Death Howl Impressions | Journey of Desperation

Death Howl from The Outer Zone and 11 Bit Studios is now officially out on consoles after launching on PC on December 9th of last year. After hearing a ton of buzz around it leading up to the PC launch, I wanted to check it out, but chose to wait for consoles, as it is my preferred place to play. Full disclosure that I have not finished the entirety of Death Howl, but after 8 hours of playtime, I'm left in awe of its presentation, but frustrated by the soulslike difficulty spikes that feel unfriendly to the player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7J4c7mzP2M

You play as Ro, a grieving mother who is braving the land of spirits in an attempt to defy death and bring her son back to the land of the living. Ro's journey is super compelling and equally heartbreaking. To be alongside Ro in her defiance of the events that took her son was extremely moving. The narrative is told beautifully through Ro's run-ins with helpful spirits that give her quests and help her cope with the grief that she is feeling.

This is, at its core, a deckbuilding strategy game. With each battle fought against corrupt animals, insects, and plant life, players will have to maneuver Ro alongside a grid to position her to attack, defend, and avoid enemy attacks. Upon winning a battle, you then collect materials from the enemies as well as a special kind of upgrade material called Teardrops. Teardrops can be used to create new cards in each region's themed deck, as well as unlock skills that can make fights easier in the region. Creating new cards is always a blast because I really enjoyed finding new synergies with my other cards and finding the best way to take down the toughest of battles, which are off the beaten path.

The biggest issue and why I am struggling to continue is that with this type of progression presented in Death Howl, with each new region, you are actively told by the game that all of those hard battles are for nothing. Your skills get reset, and your cards that belong to the other decks now cost an extra mana to use, which is already limited to 5 total, but moving a single grid costs mana. It feels like this is in place just to make it hard for hard's sake instead of rewarding the results of the tough battles you had to retry 15 times before your strategy worked. I'm all about utilizing and forcing players to use new skills and cards, but let us find a balance between both new and tested ones instead of being at a disadvantage.

Death Howl is still an amazing experience and one that I hope to finish before the year's end, but the spikes of difficulty and resetting that continually wait for me are leaving a sour taste in my mouth. If you want to help Ro yourself, Death Howl is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Key provided. Played on PlayStation 5.