‘Death Howl’ Never Aimed for Its “Soulslike” Twist, It Kind of Just Happened (Interview)

Soulslike: it’s a term thrown around quite loosely these days. Since the release of FromSoftware’s genre-defining Dark Souls, we’ve seen countless games capitalizing on the trends of tough bosses, respawning enemies, and broken controllers. I’ll admit, when initially seeing the words “Soulslike” and “deck-builder” attached to Death Howl, I was skeptical. “They’ll make anything a Soulslike nowadays,” I thought. Turns out, for Death Howl director Malte Burup, it was kind of the other way around.

“…I have never played a Soulslike,” Burup tells VICE. We had the chance to talk with Death Howl‘s director about the motivations behind its creation, juggling its heavy narrative themes, and making it all work together.

“Soulslike” wasn’t the cause of ‘Death Howl,’ but the effect

“It came from actually looking at other genres. So, the Soulslike aspect was not intended, it was something that came from our design. And people that tested the game started to say it reminds them of Soulslikes.” Burup explains that despite the Soulslike genre having no direct influence on Death Howl, the team still embraces the feedback given by early playtesters. “The whole ‘souls thing’ that are removed when healing, and the enemies that appear afterward when you heal, that whole thing was just to try and imitate the path of the roguelike deck-builder. Where you have, like, three battles and then a bonfire, like a resting place, until you can heal again.”

If that sounds familiar, well, that’s by design. Death Howl takes inspiration from the titans of their respective genres, culminating in a unique experience that goes well beyond imitation. Its deck-building aspects call to Slay the Spire and Magic: The Gathering. While Final Fantasy Tactics sparks the idea for its grid-based tactical combat. While the player explores a desolate realm of contrasting colors and muted palettes, they’ll find relics and spoils to aid them in combat. That combat, tasking players to consider strategic positioning in its grid-based arenas, centers around turn-based card mechanics.

But trying to topple one of the most critically acclaimed roguelikes isn’t the goal for Death Howl, as Burup explains. “I didn’t want to (simply) do a roguelike deck-builder, because I see all of these really polished games with big budgets. But they can’t compete with the champ,” he says. “…It was never our aim to make an even better Slay the Spire, it was just an alternative.”

some worlds are meant to collide

A working card game, balanced in fairness and functionality, is one thing. But coupling it with tactics RPG elements adds another layer of complexity. Death Howl isn’t afraid to mix its food together. In fact, doing so often leads to undiscovered recipes in the bustling cookbook of gaming. After all, the Soulslike genre, if you can even call it a “genre,” is kind of an ambiguous mixture of various gameplay elements, too, right? I wondered, then, how the team at The Outer Zone managed to find the formula to make the two genres work together.

“That was also our first big question: if it’s even doable, mixing the two. I started with just a paper version, like prototyping,” Burup says. “I think one of the first solutions was to make movement cost mana, because there was a strange thing to have movement with cards.”

Burup explains that for Death Howl, the main focus was on how much fun the two systems could provide together rather than worrying about how they’d collide. “It’s more like what gift does that bring us, these two systems, how can we play around with it? I still feel there’s something we haven’t explored, somehow. There always is.”

‘death Howl’s gameplay is carried by its emotional narrative

While Death Howl strives to differentiate itself from similar titles, the main focus is ensuring its emotional narrative isn’t lost in the moment-to-moment gameplay. Themes of grief, loss, and resilience intertwine in every aspect — from its sound and music design, to its moody art direction, to the naming conventions of each region and the creatures within. This is Ro’s story, the protagonist of Death Howl, after all. And for it all to work, the key is striking a balance between engaging gameplay and carrying the emotional weight of its narrative.

Ro carries her grief to the forefront of Death Howl, exploring topics of loss, mortality, and the necessity of acceptance. But juggling between an emotional story and keeping players interested isn’t an easy task.

“It’s been a tough one to design. Because we want to deliver a fun gameplay experience and also tell this narrative which has these big, heavy themes. So we want to keep that emotion going with the player. But at the same time, you need to learn all these rules and have fun and throw fireballs,” Burup says before laughing. “It’s just a matter of filling out those empty spots between battles, and that takes a lot of time. It’s definitely a challenge to fill out that bigger world with enough content to keep the player emotionally engaged.”

Ultimately, Death Howl tells a story of perseverance. And as far as what Burup wants players to take away from the experience? “Hope in dark times,” he says. A fitting message that anyone can relate to, especially in 2025.

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Thank you to Malte Burup for taking the time out of their day to speak with us. Death Howl is coming soon to PC on Steam and GOG.