Howl of Death review

“Deck Builders Meet Dark Souls!” it’s the kind of ironically callous tone that makes me want to go back in time and drown newborn Miyazaki in a poisonous swamp. Fortunately, Death Howl wasn’t created by evil financiers, but by slightly less evil creators who clearly understand what makes good deckbuilders and people who like souls tick. Even if they are too fascinated by the difficulty curve they bought at the rectangle factory.

I thought that by law all deck builders had to be roguelike players, so paradoxically it’s a bit refreshing to play a game that follows a more classic game structure. You play as a grieving mother who denies the death of her newborn son (Merry Christmas, by the way!) and who chases him into the spirit realm in hopes of getting him back. It looks someone I’ve only played the first half of Shadow of the Colossus…

Unfortunately, the spirit kingdom likes its recent boy and that’s why it throws monsters at you. Battles are fought in turn-based mode on isometric grids, reminiscent of the excellent Into the Breach. Each turn you draw five cards and have five mana to play with them. Ah, but you also need that mana to move, which creates a dilemma between punching enemies or running away and hiding in corners like a coward.

Unfortunately, there’s no sign of an Into the Breach undo button. In the true Soul tradition, the main teacher here is death. The game provides a lot of information, but is deliberately – and annoyingly – vague about how enemy attacks will work, right up to the point where they kill you. Expect an intense introductory period as you learn how the various monsters work.

At least your starter cards are nice and elementary. Hitting pushes enemies into adjacent squares, shooting arrows and throwing rocks deals with distant threats, sprinting helps you escape, and armor helps when you get cornered again, dumbass. Win the fight and all fallen enemies will turn into death howls. You can combine them with things you constantly find on the floor to create recent cards, or collect them at healing points to buy upgrades in the tiny skill tree. This choice can be painful, especially early on when the game throws enemies at you that your basic starting cards simply can’t counter.

Yes, Death Howl can be a real jerk. When you die, you shed all your precious death howls, and of course all enemies respawn as you heal. It won’t be long before you start fighting multiple battles in a row, with no healing in between and with cards that heal you more elusively than Half Life 3’s release date.

I’d say that’s enough pain. Death Howl responds to me saying this by cutting out my tongue. You must physically pick up dropped Death Howls on the battlefield within a certain number of turns, otherwise they will disappear forever, often forcing you into deadly lines of fire. Oh, and if an enemy detects your deadly howl first, they’ll get a buff, making the encounter you just ended even more complex. The first version of this review consisted of a thousand swear words with the occasional crying emoji cameo.

Things get a lot better when you stop trying to build an uber-deck that can handle everything and realize that there’s a reason the game has tons of places to build different ones. Before replaying the battle, you can swap decks and make changes, removing the chaff that doesn’t work and adding a few cards that hopefully will. Well, as long as you grind enough Death Howl and crafting materials to naturally craft said cards.

Each region of the map has its own distinct cards. While you Power utilize cards from other regions, Death Howl is unfortunately a consistent enough bastard to punish you for it. Playing them will cost you an extra crucial point of mana, instantly transforming your carefully crafted deck that has just carried you through much of the game into an costly, unplayable mess. Christ, Monster Train 2 was about the denizens of hell and it didn’t treat me this badly.

But the most annoying thing about it all is that I kind of love it. I’m not ruling out Stockholm Syndrome or that my New Year’s resolution should be to find a good couples therapist for me and Death Howl, but it did successfully break me out of one of my worst waist-building habits. I’m tired of sticking to a once-winning strategy long after it’s achieved. Death Howl rightly has no time for this kind of nonsense.

I had a unique strength deck. This became irrelevant in an area where apparently everyone owned shares in a weapons company. So I had to start over with craftable cards that deal poison damage while ignoring armor, but often hurt you in the process. Self-flagellation will succeed this time, won’t it, Death Howl? It works, and now I have to reluctantly admit that my evil, toxic deck is probably my favorite in the game.

The skill tree also needs to be restarted in each region, because of course it does. Each region has a power to unlock, such as a momentary escalate in strength or – oh my god – restoration of health. Another key branch of the tree unlocks spirit cards that are added to your hand whenever you defeat an enemy, and these can be a real game-changer. Finally get rid of the monster that has been ruining your life for the past hour, and then be rewarded with the ability to utilize their attacking all your friends makes up for all the pain. Just.

While this extra mana cost can be crippling, there’s nothing stopping you from putting a few costly cards from other regions into your deck, which opens up your combat options tremendously. Regions also have a frigid habit of appearing tiny, only to reveal hidden caves, routes, or even the inside of a cordial whale. (True, this cordial whale looks like it was designed by David Cronenberg while on an ecstasy descent, but take what you can get here.)

The more you explore and plunder, the more cards you will discover, of course. You’ll want to wander around anyway, because it’s a great-looking adventure with a welcome surreal streak. The cliffhanger of suddenly growing a realistic-looking nose doesn’t exactly ease the sting as I lose all my death howls again, but it doesn’t hurt.

It’s also a well-told story. Given the subject matter, it could easily have been a melodramatic tug at the heartstrings or a grim doom fest. Instead, it is surprisingly compassionate, even witty at times, and clearly written with a lot of heart. At least bigger than the heart of whoever created that horrible one-hit kill jellyfish.

Like most rascals, Death Howl isn’t perfect. Grinding to conquer recent areas can be tedious, and some enemy attacks are cheaper than buying someone a PC Gamer subscription for Christmas. But persevere and you’ll find a satisfying game that reminds me why I fell in love with souls and deck builders in the first place.