Hey everybody, my name is Dave Jackson, and this is Tales from the Backlog, a video games podcast where I will bring in guests to talk about games that I’ve recently played.. My guest today is a friend of the show and stylish combat enthusiast, Moonborne Today we’ll be talking about Death’s Gambit, a 2D metroidvania soulslike developed by White Rabbit and published by Adult Swim Games in 2018, with a big expansion subtitled Afterlife published by Serenity Forge in 2021. Both of us played the Afterlife version, so that is the version we’ll be discussing, though Moon feel free to chime in with comparisons to the original version because this update, and game as a whole, is really a feat for such a small team. But before that, what else have you been playing lately? Ok, let’s get into today’s focus, Death’s Gambit. Death’s Gambit has a story, while it’s not delivered in a very straightforward way, there are story beats that can be spoiled, so we’ll keep detailed story talk in the spoiler section. We will also keep discussions about boss fights and specific areas in the spoiler section, as part of the joy of this game is exploring and experiencing these things for yourself. Our histories with the game and genres- What interested us in this game? I got interested in Death’s Gambit after hearing Moon and so many of the others whose opinions about games I respect rave about this as a 2D soulslike metroidvania, a genre that I had thought was always better in my head than in reality. But like i said I respect their opinions about what makes these games tick, and people just raved about this game. This was pretty soon after they announced the revised Afterlife edition, though, and when I saw that Afterlife would be coming to Switch, I decided to wait for that. When did we play, on what platform- Bought on release for Switch in 2021 Play time- 12 hours or so Basics of how the game works, key mechanics, what makes this game stand out? Visuals and music Beautiful game. Very colorful, great sprites You start out with this awesome ride on your horse for just about 15 seconds or so while the main credits roll, but it’s a great intro to let you soak in the atmosphere and the music Most memorable music for me are the laid back melodies, not the swelling choirs we’ve kind of gotten used to in other soulsborne games. Story setup Immortality exists in this land, with great kingdoms questing to Aldwynn, trying to claim it. The Immortals keep crushing the expeditions however. You play as Sorun, a warrior who died in battle but was resurrected by Death himself, in order to serve as his right hand man. Your task is to get to the center of Siradon, where the source of immortality is held, and destroy it. This sounds like a pretty bare-bones story, but there were some very nice story beats in there. No spoilers, until later, but just know that this game focuses heavily on the theme of immortality. Moon how do you feel about the story, without spoilers, as it stacks up maybe among others in the genre? Multiple endings- my issue with “true endings” Soulslike elements Your standard soulslike elements with some very clever twists in this game “Bonfires” are statues- checkpoints, level up, assign abilities, upgrade stuff “Estus”- plumes- you can find different plumes that give you different healing capabilities- trading a percentage of healing for other benefits When you die, you don’t lose your “souls”(essence), you drop a plume. You can go pick this up again or just pay to reclaim it at a statue, VERY COOL SYSTEM You can also choose to temporarily trade in your plumes for +5% damage. During some tough fights this really helped me, I rolled around at +10% damage for most of the game. You’re an experienced soulslike player, how does this stack up? RPG elements 8 classes - cool thing where they let you test the classes out before you play them, in a genre where combat feel and flow is really important. Within each class, several skill trees and abilities that you can unlock, give a huge variety and depth to combat that I didn’t really approach as I get overwhelmed by optimizing builds. Souls-style level ups Combat Deliberate combat, you absolutely must be aware of what enemies are doing, button mashing will get you killed. 2 weapons equipped at a time, for me the scythe and a bow, and you can equip up to 4 special abilities 4 defensive maneuvers- jumping, dodge roll, blocking/perfect block, parrying In addition to health and stamina, you have a 3rd resource called Skill points, which you use for the special weapon abilities. Thoughts on the combat? Good mix of blocking and dodging/jumping in the combat. Always felt fair, though I did have the issue of seemingly always facing the wrong direction when trying to block. Bosses There are 20 bosses, some of which are optional Ranging from duel type fights against characters your size, to fights where the camera pulls back and you’re fighting giants, to bullet hell castlevania style bosses No spoilers but how did you feel about the bosses and difficulty? I liked most of the fights, I would say I aced about half of them and there were 2 or 3 that I had to fight more than 10 times. Metroidvania elements All of the elements that make a good metroidvania Apparently this wasn’t really a metroidvania in the vanilla version(?) . WHich is insane to me because this is an excellent metroidvania in my opinion.. Large, interconnected map with shortcuts, that you can tackle in a nonlinear fashion. upgrades that let you access portions of the map. The best metroidvanias have these upgrades be abilities that you can use outside of the context of unlocking new areas, and DG hits that Not a key, but sometimes a key, but more often like an air dash, a double jump, a downward smash, etc, that are all useful in combat and platforming as well. Fun to explore! Treats! You know that side path is going to be worth your time. Secret areas! Moon, where does this stack up with the top level metroidvanias you’ve played? Final thoughts, Do we recommend? At what price point? Like i said before, I had a really complicated history with 2D soulslikes and some metroidvanias in general, even though these are both 2 genres that I love. There are just so many of them now and I don’t think that many of them are very good. Especially when the 2 genres are combined. But Death’s Gambit struck a great balance between fair and punishing combat difficulty, exploration with real rewards, and using soulslike systems with their own unique twists that actually really work. I think that this is a tremendous achievement for such a small team, mainly 2 people, Housekeeping - Thank you for listening! If you want to support the show, please subscribe on your platform of choice, leave us a rating and review if your platform allows it, and spread the good word! I also do a podcast called A Top 3 Podcast, where each week we pick a topic, pick our top 3s in that topic, and discuss. It’s a good time, so check that out if you want to hear us talk about other subjects. SPOILER WALL Will not be going through the story beat by beat, will not be focusing on every boss, there is too much for this show and frankly this type of storytelling is the type that I just vibe with instead of going deep into the lore. Story? Sorun is resurrected by Death. During a failed invasion to get to the source of immortality. Death tasks him with destroying that source of immortality. Sorun also has the goal of finding his mother, and you get some flashbacks of him with his mom. The bosses you fight are all immortal. These story setups explain why Sorun can be resurrected and why you can do rematches with the bosses. Your big bad from the beginning is called The Endless, a kind of female anime warrior type, who is trying to preserve immortality and perhaps control it You go through the game, of course your mom is dead The afterlife in this world is reliving the worst moment of your life over and over again. Contrast this with immortality which lots of sci fi stories have explored- immortality is torture in another way. So damned if you die, damned if you don’t in this world. I got the “bad” ending- ending C, which is the ending from the original game? Destroy the source of immortality, the immortals all crumble into dust, Sorun dies? You get a voiceover saying your mom has been freed from immortality but nobody will remember anything she did. True ending? Moon? My problem with this true ending setup Level experiences Horror Metroid level was very cool Boss experiences Tundra Lord Kaern, bastard of a fight. Hardest boss in the game for me by far. Other hard ones, Amulvaro, final Endless Fun fights- Amulvaro, Endless, Dark Knight You can pet the giant thunder horse and avoid the fight