you can take on sidequests, build relationships with your mentors and fellow Reapers, and uncover the personal lore of the dead.
- Endless Hex-Grid Arenas: The procedural generation has been massively scaled up, offering more traps, monster varieties, and biome diversity.
Is It Difficult?
Grim Trials is a roguelite, so dying isn’t just a possibility; it’s a core mechanic. The combat demands that you master spatial awareness on its hex-grid arenas and balance your melee slashing with ranged crossbow bursts. It has a steep initial learning curve, especially when adapting to the attack telegraphs of the later bosses.
However, it is also aggressively fair. Because crafting materials and experience points carry over after every death, you are constantly getting stronger. If a boss is stonewalling you, a few more runs to craft a better chest piece or unlock a new skill tree node will eventually tip the scales in your favor.
Why You Should Play It
If you poured hundreds of hours into perfecting your dash-strikes in Hades, then Grim Trials will feel like stepping into a comfortably familiar, spike-covered pair of boots. But it isn’t trying to be a cheap clone of the titans that came before it. The game carves out its own identity through its unique dual-wielding mechanics, a deeply personal narrative about love and regret, and an unapologetic heavy metal vibe.
If you love the frantic, build-crafting gameplay loop of running through dungeons, dying, chatting up colorful NPCs at a hub, and diving right back in with a slightly sharper blade, then Grim Trials is absolutely worth your time.
