Deathbound

[h1]Potentials. Potentials. Potentials.[/h1] This game deserves a mixed review. In my Hell Is Us review I've written that indie games can still be good even if they hone in on one vision and perfect it, but what if it doesn't work? Well, Deathbound is a prime example of this idea. This action RPG asks the question, "What if a souls-like but the protagonist has the whole adventure team fused within him?" Well, the answer is an essence-switching mechanic which allows you to morph into different fighters as you see fit. This design has its moment, and mastering the four playstyles at a time is a fun ride. Unfortunately, everything else about Deathbound - conflicting art style, uninteresting levels, gank fights, limited build-crafting - brings the whole experience down. [h2]Things I Like About Deathbound:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Essence Morphing:[/b] This is easily the best part of the game. Deathbound lets you choose four out of the seven warriors (unlock gradually through progression) to bring into battles. Each of them possess unique playstyle with separated health, stamina and damage value. Think of them as four different bodies you can freely switch between during actions. Use Rogue and Mages for exploration and switch to Paladin or other close-quarter warriors for tougher fights. When one is near death, morph into a different warrior, and you are good to go. [*][b]Sync Meter & Morph Strike:[/b] What's more interesting are the Sync Meter and Morph Strike. Hitting enemies recharges the Sync Meter, and switching forms right after any attacks consumes a bracket of the meter to perform a Morph Strike. Morph Strike let you deal a chunk of damage and render you invincible for a very short period of time. This is a very powerful tool. You can easily turn the tide of combat with a well-timed Morph Strike, often more effective than just dodging around. Each warrior has a different type of Morph Strike, and it is vital to learn their timings to fully utilize their potentials. [*][b]Other Compliments:[/b] [olist] [*]Artifacts and Rings have two passives that you can either lean into one of them, or you can mix-up their effects. [*]Absorbing new characters not only gives you a spiritual introduction of their backgrounds and influences in the matter, but also lets you practice what said characters are capable of. [/olist] [/list] [h2]Things I Like And Dislike About Deathbound:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Conflict & Synergy:[/b] With characters coming from different factions and ideologies, frictions are bound to happen. Characters with clashing ideals creates Conflict which gives every character a debuff and a buff; characters with aligning ideas creates Synergy granting all a stat buff. This is a nice layer of thinking before choosing your four party members, but I have some gripes with the system. A majority of the buffs are pretty negligible, and only a few of them actually have the potential to be build-defining. Another problem is that there is not a way to form a new bound, which I believe is a huge missed opportunity. You would think after working together for a while these guys may find some common ground to create new Synergy, or become even worse than before to form more divisive Conflict. [*][b]Generalist Build:[/b] I do like how every upgrade is universal. This design makes using new characters or those you don't vibe with a lot easier. You don't have to worry about them being under-leveled or comparatively weaker than your usual roster. However, generalist approach can only go so far. Without specializing in character's' certain aspects(like Mage could choose between buffing allies or focusing on crowd control), the build variety tends to be lackluster. [*][b]Limited Heals:[/b] Deathbound doesn't have traditional renewable heals. Instead, you regain health by damaging enemies or