Death Howl is a turn-based, grid-based Soulslike deckbuilder, but despite this dizzyingly long chain of subgenres, the game comes together well, with a tight, satisfying gameplay loop. Its themes of grief are well-handled, its sidequests are unique and challenging, and it continued to introduce fun new mechanics even dozens of hours into my 45-hour playthrough.
Ro, Death Howl’s protagonist, journeys into the spirit world after a tragic accident separates her from her son. In her quest to get him back, she seeks help from the land’s four great spirits to reach the summit of the howling mountain. Along the way, she encounters a variety of quirky, surreal spirits, most of which she has to defeat in combat. The story of journeying into the land of the dead has been told many times throughout human history, and while Death Howl’s structure isn’t particularly novel, its execution is. Its muted color palette; dark, brooding soundtrack; and distinct monster designs establish a singular aesthetic identity I couldn’t get enough of.
The vast majority of Death Howl is its brutal combat. While invoking From Software’s Dark Souls as an inspiration has been commonplace for nearly a decade, Death Howl more than earns the comparison. Defeating enemies earns titular death howls, which are used to unlock new cards or abilities. Every combat encounter has the potential to be deadly, and with limited checkpoints, it takes skill to conserve your health across several battles. Equally challenging are the massive, grotesque bosses, each with irregular body shapes and environments that make each face-off memorable.
Across four realms, you’ll assemble an arsenal of cards that do damage, inflict status conditions, or even summon allies. Perhaps Death Howl’s cleverest trick is nerfing cards by increasing their costs outside their home realms, making your favorite deck in one area completely unviable in the next. Each realm is built around a different mechanic, like discarding or taking damage, with isolated skill trees as well. There’s also the overwhelm feature, which differs by realm and can provide vital boosts by repeating a realm’s favored action over time. A realm built around movement, for instance, rewards you for playing as many cards as possible by giving Ro the ability to charge up a massive blast of damage. I like that the realm system encourages the player to experiment, while also keeping their relative power low enough that the world always feels dangerous.
Death Howl’s sidequests are also stellar. Each occurs when Ro encounters a spirit in need of something, and the quest begins when she’s granted a specific quest card. These disable fast travel and can’t be removed from your deck unless you want to abandon the quest. Each has a quest-specific mechanic that can either help or hinder you; my favorite quest granted me a card that heals me – something you can usually only do situationally – and had me clear out a whole area without resting to heal at a checkpoint. I loved tackling these bespoke situations, and the rewards are always worth it.
In the opening hours, I didn’t love Death Howl. I found combat frustrating until I took a step back and focused on grinding death howls on the skill tree, which gives the player a substantial power boost and helps to focus their decisions during battle. Not only did my experience vastly improve, but I was amazed to find that I fell in love with the gameplay again and again with each realm’s new mechanics. Even the final area is uniquely rewarding, not only because it brings the story to a satisfying conclusion, but because it allows me to feel that sense of discovery one last time.
Death Howl is cohesive and well-crafted. The game’s dour tone complements its surreal art style and soundtrack. Its myriad genres coalesce into consistently engaging combat and tactics. But most of all, across story and gameplay, Ro’s journey taught me to embrace obstacles to overcome them. Having reached its end, it’s a journey I’m glad to have taken.