Have a Nice Death Review (Prismer)
Dying has never been so fun! Well, kinda. Lots of games make that fun. But none of them wish you a happy death in the title of the game, so I feel like Have a Nice Death deserves some credit for that! Oh, and also for the incredibly good artstyle, nice soundtrack and great gameplay.
Have a Nice Death is a 2d action roguelite in which you play as an overworked Death suffering from burnout. Relatable, right? It has a company called Death Inc., which, you know, handles killing people and harvesting their souls on behalf of Death. Except since Death is suffering from burnout, things have gone a bit crazy in the company. After getting fed up with the dismal state of the place, it is decided: death will put the company in order again.
Since most people care first and foremost about gameplay when it comes to roguelites, I’ll start there. It’s good. You have basically three main attacks, which are your ever-present scythe and two special attacks using special weapons and spells you can collect. The controls are simple, with your movement, your i-frame dash, and your attacks, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do much with them. Depending on when and how you attack, you can perform all sorts of nice combos using your three weapons. You can even use a unique devastating attack with your special meter that charges as you hit enemies. I mean it, the combat is super smooth.
The weapon variety is actually pretty good, though you won’t have access to all of them at the beginning of the game. Instead, you have to permanently unlock them between runs using ingots - a type of currency you can find - in your office. The buying system is actually pretty cool: everything has a set price but it gets progressively cheaper as you accomplish missions throughout your runs, like killing X boss 3 times or something. So if you really want something, you can unlock it as soon as you get enough ingots, but if you’re patient, you can eventually get it for a lot cheaper. You can also even change your own scythe’s attack patterns at the beginning of each run, allowing some customization for your otherwise static weapon. And if that’s all not enough, within each run you can also upgrade your weapons for the run using the temporary currency you can find, which are akin to souls.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2953721993
But your weapons are not the only things that offer lots of variety in the runs - far from it. If you meet up with your HR employee during your runs, you’ll acquire curses that enhance Death’s skills. By themselves, the buffs you get are not too great, but the idea is to combine many of them to truly buff your character. You get stuff ranging from a flat defense increase all the way to infusing your attacks with different elements, adding crit chance, and others. There seem to be 3 types of curses, represented by the red, blue and green colours. While it may not look like it, and while this system might not offer as much variety as some other games in the genre, you can get some pretty crazy builds here.
My first successful run had me stack up the blue defensive curses that made it so I basically took very little damage from trash mobs, and had a 30% chance to drop anima, which are healing items, upon getting hit. So what would often happen is I’d find an arena, get hit a ton because I suck, and still walk out with more health than I entered the arena with. It was absolutely insane.
And broken builds will help you out because the game is pretty hard! I’ve seen, when doing research, plenty of reports of people getting stuck in floor 3 or such for quite some time, and I can absolutely see that happening. I managed to beat a run on my 7th or so attempt without any difficulty, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because of my busted defensive build that I was really lucky to stumble upon. This is not the norm. And if it is the norm for you, rejoice! You can increase the difficulty… at least 11 times. That’s right, everytime you get to the end, you can increase the difficulty by one level, which eventually changes attack patterns on trash mobs, thanagers and bosses.
What? You have no idea what thanagers are? Well, each department has a number of floors you have to get through. At the end of all those floors, you find the department boss, which works as the main story boss for the zone you’re at, per say. However, as you clear each floor, you can choose amongst a few randomized options where you want to head to next. The name is usually a good hint of what awaits you: you have the HR floor which will certainly give you a new curse, anima floor which will definitely have an anima waiting for you at the end, etc. One of these floors, if you feel particularly daring, is the thanager floor, which has basically a miniboss waiting for you at the end, a thanager. Well, I say miniboss, but really, they even have a boss health bar. They’re just not story bosses. And if you’re worried about the boss quality, don’t be: there are over 10 between thanagers and bosses, and the fights are mostly pretty good.
As I said though, the game is hard, and chances are said bosses will kill you many times. Luckily, though, the game is a roguelite and you get permanent progress between runs! Aside from the weapons I talked about, you can use ingots to buy decorations for several rooms in the company, and you can also level up using exp you gain at the end of each run. The levels take longer to gain, but they’re the ones that give you the best upgrades, like starting a run with one anima, out of three max, or even unlocking shortcuts that bypass entire departments and skip straight to their boss.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2953721872
But if you think leveling up and buying new stuff is all you’ll do between runs, you’re very mistaken. The game also has a story! And in fact, it has very lively and extremely charming NPCs to go along with Death. Often, when you die, you can find new dialogue from several NPCs, usually progressing some sort of self contained story. I was privy to a strike, and I got to hold on to the edge of my seat as I saw an employee try to locate his missing shoe, just to mention a few. There’s always something going on. The dialogue is pretty funny at times, and always charming!
If all you care about is the story, though, be warned that it won’t be over by the time you finish your first run. There will still be plenty for you to find before you truly get to the end, and you may, perhaps, even find a secret boss… You may also already have seen, but the game is super charming not only in its dialogue, but also in its visuals! The artstyle is hand drawn and really good, and each character is cuter than the last. I mean, just look at death! Death is adorable! The soundtrack is also pretty good, and the noises that happen as you hit stuff are pretty satisfying. I really enjoy this in a roguelite.
Anyway, there’s more I can say about the game, but I’ll let you find the rest out by yourself. The basics have been covered, and that should be enough for you to decide if it is something you want to experience. As per usual, it’s not an experience for everyone, and some will not like the sometimes lackluster curses, or how hard the game can be. I’ve even seen complaints about the combos: they’re there, but if you hit enemies enough, you stun them, which makes it so you effectively don’t have to really take advantage of all your moves… at least in easier difficulties, since you can rush enemies and basic attack them a few times, stun and kill them. None of that bothered me, but it’s still worth a mention as I did see complaints. If you do pick up the game, I hope you enjoy it!
This review is also available on youtube! Check it out below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ7Qq8BA-64