using consumables. Making life-stealing the only way to reliably heal other members except the one you are using is a bold move. I quite like the design. It keeps you on offensive for a lot longer. You don't have to worry about finding windows to heal. You can just focus on dodging and attacking and the health bar will be topped off in no time. However, it's not always the best option and the alternative is really lacking. I won't go into details why consumable heals is a bad idea, but tl;dr farming them disrupts the pacing of the game and you may lose some muscle memories to the enemies you are currently stuck with. [/list] [h2]Things I Dislike About Deathbound:[/h2] [list] [*][b]Uninteresting Level Design:[/b] The levels overall are just not interesting. From the artistic point of view, this game is an amalgamation of different styles fused together. Maybe this is a Western thing, but I never understand what the appeal is of mixing sci-fi elements with a medieval theme. The clashing art styles make the whole scene feel jarring to look at. From the gameplay perspective, the levels are rather simple. The geometry is flat with occasional stairs here and there. Exploration is unrewarding since the things you pick up are usually consumables that are not worth using or special rings you cannot wear because your equipment slot is too limiting. [*][b]Gank Fights:[/b] It baffles me every time this happens: are these gank fights and gauntlets of enemies right after all you've learned from the Souls series? I understand that Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 have some nasty gankings, but later titles have addressed this issue in some interesting ways. Sadly, Deathbound seems to learn the wrong lessons here. If you are surrounded by more than two enemies, there is no way to get out of this situation without losing a hefty amount of health. [*][b]Other Complaints: [/b] [olist] [*]The animation and the character rigs are stiff and awkward to look at, especially during cutscenes. [*]The voice acting feels really off for a lot of characters. [*]Humanoid enemies can be easily exploited by standing behind them since they have to face you directly to do any attacks. Otherwise, they just keep turning around while you chip away their health. [/olist] [/list] [b]中文小簡評[/b] 本作應該評為褒貶不一才對。 我在《地獄即我們》的評論有提到說獨立遊戲要成功其實只要專心把核心概念做好即可，但是《死亡約束》讓我對這個想法產生質疑。這款類魂作品主打一人分飾多角，讓你一次擁有四種不同戰鬥風格，視情況隨時切換四位不同角色來應對，這項特色確實讓本作在角色養成上能有不同思路與玩法，可惜養成深度不足，再加上遊戲其他方面表現都不盡人意，整體顯得十分平庸。 [b]喜歡的點[/b] [list] [*]七位角色你可以任選四個出戰，每個戰士都有專屬的戰鬥風格，血條與體力都是獨立計算，能在戰鬥中可以自由切換。探索時可以先用盜賊或法師探敵，遇到菁英時再切換到聖騎士或其他近戰角色來應對；亦或是在打Boss的時侯可以先用法師上減益削弱Boss，再切換到你的主力進行輸出。 [*]遊戲也有「同化值」與「變化攻擊」的設計，除了看清況切角外，也可以透過消耗同化值(透過攻擊充能)，在攻擊後立刻切換角色進行變化攻擊，讓你能瞬間打出大量傷害並獲得極短的無敵禎，每個角色都有不同類型的變化攻擊，掌握它們的釋放時機能讓你在戰鬥中大方光彩。 [*]獲得新角色時遊戲會帶你走一段角色背景故事，講述角色和主軸故事的關聯性外，也有一小段戰鬥讓你體驗一下角色性能。 [*]可裝備道具擁有兩種被動技能，可以依照你的需求隨意升級。 [/list] [b]又愛又恨的點[/b] [list] [*]打擊感跟操作與初版《墮落之王》雷同，有玩過的肯定懂。 [*]來自不同陣營的角色難免會起衝突，理念相同會為全隊加個小增益，理念相斥則會全隊付加減益和增益，這項設計讓你選擇出戰隊友時需要多了一分思考，可惜絕大部分的增減益都只是不痛不癢的數值增減，真正能改變玩法的少之又少。另一個遺憾的點是角色間互動是固定的，沒辦法因共事久了而產生新的羈絆。 [*]角色養成幾乎都是通用的數值升級，雖然不用擔心說新角或不常用角色會因等級過低而無從發揮，但缺乏專精角色特長的設計也容易讓養成多樣性明顯匱乏。 [*]本作沒有傳統的血瓶，而是需要透過攻擊敵人吸血或使用補血消耗品來回復。攻擊回血確實是一項大膽的設計，讓你不必找空檔回血，可以持續專注在進攻與防守，然而這個設計的缺點也較明顯(回血幅度過低、敵人死太快基本上回不了多少等)。我就不贅述補血消耗品這個劣質的設計了，不僅打亂遊戲節奏，反而還會讓你失去手感。 [/list] [b]不喜歡的點[/b] [list] [*]角色動畫與建模看來十分粗糙，特別是看劇情時格外生硬。 [*]配音明顯沒有篩選過，很多角色聽起來像從別的遊戲來的。 [*]關卡設計非常無趣，畫風雜亂不說，基本上都是平面探索偶爾搭配個樓梯而已，探索也非常不吸引人，撿到東西都是些無關緊要的消耗品，或是你根本沒欄位可裝的道具。 [*]老實說有時候我真的不懂這些類魂遊戲的邏輯，難道你們從魂系學到的只有無止盡的圍毆跟滿滿的菁英敵人嗎？我知道黑魂和黑魂2的確有很多這樣惱人的配置，但後面出來的作品都有給予玩家相對應的解決方案。《死亡約束》錯把缺點當寶，如果你被兩個以上的敵人包圍，基本上就是準備噴血了。 [*]人形敵人需要正對著你才會攻擊，導致你可以一直躲在對方背後輸出，而對方只能不斷地轉身，無盡迴圈。 [/list] [quote=author]If you like what I write, please consider a follow to [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45738167/]my curator[/url] page, thanks! 如果你喜歡我寫的東西，可以追蹤[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45738167/]我的鑑賞家[/url]喔！[/quote]

