GRIME II review: Admire the monster, absorb the monster, borrow its technique

The big picture

GRIME II takes artistic influence rather literally. You encounter something unpleasant, absorb it and use a version of its shape as part of your own repertoire. Most creative people can manage this process with a sketchbook. The Formless appears to have chosen a more direct relationship with the subject matter, and the subject matter is unlikely to appreciate it.

Clover Bite's action-adventure metroidvania launched in full on March 31, 2026, for Windows, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. November 2025's public build was a demo, not development Early Access. The later September physical Definitive Edition does not replace the original March release date. This is a new land in the same universe as the first GRIME, built around an art mimic whose habit of acquiring other creatures' forms is both a combat system and a fairly strong personal statement.

The hands are not just for looking unsettling

Hand-like tendrils allow the Formless to parry attacks or grasp enemies. Environmental hazards can harm either side, as the Xbox listing explains. The surroundings therefore participate in combat, rather than politely waiting until everyone has finished fighting before becoming relevant again.

Grasping, ranged attacks and dangerous scenery create different reasons to care about position. A useful build still needs a useful situation. That makes the environment more than a corridor connecting opportunities to compare damage numbers, and gives the player another way to think through a troublesome encounter.

It also lets the game's physical weirdness do actual work. Reaching hands are more specific than a generic burst of magical light. Their appearance communicates what they do while fitting the unsettling world around them. You may have questions about the anatomy, but at least the anatomy has arrived with a practical purpose.

Less stamina management, more choice

The developer's launch post describes removing the original game's stamina limitation, opening less linear routes and revising fast travel. It also emphasises room for melee or ranged approaches, with or without dependence on parrying. Those are substantial changes to the kinds of decisions that organise the sequel.

No stamina bar does not mean every fight has become easy. It changes which restrictions shape your actions, leaving ability choice, timing and positioning to carry more of the decision-making. The absence of one familiar obstacle is not a guarantee that the creature in front of you has agreed to become accommodating.

Likewise, broader routes provide freedom without automatically providing clarity. Players who enjoy investigating, changing direction and returning to spaces can value that flexibility. Someone who wants a persistent indication of the correct next step may find a less linear world more demanding to navigate. Wandering is only a reward when you actually like doing it.

Revised fast travel belongs to the same question of how exploration is paced. Travelling through a place can help you understand it; repeatedly traversing an already understood connection can become routine. The sequel's changes make navigation part of its new direction rather than treating it as an untouched frame around the combat additions.

Somebody considers this place normal

The environments include constructions involving painted nails and enormous vases, with distinct civilisations and characters inhabiting them. That is a stronger source of curiosity than grotesque scenery alone. A huge vase is an odd thing to encounter. A community treating the huge vase as an ordinary part of daily life raises considerably more interesting questions about the neighbourhood.

The world remains unsettling, however many inhabitants are available to meet. Body transformation and strange forms are fundamental to its personality. A player looking for comfortable fantasy scenery should not assume that conversation will make the surroundings feel conventional. This is somewhere to explore because its oddness interests you, not despite the persistent hope that it will soon stop being odd.

GRIME II brings enemy identity, character building and exploration into the same unusual idea: pay attention to what you encounter, then decide what you can make of it. That offers a good reason for curious metroidvania players to investigate. Choose it for the chance to experiment in a world with a very peculiar understanding of art. Perhaps leave the ordinary gallery etiquette at the entrance.