Hell Girls

Hell Girls is a puzzle-RPG built around a turn-based match-3 combat system, and the most honest thing you can say about it is: the core loop is more interesting than the packaging suggests. Three playable Maidens, each aligned to fire, ice, or lightning, take on monster encounters selected from a gradually expanding world map. Battles play out on a symbol-matching board where chains matter, tempo matters, and the number of symbols you connect in a single turn determines how hard you hit. Build a long enough chain and you summon a Spell Book tied to your active Maiden's element: the fire Maiden scorches a radius of tiles, ice activates entire rows and columns, and lightning targets obstacles anywhere on the board. On top of that, mana-fueled spells sit in a separate layer and do not consume your turn, meaning smart management of both resources is the actual game. Treasure chests spawn mid-battle and reward you if you destroy them in time, but punish you if you ignore certain ones. It is more mechanical depth than the anime-girl thumbnail implies. Progression is handled through two currencies: gold, spent on new spells from world-map vendors, and Spiritual Energy, earned in combat and used to level up your Maidens directly. Costumes are not just cosmetic either; they change base stats and drop from encounters, which is a small but welcome layer of build thinking. The structure has a satisfying halfway-point twist too: clear the overworld map and the game opens up an entirely new hell-side map of encounters, effectively doubling the content without warning. At roughly five to six hours for a full clear, it is a compact game, but not a shallow one mechanically. Here is where the RPG specialist in me has to be straightforward, though. The story is an excuse plot in every technical sense. Three families, chosen by gods, elemental powers, monsters, hell's corruption, the end. There are brief dialogue scenes between some encounters and occasional CG artwork, but character writing barely exists. Reviewers have noted that the narrative feels dropped in rather than constructed, and the dialogue quality is uneven, a product of community-sourced localization that ranges from serviceable to jarring. If you come here for branching arcs and payoff dialogue, you will leave disappointed. The music is catchy but loops aggressively without smooth transitions, and the sound design overall feels budget-tier. Still, the Steam community has pushed the game to a notably positive reception across several thousand reviews, which tells you something real: the match-3 combat, in its fully turn-based form with all numbers visible, scratches a genuine strategic itch. It sits closer to a puzzle game with RPG dressing than to a proper CRPG, and the closest useful comparison is an extremely stripped-down Puzzle Quest with anime aesthetics and adult content. If you want narrative weight or meaningful choices, this is not your game. If you want a mechanically honest turn-based puzzle system wrapped in a brief, low-stakes adventure with elemental build variety, it delivers that without padding.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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