Info about Death's Door:

Official game description:
Digital Deluxe Edition
======================
Deluxe Edition content includes:  
*   Death's Door base game  
*   Digital artbook, hand curated and designed by the game's art director  
*   Complete 50-track Original Soundtrack
About the Game
==============
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.

Release date: 20 Jul, 2021

Categories: Soulslike Combat, Exploration, Puzzle Solving, Metroidvania, Single-player Story, Character Progression, Collectibles, Top-Down Perspective


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Highly Polished & Enjoyable Gameplay (weight 0.97): Players consistently praise the game's fluid, responsive, and satisfying gameplay, highlighting its polished feel, balanced difficulty, and engaging combat. The overall design is considered excellent, offering a fun and rewarding experience without unnecessary padding.
- Unique Art Style & Atmosphere (weight 0.69): The game's distinct art style, often described as cute, charming, and beautiful, is a major draw. It masterfully blends melancholic and whimsical tones, creating an immersive and memorable atmosphere that stands out.
- Balanced & Fair Difficulty (weight 0.53): Reviewers appreciate the game's well-calibrated difficulty, which offers a challenge without being overly punishing or frustrating. Combat is often described as tight and responsive, and puzzles are engaging yet solvable, making it accessible for various player skill levels.
- Rewarding Exploration & Secrets (weight 0.41): Players enjoy exploring the game's intricate world, which is packed with secrets, hidden paths, and collectibles. The game effectively rewards curiosity and revisiting areas, making exploration a satisfying and engaging experience.
- Exceptional & Immersive Soundtrack (weight 0.35): The game's soundtrack receives widespread acclaim for being incredible, beautiful, and perfectly fitting the game's atmosphere. It enhances both intense combat and quiet exploration, often cited as a major highlight and a reason to play.
- A Standout Indie Gem (weight 0.23): Many reviewers consider the game a hidden gem and an instant classic, often comparing it favorably to Zelda-likes and Souls-likes. It's seen as a high-quality indie title that delivers a complete and memorable experience, often exceeding expectations.

Common complaints:
- Lack of In-Game Map (weight 0.65): A pervasive issue was the complete absence of an in-game map, leading to constant frustration with navigation, getting lost, and tedious backtracking. This was particularly problematic for exploration, finding collectibles, and revisiting areas for ability-locked content.
- Repetitive & Shallow Combat (weight 0.59): Players frequently found the combat system to be monotonous, lacking depth, and offering little weapon variety. Many felt it became a chore due to repetitive enemy types, simple attack patterns, and a reliance on basic dodge-and-slash mechanics, which did not evolve significantly throughout the game.
- Shallow Puzzles & Level Design (weight 0.55): Puzzles were often described as overly simplistic, uninspired, and not contributing meaningfully to the gameplay. Level design was criticized for being repetitive, containing empty spaces, and sometimes convoluted, which exacerbated navigation issues.
- Weak Story & Progression (weight 0.43): The narrative was generally perceived as thin, unclear, and unengaging, often taking a backseat to gameplay. Many felt a lack of meaningful character progression, with upgrades offering minimal impact, and the overall game experience failing to be memorable or innovative compared to similar titles.
- Tedious True Ending & Collectibles (weight 0.18): The requirements for achieving the 'true ending' and 100% completion were widely criticized as tedious and unrewarding. This involved extensive backtracking, collecting numerous hidden items (like seeds) without proper guidance, and often felt like an artificial extension of playtime rather than a meaningful challenge.
- Limited Health & Upgrade Impact (weight 0.05): Players felt that health and mana increases were minimal, leading to a constant feeling of fragility. The impact of upgrades was often unnoticeable, and the lack of enemy health bars contributed to frustration, especially during prolonged boss encounters.
- Unfavorable Comparisons to Other Games (weight 0.05): A significant portion of feedback compared the game unfavorably to other indie titles like Tunic, Hollow Knight, or Ori. Players felt it lacked the depth, innovation, or 'mind-blown' moments expected from games in a similar genre, often describing it as a 'watered-down' or 'mediocre' imitation.

