Wait, I forgot to review this?! Welp, this is gonna be a little hazy. I played it a couple years ago. I recall liking it quite a bit but it doesn't quite reach the heights I think it was capable of. I love games that blend aspects of Zelda with aspects of Souls. It's a match made in heaven. Similar to Tunic in some ways, but I actually preferred DD to that game.

My memory is not the best, but I'll try.

I like the ability to increase your stats in the order you choose. Focusing on speed and strength is always my go to. I think the game is very smooth to play and is great at providing a sense of weight with your weapon. Love me a big hammer. Fighting is great. Being able to mix in some spells is also satisfying. I do wish it was a bit more difficult. This leads to one of the issues I recall having. The backtracking was a bit much at times. Once you've cleared an area, it's not as fun to go back through a refight enemies that are annoyingly in your way. They can be avoided, yes, but the game also makes me want to fight since it has such tight controls. Part of this might be my own fault, but there was certainly a feeling of tedium creeping in at points.

You know what else I love? Hookshots. That is all. Moving on.

The bosses were cool, but it would have been nice to have a couple more important fights sprinkled throughout.

I love the aesthetic. It's a simple looking, yet beautiful game. The focus on greyish tones makes the colourful bits really pop. The UI is clean and easy to navigate as well.

This game makes me want more games that are as polished as this from teams of similar size. It reminds me of the best of the best like Hades, Ori, Rogue Legacy, Zelda, etc.

I think they're almost there. Perhaps next time will be a real triumph. I believe.

(Reseña sacada de mi cuenta de Steam: APolChrome)

Qué sensación me ha entrado al pasarme Death's Door. La gente de Acid Nerve sabe cómo hacer un videojuego artístico. Death's Door me ha gustado muchísimo más de lo que me esperaba, porque se ve simple, pero es una experiencia increíble. Un juego grande y compacto al mismo tiempo, que genera una historia similar a la de un AAA. Sin más que decir, comencemos.

Sin duda, el mayor exponente del gameplay del juego es su combate, pero antes voy a hablar del resto de cosas. El juego está súper bien en este aspecto. Tiene un mapa que me ha gustado bastante y que tiene varias zonas. La principal (llamada Cámara de las Almas) tiene bastantes secretos y sirve como hub principal para acceder más rápido al resto de zonas (cosa que me ha encantado). También quiero recalcar la cantidad de secretos que tiene el juego, con objetos escondidos en muchos rincones. A esto se le suman unas mazmorras bastante bien planteadas con puzzles interesantes y se hace muy disfrutable.

Pero donde más puedo hablar es en el combate. Que bueno que es por favor. Muchos dirán que es normal porque el juego se basa casi en eso. Pero hay tantos tipos de enemigos y situaciones que se pueden dar que lo hacen increíble. Los combates contra enemigos están bastante bien, aunque muchas veces si ya los has hecho vas a acabar siguiendo sin hacer nada, pero hay algunos enemigos que son más minibosses que me han gustado mucho. Son iguales solo que sus ataques son más difíciles y son mejores. Esto compensa la falta de jefes que es de lo que hablaré ahora.

Los jefes de este juego me han gustado mucho, pero hay muy pocos. No es necesariamente malo, pero sí que creo que la calidad no compensa la cantidad de los mismos, no porque sean malos, sino porque no están a la altura de tener tan pocos. Parecen difíciles a primera vista, pero solo tienen mucha vida. Son originales y divertidos de jugar, pero no tienen ese punto de sorpresa porque a poco de que hayas hecho un par de intentos contra el jefe, ya le tendrás fichado y sabrás todos sus movimientos y cómo contrarrestarlo. Me ha gustado mucho en este aspecto, pero me parece que podrían mejorar un poquito.

Audiovisualmente, es una maravilla. Es precioso. El diseño de zonas, personajes, enemigos y entornos en general es muy bonito y se saben diferenciar muy bien entre sí. Es un juego con tonos más apagados pero le sienta de perlas por la temática. Y la música está en un nivel muy bueno. Me ha sorprendido porque no suelo fijarme mucho en esta parte del videojuego pero en este me ha dejado muy buen sabor de boca (o de oído mejor dicho)

Y sin duda lo que más me ha sorprendido (y lo que más me ha gustado si no fuera por el combate) ha sido su historia. Es muy buena. No quiero spoilear, pero tiene un mundo con mucho contenido y lore, especies y personajes únicos y carismáticos que forman un entorno misterioso y que te genera intriga para descubrir más. Mis dieces en este aspecto.