I normally really like 'souls like' games having played and completed all the Dark Souls 1, 2 & 3 games, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Mortal Shell, Hellpoint, and most of Lies of P and I thought I would give this game a 'go'. However, this game has some strange [bizarre and flawed] design decisions: 1) when you use the healing potion it reduces the health of other member(s) in your 'party'; 2) attacking using 'normal attacks' are generally useless except for ordinary enemies - they are totally useless against bosses; 3) if any member of your party dies then you die; 4) to beat bosses you constantly need to use 'morph strikes' which are only available when you switch to a different party member. This mean constantly changing to a different party member at the same time as attacking - which can be confusing in the middle of a battle. And as each character has different strengths and weakness it all feels a bit schizophrenic !!! 5) to compound the issues the controls are fiddly and non-intuitive, and sometimes unresponsive. I think the developers tried to do something different in creating a 'souls like' game but it mostly went wrong.

✅ Unique souls-like game where you can change class system seamlessly on the fly. Quite underrated game ✅ Decent story ✅ Different synergies gives you different buffs ✅ Sprinting does not consume stamina ✅ Morph strikes and lifesteal gameplay was pretty cool ❌ The gameplay does feel clunky ❌ Controls feels unresponsive sometimes ❌ Game has stability issues (crashed twice for me, the game saves immediately when closing so it wasn't a big deal) ❌ Ugly character design ❌ You can't upgrade/increase the healing kit you're given at start of game making it useless later on ❌ Cutscenes looks rough ❌ Not very long for a souls-like ❌ DLSS turns off on game restart (it will show 'ON' in menu but you've to retoggle it to actually turn it on again)

