Declaring a Best Way of Doing Things is a fool’s game, though in recent years my favourite entries in the Tricky Hitting genre – inclusive of soulslikes and their hybridised disciples – have been the big, bulging ones. Elden Rings and Silksongs, with vast kingdoms and deep, rattling toolkits for surviving them. The reason it’s a fool’s game is because you can also have something like Death’s Door, a taut, compact, lighthearted little actioner that fills eight hours instead of 80 and yet never feels underwhelming or compromised for it.
Even in the latter stages, with a full kit of precisely four ranged spells, Death’s Door is a simple proposition. You are a crow. You hit things. Occasionally you shoot things. You collect the souls of a frog, a yeti, and a grandmother. Everything in-between directly relates to finding the errant monster/pensioner, or at a stretch, upgrading one of those four abilities.
Still, it’s clever with its limitations. Environments are small in number but vary wildly in tone and texture, and they tightly weave their paths into criss-crossing bundles that maximise travel – evoking the sense of a great, ranging adventure within relatively tiny spaces. The lack of a wiki’s worth of combat options also never becomes a problem, partly because it spreads out its spell unlocks, and partly because the smooth, flowing back-and-forths of its central swordplay are pleasurable enough to carry it anyway. Good bosses, too! They’re all characterful, memorable weirdoes who fight unlike anyone in their minion armies, and usually come with a hidden weakness to deduce and exploit.
Which is welcome, as these big lads and lasses do tend to launch difficulty spikes right up your feathered backside, and do so in a game that isn’t otherwise as fussed about trial-and-error pain endurance as some of its inspirations. They don’t, however, bring the mood down. At times, this tale of a pitch-black soul reaper working as an agent of Death (complete with an office of Death and embittered co-workers of Death) can get downright cosy, leading through you through warmly-lit jungles and breezy waterside ruins.
Recently replaying, I’d also forgotten how witty it can be. Little gaglets are sprinkled throughout, both visual and verbal, but the best jokes are saved for – funnily enough – the bosses, who’ll raise your pre-fight spirit with some amusingly terrible trash talk before becoming the punchline themselves. I audibly wheezed the first time a death animation immediately cut to the foe’s impromptu funeral, their beaked killer among the precious few guests. And even when the joke is recycled later, I couldn’t help tittering at the sight of my enemy – who seconds earlier, had been attempting to fatally sit on me – lying nobly in state.
I previously considered ending my Valor Mortis review by calling it a gateway into the more demanding side of action-RPGs; a shorter, simpler alternative to FromSoft’s overwhelming titans that might nonetheless serve to introduce curious newcomers to their shared quirks and qualities. The game equivalent of splashing your chest with water before jumping into a pool. In hindsight, Death’s Door was always a better fit for that description, though there’s enough else here you don’t need to be prepping for something tougher to appreciate its lean, keen adventuring.