En resumen, Death's Door es buenísimo. Una experiencia no muy larga pero que si te gusta Dark Souls, Zelda y este tipo de juegos, deberías jugar sí o sí. Un juego que siendo pequeño, se sabe poner a la altura de los grandes. Recomendadísimo.

Deaths Door was another one of those games that I heard good things about and just gave a shot, not even knowing what to expect at all. I am always intrigued by themes of death and the afterlife because, even though we all share the promise that we will one day die, it is often not discussed. Games have been a great way for me to explore the meaning of life and death through many perspectives. Deaths Door joins the To the Moon series, Spiritfarer, and I am Dead as great games that have done just that.

Let's begin with the gameplay. The best way for me to describe it would be a 2D Zelda game with better combat but worse puzzles. I probably would have played this game even sooner if I had known that because I love Zelda games, and seeing a brand-new twist on the core format was so much fun. I honestly think that, if this was a Zelda game, it would instantly become one of the best 2D games in the series. Like I said the combat is great and the game recognizes that. Before you do much of anything in the game you are fighting a really fun boss that sets the tone for the game going forward. I loved mixing up my melee and ranged attacks depending on what kind of opponent I was facing. The dodge roll was fun to use and not too overpowered even if you chose to upgrade it. In many games, combat can get stagnant as you choose the best weapon and item to use all the time no matter what. However, in Deaths Door, I felt that the items had strengths and weaknesses that incentivized me to switch on the fly a lot which was a lot of fun. Also the bosses are fantastic and very satisfying to fight. They do such a great job of establishing their presence and building them up as characters before the actual showdowns which is just what you love to see.

The world that Death's Door creates is a joy to explore. Playing as a reaper crow collecting the most stubborn of souls, refusing death with all their might, is cool as hell. The art style is pretty and they did a great job diversifying its feel to make each area have its own identity. The music is fantastic in general and sets the mood of each location very well. The characters are great, the Lord of Doors, Steadhone, and Gray Crow are my goats fr fr.

The dungeons are typically very strong as well. While their puzzles are just okay (fun but typically not anything special), the game sort of recognizes this and makes many of the dungeons combat-focused. What this game's dungeons does really well is theming. They all have their own isolated stories to tell about the boss of the dungeon or the overall story of the game and they just are all the more enchanting for that reason. I love when Zelda dungeons go out of their way to make themselves memorable and all three of the main dungeons of this game do just that.

The story is all about accepting the fact that we are going to die. Throughout the game, you learn about all these characters who scratch and claw to refuse the death sentence that everyone is born with which causes devastating effects for them and the people around them. In Deaths Door, we learn that only those who have accepted death and are choosing to make the most of what they have been given are at peace and happy.

Genuinely bad in every aspect.
At the end this game feels more like its still halfway trough development. It feels like they forgot to add half the script for the story, or only made half of all the enemies so they had to continuously spam the 6 different ones they had in some of the most blocky and boring levels imaginable. Or how the balancing of the bosses make no sense and fail to be interesting. Or how bad this game actually looks when you really look at how these set pieces are build.

I can go on and one but after finishing it I'm genuinely let down how a game with this much praise. publiced by Devolver (whose latest published games haven't been all that, this included) still fail in so many aspects.

neglected to log until i got the 100%/true ending to see if it would change my (already positive) perspective in any major way, and the answer is, kinda??? coming to this in a world where the superficially similar Tunic already exists and is one of my favorite things ever, the easiest description i had for this was that it was like if tunic was more focus on being a pure action game, designed around deliberate one-way progressions thru specific combat encounters. im a lil mixed on how this affects the postgame...in a way, these spaces dont feel made to be run thru back and forth over and over in search of secrets. but if its not as mindblowing as tunic, theres still tons of DELIGHTFUL revelations and large scale puzzles...many of the games most memorable moments are in the postgame. but even just judging the main campaign, its a lovingly symmetrical and well-manicured set of challenges with an essentially perfect combat system...took a bit to get used to the lack of targeting, but honestly it gives u way more precise control over ur positioning. character designs and charms are also uniformly incredible, and the ghibli-esque comforting melancholy is a wonderful emotional vibe. zelda dna is an easy way to put any game in my comfort zone, and this was an especially wonderful version to come back from work and relax into. i just like little guys with swords in big worlds

Death's Door is a genuinely remarkable game—no joke. I say this because I’ve just played through it from beginning to end for the second time. It’s common to overestimate an experience you’ve had for the first time (watching The Butterfly Effect and thinking it’s the most brilliant film ever made, playing Heavy Rain and being wowed by the story’s quality). Upon revisiting, however, the part of our attention that was previously occupied by novelty is now free to focus on the details, and we notice things we didn’t see before.