*This review was machine translated from Korean to English. Deathbound Great Idea. Shame They Turned It into a Game. 🔄 Pyrite: Fool's Gold The only good thing about this game is the Essence-swapping system. Your roster consists of ranged, hybrid, and melee classes, Each Essence brings a distinct weapon, damage, and synergy, making it fun to experiment with party compositions. A well-timed swap mid-attack cancels the recovery animation, triggering a transition into an automatic strike. Because characters have separate health bars, individual Essences feel too weak alone compared to typical Soulslike heroes, forcing you to rely on Morphstrikes. Beyond utility, the slow-mo during the swap looks sleek. Swapping between Essences is intuitive and responsive. Each character maps to a direction on the D-pad, requiring no complex inputs. It is baffling how this mechanic feels crisp and responsive while the rest of the controls are a dumpster fire. However, even this single advantage isn't without its caveats. Combined with other half-baked mechanics, it undermines the system's brilliance. Because you manage separate health bars, each character's base performance feels stripped down. This collides with atrocious level design, making characters feel fragile. While developers intended to force frequent swapping, players must survive the encounter first to switch. One more flaw: the game lacks a proper healing item. There is no standard "Estus Flask" equivalent here. Instead, a bizarre mechanic fills that slot. This "healing potion" siphons HP from benched Essences into the active character. If your immediate reaction to this is, "How the hell is that a heal?", congratulations—you are a gamer with basic common sense. While attacking grants lifesteal to standby Essences, but the amount is tiny. When you actually need to use a healing item, it’s because you are on the verge of death and desperately need immediate combat sustain. What is the point of cannibalizing your own party's health in a pinch? Despite this massive disconnect between the mechanics and the actual reality of combat, the developers stubbornly refused to implement a proper healing option. It’s a blatant disregard for the player’s actual experience. And here is the kicker: if a single character dies, it is a Game Over—even if others have full health. I have no idea what the developers were thinking. What kind of "party system" is this? There is no "normal" gaming experience where the surviving members carry the torch and limp to the next checkpoint. One casualty, and your entire run is dead. It's just artificial difficulty at its finest. Remember, one individual Essence in this game doesn't even come close to a standard Soulslike protagonist. 🏹 Too Many Projectiles, Too Few Dev Brain Cells The trailers are deception. They shamelessly showed clips of player pulling off cinematic morphstrikes left and right. But in reality, you don't have time for that. You either spam dodge to survive ranged spam, or cheese enemies from a distance with your own ranged build. Enemy variety is abysmal; you constantly fight recycled assets. Yet, somehow, the developers managed to cram in four distinct types of ranged garbage: standard javelin throwers, crossbowmen, grenadiers, and monster variants. Oh, just in case anyone forgot—this is supposed to be a Soulslike. The melee enemies, which should provide the satisfying hand-to-hand combat players actually want, all feel identical. Meanwhile, the ranged enemies get all the variety and are shamelessly spammed throughout the maps. Basic javelin and crossbow snipers hit like a truck, but grenadiers and monsters make the game a farce. Grenadiers toss elemental flasks; a split-second exposure triggers a status effect that dissolves your HP. The punchline is the frost grenade: if a pixel touches you, you are freeze-locked for 10 seconds. In a Soulslike, that means death—you can just let go of the controller. Monsters shoot spikes on a long cooldown, blasting you backward into a hard knockdown if they clip you. With two monsters guarding a lane, forget about moving forward. And obviously, the genius devs put them in pairs, backed up by melee bodyguards. Because of course they did. Figures. 🤪 A Level Beyond Nonsense. Pure Insanity. I usually review games right after the credits roll, striving for a balanced perspective focused heavily on combat. But this specific map is so mind-numbingly bad that I physically cannot let it slide without dedicating a whole section. Feel free to skip ahead. It is a hospital-themed map. Brace for impact: in this level, an unkillable, elite-tier monster stalks you from one checkpoint to the next. Think of a pursuit sequence from a survival horror game—that's exactly what it is. The problem? This is a Soulslike, period. Remember the ranged spam and the atrocious controls I mentioned earlier, and keep in mind that each Essence is underpowered on its own. Now, picture an elite monster relentlessly chasing you from behind in that exact scenario. Honestly, it renders this level completely unplayable. If you stop to clear out the regular mobs, the unkillable elite blindsides you and sends you straight back to the checkpoint. What if you try to neutralize the elite first? It’s incredibly difficult to take down, inevitably draining your Essences' precious HP, and even if you manage to stagger it, it’s only temporary. It gets right back up and resumes the hunt instantly. Remember, this game lacks proper healing. It is truly astonishing. How did the developers manage to make every single flaw join forces so perfectly to create such a toxic synergy? Oh, but the nightmare isn't over. We need to talk about the boss of this godforsaken level. The peak of any Soulslike is a pure 1v1 duel where victory comes from skill and progression. This is why I despise boss summons gank squads or 1 vs 2 fights. This boss throws six waves of enemies, four mobs per wave. That's 24 extra enemies you have to clean up. And while you're trying to clear this garbage, the boss is just chillin' in the background, spamming map-wide AOE lightning attacks over the whole arena. You can't even touch the boss because the terrain cuts you off until you kill every single add. I seriously want to know what the devs were smoking when they designed this. Did they start making a horde shooter and pivot to a Soulslike? But wait, here's the real horror story. I only say six waves because I cleared the sixth and burst the boss down. What if you are underleveled because you ran past that garbage level? Is six truly the end? ⚖️ The Verdict Many reviews criticize the game by claiming it had "great ideas but terrible execution." To some extent, I will concede that the core concept had merit. In fact, my proposal is simple: let’s just pretend this game doesn't exist. The core idea is brilliant, but everything else around it is an absolute trainwreck. We should strike this title from memory and hope a more competent developer takes the concept of a real-time hero-swapping Soulslike and actually does it justice—the mechanic is far too good to go to waste. It wouldn't even take a miracle to make it decent; just playable level design, functioning controls, cutting the ranged mobs by half, and a healing potion that actually restores health. At this point, one must wonder why it even bears the "Soulslike" tag and advertises itself as such. I am not making this up. Look at the Steam store page; the very first sentence reads, "Deathbound is a unique Soulslike." But one thing is absolutely certain: the developers have no fundamental understanding of what actually constitutes a Soulslike. So, as players, there is no reason for us to waste our money on a product like this. How simple is that. "FromSoftware: Doesn't even use the term 'Soulslike'. Creates genre-defining masterpieces" "Deathbound: Screams that it is a 'Soulslike'. Ends up being the least Soulslike game imaginable."

