Death's Door (video game)

Death's Door is a 3D, isometric action-adventure game. The player starts with a sword, and bow and arrow. Sword strikes string together into combos and ammo for the bow is replenished by using the sword. Four other weapons and three magic projectiles become available as the game progresses, but the basic attack mechanics remain.^[5]

At the start, the player has four health points (six in the mobile version), with all damage causing one to be depleted. Health is recovered by collecting and planting seeds in pots which appear throughout the world. The seeds grow into plants which restore full health and eventually regrow.^[6] Doors to and from the afterlife area exist as checkpoints throughout the game. When the player dies, they respawn at the nearest door without otherwise losing progress.^[6]

As with other Zelda-like games, new items and abilities allow access to new areas in previously explored levels, and solving puzzles with available tools is required to complete dungeons. The game uses souls as a currency, collected by killing enemies and finding secret pick-ups, which can be used to upgrade basic abilities.^[7][6]

The player takes on the role of a small crow who works as a "reaper" collecting souls for the Reaping Commission Headquarters, an office-like bureaucratic afterlife.^[8] For the first mission of the game, the character is sent to collect the soul of a monster who does not want to leave life willingly. After defeating it, a large, old crow intervenes and steals the soul before telling him of a potential conspiracy regarding the disappearance of other crows.^[9] The old crow explains that the player must make their way through three dungeons in order to collect three "Giant Souls" needed to open Death's Door.^[7][10]

Throughout the game, more information is revealed about the Reaping Commission's background and leader, the Lord of Doors. Using an array of weapons, projectiles, magic, and dodging, the player travels through several areas, all of which link back to Headquarters via a door, defeating three bosses to collect Giant Souls. Upon unlocking the door, the player learns that the bureaucracy was created when Death entered into an arrangement with the first Lord of Doors to process souls on Death's behalf in exchange for extending the life of the Lord of Doors until they appoint a successor. Instead of appointing a successor and accepting the end of their life, the current Lord instead imprisoned Death behind the door in order to gain immortality. The final boss fight is with the Lord of Doors, after which the bureaucracy is dismantled.

After the credits, the player can switch to night mode and solve puzzles in each of the levels to collect Tablets of Knowledge which unlock the true ending, revealing the crows were acting on the will of the entity known as Truth.

Death's Door was developed by Acid Nerve, a Manchester, United Kingdom-based two-person studio comprising Mark Foster and David Fenn. Foster is credited as programmer, designer, writer, and animator; Fenn was producer, designer, composer, and sound designer. They also worked with two concept artists and a modeler.^[11] The developers wanted to use ideas and themes from their previous game, Titan Souls, and create a more advanced, polished game.^[11] They drew inspiration from The Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls, and the work of Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli.^[12]

The game was about half-way complete at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required they move to remote work and leave their new office but, it otherwise did not have a significant negative impact on development.^[11]

Death's Door was published by Devolver Digital. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in July 2021, selling more than 100,000 copies in its first week.^[13] The game released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in November 2021.^[2]