Hell Maiden is a bullet heaven roguelite where Dante returns to Hell in an original adventure inspired by The Divine Comedy. Learn more about the game’s plot, gameplay, release date, our review of the demo, and more.
Everything We Know About Hell Maiden
Hell Maiden Plot
Hell Maiden takes place after the events of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, following a genderbent Dante who mysteriously falls from Paradise back into Hell with no memory of how she got there. Reunited with Virgil, she sets out to uncover the truth behind her return while encountering familiar figures from the classic poem, each reimagined through the game's own unique lens. The story draws heavily from The Divine Comedy, weaving literary references throughout its original narrative while remaining approachable for players unfamiliar with Dante's work.
Hell Maiden Gameplay
Hell Maiden is a bullet heaven roguelite where players battle through procedurally generated encounters, collecting Blessings that shape each run. As Dante rescues legendary Poets throughout Hell, she unlocks new weapons, Spells, and unique Blessing pools that encourage experimentation with different builds and playstyles.
Outside of individual runs, players earn permanent progression through Wails of the Abyss, allowing them to improve Dante's core attributes and make future attempts more manageable. Combined with flexible deckbuilding mechanics and randomized upgrades, every descent into Hell offers opportunities to discover new synergies and strategies.
Hell Maiden Release Date
Hell Maiden was released on Steam Early Access on July 16, 2026. While there isn’t an exact date for the game’s full release, the developers have stated it will remain in Early Access for an additional year or more.
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| $9.99 |
Hell Maiden Review (Early Access)
Midway Upon the Journey
Roguelites are hardly in short supply these days, which makes standing out a challenge in itself. Hell Maiden enters that crowded space with a premise that immediately sets it apart: a reinterpretation of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, reimagining what happens after the poem's conclusion by sending Dante back into Hell alongside a cast of genderbent literary figures.
It's an idea that could've easily stopped at recognizable names and aesthetics, but Hell Maiden has bigger ambitions. Beneath the bullet heaven combat and deckbuilding mechanics is a genuine appreciation for its source material, rewarding players familiar with Dante's work while still telling a story that stands on its own. Just as importantly, the gameplay gives that reinterpretation room to breathe instead of treating it as little more than window dressing.
As an Early Access release, Hell Maiden still has technical issues and rough edges that need attention. Even so, it already lays a compelling foundation, balancing literary inspiration with satisfying roguelite gameplay in a way that feels both thoughtful and distinct.
Paradise Lost, Again
The Divine Comedy has inspired its fair share of games over the years. Some, like Devil May Cry, borrow bits and pieces of its imagery, while others, like Limbus Company, wear that inspiration much more openly. Hell Maiden falls somewhere in the middle. Rather than simply using Dante Alighieri's epic as a backdrop, it asks a much more interesting question: what happens after Paradiso?
The answer, at least for now, begins with Dante herself. Reimagined as a woman alongside the rest of the cast, Dante inexplicably falls from Heaven with no memory of what happened. Before long, she's reunited with Virgil, who once again takes it upon herself to guide Dante through Hell as the two try to piece together the truth behind her return.
What I wasn't expecting was just how much of The Divine Comedy actually made it into the story. Sure, you'll run into familiar faces like Virgil, Beatrice, and Minos, but Hell Maiden doesn't stop at the obvious. It reaches further into Dante's world, pulling from its wider cast and lesser-known details in ways I wasn't expecting. More than once, I found myself thinking, "Wait... wasn't that actually from the poem?" only to dust off what I remembered from The Divine Comedy and realize the game really did pull from it.
That's probably what impressed me most about the writing. Hell Maiden isn't trying to be a one-to-one adaptation. Instead, it presents an original continuation of The Divine Comedy alongside visuals reminiscent of classic fantasy anime, complete with a reimagined cast and a story that's more interested in asking "what happens next?" than retelling what came before. At no point, however, does it ever feel like it's borrowing Dante's work just because it sounds cool. From the way Virgil carries herself to the little nods about how Hell is structured, it feels like the writers genuinely understand the world they're building on instead of simply cherry-picking famous names. That same attention to detail even extends beyond the story, with each Poet's cards and abilities pulling from their literary works, mythology, and historical associations instead of settling for surface-level references.
Being in Early Access, the story is naturally still laying the groundwork. While the current content leaves Dante's fall from Heaven and Hell's apparent deterioration largely unanswered, it does a good job of giving players a mystery that's easy to stay invested in. I'm already curious to see where Hell Maiden takes its interpretation of The Divine Comedy next.
Every Poet Has Their Verse
Hell Maiden mixes bullet heaven combat with deckbuilding mechanics, putting Dante front and center while the Poets she rescues become the source of her weapons, Spells, and playstyles. Rather than swapping between different characters, every run is played as Dante, with each Poet's weapon changing how she approaches combat.
One point of friction I ran into early on was just how slow Hell Maiden feels at the start. Before spending any Wails of the Abyss—the permanent progression currency earned after completing a run, whether victorious or not—Dante's movement speed and overall pacing felt sluggish enough that my first few runs bordered on frustrating. After my very first run, I picked up a few of the basic permanent upgrades like movement speed, maximum HP, and dodge cooldown, and the difference was immediately noticeable. It didn't fundamentally change combat, but it made getting into subsequent runs feel far less like a slog.
