A servant awakens after a failed expedition to a fallen land, bound to Death by contract and seeking immortality while chasing a lost parent; the story explores memory, regret and what an afterlife actually costs. Themes land in lines about reliving one’s greatest regret for eternity, and the worldbuilding is surprisingly rich for a 2D action game, with lore tucked into tombs and dream-shifted spaces. Some reveals land as surprises only on a blind playthrough, but the emotional register consistently outperforms the genre’s usual grimness, and the afterlife’s cruel arithmetic gives the world a philosophical spine most action games lack.
The class system adds genuine replay value and a clever narrative hook. Seven classes each carry a starting weapon and item, and the classes not chosen appear in-game as counterparts to fight, versions of the protagonist that chose differently, a mechanical and thematic marriage few games attempt. The scythe and its death-worship fantasy is the strongest pick, and the class’s death-idol restoration mechanic doubles as strategic resource play. Weapon variety beyond the starting choice (spear, halberd, katana), shields, plumes and phoenix blooms keep loadouts experimenting long after the class decision, and boss-sigil progression rewards every roster entry cleared.
Boss design carries the game. A shielded beast with an aim-down-sights phase, a sniper daughter, a four-phase curse gauntlet, and a final mother whose damage output blurs the line between win and loss all leave strong impressions; the curse phases punish blocked timing with thousand-damage hits, and multi-phase break systems give each fight an arc. Fighting alternate selves ties the boss roster back to the class premise, and the peaking fights reward mastery the rest of the game teaches.
Movement and traversal keep exploration rewarding. Double jumps, a relic-granted third jump, dream shifts and warp points open nooks and crannies across the map, and the traversal upgrades genuinely reshape what is reachable. Some gates feel arbitrary: third-jump relics that only help in certain zones make backtracking feel like trial and error, and several optional areas are gated more awkwardly than the map suggests.
Equipment management is the campaign’s most persistent friction. Contract-equipping confusion (why is a death contract active, and how did it get there), unconfirmed teleports that send the player across the map without warning, and finicky menu sorting draw repeated complaints. Contagion zones and status effects stack max-health reduction as a persistent nuisance, and recurring poison effects punish sloppy play with attrition rather than challenge.
Skill trees and talents add steady mechanical growth between bosses, and the reworked difficulty curve respects players who engage with its systems. The endgame leans on soul-stone farming for upgrades, a grind that stalls momentum after the boss roster has already peaked. A few odd arena choices (bosses that spawn additional enemies alongside themselves) get a mixed reception, though the fight quality generally outweighs the clutter. The re-release’s additions (traits, heroics, dream shifting, tomb lore) make the package feel complete rather than patched, and precise controls plus a legible perfect-block system hold the combat together.
Overall, this is a strong 2D soulslike that trades some interface polish for exceptional combat and boss design: the class system’s fight-your-alternates premise, the scythe’s death fantasy and the multi-phase roster reward persistence, while the finicky equipment UX, awkward gates and grindy endgame are real deductions. As a complete package it earns its place among the genre’s better entries.
