Death Tales (Nintendo Switch) review

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Death Tales, developed and published by Arcade Distillery, is an action platformer that can be played solo or in local co-op.
It has some RPG elements and, although it is not a roguelike, has some nuances of the genre.

Presentation

The game is presented without mystery: you can walk, jump, dash (dash), attack, interact with NPCs, use abilities, swap equipment, and obtain and buy upgrades: the full package for any action-platformer mix. The plot is about a new Reaper (a soul reaper, an allusion to the figure of the Grim Reaper) who uses a scythe as a weapon and starts to awaken memories and daydreams about his life before this and, from there, travels through different worlds fighting enemies, collecting souls and following clues in order to uncover his identity and the mysteries of these supernatural realms.

Gameplay

For most actions, anyone who has tried a similar title will feel at home; however, some actions do not seem to work exactly as they should.
The first oddity concerns the range of the weapon the character uses: for an attack to work you always have to be very close to the enemy, almost forcing the character into the opponent’s hitbox . Still on attacks, the combo moves, which eventually start to work with practice, still give the impression that the little reaper is pulling the weapon toward himself more than using it against enemies. The finish of one of the main ground attack sequences pushes the character forward, which causes accidental deaths when you are near a cliff without giving the player the possibility of canceling that animation efficiently and avoiding death.

The jumps may also not be fully reliable, since the “weight” of the character is not always consistent, which does not give the player the certainty that a jump will or will not reach a given distance. While it is extremely satisfying that the character can grab platform edges to avoid falling, sometimes the way this happens ends up leaving the player in trouble among the enemies.

Talking about playstyle possibilities, at the end of each stage (besides being found in hidden chests), the character can frequently acquire equipment, weapons or abilities, and these seem to be delivered randomly, which allows players to customize their characters with different combinations of passive and active powers that can still be swapped at will to meet situational needs. Equipment can have, for example, abilities that help in combat, in mobility, or in obtaining more resources, while the ability cards bring good combinations of extra moves for the character’s offense or defense.

The game also gives the player some Missions, which are no more complicated than goals, such as using certain moves or defeating a number of enemies, in order to earn more souls, which are the game’s currency.

Setting

Arcade Distillery’s art style is quite notable, especially when compared with the company’s previous titles.
You can see a pattern in the stylized art with distortions and exaggerations in features, and this aspect of the art can be greatly appreciated; however, the colors are very strong and, at various moments, the amount of elements on screen, even with a single player, is confusing.

The three planes of the scenery have colors and shapes with very similar intensities, which makes depth perception difficult; at various moments the main layer did not even use a different tone from the background, bringing only confusion for a player who is already busy dealing with five different monsters on screen, each with its own set of excessively bright particles, whether fire, poison or rainbow flames, all happening at the same time while your enchanted scythe also gives off sparkles.

It is a lot of information.

Death Tales’ setting brings good context: angels, demons, monsters, supernatural beings that move between the realms of the living, the dead and beyond, but a better assessment of which elements need to stand out or not would definitely help the game’s atmosphere.

Conclusion

Death Tales is a good pastime, and brings much more quality in its content than a good part of the common action platformers you find while browsing the shelves of digital game stores, but it could still be improved to be among the classics.
However, it is recommended for those who enjoy the style and especially for those who would like to play a title like this with friends, which is the game’s strong point.

Death Tales can be obtained on Steam, Nintendo eShop or PlayStation Store.

Played on the Nintendo Switch with a Pro Controller.