Death of a Wish (PC) (Demo)

20240212:
Wow. So I just finished playing the demo and I had fun with it. First, the game has a distinct artistic style which alone is appealing. Second, I would say is that the game has a good balance between gameplay action and story. Third, there is an interesting customization element to the game that is simple and yet gives the game a level of depth. Going into this in detail, the player eventually unlocks a second element, and can switch between their first element (lightning) and the second element (water). Some enemies are *weak* to particular elements or will *resist* a particular element. These powers can further be customized with different familiars and modifiers.

The game was fairly difficult, but once a particular area was beaten, I was able to run through it and back to a difficult enemy in fairly short time.

Tip: parrying is OP. For example, against the final boss in the demo, parrying three attacks in a row plus an additional strike was enough to break the boss's shield. A shield break means the enemy is stunned and the player can just freely deal damage. Simply rinse and repeat.

While there was much to enjoy, I suppose there are some minor elements I would nitpick on. The story is interesting, but also confusing. While it's possible that the story is intentionally confusing, it is technically only confusing to the player, as the player character has clear motives. Fortunately, the game's gameplay is fun enough to motivate pushing through the game despite the confusing story. Personally, I think an easy-to-follow story is the difference between a great game and an excellent game. A sillier nitpick for me is that the main character's primary dialogue stance looks uncool.

After playing the game, I couldn't help but think of Hades, which is also a hack and slash, but that's just about where their similarity ends. In terms of the story point I made above, Hades has a much stronger story. In terms of the difficulty, Death of a Wish feels like a series of increasingly difficult bosses whereas Hades has a stronger focus on making it through waves of smaller enemies with the occasional boss battle. As such, at the end of the day, while I enjoyed my time with the demo, I don't see myself looking to purchase and complete Death of a Wish. I would, however, believe that it becomes a popular game.

Setup: Normal difficult (for both Sin and Punishment). Logitech Gamepad F310.

Steam Game Time: 114 minutes (cumulative game time)

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