SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist combines the world of Yokai hunting with randomly generated worlds. Will this title by WODAN Inc. spell out success on the Ouija Board? Fill up your aura; we’re going ghost busting.
Shrine Bright Like A Diamond
SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist features Yono, a Shrine Maiden looking for her missing brother, who happens to be an exorcist. Our protagonist decides to use all the little bits of info her brother has given her through the years to explore the village, tackle the Abyss, and save her brother, all while juggling a darker side to her and trying to keep her sanity.
Sadly, the narrative is the weakest aspect of the game, primarily due to just how little of it there is. Story segments are limited to short scenes at the start of every Story Stage map, as well as little moments when you pick up an item that explain how it works. That’s it for the most part. It feels a lot more like window decoration and didn’t really grab me at any point. It’s such a shame, because the game has quite an interesting premise, and it comes off as a little half-baked, especially compared to excellent examples of other roguelikes/roguelites such as Hades that use narrative so well.
Ghostly Pedigree
I went into SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist without having looked into it much and found myself surprised by the calibre of staff behind it. You have Kenichi Iwao, who worked on Resident Evil and Parasite Eve 2; Tatsuya Yoshikawa, famous for Breath of Fire, Devil May Cry 4 & 5, and Slitterhead; and Hiroshi Ogino, who worked on Shiren The Wanderer and Fate/Grand Order. There’s a lot of talent right there, so the expectations were quite high with this one.
SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist is a top-down roguelike-slash-puzzle game where you visit various estates in the village and aim to dispel the many demons that are haunting them. It’s a harsh job that offers little room for mistakes and carries quite a high level of tension, no matter the skill level you bring to the table. The game has a very slow and methodical pace, starting you off with the bare minimum of equipment, usually a gun and a few pellets of ammo. You’ll explore the many buildings, finding items crucial to your objective but also your survival. The game has similarities to the survival horror genre, where you have to deal with limited inventory, a small health pool, and a rather slow walk speed to help ramp up the tension, and it does this masterfully.
Each demon has a particular method to deal with them. Some are susceptible to guns, whereas others require more forward planning and need to be tricked into crossing Seals to remove them. The aim is to use all the tools you come across to remove the threat while keeping yourself safe. Forward planning and thinking are essential, and if you use the wrong item or charge in headfirst, you will almost certainly be starting your run again.
Gonna Need Bigger Pockets
The resource management aspect is especially heavy in this title. Even though you can find items that will allow you to hold more, you’ll often find yourself making mental notes as to where you’ve left the things you couldn’t afford to take with you. There’s nothing worse than forgetting where you have left a candle because you needed that room to take a key to further your progress, and now you have to face several rooms in complete darkness. To get you to grips with what you’ll be coming up against, the game offers a story mode path with predetermined layouts and explanations as to what the various tools and weapons do, with hints on how to use them. Once you’ve fully mastered this mode, it’s on to the randomly generated dungeons to really test yourself and see how far you can go before you join the spirits you’ve been working so hard to send away.
The slow-paced nature and almost puzzle-like elements with the tools create quite a tense yet rewarding experience, and one that, when I stuck my teeth into, I really enjoyed. The stages don’t drag on too long either, so it was ideal for pick-up-and-play. The randomly generated stages offer a lot of replay value, especially with there being online leaderboards to try and top, which became something of a pleasure of mine to see how high I can get in a run.
A Haunting Prospect
SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist won’t be for everyone though. It’s a slow game, even compared to titles like Shiren the Wanderer, as there is no option to sprint and escape. You’re forced to live or die by your mistakes. As well as that, the stages lack variety, albeit the variations of yokai you take on help diversify the experience at least somewhat.
The combat isn’t what you would expect from a title that at first glance looks like it fits into the “mystery dungeon” type of game either. Yes, you have weapons, but your greatest skill is to trick the enemy into running into traps, such as open fires, pits of impending death, or my personal favorite: trapping them in rooms covered in deadly flesh tentacles. This less direct combat can offer frustration and may not appeal to all with its more hands-off attempt at the genre. It feels like the Fatal Frame of roguelikes at times, and that sense vulnerability really sold the game to me.
Beautifully Deadly
SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist has a beautiful pixel art graphical style that fuses the glorious 16-bit era with some dark and macabre themes. It almost feels like an unearthed gem from the Super Famicom era. The main character has an almost chibi look to her, which nails the “out of your depth” theme the game is going for, and the demons all have a distinct look and movement to them.
Some of the areas you’ll come across in the game are absolutely beautiful in a dark kind of way. There is a really strong art direction with this title, and it seeps through every pore of the visuals. I am admittedly a sucker for games with the 16/32-bit pixel look, and SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist absolutely nails this aesthetic.
Spirit Box
The last major mechanic in SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist is the use of sound. In order to try to get the upper hand on all the dangers, you have to actively listen. By doing this, you can hear what is going on in the next room and plan ahead. Maybe you hear small footsteps ahead, so you decide to pop off a few shots through the door. On the other hand, you can hear hordes of demons and use your character’s voice to shout out; the horde then descends on you in a murderous rage…or rather onto the unexpected spike traps in the middle of the room. Perfection.
While you can play the game with the volume off and be alerted to “essential sounds,” the ominous music, ambient sound, and the screams of the demons really help immerse you in the horror of the game, and I would highly recommend you get some earphones on and play the game as intended. The sound design is excellent and really completes the total package of SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist.
Verdict
SHINONOME ABYSS The Maiden Exorcist perfectly fuses the world of survival horror with the surprise and punishing difficulty of the roguelike, especially in the randomly generated mode. It’s held me captive much longer than I anticipated.
That said, it is a slow and punishing game, so you’re either going to fall in love with it or it might just not click if that’s not your cup of tea. The puzzle aspects may throw people off, too. But for me, it’s been a genuine sleeper hit for 2026, and I would love to see how far this unique formula can be taken.
SHINONOME ABYSS THE MAIDEN EXERCISE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
If you enjoy roguelikes and roguelites, check out our review of Warriors: Abyss.
Many thanks go to Kadokawa Corporation for a Nintendo Switch review code for SHINONOME ABYSS: The Maiden Exorcist.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
