Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 1|2, PlayStation 5
Genre: Action, Isometric, RPG, Dungeon Crawler, Indie

Comparisons between games that look similar -gameplay, narrative, or otherwise- are inevitable in this contentious space. At first glance, you might think the new isometric indie action title Grim Trials from Indonesian studio Glory Jam is just “Hades at SEA home”.

That’s far from the truth. You don’t go the long stretch from point A to the end in Grim Trials. Rather in traditional level-based fashion, you tackle each zone in the game for a few minutes, taking down the boss of the place or just getting taken down yourself. You still do your character upgrades from your hub, the Grim Reaper Academy. You also craft your weapons from materials gathered from your dungeon crawling. You can even bump up the grade of your crafted weapons if you do the short crafting minigame right, so there’s a huge incentive in farming stages and also hitting the sigils right to get the best version of your favourite weapon.

Speaking of which, you not only get to use the fast and wide scythes, but also giant hammers and axes, each with their own attack style, speed, and hit radius. Your ranged weaponry is your trusty crossbow, making all encounters in Grim Trials a mix of fast-paced melee and keepaway/kiting the opposition.

Throughout each run, you get your choice of powerups after completing a segment, as per the standard of games using the roguelite temporary power-up system. You’ll need to maximize your opportunities with these, as each capstone boss per zone hits really hard and have challenging patterns to figure out from the get-go. However, Grim Trials does have a particular balancing problem: your ranged attacks can inflict faster continuous stun onto enemies compared to your melee blows.

While breaking roguelite structures and challenges are part and parcel of the genre after many hours of play, this oversight does happen early on, meaning that unless you’re very careless with getting hit, you can dodge and rapid-fire your way through almost the entire game. Granted, elite enemies and bosses don’t flinch when they get hit by you, but the controls here are really tight and spot on, that even the slightest of cooldowns won’t hinder you much.

A Cut Above?

Glory Jam takes its inspirations from other roguelites and isometric action titles, infuses it into their creation Grim Trials, and making it death blossom into its own dungeon-crawling beast. With its tight controls and fun action beats, along with a quaint tale about a lost soul finding her purpose with her newfound job (albeit with overflowing text walls that need QAing), you cannot go wrong with this Indonesian ingenuity.

While it really needs to be balanced harsher and tougher -ranged weaponry and its subsequent temporary buffs can take you REALLY far to the game- it nonetheless gets the reaping done for its bargain price and humble length.

Final Score: 70/100

Retail copy provided by publisher.