Death's Door: A Respectable Reaping

Time to Beat: 11 hours, 15 Minutes

In the first year of Awkward Mixture, I played Titan Souls by Acid Nerve. Six years after their original game they released Death's Door. And I played it three years later.

In Death's Door, the player controls a crow, employed by the Reaping Commission. The job of the Commission, entirely staffed by black birds, is to reap the souls of the soon to be dead. Ruled by the Lord of Doors, the crows complete paperwork and dispatch reapers in their base, the Hall of Doors. The Commission functions in an efficient, if mysterious fashion. The player's crow is sent to reap a soul in the grove of spirits. After completing this tutorial area, defeating the introductory boss, a large Grey Crow steals the soul.

The Grey Crow steals the whole soul for itself. It explains that the energy of souls can be consumed to extend one's life, instead of transferred to Death through Death's Door. Reapers, like the protagonist, are paid with a tiny portion of each soul they capture. This extends their life, allowing them to continue working for the Commission. But the Grey Crow reports a problem. Death's Door is permanently closed. It could be opened if the player gathers three large souls: the Witch, the King, and the Beast. I'm only a fledgling crow, but I agree to do it.

Death's Door is a souls-like, from an isometric perspective. The unnamed protagonist wields a sword (which can be replaced with a pair of daggers, a hammer, an umbrella, or a greatsword), and a bow at start. Like Dark Souls, the protagonist is an adept roller. Killing enemies earns the player soul energy which is spent to upgrade four stats: Strength (melee damage), Dexterity (attack speed), Haste (move and roll speed), and Magic (damage from spells, including arrows). Each stat can be upgraded five times. There is almost no difference between each step, but by the end, the player will feel a nearly insignificant difference between 0 and 5.

Another similarity between Death's Door and Dark Souls is that enemies respawn after death. But that is the only consequence of defeat. The protagonist loses nothing, no souls, no items, and respawns at the closest Door, which are placed regularly and adjacent to bosses. Each of the three dungeons contains five doors, along with a few others scattered across the Last Cemetery (the overworld). Passing through a Door in a dungeon or overworld brings the crow to the Hall of Doors (the home of the Commission). At this hub location the player can travel through any other door. These connections allow the player to travel from any Door to any other Door in seconds.

Scattered around the dungeons and overworld are life seeds. Equally dispersed are pots into which the player can plant the seeds. A planted seed immediately grows into a flower. Consuming a flower completely refills the crow's health bar. Flowers regrow when the player dies. I only planted a seed when I had half health or less. I still retained eighteen seeds after beating Death's Door. Player's invested in a 100% completion percentage should plant seeds at every opportunity, because they contribute to the metric.

Death's Door is like Dark Souls, but it also shares similarities with Zelda. Each of the three dungeons gives the player a new spell. The first spell, bow and arrow, hits enemies at range. The other spells are more useful as puzzle solving tricks. The second spell, fireball, lights torches on fire. Cracked walls are broken by the third spell, bombs. And the hookshot lets the crow zip from terrain object to terrain object, jumping over cliffs, water, or pits. While the fireball and bomb inflict damage, the arrow offers superior range and accuracy.

The spells of Death's Door feel like a lifeless mechanic. The player enters a new dungeon, wanders around a bit, realizing they need the new spell. After acquiring the spell, they explore the second half of the dungeon. Future dungeons don't require previous spells. Beyond completing the dungeon where the spell is initially found, the player can use it to revisit previous areas to unlock collectibles or shrines. Death's Door hides sixteen shrines; eight vitality and eight magic. Finding four of a type increases the health or magic bar by one. I found six vitality and three magic shrines. After weapons, seeds, and crystals, the other collectibles are shiny things. There are twenty-four of these useless items, including a Captain's Log, Incense, and an Ancient Crown.

In each dungeon, after unlocking the new spell, the player must free the souls of three dead crow reapers. Grandma the Witch of Urns wasn't a challenge. I defeated her on the first try. The threat in Death's Door isn't the bosses, or casual enemies, but the coliseums. These are areas where invisible gates lock the player in, forced to fight three to six waves of enemies without healing. These were the main source of my deaths. After her defeat, Grandma the Witch tells the player that they have the same employer. As she dies she laments her failure to trick Death (her plan was to put a pot on her head). Gravekeeper buries her, while the crow is whisked away to a gray realm. There they meet the head of the Commission, the current Lord of Doors. Based on his proud behavior, his dismissive attitude, his knowledge of who I had killed, and his three windows showing the three realms of the bosses, I immediately assumed he was the villain.

Between realms, Death's Door requires the player to complete a sizable amount of atmospheric walking. There's nothing to do but trek through the expansive terrain as ethereal, haunting, and tranquil music plays. This walking isn't through an open world, but a narrow path with panoramic scenery. It's a narrow corridor, but one positive element is that I rarely felt lost. The only problem between dungeons was finding the start of the path to the next. The few NPCs that inhabit the realms try for friendly, but are charmless. Like every other character they lack characterization. They exhibit only a singular motivation or idea. The few times I am forced to meet them they act like childish sidekicks.

The next boss is the Frog King in the forest. In his quest for immortality he's messed up the delicate ecosystem of his realm. He almost beat me. I couldn't determine his weak spot. I dodged for a full minute before I discovered where to hit him. Then it was fun, but easy.

Progressing through dungeons requires unlocking the new spell, defeating solo enemies, groups of enemies, and coliseums of enemies. It requires evading environmental hazards and solving some simple, but occasionally innovative puzzles. Collect keys and hit switches to open doors, create ladders, and reveal shortcuts.

The formula doesn't change for Betty the Beast. Only she bested me seven times. On the way to her the protagonist meets a camp of free crows named Rook, Vaga, Raven, Corvus, and Jackdaw. They, along with numerous statements from the imprisoned crow souls the protagonist frees, reveal that the Reaping Commission is sending the reapers, intending for the bosses to capture them (if it wasn't already obvious to the player).

With the three souls in hand, the crow opens Death's Door. The representation of Death suffers from modern cliches. He isn't bad, but neutral. He's like a lonely kid. But really he is there to deliver a long exposition, full of platitudes about death, on the obvious twist. He had made a deal, but was tricked.

Death's Door finishes with a long, drawn out fight with the final boss (not Death). It requires a fight that mirrors the Grandma fight, followed by a chase sequence. It repeats with two more fights each which mirror a previous boss, and two more chases. Then, the final, final battle. The player can't back out once they've arrived at this conclusionary combat. I needed eight tries to beat this boss.

After this the player is able to access additional puzzles, the tablets of knowledge. There are seven, each of which are acquired by completing a puzzle. I solved two.

Also, I died thirty-one times across the entirety of Death's Door.

In Conclusion,

Why do the Lords of Doors (and their Doors) exist? In this almost empty world, who are the crows reaping? Why was Death tricked? Death's Door invents a strange, incoherent world, with an obvious twist. Its remaining mechanics are travel and combat. One can't call the travel, exploration. There's a straightforward path from spot to spot with no chance to deviate. The only exploration involves solving the puzzles to find inconsequential weapons, collectibles, shrines, and tablets. A few of the puzzles are joyful, but they are a side note. The main mechanic, combat, is serviceable, but it doesn't progress. It doesn't change, transform, or grow during the experience. Death's Door feels stale, like the air in a crypt, after the first dungeon.