Grim Trials
You're learning a weapon system that doesn't play by Hades rules.
Grim Trials is an action roguelite where you defeat seven bosses across four underworld biomes by dual-wielding a scythe and crossbow. Between runs, you craft custom weapons and equipment, invest in a skill tree, and unlock story moments with NPCs at an academy hub. The game respects your time: a single run takes two to three hours, and completion is achievable in under ten hours.
Grim Trials doesn't sell a Hades alternative—it sells the specific satisfaction of mastering unfamiliar weapon patterns while crafting your way to dominance, which is exactly what players came back for despite occasional frustration with telegraphing.
Players repeatedly report that the weapon system initially feels unfamiliar compared to Hades, but this friction resolves into engagement rather than frustration for most of the positive sample—the unfamiliar telegraphing becomes learnable, not broken.
Crafting is consistently praised not as a wrapper mechanic but as a core source of build variety and player agency, with the QTE minigame specifically cited as fresh.
Music and art/character design appear in nearly every positive review as standalone reasons to engage, suggesting these elements carry weight beyond the core loop.
Two negative reviews (both Simplified Chinese) cite poor feel and sameness, describing hand-feel and UI as substandard compared to price. Within the broader English-dominant sample, one negative review argues that after 10 runs, the skill pool feels exhausted—no legendary-tier skills, no game-changing buffs, no reason to chase further variety. This objection is specific and structural: the depth players praise in early hours may plateau. The issue isn't that the systems are broken; it's that the progression ceiling feels lower than comparable roguelites.
See the game in motion.
Grim Trials is a heavy metal action roguelite where you craft and customize your own weapons and equipment to embrace Death your own way. Play as Avelin and hunt impure souls through an underworld of your own making, with crafting, a skill tree, and an Academy hub where you unlock story and relationships.
Players frame Grim Trials as a working action roguelite with unexpectedly deep crafting and a music soundtrack worth its own praise. The alignment with the official description is genuine: crafting is central, the skill tree matters, and the underworld theme delivers visually. But players emphasize two things the store copy downplays: the weapon system requires unlearning Hades expectations, and the music is a legitimate draw. They're not claiming a gap—they're confirming the description while highlighting what made them stay.
“You can craft weapons and equipment that support different playstyles, giving you a lot of freedom in how you want to play.”
“Been a while since I played a roguelike that actually pulled me in, and **GRIM TRIALS** is one of the freshest releases I've tried lately.”
“After playing for ~10-ish cycle, I've basically seen every iteration of the skill that we can get from the game, there's nothing to chase, no OP skill, no legendary tier, no game-changing buff.”
“It fits the whole atmosphere of the game really well and gives Grim Trials a personality of its own.”
Short verbatim excerpts selected from the analyzed public Steam review sample for their relevance to the analysis above.
23 public Steam reviews analyzed across 3 languages.
Synthesized from public Steam reviews. Not affiliated with Valve Corporation.
Player-language signals, not generic review scores.
Best for
- —Players who beat Hades and want a shorter, less demanding roguelite with different weapon mechanics
- —Crafting enthusiasts who want build variety and material-gathering loops to feel consequential
- —Players who value music and art direction as much as gameplay, or who enjoy heavy metal aesthetics
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Deep editorial analysis
Grim Trials has a deceptive marketing problem that is not actually a problem. The official description frames this as a Hades-adjacent roguelite with customization—which is true enough to not be wrong. But what keeps players engaged is a specific friction: the weapons don't telegraph the way action roguelite veterans expect. One reviewer who loves Hades was caught off-guard because enemies change direction mid-attack in ways that Supergiant's telegraphing language didn't prepare them for. Another player who admits they're not good at action games pushed through the initial confusion because the loop—learning the weapons, crafting better gear, returning with a new build—became genuinely addictive.
The crafting system is the real draw, though the description mentions it. It's not cosmetic. It's not a wrapper. You gather materials from failed runs, and the QTE-based crafting minigame (which reviewers call fresh) feels like you're actually constructing something meaningful. The skill tree unlocks meaningful variety too: one player who beat the game in 13 hours acknowledged they'd return specifically for skill tree completion. This is not FOMO language. It's the language of someone who saw a system and wanted to exhaust it.
The audience for this game is narrower than Hades, but it's not weak. It's players who can tolerate—even embrace—a weapon system that forces them to unlearn their muscle memory before it clicks. The music is universally praised (banger appears in multiple languages and review contexts). The art and character design landed consistently across every positive review. What didn't land was the assumption that Hades veterans would recognize themselves immediately. They do recognize themselves eventually. The game just makes them work for it.
Signal data
% positive reviews
Under-the-radar potential
Store framing vs player language
Voice and personality in reviews
Would a stranger click buy?
59 reviews currently indexed
23 analyzed · english, schinese, spanish
Last synthesized: Aug 21, 2026 · 23 reviews in that synthesis
Revlize indexed this signal before it reached scale.
8/21/2026 · 31 reviews
59 reviews
+90% · +28
Why it entered the radar: unexpected depth.
This timeline records correlation only. Revlize does not claim to have caused later growth.
Review sampling, evidence boundaries and public-signal methodology.
Frequently asked
Yes. You unlock story moments and relationships through the Academy hub by completing NPC quests and interacting with characters. The narrative frames your journey as Avelin becoming a full Reaper.