Death Howl

Steam Reviews

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• Recommended Posted December 13, 2025 on Steam I'm not one to typically write reviews, but this game just came out and I imagine many are skeptical to buy it, so I figured it would be helpful to give my thoughts so far. I bought this game on a whim after seeing the steam page, and knowing nothing about it/the development process. As of right now (~10 hours into the game, which seems like it could easily last another 30), I have next to no complaints. First and foremost, the art style is absolutely gorgeous. The game sees you wandering through different regions of the spirit realm, and each one feels completely unique, while having a consistent stylistic DNA. The color combinations are beautiful (my graphic designer is slipping out), and despite being pixel art, the art still feels very much inspired by the indigenous culture/mythology which the plot is centered around (I believe Inuit? But it is never stated so I may be mistaken). The gameplay didn't seem like it would be my cup of tea early on, but it quickly becomes addicting. The core gameplay is centered on finding combinations of cards that work well together, and strategically using these to deal extremely satisfying combos while confined to an isometric grid. Simple, at first. But then, other gimmicks begin to seep their way in. Enemies have the ability to give you debuff cards that take up slots in your deck and have negative effects unless you expend energy to remove them. You discover "combine" cards which can be used like alongside other combinable cards to create a slew of craftable cards. You gain titular death howls which act as the currency of this game and can decide whether you want to spend them on unlocking new cards, or on leveling up a skill tree. And, crucially, each region has a separate set of cards, a separate skill tree, and separate enemies, requiring a constant switchup of strategies and playstyles. I'm sure even more complexity will arise as I get even deeper into this game. But, long story short, it keeps itself interesting with its wide range of variables. The game describes itself as a "soulslike," which at first confused me, but after 10 hours I can explain why this is not actually too weird of a descriptor. While of course the game is nothing like any of the souls games in terms of the gameplay itself, similar to souls games, there are spirit rings (akin to e.g. sites of grace in Elden Ring) where you can recover your health, but respawn all the enemies. And, if you die, you lose the death howls (souls/runes) that you've been saving up. And, importantly, it is also hard. These details tie into my one complaint with the game so far. You will be backtracking a lot, rebeating the same groups of enemies, and probably having to restart fights that you would be able to win because of having lost too much health to make it through a gauntlet of the following 2-3 fights with no opportunities for healing. This is actually a more minor complaint than it sounds like, because the game is meant to be hard, and even if you do backtrack through fights you've previously won, you generally will enter the battle grid from a different direction making the fight feel unique anyway. And speaking of, I just love the way the grid fades in as you approach it. One other detail I'd like to mention are the sounds. I've realized recently how important good sounds are to a game. And this game has some absolutely beautiful sound work. So satisfying. All in all, I think this is genuinely an incredible game. I'm not big on deckbuilders, but I'm addicted. I highly recommend supporting the developers of this game, as you can easily see how much passion was put in throughout every second of your playthrough.
