Bullet Heavens are a genre of games that I love dearly. Over the holiday break, I took some time to dip back into them, playing HoloCure, Vampire Survivors, and the demo for Hell Maiden. Hell Maiden is hard to describe at first, but the upcoming Early Access game really has me intrigued.

Hell Maiden’s premise is ambitious from the start. Developer AstralShift has stated that they plan for Hell Maiden to be a sequel to Dante’s Inferno. That’s right, you are reading that correctly. AstralShift has built a playable story to build upon Dante Aligheri’s story. Surprisingly, the story presented in the demo works so far.

You play as Dante, who has found herself back in Limbo after making it all the way to Eden to reunite with Beatrice. Strangely, Dante doesn’t remember anything beyond her name, and that Beatrice wants her to rise back to Eden for some reason. Virgil, surprised that Dante doesn’t remember her, agrees to help Dante return to Eden, hoping to restore Dante’s memory along the way.

It is important to mention here that Hell Maiden is immediately striking in its art style. The visual style mimics that of anime such as Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, or Madoka Magica. It is colorful, beautiful, and I am already immersed and intrigued just from playing the demo.

Hell Maiden’s gameplay matches its style in an interesting way. Instead of godly boons from games like Hades or Death Must Die, Dante gets help from the Poets of Antiquity trapped in the Underworld / various circles of Hell. In the demo, two Poets are available, each offering a different variety of cards that represent attacks and abilities.

As you select up to 4 attack cards, you can augment them with other cards that change how they act/behave in combat. You might make your melee attack cause burn damage or increase the radius of one of your ranged attacks to hit more enemies. This deck-building aspect shifts the Bullet Heaven formula a little and makes it a bit more versatile.

However, I have to mention that the melee abilities in Hell Maiden’s demo need some work. Often, you will end up suffering more damage than you deal. In reality, the melee abilities need more knockback, or some sort of balancing, so that enemies don’t overwhelm you as you use them.

Otherwise, I really like the abilities and options provided in the demo. Does it need some balancing? Probably. However, we’re only seeing two of the Poets, and there are more abilities we haven’t even seen yet.

Hell Maiden is set to enter Early Access in 2026, so there is a lot of time for it to grow and change. If you like Bullet Heavens, check out Hell Maiden’s demo. It is a lot of fun, and I think it has a lot of potential too.

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