It's easy to see the game that Death's Door wanted to be. Bleak, melancholic,challenging, sardonic. Doors as starting points, checkpoints. Literal pots for healing that reset on use of those doors, only for use outside of combat, with said combat being deliberate, focused on dodging and striking when it's safe, being careful to not get caught off guard or lose control of enemy crowds. Given all that, it's not hard to imagine that the souls you collect might have been dropped on death, possibly regained with a corpse run. The roots are clear, but they've been eroded, the decision having been made to make the game into something more approachable at some point.
The humor now gives way to occasional outright goofiness. The combat is more forgiving, often coming in set waves that need to be cleared only once. Unlockable shortcuts abound, allowing you to skip most of the trek back, avoiding enemies that may get in a lucky hit here and there. Doors are plentiful, the aforementioned changes making their use and the resultant respawning of enemies far less taxing. This new game is easier, more inviting, a bit more relaxed.
But it is also, in the end, still a good game. A very good one, even, with the changes pushing it closer to Zelda and further from the Souls series. Exploration is fun, encouraged by those shortcuts, and meaningful. The overworld itself is like a dungeon, but without succumbing to the fiddly tediousness that plagued the maps of Oracle of Seasons and Ages. Outside of some pure collectibles, everything is worth finding and almost everything is missable. Currency is doled out by exploration and combat, with the former paying out at just the right rate to always make it worthwhile, while the rewards you can buy are incremental enough to not make scouring for it an active demand. Upgraded skills are significant changes that are worth the time to find before the usual end game sweep. Weapons are different in more subtle ways than might be expected, but each fills a niche.
Meanwhile, combat is fun, somewhat simple in the way games often are when they take inspiration from classic Zeldas but still engaging enough, with those gated waves ensuring that the overworld doesn't become a combat slog while still putting up a bit of a fight the first time through. Bosses are fun and engaging, minibosses are just the right difficulty. The final boss is toned down from what was surely its original difficulty, given checkpoints for its nearly 10 phases. Afterwards, the game gives you tools to find the things you missed and a postgame that encourages you to look for them along the way.
So: it's hard to be disappointed by the game Death's Door became, even if it's difficult to shake the feeling that the end result straddles two concepts and comes out a touch weaker for it.
The humor now gives way to occasional outright goofiness. The combat is more forgiving, often coming in set waves that need to be cleared only once. Unlockable shortcuts abound, allowing you to skip most of the trek back, avoiding enemies that may get in a lucky hit here and there. Doors are plentiful, the aforementioned changes making their use and the resultant respawning of enemies far less taxing. This new game is easier, more inviting, a bit more relaxed.
But it is also, in the end, still a good game. A very good one, even, with the changes pushing it closer to Zelda and further from the Souls series. Exploration is fun, encouraged by those shortcuts, and meaningful. The overworld itself is like a dungeon, but without succumbing to the fiddly tediousness that plagued the maps of Oracle of Seasons and Ages. Outside of some pure collectibles, everything is worth finding and almost everything is missable. Currency is doled out by exploration and combat, with the former paying out at just the right rate to always make it worthwhile, while the rewards you can buy are incremental enough to not make scouring for it an active demand. Upgraded skills are significant changes that are worth the time to find before the usual end game sweep. Weapons are different in more subtle ways than might be expected, but each fills a niche.
Meanwhile, combat is fun, somewhat simple in the way games often are when they take inspiration from classic Zeldas but still engaging enough, with those gated waves ensuring that the overworld doesn't become a combat slog while still putting up a bit of a fight the first time through. Bosses are fun and engaging, minibosses are just the right difficulty. The final boss is toned down from what was surely its original difficulty, given checkpoints for its nearly 10 phases. Afterwards, the game gives you tools to find the things you missed and a postgame that encourages you to look for them along the way.
So: it's hard to be disappointed by the game Death's Door became, even if it's difficult to shake the feeling that the end result straddles two concepts and comes out a touch weaker for it.