Death Howl

Every once in a while, something comes along that reminds you why you love card games, and Death Howl did exactly that for me. Every moment felt handcrafted. The atmosphere, art, music, and world all come together beautifully, and the deck building is some of the most satisfying I've played. Every new card felt meaningful, and experimenting with different builds was always rewarding. I ended up earning every achievement simply because I didn't want the journey to end. That's the highest compliment I can give a game. Thank you for creating something with so much heart. I truly hope this isn't the last game like this you've built something special, and I'd love to see this style of thoughtful, atmospheric deck-building continue. Highly recommended.

In case there's any doubt that games can be art.

Nice art style, interesting playstyles,, interesting theming Its a bit of a slow burn, I beat every enemy and it was a bit grindy - I didn't find it as difficult as others are saying [apart from the final area] but perhaps that has something to do with it The bosses are the highlight - more of them would be good Worth the buy for any card game/deckbuilder fans

incredible. beautiful.

Incredible deck builder. A difficult Star Vaders without the roguelike aspect. Four regions surround a mountain. Each region has its own set of cards with certain flavours of gameplay style. By the time you finish a region you get to explore that flavour enough before it becomes stale and move onto the next. The fights, particularly the bosses are well crafted. The amount of reliance on RNG is so low and I love that. The RNG is purely relegated to what order you draw your cards. But as the min card limit is 15 and max 20. The draw order doesn't feel restrictive. You feel like each decision you make has impact and meant something. Once you beat each region you climb the mountain with all your cards and powers to beat the final boss. The comparison made to Star Vaders is not just the high deck variety, but the isometric grid battlefield that the combat takes place on. Movement, mana management and passives from your totems adds a lot of layers to the game. At first glance it is quite simple and basic, and that's because it is rather easy to intuit and play. But to thrive requires quite a lot of depth and consideration. This is also one of those games that you get more back for how much you invest into it. If you want to just gun it. Beat fights and bosses and move to the credits as fast as possible. You'll still have a good time, maybe a little bit harder. But if you take your time. Explore and engage with the environment around you. The game gives you some of the best content it has to offer. The overworld isn't just art to walk between fights and pad out the time. It's there to engage with, and even tell its own story. Talking about the art and story. This is the most striking part of it. To be honest, decent deck builders that are fun to play are starting to become a dime a dozen. (I know, what a problem to have). It's getting to the point where the devs needs something to make the game stand out. And for me, that was the art and the story. The incredible pixel art is MS paint on crack. Like those kids that grew up with computers with not many apps started to play around with MS paint and then never stopped. And now can achieve exhibit submission quality. The story is hard to talk about. The broad strokes of the story are two short dot points. I don't want to give it away, not because of some incredible twist. Purely because there isn't a lot to give away, and I rather you play and experience it for yourself. Although there isn't a lot of quantity of story, does not mean the quality is lacking. Quite the opposite. It was short but very beautiful. A lot more moving than I was expecting out of a short deck builder. A big part of what made it stand out was how they used the medium to tell the story. Some things that could be better (not bad, just better), is enemy readability and music. For a game where RNG has so little impact and you are driving a lot of how the fight is going. It could do better with enemy details. Clicking on an enemy does tell you what movement they have and some status effects. When you stand in certain places it tells you if you are standing in a spot that is ideal for it to bust out a stronger move. But what attacks, status effects and the overall numbers each enemy has. Should be easy to display and could have made the learning stages of the game easier. The music and overall sound design was not bad at all. Mostly just middle of the road. When so much creative expression and effort went into the art. It's more noticeable when that same level of care wasn't placed in the music and sound design. Which is fine and the game didn't need it, nor did it feel lacking for not having "knock your socks off" audio. It's just something the devs can look at for improvement on their next game. Which I hope there is, cause this game has me very interested in whatever these guys put out next.

Very fun and challenging game with a very customisable combat system and a moving story

Decent gameplay, atmosphere, strategic, and kind of addictive actually. Reminds me of the Banner Saga a bit. It's designed to waste your time however. Grinding, fighting the same mobs... the mechanics are harsh and very punishing. You HAVE to repeatedly die to progress. The story is somewhat interesting, but I don't think it's worth pushing through just for the sake of it. It takes too much time... It's a pity. Wish there were a easier mode.

Beautiful game and stuff

Thoughtfully crafted in both gameplay, theming, and story, this is a deck building adventure well worth your time and consideration. The narrative focuses on Ro, a woman travelling through the spirit world in order to save her son from the clutches of death itself. The setting allows for some very unique and downright trippy visuals and characters along the way, such as a laughing spirit that repeatedly jumps to it’s own demise repeatedly as a twisted kind of joke. Everything is presented in very bold colours and designs, which really makes all the different locations pop. Without getting into spoilers, the story is a heartfelt and sincerely delivered narrative about grief and how the loss of a loved one can change you. It’s not overly complex or ambitious, but it feels like it hits just the right kind of pacing for a game of this length. In terms of the general ebb and flow of the gameplay, you have to push through predetermined encounters, with a vary number of enemies and different battlefield layouts. To do so you have to construct a deck of abilities, which is crafted using a resources the hostile spirits you kill drop and using items from the environment. Notably, each of the four major zones have a different realm deck associated with it; the cards from each realm can only be used in said realm with any efficacy. This does mean having to start over in each new major zone, but it also encourages a lot experimentation and exploring what each realm cards’ mechanics and individual strengths are. This eventually builds up to the final zone where you can freely use all the cards you’ve made across the game, allowing you to make some appropriately broken combos. However, it should be noted the game does have a bit of a learning curve. The game isn’t overly punishing since if you lose a fight, you respawn instantly outside of the combat zone, essentially allowing a do over. But you do have to be willing to take a few losses until you find a deck that works, and get used to using it effectively. It does have unusual checkpoint system, which is similar to a Dark Souls bonfire system in that enemies only respawn when you rest. This can feel a little strange to grapple with in the early game, since you may have to fight the same group of foes a few times as you move around. Eventually, however, the power and game knowledge the player gathers means you can safely clear out entire zones without having to rest, which feels really satisfying. To point things in bullet points: Pros: + Tightly designed card based combat that’s fun to experiment with + Short but effective story set in an interesting spirit world environment + Visually appealing locations with a lot of cerebral imagery + Good amount of content for the asking price + Great end-game design that allow for a lot of player expression Cons - Having to start off from scratch in each zone in terms of cards can create some friction that, while interesting, takes a while to get used to - Some of the side quests can be a little obscure to figure out even with the in game hints Added/natural points # Has a somewhat steep learning curve. The game isn’t frustrating as such, but it will take a bit of trial and error before you can get on it’s wave length. However, the system feels great in motion once you do get there I really enjoyed my time with game, and think it’s got it’s own sense of style and character. It definitely one to pick up if you’re interested in deck builders, or enjoy it’s sense of aesthetics or setting.

It’s good. It’s difficult. You have to grind even if you go in wirh a good strategy. There’s some RNG that will work out for you sometimes and when it doesn’t, you’ll be very unhappy. I came away from my playtime with a positive view of the game. Each time you enter a new region all your cards from any prior region cost one extra point of energy. Energy is limited per turn. Therefore, this is meaningful and means you cannot overlevel in one region and go into the next one strong. It’s a method of resetting your progress region to region and adds grinding and strategy to learn the new cards of the region by stringing together wins against a variety of enemies.