Hell Maiden grabbed my eye with a pretty compelling concept: this is a Vampire Survivors-like retelling of Dante's Divine Comedy, but the story's been gender-flipped to replace the whole cast with anime girls in a '90s magical girl aesthetic, ala Sailor Moon. That was enough to get me to check out the game's Steam Next Fest demo, and after a handful of runs just kept packing on new delight after new delight I couldn't hit the wishlist button fast enough.
If you've played Vampire Survivors, or any number of other games that popped up in the wake of its breakout success, you'll immediately understand the basics. From an isometric perspective, you move Dante – who is, again, an anime girl in this world – around, and every second or so she makes an automatic attack. Endless hordes of enemies roll in, and as you defeat them they'll drop experience orbs you can grab to level up, get new attacks, and upgrade existing powers.
