Charts Genres Community
Charts Genres Community Settings
Login

Death's Door

Developer: Acid Nerve Publisher: Devolver Digital
20 July 2021
Death's Door - cover art
Glitchwave rating
3.55 / 5.0
0.5
5.0
 
 
294 Ratings / 3 Reviews
#1,081 All-time
#37 for 2021
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 and overflow with greed and power.

Talon Sharp Combat: Utilize melee weapons, arrows and magic to overcome a fantastic array of beasts and demigods. Mistakes are punished and victory is rewarded. Gain an edge by customizing your character stats and mastering the abilities and upgrades you obtain.

A Beautifully Bleak World: Venture beyond the Doors and explore a land full of twisted inhabitants and countless secrets, bringing hope to the weird and wonderful characters you’ll meet along the way.

A Dark Mystery to Unravel: Track down and defeat colossal tyrants with stories and motivations of their own. Experience a somber yet darkly comedic tale, uncovering the truths behind the flow of souls, the role of the Crows and the origin of the Doors.
There was an error saving your submission.
Rate / catalog Rate / catalog another release
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Write review
Title
The sound design is fantastic and the game is beautiful but I wish it was a little bit harder. With more attack patterns from the bosses and enemies, not like the umbrella academy achievement does by cutting your damage in half and not letting you use the other weapons. The achievement is bad because it does not make the game more challenging, as you have an easy time once you get the enemy attack patterns. But makes the game so slow since you take forever to kill anything and does not give an incentive for you to explore, since you won't be able to use another weapon and absolutely will avoid combat, because it will be a huge waste of time.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Roseoun 2023-10-02T16:40:13Z
2023-10-02T16:40:13Z
2.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
commentary
en
Expand review Hide
Title
Charming And Entertaining Until The End
There's absolutely nothing bad I can say about this game, from beginning to end it's fun. Interesting characters, fantastic bosses and one of the best soundtracks in a while.

Death's Door takes clear inspiration from early Zelda games and puts a crow in it. The bosses are entertaining with expertly designed dungeons and fights.

My only complaint with the game is towards the end, the dungeons can feel a little tedious and repetitive.

Overall a fantastic game that will appeal to anyone that enjoys Zelda or people that couldn't beat Dark Souls.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
MorseCodeIsDead 2023-08-16T01:06:31Z
2023-08-16T01:06:31Z
3.5
1
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
review
en
Expand review Hide
Title
A Door Worth Opening
The recipe for Death’s Door appears simple at first glance. In a large mixing bowl, stir together three cups The Legend of Zelda [ゼルダの伝説], two cups Dark Souls, and a pinch of Limbo. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C), pour the mix into a pan, bake for 36 minutes, and presto! You have Death’s Door.

Or do you? While Death’s Door is hardly original in the gameplay department – combat plays like isometric Souls, and access to new areas is granted by gear found in chests, just as in Zelda – it does offer a unique flavor that you won’t find in either of those series. There’s a sense of deliberative melancholy here, a mood that’s fleeting rare in video games. It’s the melancholy of accepting that life is what it is and it’s not likely to change. It reminds me of The End of Time in Chrono Trigger [クロノ・トリガー], where Gaspar waits patiently, stuck forever in a transitory state between hopeful and hopeless.

It’s probably no coincidence, then, that the hub area in Death’s Door looks a lot like The End of Time. You play as a Reaper – a Crow with a sword who hunts down the dead and sends their souls to the afterlife. But when your assigned soul is stolen before you can reap it, you end up on an unexpected adventure to harvest three giant souls and open Death’s Door itself to put things right. If you’ve played a Zelda game before, the gameplay will feel familiar. Enter a dungeon, explore, find a key item, delve deeper, defeat the boss, rinse and repeat. Yet there is plenty of Dark Souls’ DNA here, too. Combat features a heavy dose of dodge rolling and health is always in short supply – four hits and you’re a goner. You also use currency, known as – you guessed it – Souls, to purchase upgrades. One key difference from FromSoftware’s games, though, is that Death’s Door lets you hang onto your Souls when you die. No corpse runs here.

There’s no shortage of combat, and it always feels responsive and smooth. While there are a handful of weapons to collect and equip, they all feel fairly similar – a little faster or slower, a little shorter or longer. I experimented with all the options but ultimately found that the default sword offered a better balance of speed and damage output than the alternatives, with perhaps one late-game exception.

