Vanripper did it again, and this time I felt he upped his game (quite literally) from Helltaker! It's pretty similar in story structure and character interactions to Helltaker, only instead of taking the role of a big burly man building a harem of demon girls in business attire you're now taking the role of a lady who ends up building herself a harem of ghost girls. For those who are fans of "yuri" and similar genres delving into girls love, there's plenty of that to go around here. Just don't expect a compelling narrative, because this game is interested in delivering everything else but that.

Gameplay's a step-up (IMO) from Helltaker, where instead of being a movement-based puzzle game you're now playing a combination of bullet-hell action game and time-management simulator, with quick reflexes on your part being instrumental to your success in each of the game's stages which get noticeably and progressively harder as you go. It's an interesting combination of genres/mechanics that I've found to be surprisingly fun, if frustratingly challenging at times, but the challenge in this game's case feels fair and well-designed enough to where the vast majority of deaths I experience as I play feel like they're my own fault because I genuinely made a mistake here and there that would lead to those deaths (which there were A LOT of, believe that!). You gotta be willing to adapt to the game's difficulty and develop your reflexes real quick, because Awaria is very punishing even on it's Normal difficulty -- people who grew up with the demanding gameplay of arcade-era games will feel right at home here, I think!

The soundtrack was done by Mittsies, the game guy whose music was used for Helltaker. Every single track is absolutely stellar and sets the mood in each segment they're played in perfectly, and I personally find them so good that it actually helped alleviate any frustration I felt during my initial run because each delay I experienced via my many gameplay deaths allowed me to listen to each track for extended periods of time and become really familiar with them. To put it another way, Awaria has one of the best OSTs that someone like me could listen to as I died during gameplay more times than I could count and it only made me appreciate the game even more as a result, in a bizarre (but not unwelcome) way.

The art style of Awaria matches everything else that Vanripper has put out in the past, and it looks just as good here as it does in everything else of his I've ever personally seen. It's instantly recognizable and packed with the same charm that helped draw me into Helltaker back when it first came out, but Awaria manages to be visually distinct enough from Vanripper's previous works (Helltaker being the most noteworthy example) to where it easily stands out from the rest of his catalogue. The character designs across the board are also great, with plenty of fanservice to go around -- nothing more for me to add there.

In conclusion, Awaria feels like a natural evolution to Helltaker in every way, especially in terms of actual gameplay. I wasn't expecting to see this game drop when it did, but I'm grateful that it did and that I got to experience another gem of a game from Vanripper as a result.

And Vanripper, you should've waited to drop this game until 2025, because that would've made it an easy 2025 game of the year contender for me had you done so! But you do you, I guess! Either way, thanks for making one of the most fun games I've played in a while (again)!

EDIT:

As of 1/26/2025, I completed the game on hard mode. vanripper, on the very slim chance that you end up reading this review of mine, I have something to say to you: You're a smart and sadistic son-of-a-BEEtch, and I wanna buy you a drink for dropping another game that manages to be very fun and hair-tearingly frustrating in equal measure even on it's hardest difficulty, and made me want to keep going at it no matter how long it took me to succeed because of how fun the challenge ended up being despite the frustration I frequently felt. Making games like this takes talent, and you should be proud of yourself for what you've achieved in Awaria.

I can't wait to see what you cook up next, both in terms of games AND in recipes!