Death Howl

If you've ever pretended a stick was a sword, said "cool" when seeing an animal skeleton, taken a bug from your home safely back outside, thrown a pinecone at your sibling, or even just ever rolled a druid, this is *the* game.

My favorite deck-builder to date. I am thoroughly impressed in the variety of enemies, cards, perks, and freedom you have to choose how you approach each battle. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic IMO. I also find this more approachable than StS and it's not roguelite which is a definitely positive for a lot of people. I also love that positioning plays a factor in the game, something I haven't experienced in a deck-builder yet. If I had one complaint it's that while I love pixel art, I feel this would hit a little harder with more fleshed out design....but given how well it plays it honestly does not matter. I did see some users complaining about difficulty, but I found it to be more than fair - you just have to be smart about the cards and perks you choose. The only large jump in difficulty is with the final level. Highly recommend, even at full price + DLC. Following this dev now.

Beautiful pixel art with a great set of deckbuilding mechanics. Each of the areas are distinct, and well-defined with their own mechanics. But there still is some overlap to bridge between each of the areas, whether you fully clear one by one, or dabble a bit of each, your deckbuilding has many options. With many deck slots, you are encouraged and enabled to try different setups and experiment sometimes even building decks for specific fights. Boss fights are interesting and play into their regions, side quests and mini-stories scattered in each area fleshing out the world. I had a fantastic time except for a couple fights penultimate to the end. It felt they were overtuned, and one of them a rediculous RNG fest to get through which flew entirely in the face of everything in the game up until then. I also feel like there could have been better indication of some game mechanics whether they were in play/activated, rather than having to keep a running tally of what had gone on in the battle/turn. Either marking off keywords or a visual indicator. It would also help if we could have a more complete view of keywords and cards- you can only get tooltips in-battle and there is one …

I'm around half way through the game, I feel confident writing a review. It's an addicting card- and turn-based strategy game that makes you forget time. I really love it and can't wait to play more. Minor spoilers. Pro: + Genuinely innovative game design. It doesn't get boring since you have to adapt your strategy quite often depending on what you've unlocked, and depending on enemy type and formation. + As you progress the card system forces to rethink your entire strategy. It's a really fun progression system that keeps the game fresh, even after 20h when writing this review. + A good number of cards that have been designed and (mostly) balanced really well gameplay-wise. + The game gives you a lot of freedom on how you want to progress. Upgrade cards, or rather skills first? Go to south, or rather go to north first? + Bonfire system forces you to strategize on how you want to progress even outside battle. + EDIT: Enemy AI is good (though they could act a little bit more rational when a fylge is out, but the game is already difficult enough as it is) + Good amount of content. + Cool artstyle, nice sound design, nice atmosphere Neutral: * Music is atmospheric and fitting, but…

Wow. Love a game that does stuff different. need more of this

Such an excellent game, amazing art style and great story. I highly recomend it, especially if you like deck builders like Slay the Spire but wants something more forgiving and with a nice narrative alongside it.