When you’re not engaged in combat, you’ll be exploring the world – a rewarding activity in its own right. In addition to the cemetery, which is as close as Death’s Door comes to an overworld, there are three main areas, and each of these main areas is subdivided into two or three distinct subareas. Take, for instance, the first area, the estate of the Urn Witch. You approach through the garden and then creep through the decrepit manor’s interior, before making a final assault through the secret furnace in the basement. One feature that’s notably absent is an in-game map, a design choice that boosts immersion at the expense of navigability. Although I’m not entirely convinced this is a good trade, it’s one I came to terms with.

The second and third main areas follow similar patterns, albeit with less cohesion. Whereas the Urn Witch feels like a fully fleshed out character, the second boss, the Frog King, is a typical jester-esque bad dude, and the third boss barely has any story beats associated with it at all. Whether this was intentional or the result of the inevitable time crunch that occurs at the end of game development, I can’t say. The third area, in particular, feels divorced from the boss at the end, focusing instead on the history of the Doors and the Crows. And once you collect all three giant souls, you’re treated to a brief info dump about how the world became stuck in its timeless state. To be fair, it feels like an info dump well-earned – I enjoyed it – but it is an info dump nonetheless.

I doubt anyone will deny that Death’s Door is derivative. But it takes familiar pieces and with them bakes a delightful new treat. My lasting memory of the game will be strolling through the melancholic land and spreading the seeds of hope. Only by keeping Death’s Door open can we fully appreciate the gift of life.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
toadhjo 2023-07-28T04:53:50Z
2023-07-28T04:53:50Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
review
en
Expand review Hide
Title
Looks good, sounds great, plays well, challenging and fair, but I beat it in 7 hours and it's not doing much that's original or innovative. There's a tool you get called "hookshot". Your little crow guy and all the little owl boys are adorable.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
jasterlaf 2022-02-02T02:41:43Z
2022-02-02T02:41:43Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
draft
en
Expand review Hide
Title
Death's Door feels to me like the indie equivalent of what some bi-annualized, creatively bankrupt Ubisoft sandbox is to big-budget games - a competent but desperately tired rehash of things done better in other games. Not a single element here feels original, and the deviations from genre template are mostly for the worse. I spent way too much of my playthrough thinking how I'd rather just be playing Dark Souls.

You play as a little flightless cartoon crow who has a sword (well, you pick up multiple weapons, but they're near-identical and you never get a compelling reason to use anything but the weapon you start with) and dodges and shoots projectiles and runs around an isometric world solving simple puzzles and collecting, uh, souls to get upgrades. The controls can be unwieldy, enough to push me away from long-range attacks to mostly spamming the melee attack and dodging. The melee combat works well enough for the most part, but it's pretty shallow. For some strange reason, the designers didn't copy the Souls stamina mechanic for the spell power you need for long-ranged attacks, instead you have to smash up pots and the like to recharge your very limited slots, which contributes to making spells not very useful in combat. Sometimes you'll have to go considerably out of your way to find any random crap to break - an unnecessary, annoying friction in a game with a lot of that.

But the biggest design problem here is that you are not provided a map of the game's sizable, labyrinthine, visually indistinct levels. There's a reason every single isometric tile-based game I can think of has a map: it's nearly impossible to orient yourself in an environment where everything looks extremely similar and the camera can only see a tiny part of it. I spent a a lot of time trying to figure out where I was, where I've been, and how to get where I need to go, and constantly getting lost. Being a sorta-soulslike, you'll probably die pretty regularly, and without a map, backtracking through this world also becomes a more irritating ordeal than it has to be.

The difficulty is dialed in pretty well. It's not a cakewalk, but they've wisely made it less punishing than the games it's inspired by, since it lacks the combat depth, worldbuilding, and vibe that makes those punishments go down easy. The final boss is a misstep, where an obnoxious and lengthy forced platforming sequence that stresses the game's sloppiest mechanics finishes off the game on a particularly sour note.

I did enjoy the character art and narrative elements, but those charms are spread out pretty thin throughout the game, and the game's world does little to match the characters/writing aesthetically or tonally, and feels entirely generic. The music seems to have its fans, but it was more miss than hit for me. Overall, it's not a bad game, but it lacks anything that would make it stand out of the indie souls/vania crowd.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
blargh4 2022-01-30T07:36:10Z
2022-01-30T07:36:10Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
review
en
Expand review Hide
Title
Death's Door doesn't really do anything particularly special, but everything it does do is extremely competent. The soundtrack is great, the gameplay is fluid and responsive, the art is beautiful, and the difficulty is just right.
Body
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
djraccoon 2021-08-14T21:22:35Z
2021-08-14T21:22:35Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Supplement
tips
Formatting
[b]text[/b] - bold
[i]text[/i] - italic
[s]strikethrough[/s] - strikethrough
[tt]text[/tt] - fixed-width type
[color red]text[/color] - colored text (full list)
[spoiler]text[/spoiler] - Text hidden with spoiler cover
[https://www.example.com/page/,Link to another site] - Link to another site

