Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami Review

Having just finished reading the manga not six weeks previously, the announcement that Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami was being released in English — and right now — was a very welcome surprise. Featuring a story that I hadn’t experienced (since it was released only in Japan on the PlayStation 4 in 2018), I couldn’t wait to start playing and see what further hijinks the Yuragi-sou gang could get into.

Steamy Maze (the full name is too long) is a roguelike RPG which sees the characters from the manga and anime discovering a mysterious item in the storage cupboard. Clearly not learning their multiple previous lessons (see the manga) about mysterious items in the storage cupboard, series protagonist Kogarashi Fuyuzora gets kidnapped and pulled into it! So, it’s up to Yuuna and the other ladies who live at Yuragi-sou (a hot spring inn) to enter the miniature garden and rescue him! As the garden changes every time they enter, they’re going to have their work cut out for them.

To say that this was released on consoles and PC, it’s really weird that the PC version is not compatible with controllers. You can make it work with a controller, of course, but the on-screen prompts are for keyboard controls. Which are awful, just putting that out there, it’s the bottom row of keys and Y, who does that? The game starts off in windowed mode, and you have to wait until you’re in the game before it will let you into the settings menu to change that. The only other real options are for music, sound effects, and voice volumes…

Gameplay in Steamy Maze sees you clearing randomly generated levels made up of a set number of floors each, usually with an objective. You move in straight lines, as do your enemies who only move when you do, whether that’s a movement, using an item, or attacking. Different weapons give you different attack types, with some allowing longer-range attacks — or you can throw things from your inventory if you only have a short-range weapon. You can also dress each character in several outfits, ones you find in levels, buy in the in-game shop or retrieve from storage as part of the premium DLC that the game comes bundled with.

Speaking of outfits, they don’t just make the cast look different (which they do, even in cutscenes), they also have different effects. These effects will change as the outfit gets damaged and tears, but don’t worry, you never see much of anything, let alone nipples. The effect that developer FURYU Corporation went with is “use the circular erase tool”, rather than “make it look frayed or damaged”, so parts of the outfit are literally just blotted out? It looks very strange.

While I did just say that you don’t see nipples, one of the modes in Steamy Maze is Resonance Hot Spring, which increases the level of whomever you pop into the bath. They wear a towel and are liberally covered in steam, though, so while you’re fighting off spirits as Koyuzu you don’t get distracted by cleavage. The way that the bath powers up the ladies is by using Spirit Soap, obtained in levels, which attracts spirits, so the youngest resident of the inn takes it upon herself to fight them off.

Other options when not in a level are enhancing equipment and buying new items, outfits, and weapons at the shop. Both of these things require spirit points, so you might need to save up to buy everything!

The graphics are fine, but honestly other than looking like the manga (with static images during cutscenes) there’s nothing that stands out from the crowd. If this had been released a year or two earlier, it would have fit right in on the PlayStation Vita’s catalogue, with its massive collection of roguelike dungeon crawlers. But in 2024 it’s hard-pressed to stand out. People who aren’t familiar with Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs are likely to just breeze past this without giving it a ghost of a chance.

While the gameplay itself is decent, with plenty of levels to keep you playing, Steamy Maze’s story is definitely a highlight for fans. There are also side stories to discover that show off some fun character interactions. You can watch them when they unlock or view them later (or both), so you don’t have to worry about missing out on something.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami is definitely a game that fans will enjoy infinitely more than non-fans. It’s just unfortunate that the keyboard control scheme is gibberish, and controller support is unsupported. It’s hard to recommend it too highly on PC for the controls, and that weird “tearing” effect they went with, though if you’ve read the manga and want more, then definitely check it out.