• Recommended Posted January 29, 2026 on Steam I tend to only write reviews when I have a strong opinion about a game. So needless to say, I really enjoyed Death Howl. If you like turn based strategy games with some deck building, then you'll probably enjoy this game. Watering down the game to a mere comparison, I would say that it's somewhat similar to Into the Breach or other Fire Emblem-type games. That being said, give the demo a try. It's not too long of a sample and gives a good impression of what you will be playing. The game is quite unique in it's own right though so give it a chance even if you haven’t played those games before. What drew me into the game initially was the immaculate artwork. There were many moments where I would just stop to take in the surroundings and listen to the soundtrack, even in a battle. You can tell the creators took pride in their work too because they give you purpose-built opportunities around the map to admire the scenery. In those spots, the game slows down and pans the camera out into a meticulously drawn landscape to let you take in the moment. There was something about exploring the map, while uncovering the secrets and treacherous foes that kept me wanting to play the game. Even after I started to see familiar enemy spirits, the game had so many other variables to consider that it made each little battle feel like a mini-puzzle that had to be solved. I found it fun to consider how to tackle the different combinations and placement of foes, alongside the environment restrictions in place. [i]Would I use this deck? Maybe I should swap a few cards? Which totems should I use? Should I start from this position? Will a play more mobile or more defensive?[/i] Each battle serving questions to ponder different answers to. Getting more technical, my biggest complaint is the RNG element to the hand you are dealt. It’s particularly bad when you start a battle and draw a hand of cards that can work exceptionally well but is completely useless for the current turn's arrangement. Making matters worse, if it’s the start of a turn and this happens, you may think to abandon combat rather than waste time playing out a losing opening hand. Unfortunately the randomization seed remains the same if you abandon before making a move, so you have to play out until you die to get a new opening hand. On that note though, I want to thank the creators for setting achievements that are fun to do. It annoys me when achievements are made with no other purpose than to burn your time and ultimately ruin the game. It was genuinely enjoyable to decipher the secrets and do side quests in each area to unlock them all. They could have easily thrown in achievements with zero creativity such as "waste time grinding to unlock all cards", but they didn't and I appreciate that. To close off, this is a fantastic turn based strategy game. It’s beautifully simple, exceptionally pretty, and has a great heart tugging story. I won’t mention the story too much to avoid spoilers but it blends well into the game as you battle your way through the perilous environments. [code] Note: Controller & Steam Deck support is great, and of course mouse & keyboard controls work well too. It was intuitive to switch between both regardless of what I had access to. [/code]
• Recommended Posted February 20, 2026 on Steam Currently fighting depression Thought that would be a nice game to change my mind Now I'm fighting against even weirder things At least, it's a mood match The battle is hard 10/10 would recommend
• Recommended Posted December 13, 2025 on Steam -Exploration and progression like Elden ring -Gameplay like into the breach -Deckbuilding like slay the spire
• Recommended Posted April 6, 2026 on Steam Should you play Death Howl? In my opinion the answer is a definitive [b] yes [/b] and I've been trying to pitch the game to all of my friends. As it turns out, however, it's a bit of a tough sell for reasons I'm not quite certain of. Perhaps the pixelart graphics aren't to everyone's tastes or the combat style seems odd to card game fans more used to the rogue-like gameplay of games like Slay the Spire. Maybe the unfortunate 'soulslike' marketing turns a few people away as well. So, let me try to make clear what Death Howl is and is not: [b] It's not [/b] a game with infinite replayability and RNG-based card gain, nor is it a soulslike. Sure, the game has what essentially amounts to a bonfire mechanic, a lose-on-death upgrade currency and a dark setting, but it is nowhere near as punishing in reality. For the most part, currency is easy to recover, battles can be reattempted immediately and death, overall, is a minor inconvenience. That doesn't mean Death Howl is easy, far from it. But if you felt put off by the idea of a game that thrives on unfairly punishing its players, then don't worry. Death Howl is not like that. [b] It is [/b] at its core an RPG that wants to take you on a journey. The environments are haunting, but beautiful. Once you become more familiar with the themes of the game, there is a lot to discover both in the environment as well as the card art and animations. You're meant to wander, you're meant to backtrack and I personally could not put the game down until my journey had reached its conclusion, even though I could guess at how it would end. Now admittedly, there are a couple of pain points: - backtracking with quest items (which disable fast travel) can be frustrating - enemies provide little information about their moveset beyond the range of tiles they can move and some enemies can feel unfair until you learn to abuse their behaviour (looking at you, Dreadfin) -some grind is required upon entering a new region before you have a servicable new deck However, I find these complaints to be minor nuisances at best. If there is one recommendation I would make for first time players, it's to [spoiler] move south into the Realm of Hostile Plains after conquering the first of the four major regions, instead of north into the Realm of Piercing winds [/spoiler]. The difficulty curve, in my opinion, feels more manageable that way. Overall I will once again recommend Death Howl and keep on recommending it to anyone who will listen, because it is a unique game that carries its theme well and truly deserves your attention.
• Recommended Posted December 21, 2025 on Steam I can't believe it a deck builder that isn't a rouge-like, your actually building a deck. haven't play something this good since inscription. Interesting solid card game with a solid story and premise that isn't a rouge-like I can not express that enough.