Linking
When you mention an album, artist, film, game, label, etc - it's recommended to link to the item the first time you mention it. Doing so will make it easier to search for your post and give it more visibility. To link an item, use the search box above, or find the shortcut that appears on the page that you want to link. You can customize the link name of shortcuts by using the format [Artist12345,Custom Name].
Paste the address (or embed code) below and click "embed".
Supported: YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, Dailymotion
Embed
Attribution
Requested publishing level
Draft
Commentary
Review
draft
en
Expand review Hide

Catalog

alittlebitfrosty Death's Door 2024-03-24T15:11:50Z
2024-03-24T15:11:50Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
KamilPsohlavec Death's Door 2024-03-23T13:37:06Z
2024-03-23T13:37:06Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
ZachZion Death's Door 2024-03-19T19:38:56Z
2024-03-19T19:38:56Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
9h 12h 16H
eliottstaten Death's Door 2024-03-15T05:18:07Z
2024-03-15T05:18:07Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Wolis Death's Door 2024-03-09T13:24:53Z
2024-03-09T13:24:53Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
aidan_sun Death's Door 2024-03-09T08:57:08Z
2024-03-09T08:57:08Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Toddisodd21 Death's Door 2024-03-07T07:56:58Z
2024-03-07T07:56:58Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
RepSolPlz Death's Door 2024-03-07T01:32:44Z
2024-03-07T01:32:44Z
3.5
1
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
kptscpb0y Death's Door 2024-03-05T09:28:54Z
2024-03-05T09:28:54Z
2.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Monni_Nicola Death's Door 2024-02-19T15:45:41Z
2024-02-19T15:45:41Z
3.0
1
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
just_okta Death's Door 2024-02-18T22:15:53Z
2024-02-18T22:15:53Z
4.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
TheAbyssalArchivist Death's Door 2024-02-18T01:51:43Z
2024-02-18T01:51:43Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Player modes
Single-player
Media
Download

Comments

Rules for comments
  • Be respectful! All the community rules apply here.
  • Keep your comments focused on the game. Don't post randomness/off-topic comments. Jokes are fine, but don't post tactless/inappropriate ones.
  • Don't get in arguments with people here, or start long discussions. Use the boards for extended discussion.
  • Don't use this space to complain about the average rating, chart position, genre voting, others' reviews or ratings, or errors on the page.
  • Don't comment just to troll/provoke. Likewise, don't respond to trollish comments; just report them and ignore them.
  • Any spoilers should be placed in spoiler tags as such: [spoiler](spoiler goes here)[/spoiler]
Note: Unlike reviews, comments are considered temporary and may be deleted/purged without notice.
  • Jaxijin 2021-07-25 19:40:01.342139+00
    This is such a massive step-up from Acid Nerve's previous game, Titan Souls. Combat is just the right difficulty level with amazingly tight controls.
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • fidwell 2021-07-30 14:17:09.118412+00
    I haven't played this, only watched it, but it seems like a really great game
    reply
    • fidwell 2021-07-30 14:19:24.323319+00
      also the music is really great
    • warioman 2022-01-13 15:31:07.198084+00
      yeah the score is so awesome, adds so much weight and emotion
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • interpolb 2021-07-31 21:18:09.609067+00
    just an incredible game
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • Jaxijin 2021-08-03 15:10:04.183653+00
    Just 100%'d the game. Was pretty shook at the revelation that this is actually a distant sequel to Titan Souls. Wonder if this game's success will drive more people to check that out.
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • Ghost_Train 2021-12-28 02:39:37.474392+00
    much much better than titan souls indeed. really nice game with solid gameplay.
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • cai 2023-08-25 22:59:41.241963+00
    expected so much more from this :(
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • marco29 2023-09-13 02:04:28.957195+00
    such a comforting game
    reply
    • More replies New replies ) Loading...
  • More comments New comments (0) Loading...
Please login or sign up to comment.

Suggestions

There was an error saving your submission.
ADVERTISEMENT

Contribute to this page

Contributors to this page: diction ciemnotaizabobon
Examples
1980s-1996
23 mar 2015
8 apr - 12 may 2015
1998-05
Report
Download
Image 1 of 2