Gameplay feedback:
- Genre Blending Gameplay (weight 0.3): The game is a unique blend of top-down Zelda-like exploration and puzzles, Metroidvania elements, and Souls-like combat mechanics. It frequently draws comparisons to Tunic due to its isometric perspective and gameplay loop, offering a combat-focused adventure with light puzzle-solving.
- Rewarding Exploration & Secrets (weight 0.25): The game features interconnected, labyrinthine environments without a map, encouraging thorough exploration and backtracking. It's rich with hidden paths, collectibles, and secrets, including post-game content and a 'true ending' that rewards player curiosity and multiple playthroughs.
- Accessible Souls-like Difficulty (weight 0.24): While inspired by Souls-like games, the difficulty is generally moderate and fair, making it accessible for newcomers to the genre. It avoids the punishing difficulty of traditional Souls-likes, with challenging but manageable boss fights and a well-balanced difficulty curve.
- Achievement & Completion Focus (weight 0.15): Achieving 100% completion and all achievements often requires multiple playthroughs, particularly for specific challenges like the 'umbrella-only' run. Many secrets and the true ending are tied to thorough exploration and collecting all items, extending playtime significantly.
- Memorable Boss Encounters (weight 0.13): Boss fights are well-designed, challenging, and often require learning patterns and timing. Each boss has unique mechanics and attack patterns, providing engaging duels that evolve as players learn their playbooks, culminating in a demanding final boss.
- Satisfying Progression System (weight 0.12): The game features a rewarding progression system where players unlock new abilities, weapons, and magic spells. These new powers are crucial for accessing previously unreachable areas and solving puzzles, with stat upgrades available by spending collected souls.
- Charming Crow Protagonist (weight 0.11): Players control a small, cute crow reaper tasked with collecting souls for an afterlife bureaucracy. This unique premise drives the narrative, as the crow's assigned soul is stolen, leading to a larger quest to uncover secrets and conspiracies.
- Linear Path with Exploration (weight 0.07): Despite appearing open, the main path is largely linear, guiding players through distinct themed areas. However, the game encourages exploration off the main path, with many secrets and shortcuts that loop back, enhancing the Metroidvania feel.
- Light & Integrated Puzzles (weight 0.05): Puzzles are generally simple, entertaining, and well-integrated into the environment, often using newfound abilities. They are not overly complex, maintaining the game's rhythm and primarily serving to advance the plot, open shortcuts, or reveal side content.
- Skill-Based Mechanics (weight 0.05): The game's core mechanics are skill-dependent and reaction-based, requiring players to learn enemy patterns and master timing. It offers different playstyles through varied weapons and magic, allowing players to adjust the challenge to their preference.
- Forgiving Death Mechanics (weight 0.04): A key departure from traditional Souls-likes is that players do not lose their collected souls (upgrade currency) upon death. Dying simply resets the player to the last checkpoint, encouraging experimentation and reducing frustration.
- Umbrella Challenge Run (weight 0.04): A notable and popular challenge in the game is the 'umbrella run,' where players attempt to complete the entire game using only the weakest weapon, the umbrella. This significantly increases difficulty and is tied to a specific achievement.
- Responsive Controls (weight 0.04): The game features good, responsive controls and smooth combat feel, though the control scheme may take some time to get used to. Many players recommend using a controller for a more comfortable experience.
- Limited Weapon Variety (weight 0.04): While there are different melee weapons and ranged spells available, some players feel the weapon variety is somewhat limited. However, each weapon offers unique styles and effects, and new tools are acquired to progress and deal with enemies.
- Enemy Stacking & Visual Health (weight 0.04): The game occasionally uses enemy stacking to increase difficulty, with multiple enemies attacking simultaneously in waves. Enemy health is visually indicated by cracks on their bodies, and players have invulnerability frames during dodges.

