Grim Trials from Glory Jam and Soft Source brings us a fast-paced heavy metal hack and blast roguelite in which you must craft and customize your weapons as you deal with Death. Learn more in our Grim Trials review!
Grim Trials from Glory Jam and Soft Source brings us a fast-paced heavy metal hack and blast roguelite in which you must craft and customize your weapons as you deal with Death. Your name is Avelin, and after an untimely end to your life, you’re recruited by Death as one of its Reaper apprentices. You must now hunt down impure souls as you also face your demons, so that you can completely become a Reaper… and once again see your still-living love. For this, you’ll be taking on endless hex-grid arenas that are packed with deadly traps, monsters, and sinful souls ready to tear you to pieces. Make the most of the weapons and skills at your disposal as you fight the right combination to help you survive for longer during each run.
Once you jump into action, you’ll be taking control of Avelin by using the left analog stick as you weave and dodge incoming attacks by dashing with the A button. Dashing is important, since it will allow you to dodge enemy attacks, since you’ll be invulnerable for that brief window. You can also use a dash to jump over small gaps. Unleash melee attacks by pressing the Y button, which you can use to combo away at enemies.
You can press the ZR button to shoot your crossbow in the direction that you’re currently facing. You can also use the right analog stick to manually aim your shot for a more precise attack. Press the X button to perform a special attack that will be unique for each weapon type that you wield. Do know that special attacks require a Fervor charge to be used. Your Fervor charges will fill up at a steady pace as you attack enemies and objects.
As mentioned before, your task is simple: defeat and collect the sinful souls – of which there are 7 – as you take on the Trial Ground, moving from room to room. Defeat all 7 sinful souls, and you’ll be able to complete the purification act and win your prize. While it sounds simple, it will require lots of trial and error as you pay attention and figure out the movement and attack pattern of each enemy that you run into, all while learning from your mistakes.
You must gather as many materials and resources when out on the battlefield so that you can use them to craft new weapons and armor, which you can use their improved power and stat values to take on the ever-increasing hordes, as well as craft consumables to aid you. This is why small beast bones, raw meat, red crystals, bronze ore, purified souls, shadowwood, grim shrooms, monster pelt, and other items need to be collected in each room. You’ll need to convert raw materials into processed materials, so that they can then work as ingredients for crafting an item.
Crafting is done by completing short quicktime event (QTE) minigames for which you will be tasked with hitting the spell nodes at the right time. The better you get at using the tools for crafting, the better the grades for the weapons and other items that you craft. You’ll get to test this during the tutorial segment, for which you’ll be crafting the Soul REaver, a scythe that inflicts a short stun effect upon landing a hit. It will also deal more damage than your base Reaper Scythe. Once you craft some potions, you’ll be able to use them by pressing the corresponding direction on the D-Pad. That way, you could, say, drink a potion to heal some of your wounds.
When your run ends – not if, but when – the souls that you obtained by defeating the different enemies slain in the Trial Ground will be converted into Soul Runes. You can then use Soul Runes to expand your repertoire and improve Avelin by making the most of them and spending them all at the skill tree! The skill tree will allow you to customize your loadout as you expand on your skills and abilities, which you can reset at any time in case you want to take on a different path and change which nodes are activated.
As you progress through each run, you’ll be given the chance to pick from a trio of blessings that will be presented to you. Choose wisely, since each one will boost your character for the current run. And yes, they can also be upgraded by picking the same blessing the second – or third, or fourth! – time that you run into them. Some examples include Charon’s Shock, which gives your dash the chance of inflicting stun on arrival; Ereshkigal’s Toxin, which adds a chance that your ranged attacks inflict poison; or Nergal’s Edge, which boosts melee attacks based on what your overall health is at.
Between runs, you can explore The Academy, a location where all of those aiming to become Reapers train. Think of The Academy as the hub where you’ll be working on expanding your equipment, your knowledge of the world of Grim Trials, as well as your relationships with the different characters that you’ll be interacting with.
If you’re the type of gamer who likes to 100% games, then you’ll be happy to hear that you’ll be able to work on the different objectives from the in-game achievements system. What will you need to take care of as you aim for that 100%? You will unlock achievements by opening the first Grim Reaper chest, crafting a ton of gear, reaching maximum affinity points with Pytra, Kai, as well as Breone and Namélés, beating each of the bosses, and crafting all weapons, to name some examples.
Grim Trials brings us a fast-paced heavy metal hack and blast roguelite in which you must craft and customize your weapons as you deal with Death. Your name is Avelin, and after an untimely end to your life, you’re recruited by Death as one of its Reaper apprentices. You must now hunt down impure souls as you also face your demons, so that you can completely become a Reaper… and once again see your still-living love. For this, you’ll be taking on endless hex-grid arenas that are packed with deadly traps, monsters, and sinful souls ready to tear you to pieces. Make the most of the weapons and skills at your disposal as you fight the right combination to help you survive for longer during each run.
Yes, as you can tell from the trailer and screens in this Grim Trials review, it’s a game that has definitely been inspired by Hades, and it’s sequel – you know, the aptly titled Hades II – so if you’ve played either one of the two beloved releases from Supergiant Games, then you probably have a good idea of what it is that you’ll be getting yourself into.
Grim Trials launches tomorrow on Nintendo Switch 2 with a $19.99 price tag. There’s also a Nintendo Switch version of the game available for the same price as a separate purchase. Save files are not compatible between the Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch versions of the game.
Disclaimer
This Grim Trials review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by Soft Source.