The core loop itself is easy enough to pick up. Every level grants a choice of Blessings to shape the run, with duplicate cards merging into stronger versions of the same effect. Each Poet also comes with a handful of Blessings tailored to their weapon, but they're by no means exclusive. Nothing's stopping Virgil from borrowing a few tricks from Horace, or Homer from dipping into Dante's arsenal if the run calls for it. It keeps the deckbuilding flexible without making it overwhelming.
That freedom is what ultimately sold me on Hell Maiden's gameplay. I started out thinking some of these weapons just weren't going to work, only to completely eat my own words a few moments later. Homer's weapon, for instance, went from something I barely gave a second thought to becoming my go-to boss killer once I stacked enough attack speed, poison, and life drain.
Other runs had me leaning into Horace's crit-heavy playstyle, burning everything in sight with Dante's Blessings, or simply seeing how many projectiles I could cram onto the screen before the whole thing started looking like a real bullet hell. Even after finding a couple of builds I could reliably fall back on, I still found myself wondering, "Alright... but what happens if I commit even harder to this one?"
One mechanic I did find surprisingly refreshing was how Hell Maiden handles Spells. Spells appear as pickups throughout a run instead of operating on a traditional cooldown, forcing players to decide whether to use them immediately or save them for tougher encounters. Each cast is accompanied by a fully animated, voiced cut-in that gives these abilities plenty of personality, making every cast feel impactful. More than once, I found myself hanging onto one because I knew a boss fight was coming up, giving each Spell a satisfying sense of weight instead of becoming just another ability to spam on cooldown.
Hell Maiden's Early Access status does show in a few rough spots, though. I ran into UI quirks that occasionally refused to let me purchase upgrades despite the game indicating I could, making what should've been one of the simplest interactions in the game more frustrating than it needed to be. I also encountered two crashes during my time with the game, one of which happened just before finally defeating Minos for the first time.
The most distracting issue, however, came in Circle 2, where Libicocco's obscuring fog would occasionally flicker on and off during combat. The sudden flashes between the obscured battlefield and the fully visible arena were disorienting enough to repeatedly pull my focus away from the fight whenever the bug appeared. These are the kinds of technical issues I'd like to see addressed as Early Access development continues.
I still found myself queuing up another run, though. Not because I wanted to grind for another upgrade, nice as that would've been, but because I wanted to see whether the next ridiculous build idea in my head would actually work.
Through a '90s Lens
If the story didn't already make it obvious, the opening certainly will. Hell Maiden wears its love for '90s fantasy anime on its sleeve, and it rarely strays from that identity. From its painterly character art to its expressive portraits and dramatic framing, it immediately reminded me of classics like Slayers. It's a style that fits surprisingly well with the game's reinterpretation of The Divine Comedy, giving familiar figures like Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice a distinct personality while still feeling rooted in the source material.
That same attention to presentation carries over into gameplay. Character sprites are expressive in combat, while dialogue portraits do a lot of the heavy lifting during story scenes. Even conversations without full voice acting feel lively thanks to subtle touches like animated text and screen effects that give exchanges a little extra energy instead of leaving them as static visual novel boxes.
The voice acting is another highlight. Major story scenes are fully voiced, and the cast does a great job selling both the quieter character moments and the more dramatic confrontations. The soundtrack itself fits the mood well throughout, but the real standout is Mili's opening theme, Not My Paradiso
. I wasn't expecting it to leave as much of an impression as it did, but before long, I found myself letting the opening play instead of skipping straight to the title screen.
Being an Early Access title, there are still some rough edges. Enemy variety is understandably limited at the moment, with a handful of recolored foes appearing throughout runs, and combat can become visually cluttered once builds really start taking off. Thankfully, the built-in cursor customization options made it much easier to keep track of where I was aiming at whenever the screen inevitably exploded into a sea of projectiles and effects.
Outside of the crashes I encountered, Hell Maiden rarely stumbled when it came to presentation. More than anything, it left me hoping the full release builds on what's already here, because the game's identity is already one of its strongest qualities.
To See the Stars Again
What surprised me most about Hell Maiden wasn't any single mechanic or story beat, but how confidently it brings everything together. Its reinterpretation of The Divine Comedy, satisfying build experimentation, and attention to literary detail all feel like parts of the same vision instead of disconnected ideas stitched together for novelty's sake.
That doesn't mean it's without its problems. The occasional crash, UI hiccups, and limited enemy variety are reminders that this is still an Early Access release, and they're issues I'd like to see addressed sooner rather than later. Fortunately, none of them overshadowed what kept pulling me back: experimenting with another build, spotting another clever literary reference, or simply seeing what awaited deeper in Hell.
There's still plenty of room for Hell Maiden to grow, but what's already here gave me more than enough reason to keep coming back. If this is the foundation the developers are building from, then I'm looking forward to making the trip through Hell again.
Game8 Reviews
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Hell Maiden Product Information
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| Title | HELL MAIDEN |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 16, 2026 |
| Developer | AstralShift |
| Publisher | AstralShift |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Action, Anime, Roguelite |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Hell Maiden Official Website |