Performance notes:
- Solid Performance & Stability (weight 0.08): Many players report excellent performance with stable frame rates and minimal to no bugs across various systems, including the Steam Deck. The game generally runs smoothly without crashes during gameplay.
- High Resource Usage & Heat (weight 0.05): Despite its visual style, the game can cause surprisingly high GPU utilization and elevated temperatures on some PCs and the Steam Deck. This can lead to increased fan noise and potential stuttering on weaker hardware.
- Battery Drain on Steam Deck (weight 0.02): The game is noted for its significant battery drain on the Steam Deck, offering only 2.5 to 4 hours of playtime. Some users found that adjusting settings can slightly extend battery life.
- Unresolved Sound Bug (weight 0): One player mentioned a persistent sound bug that has reportedly been present since the game's launch and remains unfixed.
- Controller & OS Compatibility (weight 0): The game works flawlessly with a Google Stadia Controller and runs well on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04), indicating good compatibility with alternative input methods and operating systems.
- Minor Localization Issue (weight 0): One user noted that the interface and subtitles were in Spanish, which might be an issue for non-Spanish speakers if other language options were expected.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended Experience (weight 0.59): The game is widely recommended by players, often described as a 'gem' and a 'must-play.' Many reviewers express strong satisfaction, with some rating it 10/10 and considering it one of their favorite games, especially for fans of its genre.
- Ideal for Genre Fans (weight 0.1): The game is highly recommended for fans of Metroidvania, Zelda-like, and Souls-lite genres, often praised for its blend of challenging combat, exploration, and puzzles. It's also seen as a good entry point for newcomers to these genres.
- Worth 100% Completion (weight 0.08): Many players recommend completing the game to 100%, citing worthwhile secrets and achievements. While some find the process repetitive, others enjoy the extended playtime and the satisfaction of full completion.
- Great Value, Especially on Sale (weight 0.07): Players generally agree the game offers good value for its price, with many recommending it even at full price. However, a significant portion suggests purchasing it during a sale for an even better deal, highlighting its worth at discounted rates.
- Suitable for Steam Deck (weight 0.06): The game is frequently mentioned as an excellent title for playing on the Steam Deck, suggesting it's well-suited for portable gaming and casual sessions.
- Puzzles and Combat Accessibility (weight 0.03): The game's puzzles are generally not considered overly difficult, making it accessible for players who enjoy light puzzle-solving. Combat is also noted as being approachable, though some find later combat lacking excitement.
- Umbrella Challenge Optional (weight 0.02): There's a mixed sentiment regarding the 'umbrella-only' challenge. While some recommend it for a difficult playthrough, others advise against it for a first run to maintain enjoyment, especially for less experienced players.