The game unfolds in a world where death has been outsourced to a “public department” run by crows. You are one of these little reaper crows. When you successfully hunt down a target, you don’t age, just like all your colleagues in this world. When your target escapes, however, this blessing abandons you, and you must face the natural process of aging and death.

As every story needs conflict, especially video games, it doesn’t take a genius to deduce that our crow will get into the biggest mess of all: having a target that escapes to an almost unreachable place. Specifically, your target slips through a mysterious interdimensional door, a door that can only be opened using immensely powerful souls... Souls from entities that, like you and your colleagues, have dodged death with artifices for years and years until their souls became swollen and valuable.

There are two things I particularly loved about Death’s Door. First, it’s a game that excels despite having no map. Since Dark Souls, many games have tried to remove the map and force the player to navigate using acquired knowledge. When this tactic works, it’s fantastic, and we have to truly immerse ourselves in the virtual world of the game to navigate it properly. When it doesn’t work, it kills the game for me… There’s nothing worse than being lost in a place where every corner looks like every other corner.

In Death’s Door, it works. Not only does the game provide a clear direction for the player, but it also, in a way, manages to communicate well which paths are alternative, optional routes, and which is the main path.

The campaign structure is magnificent. Each boss has its own region, its dungeon, and even a set-piece (think of an open dungeon, a set sequence of challenges to overcome). This allows the game to vary its scenarios and the types of challenges it offers the player.

The game has basic RPG elements, implemented in a relatively unique way. Just like in Dark Souls, enemies come back to life every time you fail and return to the checkpoint. Killing enemies gives you XP, but very little. The bulk of XP is obtained as treasure through exploration. This makes it enjoyable to operate like a Roomba in the maps, poking into every corner and cranny.

Anyway… I’m writing this in the middle of my workday, and I’m about to head out for lunch. My point is: Death’s Door is one of the best 3D Zelda-style adventures money can buy. And it’s sold pretty cheaply when on sale. The level of challenge doesn’t reach Dark Souls; the game is easy, even, it just doesn’t give you many opportunities to heal. It’s one of those “endurance test” games, where the challenge isn’t to overcome an isolated challenge, but to survive a series of sequential trials.

Deaths door is like if you took an older 2d Zelda game design and made it 3d with better combat. That alone is already a pretty good hook, so add onto that good boss designs and some legitimately funny writing, you've got a recipe for a good time. Deaths door is not a very long game either, to roll credits I think 9-10 hours is a safe guess and then add another few if you want to get the true ending.

Theres a beauty to keeping things simple and really honing in on that and Deaths Door excels in that. Could they have added more to the combat or more dungeons and boss fights and mechanics? Yeah probably but for a still fairly new two person dev team, they pulled back the scope and really polished what they delivered. If I had one request that I wish they had added, I think a map would legitimately have bumped this up a half score lol. If you could have the exploration of Tunic with the combat of Deaths Door, you would honestly have one of the best indie games ever.

Definitely a studio that I will be keeping an eye out for whatever project they do next, a lot of potential here.

Try as it might, this game could never break out of the "mediocre" tier for me. It has some great ideas, don't get me wrong, but it seems to fumble with most of them, and the end product felt a bit inconsistent.

The maps are very hit or miss: the sprawling levels (like the first two) can be monotonous and confusing, while the more linear levels are actually quite clever and well designed. The art direction is not bad, but it doesn't really stand out, except for some moments of brilliance, and the same could be said for the music.

The gameplay is solid enough, although it can be repetitive and samey, and the weapons and sub weapons are uninventive to say the least. The bosses are also inconsistent: the art design ranges from good to stellar, but the gameplay of the actual fights can go from "somewhat interesting" to "underwhelming", except for one fight that is genuinely awful. Unfortunately, that fight is the last one.

Progression doesn't feel really rewarding, since enemies drop very little experience, and getting skills points seems to take forever. The fact that levelling up almost never gives a sense of tangible improvement doesn't help. I think they could have made fewer "levels" for each skill, with each level giving a more considerable buff. As it stands, levelling is not satisfying at all.

I understand that there is a "true ending" of sorts, that I can get by exploring more, but I think I'm good. I don't dislike this game, but it does kind of disappoint me. It feels like if it made just a couple of steps in the right direction, it could have been a great game.