Death of a Wish

Death of a Wish is an action game in which the player character, Christian, vows revenge on the corrupt cult that inhabit the Sanctum led by its figureheads, the Father, the Sister, the Cardinal and the Priest.^[1] Players battle enemies through a moveset that includes a mixture of light and heavy hack and slash moves that can be chained to break enemy defenses, a dodge roll, sprint, parry and teleport.^[2] The player also has a hovering Familiar that performs ranged attacks. Players can further customize their weapons and combat styles, named Arias, throughout the game to acquire new primary and secondary attacks, and collect Prayer Cards that provide additional abilities.^[3] In contrast to previous games by Horgan, Death of a Wish does not have a stamina system or cooldown for the use of these abilities, instead featuring enemies with greater use of pursuit, gap-closing and projectile attacks to counter the abilities of the player.^[4] The game features a corruption meter, which is a percentage-based statistic that increases each time the player takes damage or dies and decreases when the player performs well in combat encounters. If the meter increases over 100%, the game will trigger a bad ending.^[5]

Death of a Wish was developed by Melessthanthree, the pseudonym of independent developer Colin Horgan.^[6] The game originated as a DLC for the developer's preceding title, Lucah: Born of a Dream.^[3] Seeking to design a "richer action experience" compared to its predecessor, Horgan reworked the combat design and moveset for Death of a Wish, focusing on increased challenge and a more sophisticated enemy and encounter design.^[7] These were intended to contribute to an increased pace and aggression to reflect the game's revenge narrative and depiction of Christian, a character "hurt by an oppressive culture that raised him on self-hatred and self-harm (who) seeks freedom through revenge".^[4] Horgan stated that the tone and aesthetics of the game were inspired by working with independent developer Heather Flowers and the "angry and righteous" tone of their previous title, Extreme Meatpunks Forever, and the game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Horgan also envisaged Christian as an "outlet for a lot of feelings" for "like-minded people" in the context of political developments in the United States, particularly in relation to debates around transgender and pro-choice rights.^[7] The game was released as a demo on 26 October 2023 and previewed at the February 2024 Steam Next Fest.^[8][9] The game was released for PC and the Switch on 11 March 2024.^[10]