Death's Door by Acid Nerve

First, here’s a summary from the publisher: “Reaping souls of the dead and punching a clock might get monotonous but it’s honest work for a Crow. The job gets lively when your assigned soul is stolen and you must track down a desperate thief to a realm untouched by death – where creatures grow far past their expiry.“

Quick Stats:

Developer: Acid Nerve
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Price: $20 USD (I paid $8)
Hours Played: 16
Did I finish? Yes (minus a handful of achievements)

What Worked For Me:

The game has a gorgeous, consistent aesthetic that has an almost toy-like quality to it. I was regularly reminded of the Nintendo Switch remaster of Link’s Awakening, actually.
The game’s protagonist is, in a word, “friend-shaped.” Also, though they’re silent, they’re given characterization through their movement and how they interact with the world. Beyond that, the idea of having a crow as a main character is simply charming when compared to a sea of games with generic white men as protagonists.
The game is chocked full of lovable side characters. A few stand outs include “Pothead” (a man with a literal pot for a head who gave me serious Siegward vibes) and Jefferson, a totally normal human cook.
I found the moment-to-moment gameplay engaging enough to complete the game, so that’s got to count for something. One of my favorite aspects of the game was finding ways to use the environment (e.g. falling platforms) and enemy attacks (e.g. energy projectiles) against those who stood against me.
The game’s music is a great mixture of intriguing, melancholy, and action-packed (the last being mostly for boss-encounters). I don’t know if I’d buy the soundtrack, but the main theme is probably going to be stuck in my head for a bit.
The game offers some character customization, with the player able to beef up a variety of abilities. This includes strength (e.g. how hard you hit and how large your weapon’s swing is), haste (e.g. how fast you move), and ranged (e.g. how effective your ranged options are). While these options weren’t perfect (see: cons), it was nice to have options with regards to my preferred play-style.
In addition to being able to level up your character’s skills, you also have a variety of weapons to choose from. They include a sword (balanced), daggers (faster attack, lower damage), two great weapons (slower attack, higher damage), and an umbrella (joke weapon with an achievement tied to it). Ultimately, the game offers an okay arsenal; I definitely wanted more “toys” to play with by the end-game, though.

What Didn’t:

The game only has 4 bosses (5 if you count an optional end-game boss). I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I prefer awesome brevity to mindless padding. With that said, something felt off about these bosses. While fighting them, most felt like hit-sponges. This wouldn’t be an issue if they’re move-sets were more varied, but some fights would drag on for 5-10 minutes. To address this, I would suggest either: A) reducing boss HP or B) adding more complex move sets. In my mind, it isn’t about making the bosses easier or harder; it’s about making them more interesting.
Parts of the game feel empty or pointless. Sure, it’s all beautiful, but going down a hallway just to flip a switch to run down another hallway feels like a waste of my time. In my mind, the lead up to the Flooded Fortress (after completing the Mushroom Dungeon but before the fortress-proper) was especially egregious in this aspect, with few enemies to be found.
Honestly, the end-game (i.e. the game left to complete after beating the “final boss”) sits somewhere between mediocre and awful. Unlocking the “true” ending involves a lot of fetch quests and busy work. I think the developers recognized this, too, since the 100% completion bonus is called “Lord of Chores.” This issue is only exasperated by the fact that switching the game world from day to night (which you can only do after defeating the final boss) doesn’t really change much. You’re treated to one extra boss fight, but there are scant new enemy types and the new enemies that do appear are virtually all reskins with few extra moves. This issue is only compounded by the fact that most areas don’t “reset,” leaving much of the game world feeling empty after defeating the final boss. The awful icing on the “oof” cake, though, is that the true ending is just a lore dump. I could see how this might be gratifying to some; clearly, only the most invested players are even going to reach the true ending, right? If given the chance to do it all again, though, I’d probably just watch a YouTube video of the ending and leave it at that.
While I appreciated the ability to customize my character, it often felt like it didn’t make that big of a difference. Maybe I’d be singing a different tune if I never upgraded, but it generally felt like my foes leveled with me. Hence, I never felt truly empowered. Also, the fact that the upgrades generally only affected “behind the scenes” numbers (like damage output) made it hard to feel excited about upgrading. To add insult to injury, while it’s possible, it wouldn’t be fun to max out all the stats. This is because A) I finished the main game with some upgrades left to purchase, and most “base” enemies only give 1-5 “experience.” For context, a typical upgrade costs between 500-1500 “experience.” Yikes.
I mentioned this above, but I wish there was more weapon variety. To me, the hammer and great sword (the two slow, powerful) weapons felt too similar. I know the hammer is supposed to have an electric / shocking effect, but it rarely seemed to engage for me and I was generally underwhelmed when it did. Also, I can appreciate the achievement-bait of the umbrella (a joke weapon that’s like the starting sword but worse), but I would’ve preferred a different way to play rather than one that was just objectively worse.
(nit-pick) It often feels like the protagonist is subject to the whims of fate, making decisions less of their own accord and more because someone else in the cast told them to act (or, worse yet, because it’s a video game and video game logic applies). I am listing this as a nit-pick instead of a full-on con because the protagonist is offered some characterization by way of their movement and gestures, but if you go into this game expecting an especially deep story you will be disappointed. Poignant? Sure. Deep? No.
(nit-pick) The game very much wears its influences on its sleeve. It even has a ranged item called the hookshot. I have no idea if Nintendo has legal rights to that term (and I hope they wouldn’t take legal action even if they did), but I was definitely surprised by the use of that term in particular.

Conclusion:

I purchased this game for $8 (USD) during the Steam Summer Sale of 2022. Knowing what I know now, I’d even purchase the game at full price ($20). I’d approach the endgame differently (which is to say I wouldn’t bother with most of it), but I’d still have plenty of fun. The game isn’t perfect, but it does offer satisfying game play, a poignant (if simple) story, and plenty of interesting characters. Ultimately, if any of that sounds interesting to you, this game is definitely worth a look.

Check it out here.