Other player notes:
- Compact and Engaging Experience (weight 0.17): Players consistently praise the game's concise length, often completing it and achieving 100% in 10-25 hours. This short, sweet, and well-paced design is seen as a strength, preventing the game from overstaying its welcome while still offering a complete and satisfying experience.
- Genre Blending and Comparisons (weight 0.1): The game is frequently compared to and draws inspiration from a variety of titles, including Tunic, Dark Souls, The Legend of Zelda, Hollow Knight, and Titan Souls. This blend of influences creates a unique experience that appeals to fans of these diverse genres, though some comparisons can set high expectations.
- Rich Thematic Depth (weight 0.04): The narrative delves into profound philosophical themes such as death, existence, purpose, and the meaninglessness of eternal life. This subtle yet impactful storytelling, often with a melancholic tone, resonates deeply with players, offering an interesting reflection on life and death.
- True Ending Value (weight 0.02): The game's true ending is considered a worthwhile experience, often tying into the developers' previous work. While some players may not unlock it, those who do find it adds significant depth and closure to the narrative.
- Umbrella Achievement Strategy (weight 0.02): Players advise using the umbrella weapon exclusively throughout the first playthrough to efficiently unlock a specific achievement and avoid tedious backtracking. This strategy helps streamline 100% completion, as playing without the umbrella makes the game significantly easier.
- Seed Planting Mechanic (weight 0.02): A key gameplay tip is to plant seeds in flower pots immediately upon finding them. This prevents later difficulties and ensures efficient collection for progression or achievements, highlighting a specific mechanic that can impact player experience.
- Unique Dungeon Crawler Appeal (weight 0.01): The game offers a unique sense of adventure within a fantastical world, appealing to fans of dungeon crawlers. Its fun and dark sense of humor further enhances this experience, distinguishing it from other titles.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.36): Players felt satisfied by the game's high overall quality, including its engaging combat, clever level design, beautiful art style, and captivating soundtrack. The balanced difficulty, rewarding exploration, and well-written story also contributed to a fulfilling experience, often enhanced by achieving 100% completion.
- Frustration (weight 0.12): Frustration primarily stemmed from the lack of an in-game map, leading to frequent instances of getting lost, tedious backtracking, and difficulty finding secrets or progressing. Other causes included challenging or unfair boss mechanics, repetitive combat, and various bugs or quality-of-life issues.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): Excitement was generated by the game's unexpected high quality, often described as a 'hidden gem' or 'masterpiece,' with players praising its art, story, and engaging challenges. The anticipation for future content from the developers and the desire to replay the game also contributed to this emotion.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Players expressed disappointment when the game felt uninspired, boring, or failed to meet expectations, particularly regarding combat depth, enemy variety, or overall challenge. The game's short length, lack of New Game+, and tedious requirements for the true ending also led to this feeling.
- Joy (weight 0.08): Joy was frequently associated with the game's charming and cute aesthetics, humorous elements, and overall fun gameplay. Players enjoyed the captivating story, engaging puzzles, and the delightful experience of exploring the world and interacting with its characters.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Players found enjoyment in the game's unique blend of challenge and accessibility, its engaging story and characters, and the rewarding progression system. The fun combat, clever puzzles, and the overall aesthetic appeal of the world and soundtrack consistently contributed to a positive experience.
- Admiration (weight 0.03): Admiration was directed at the game's exceptional artistic design, including stunning visuals, a magnificent soundtrack, and cohesive world-building. Players also praised the clever level design, elegant combat, and the overall polish and creativity demonstrated by the developers.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciated the game's originality, its unique take on the Souls-like genre, and the evident care and love put into its development. The charming aesthetic, engaging characters, and well-executed game design choices, particularly in art, music, and level design, were highly valued.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom arose from repetitive combat, a lack of enemy variety, and unengaging exploration, especially when coupled with a perceived uninteresting story or low challenge. The monotonous game loop and excessive walking around also contributed to players losing interest.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger was primarily triggered by perceived poor game design, particularly frustrating boss mechanics, repetitive level design, and misleading checkpoint systems. Persistent bugs and a feeling of being misled by promotional material also contributed to this strong negative emotion.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players were surprised by the game's unexpected high quality, often discovering it as a hidden gem or finding it much better than anticipated. The emotional impact of the story, unexpected humor, and unique gameplay elements also contributed to this positive surprise.
- Love (weight 0.01): Love for the game stemmed from its overall exceptional quality, emotional story, and captivating world-building. Players developed strong affections for the art style, music, and charming characters, often considering it one of their favorite games of all time.
- Mild frustration (weight 0.01): Mild frustration was caused by minor but recurring issues such as 'BS' moments in combat challenges, repetitive navigation in later stages, and difficulty finding hidden items for achievements. The initial slowness of the game and lack of map guidance also contributed to this feeling.
- Neutrality (weight 0.01): Neutrality indicated that players found the game to be average or straightforward, with no particularly outstanding or negative aspects. The gameplay challenge, lore, and combat were often described as decent but not exceptional, leading to a moderate overall impression.
- Delight (weight 0): Delight was evoked by the game's cuteness, humor, and charming characters, particularly the crow protagonist. Players found joy in the game's aesthetic, interesting twists, and the overall experience of a well-crafted, bite-sized adventure.
- Nostalgia (weight 0): Nostalgia was frequently triggered by the game's resemblance to classic Legend of Zelda titles and other beloved older games. This evoked a sense of childhood wonder and a longing for the game after completion.
- Annoyance (weight 0): Annoyance arose from tedious platinum trophy requirements, the need for repetitive backtracking due to a lack of a mini-map or fast travel, and frustrating enemy mechanics. Visual glitches and unexplained gameplay elements also contributed to this irritation.
- Confusion (weight 0): Confusion was primarily caused by the unclear narrative at the beginning of the game and the lack of an in-game map, leading players to get lost frequently. Unexplained mechanics and a lack of clear guidance on objectives also contributed to this feeling.
- Relaxation (weight 0): Players found the game relaxing due to its slow pace, moderate combat difficulty, and soothing soundtrack. The cozy atmosphere and suitability for short, unhurried play sessions also contributed to a calm and enjoyable experience.
- Engagement (weight 0): Engagement was characterized by players being completely hooked by the game's world, story, and characters, often finding it impossible to put down. The captivating combat, intriguing mystery, and desire to achieve 100% completion kept players deeply involved.}