2025-04-27 01:18:15

Quick paced game, very fun platforming and bullet hell combat, can get a bit hectic at times but that's why there are "ascension" levels to switch between, was a fun 100% to do though.

2025-04-25 07:24:02

Its kind of like hollowknight meets Hades, knew from a quick look at it I would enjoy the game. After 5 runs I beat burnout! Still loads to do and discover, but I am a fan. The combat feels good

2025-04-22 04:10:39

good game. not for me.

Its a damn shame, the combat feels so varied but because they are so stingy with hp and heals or dmg redux of any kind
(also no parry and very tight iframe window on dodge that has cooldown flies you across screen which often makes it more a of detriment than a blessing) the whole thing quickly becomes about not getting hit once or your dead on anything the boss does. Most good upgrades reduce the already piss poor survivability and for what? 30% overall dmg because everything is tied to a billion conditions. Getting new weapons and spells as "progression" doesn't matter if the most annoying part of the game is the same throughout.

Also generally don't know how this is a rogue lite, there is no permanent power gained thats even remotely substantial from run to run. The stages are pretty much the same and not particularly hard-- its a weird balance where mobs feel easy af no matter what and bosses just feel cheap just because any hit they do takes over half your hp so u have to die over and over to have chance at adapting. In fact, now that I think on it its like Dark Souls which is shit at how player combat interacts with bosses. Same thing here "This is what we want out boss to fight like" and "This is what we want our players to fight with" and no one thought about how the two interact.

Its a pass for me, the visuals and animations are probably my favorite out of any other 2d game I've played.

2025-04-13 07:10:28

First game of this type i've played and its not for me. Forced restarts, random generated equipment, constantly feeling as though character is weak and ineffective. I'm done. Shouldn't have bought this game

2025-04-10 03:20:52

With it's pleasing to look at artstyle and it's addictive and fun gameplay, this is one of my favorite roguelikes I've played. I do think its falls short in some ways though.

For one, I'm not sure if it's difficulty in translating it from it's main language, or maybe cultural differences in general making it go over my head, but NONE of the dialogue hits for me. It's all either bland or confusing, with no inbetween. It's to the point that dialogue could be removed from the game entirely and that might legit make it better for me.

Secondly, at some point between all the updates and big changes to the game, they started balancing it much more towards it being difficult than it being fun. They nerfed almost all of the fun and powerful abilities while making the endgame bosses crazy hard, and that's just in base difficulty. Then they added like 10 challenge difficulties on top of that. Roguelike should be hard, for sure, but it just felt like they were too focused on making some ball bustingly hard game, to the point that it was losing some of it's charm.

That said, there have been a some updates since I last played and maybe they made some more big changes that make that last point completely irrelevant. Either way, at it's core, the game is just a ton of fun and I still recommend it to anyone who likes roguelikes.

2025-04-09 09:49:19

I'd love to play this game more, combat feels nice and movement is responsive and floaty, but whenever I so much as blink it crashes.

2025-04-06 23:10:50

Great game, very fun. Balancing is a little weird here and there for some abilities but not much of a problem for the type of genre

2025-04-05 09:29:34

One of the easier “Metroidvania” (however you spell it) style games.

What most likely sold you on this game is its visuals. It’s easily the strongest element. The animations are so clean and the characters are super expressive. If this is your first game of the genre, don’t fret. There’s an easy mode you can unlock.

It’s super fun. There’s like 80 weapons “different” you can play. The mechanics I find to be the weakest part of the game. The vast majority of the weapons provide only damage. The cool ones are all legendary and thus rare to obtain. There's too many that you'll just throw out the window for the sake of obtaining damage elsewhere. They are all created equal so you don’t have to worry about unbalanced ones. [spoiler]Except for the hammer. That thing sucks in every way. There’s a reason why they give it to you on your first run. Because you’ll never grab it again.[/spoiler]

Many metroidvania titles have purposely restricted motion to make it easier on the artwork. But artwork is “Have A Nice Death’s” strength. Death (the main guy) has just about the longest dash I’ve ever seen. On like a half second cooldown. You’re extremely nimble. And you got space to move too. There are tools you can use to avoid getting lost but you’re never going use them. You’re too fast.

The nature of your nimble character and diverse move set calls for the enemies to be extra unfair. The bosses have huge coverage. Sometimes the whole screen. Fighting each one of them for the first time will end a run. [spoiler]Especially the final boss. That girl will straight up set your health to 1 and then just delete your build.[/spoiler] It’s a frustrating experience for the first several hours. Please be patient with yourself. You’ll be twice as prepared on the second encounter.

Everything in “Have A Nice Death” has to be sought out. Secret rooms, cheese builds, weapon combos, you can’t just waltz into this stuff. You have to dedicate a whole run just to figure them out. It’s easy to forget to just take a look around or press pause to read your power ups.

With that being said. To maximize fun:
[spoiler]
- By pressing pause and moving to the weapons screen. You can press a button (default is G) to swap the order of your secondary weapons. Some weapons greatly interfere with movement. Making them uncomfortable to use. Organize your weapons based on cast time. With the fastest on the primary mouse button. And the slowest on the trinary button. For example, left click: Scythe, right click: Sword/Bees, middle click: (my least accessible) Hammer.

- 80-95% of the build’s damage will come from only one weapon (unless you’re playing a two stroke combo). So have two of your weapons support the other. Such as “Dark Talons” providing a guaranteed stun by picking up enemies, or “Sacrifix” providing permanent health. Some of the scythes have passives that can boost damage or provide defense when upgraded. Save prismium to change scythes.

- All the weapons are created equal. But the power ups (“Curses”) are not. Many are just like the weapons; providing only damage. I almost always put my guns on defense (Blue), as that allows me to fight the bosses for longer and become familiar with their moves. It also has by far the most utility. You can always get damage later. On average, only 2 Curses will give adequate damage. The good news is you actually have agency over your Curses. The rank determines when it can be grabbed. Many of my favorites are in ranks 1-2 (Blue has really bad early ranks). So by not grabbing them immediately. You can control your Curses (plus rerolls).

- Always fight the Thanagers (mini-bosses). They unlock stuff. You’ll improve your skill faster as well.

- Skipping to bosses don’t actually speed up the run (unless your weapons are very good and you’re very skilled). As the enemies get tanky fast. The most I typically skip to is “Brad.” Skipping does provide practice against the bosses themselves though. So if you wish to do a run hit-less, then there ain’t a better way.

- Play on easy or normal difficulty. Anything harder will prevent you from playing around with weird weapons.

- Don’t skip dialogue. This game’s got good humor.
[/spoiler]

Have A Nice Death is a success story in my book. Looking forward to what the creators will do next.

2025-04-04 00:08:19

I'm not good at this game at all to be totally honest but the art direction of the game is absolutely awesome and its a generally well-made roguelike, all the weapons feel fun to use and well balanced and the enemies are pretty well balanced too.

i just have a skill issue lol

2025-04-02 23:34:05

The combat, animations and sound effects are sooo smooth and satisfying, probably the best I've seen in roguelikes. Most of the bosses are really cool characters and have good indicators of attacks, but some are just absolutely unbalanced and run ending. Scythes, cloaks and spells feel unique and different, but once you learn what the good ones are, the most optimal way is to reset until you get something you like. The game is actually hard and is fun to play, but gets boring even after a couple hours. When you learn all the floors and rooms there's no surprises and you can even learn all the enemy spawns in each room and turn on autopilot. The story is simple, but very funny. Characters are alright. I liked a few of them, but some of them are annoying. The vibe is very chibi.