Death Howl

A masterclass in grid-based deckbuilding combat that blends soulslike elements with stunning pixel art and meaningful gameplay variety.

Introduction

Death Howl is about Ro, a grieving mother who lost her son and is traveling through the spirit world to try and bring him back. The story was engaging throughout, and I really enjoyed the ending that brought everything together. After 38 hours with the game where I managed to finish all the quests, I can confidently say this is one of the best entries in the roguelike deckbuilder genre. The combat alone would be enough to recommend it, but the beautiful pixel art, smart progression systems, and fresh approach to region variety elevate it even further.

Beautiful Presentation

The pixel art in this game is beautiful. The limited but very engaging dialogue and environmental storytelling work perfectly together to create atmosphere without overexplaining. The team clearly understood that sometimes less is more when it comes to narrative delivery.

Smart Start and Freedom

The game has an engaging, smooth start that eases you into the mechanics without overwhelming you. After the first region, you get to approach the game any way you want, which I really appreciated. That freedom to chart your own path through the spirit world fits both mechanically and thematically.

Combat Mastery

The combat in this game is amazing. It uses a grid system similar to Into the Breach, and it shines most in the vast variety of attacks and abilities the different enemy types have. You're never just repeating your strategy from one battle to another because different enemies between battles mean each encounter has to be approached differently than the last. The enemies have very clever mechanics and attack patterns that you learn naturally through play.

Their strengths and weaknesses are something you discover organically. You'll eventually have a vast understanding of how to approach each battle just from looking at the enemies and their positions. Couple that with this being a deckbuilder where your opening hand is randomized, and it means each battle is different than the last. Even the same battle might be approached differently based on which cards you have in your hand. Design-wise, the combat excels in the genre. It mixes deckbuilding, grid-based tactical combat, positioning, and the vastly different variety in enemy abilities and patterns to create something that feels like a masterpiece.

Soulslike DNA

The game calls itself a soulslike, and I can see it. There are definitely many inspirations from the souls genre that you don't usually see in similar games. The main one is the bonfire-like checkpoints where you get to recover your health but all the enemies respawn. Another soulslike aspect is the enemy behavior. Enemies and especially bosses have attack patterns you must learn before being able to fight them efficiently.

Just going in and throwing your damage-dealing cards isn't a viable strategy. You might win a battle or two, but it will be very hard to reach the next checkpoint unless you manage your health properly. This requires lots of trial and error and learning which enemies to prioritize and how to avoid their powerful moves.

Region Variety Done Right

The game has four major regions, each with its own set of cards and talent tree. This is very smart because it keeps the game fresh. Region-specific cards cost an extra one mana if played in another region, which is brilliant design. It forces you to create a new deck for that region because even your broken decks won't be as viable with this penalty. I'm so glad they went with this solution rather than just outright disabling the cards in other regions. This makes it possible to still use one or two cards from past regions if they fit your current deck. That's just smart game design.

Each region progressively unlocks cards that you craft with resources gathered from enemies. They cost a certain number of "Howls" to craft. What I found fascinating is that each region usually has two to three archetypes you could lean into when building a deck, and these were always very different from one set to another. The freshness was always there, and each region's set had enough variety to allow you to go different builds. The game was never choosing for you.

Perfect Balance

The team did an amazing job balancing the game. Never have I felt that a region or a boss was too strong or a cakewalk. Everything felt just the right difficulty, which in a game like this probably was quite the challenge to get right. That consistency across all four regions shows real attention to playtesting and iteration.

The Quest Problem

The quests in this game were very interesting and introduced creative problems for you to solve. But there was a major drawback for me. Having quest items in your deck removes your ability to teleport between checkpoints. You can always remove them from your deck to gain that ability back, but they respawn in their original location for when you wish to do the quest again.

I understand why this is in the game, as teleporting would make a lot of these quests easier to finish. But I wish the team could have come up with a better solution that doesn't take away the ability to teleport. This was especially frustrating with quests that had you searching for items scattered around the map. It meant that I had to constantly fight through the same battles just to move around and search for these items.

Having the "respawn enemies when you rest" system meant that if you want to heal, all the enemies are back, which is fine. But if you want to cross the map searching for the quest item, you now have to fight them all again. You better not have missed an item and have to come back fighting everything again, which happened more than once.

Verdict

Death Howl is a masterclass in roguelike deckbuilding that proves there's still room for innovation in the genre. The grid-based tactical combat is some of the best I've experienced, with enemy variety and pattern learning that creates genuinely different encounters every single time. The soulslike elements integrate naturally rather than feeling tacked on, and the region-specific card system with the mana penalty is brilliant design that kept the game fresh across all 38 hours. The perfect difficulty balance across all regions shows exceptional polish. The beautiful pixel art and environmental storytelling create atmosphere without overexplaining. Yes, the quest system's teleportation restriction is frustrating, especially for item-search quests that force repetitive combat traversal. But this is a minor complaint in a game that otherwise excels at everything it attempts. This is essential for fans of tactical deckbuilders and anyone looking for something that genuinely pushes the genre forward.