Overall a really nice idea, but I probably won't be playing much of it. Everything feels incredinly slow. The story progression, the combat, the movement. I've played this game for 3 hrs now and it feels like 8. On the first boss every single transitions between phases took longer than the entire fighting. It has the same sugglish feeling the first "Lords of the Fallen" had. Having acquired an "assassin" essence I doubt it'll get more fluid. Might give it a shot some other day, but currently I don't enjoy playing Deathbound.

Visualmente, Deathbound é impressionante do início ao fim. Existe um cuidado muito claro com direção de arte e construção de ambientes, e isso impacta diretamente no prazer de jogar. São sete mapas principais, todos com identidades bem definidas e propostas distintas, passando por esgotos, ruas, cidades, laboratórios e igrejas, sem sensação de repetição. Cada área tem ritmo próprio, desafios específicos e leitura clara de espaço. Aqui entra um ponto pessoal importante. Foi o segundo soulslike mais prazeroso que já joguei, ficando atrás apenas de Bloodborne, que segue sendo meu jogo favorito do gênero. Considerando o quanto o mercado está saturado de jogos inspirados em Souls, isso diz muito sobre o impacto real da experiência. O desafio do jogo é altíssimo, mas extremamente recompensador. Deathbound exige leitura, execução e domínio dos sistemas. Não existe espaço para jogar no automático. O New Game Plus, necessário para a platina, eleva esse desafio de forma brutal. O chefe final, em especial, foi uma das experiências mais difíceis que já tive no gênero. Levei cerca de 10 horas para derrotá-lo no NG+, o que mostra o quanto o jogo cobra paciência, adaptação e estratégia. Um dos maiores acertos está no elenco jogável. Todos os sete personagens possuem jogabilidade única, identidade clara e conexão direta com a lore do mundo. Não existe um meta dominante. Não existe personagem obrigatório. O que existe é leitura de cenário, entendimento de sinergias e escolha consciente de quem entra na party. As relações entre os personagens impactam diretamente a equipe, gerando buffs e debuffs de acordo com as combinações escolhidas. Isso adiciona uma camada estratégica muito interessante, porque você não está apenas escolhendo quem causa mais dano, mas sim como essas identidades convivem e se influenciam. Isso muda completamente a forma de abordar encontros e chefes. Existe também um fator que pesa bastante na minha avaliação. Deathbound é um game indie brasileiro. E não no sentido condescendente. Ele se sustenta tecnicamente, artisticamente e mecanicamente ao lado de produções internacionais do gênero. Não é um bom jogo “para um jogo brasileiro”. É um bom jogo, ponto. O fato de ter sido desenvolvido aqui só reforça o nível de maturidade que a indústria nacional pode alcançar quando existe visão, tempo e execução. Em termos técnicos, minha experiência foi bastante positiva. Tive apenas um crash durante toda a jogatina e um bug que duplicou inimigos em uma área, resolvido ao reiniciar. As transições de mapas apresentam quedas pontuais de performance, com oscilações na taxa de quadros e pequenos lags, mas nada que comprometa a gameplay ou a progressão, já que ocorrem fora do combate. O jogo também recompensa quem explora. Missões paralelas oferecem itens especiais, e para quem busca a platina, é essencial prestar atenção na narrativa, nos diálogos e nas decisões. A trilha sonora é excelente, mas o grande destaque absoluto fica para a dublagem. É, sem exagero, um dos melhores trabalhos de vozes que já vi em games. Não existe dublagem em português, o que pode frustrar parte do público, mas considerando que os personagens vêm de culturas e origens diferentes, os sotaques e interpretações ficaram impecáveis. [Imagem sugerida: boss fight com efeitos visuais fortes. Alt: “Combate contra chefe em Deathbound”.] Nota final Nota: 9/10

Olha o jogo é polido, a história é competente e o valor é o Preço de um Single A o que o jogo é. Está sofrendo um Hate um pouco cruel, acho que por ser um jogo brasileiro, mas ele é um jogo bom e eu farei um review dele e um video sobre a lore no meu canal de youtube de Soulslike.

twist.

Dica para futuros projetos : Não comece o seu jogo com uma fase no esgoto, é sem graça, sem conteudo, esconde todo o universo que você criou do player e nós so temos 2h pra decidir se gostamos do produto. Fora isso eu pedi reembolso pois descobri que o jogo não terá um arsenal de armas e eu gosto de variar de armas, armaduras pra não deixar tudo repetido. E é isso, o jogo não é ruim, só não foi feito pra mim mesmo.