19 Games To Play If You Liked Death's Door
Death’s Door was released to rave reviews and appreciation across the board. Players were drawn to its fast-paced, Soulslike combat and Zelda-inspired puzzles. The game has the player exploring a world of death as a lowly crow, working for a bureaucratic afterlife authority that must take down less cooperative souls. Each of the game’s elements has been done to some extent over the years, but never in this unique combination.
As such, there are many games that hold some connection to Death’s Door in one way or another. Whether it be the action, the atmosphere, or the puzzling, the game shares its DNA across a great many predecessors that those who beat the game too quickly would likely also enjoy. These titles are all pretty great in their own right and are in the same vein with Death’s Door’s unlimited charm and tough-as-nails gameplay.
Updated on September 2, 2023, by Ritwik Mitra: Players who want to play through a charming indie game with elements of both the Soulsborne and Zelda series will love what Death’s Door has to offer. The difficulty doesn’t slap players in the face but comes as more of a slow burn, allowing players to familiarize themselves with the gameplay mechanics before challenging them in later encounters. The game is another one of Devolver Digital’s hits, and fans who want to enjoy more games like Death’s Door have a ton of options at their behest.
19 The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
The release of Tears of the Kingdom has been a monumental event for Zelda fans, allowing them to explore one of the biggest open worlds around that is positively jam-packed with content. The new abilities that Link can use are complete game-changers that almost make Breath of the Wild look like a prototype in comparison.
The unique exploration in this game makes it a blast to explore as players figure out the best course of action they can take to get from Point A to Point B, battle against tough enemies, complete a wealth of puzzles, and everything else along the same lines. The combat of this game can be pretty challenging and will help make players of Death’s Door feel right at home in the midst of this turbulent action.
18 Elden Ring
Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s open-world title that took the world by storm when it was launched. The marketing power of George R. R. Martin definitely played a huge role in ensuring that more people got their hands on this title, turning it into one of the most successful video games of all time. Given its status as a Soulsborne game, it’s easy to see why Death’s Door fans will be right at home with this game.
Of course, the exploration in Elden Ring is also one of its strongest suits, with anything and everything in the distance housing some really interesting goodies, unique enemy encounters, and unexpected boss fights too. The game’s marriage of exploration and combat is simply unmatched and goes to show just how much of an achievement Elden Ring really is for a studio that was struggling before Miyazaki came in to save the day.
17 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Another FromSoftware game that was a blast to play through is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Unlike most of the company’s other games that gave players a wide variety of weapons to mess around with, Sekiro forces players to learn the art of parrying and deflection as a samurai who seeks revenge after being wronged by a man who cut his arm off during a duel.
The game’s combat is fast-paced and frenetic, clearly taking a page out of Bloodborne’s book and cranking up the difficulty all the way to the max. Players have to master deflection in this game if they wish to stand a chance in the many tough encounters that they’ll face on their journey.
16 Skul: The Hero Slayer
Those looking for something similar in style and substance to Death’s Door but with a heavier Roguelike focus should definitely consider Skul: The Hero Slayer. Focusing on the macabre, players take control of the enigmatic Skul, a small skeleton with the ability to change its forms and skills by placing other heads atop its body. It’s a clever idea that helps to turn the traditional Roguelike on its head while also offering up a story-based twist that sees players taking control of a “villain,” to hunt down the humans that have wronged his people.
Skul is a ton of fun, features solid sidescrolling combat, and has quite a few skulls to unlock and upgrade along the way. With items to collect and powerful bosses to defeat, Skul: The Hero Slayer feels like an epic adventure and offers tons of replayability through its randomness.
15 Have a Nice Death
For players who find Death’s Door’s macabre imagery and reaper-like aesthetics appealing, Have a Nice Death offers a similar style with a story that feels somewhat similar to the Crow’s. Players will take control of a cantankerous and cartoony version of the reaper, but this time as a boss with many underlings to micro-manage. While Death’s Door has a hub world that appears somewhat office-like in appearance, Have a Nice Death doubles down on the aesthetic and gives players access to an array of levels, enemies, and bosses that all share a corporate motif.
It’s a Roguelike at its core, giving players a hefty amount of replayability as they attempt to make it further into the gauntlet each time, unlocking new abilities and upgrades that make the journey slightly easier each time a player progresses far enough.
14 Dead Cells
Death’s Door has a certain comedic charm to it, thanks to its colorful characters and strange storyline. Another title with similar humorous vibes is Dead Cells, a Rogue-lite Metroidvania-style Indie game from developer Motion Twin. The strange protagonist in Dead Cells is a fantastic touch to the title’s underlying story, offering up some prime quips and funny moments, despite being “silent” in a voiced sense.
Dead Cells has a supremely engaging and entertaining gameplay loop that is both challenging and rewarding, with players unlocking more skills and items as they move along.
13 Metroid Dread
Metroid Dread was released in October 2021 and continues the franchise’s recent trend of returning to its side-scrolling roots. The game’s most notable innovation for the series is the implementation of stealth; some fans were worried about stealth being added, as many games have tried and failed to make stealth an engaging mechanic in the past. Thankfully, Metroid Dread had no such issue and proved that the series is still an innovator in the Metroidvania genre.
Like Death’s Door, Metroid Dread received a wide range of award nominations and even won the Best Action/Adventure Game accolade at The Game Awards 2021.
12 Ori And The Will Of The Wisps
Ori and the Will of the Wisps was first released in March 2020 on PC and Xbox One before coming to Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S later in the same year.
Like its predecessor, Ori and the Blind Forest, Moon Studios’ Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a 2D Metroidvania that stands out with its beautiful art design. The game isn’t just visually impressive, however, as the game has an enormous map that players will slowly but surely explore after unlocking more abilities. Ori and the Will of the Wisps was a huge hit with fans and critics, exemplified by its 93 Critic Score and 8.8 User Score for the Nintendo Switch version on Metacritic.
11 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order may initially seem like an odd game to recommend to someone who enjoyed Death’s Door, though the games have more similarities than one may expect. Along with both games having simple but excellent sword-like combat, they both incorporate elements of 2D Metroidvanian level design into their 3D worlds.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order finally fulfilled the wishes of Star Wars fans who had been asking for a modern, single-player Jedi adventure since The Force Unleashed 2.
Dark Souls is one of, if not the most influential release of the last two decades, with Death’s Door being one of the hundreds of games that gets compared to FromSoftware’s modern classic.
Dark Souls’ show-don’t-tell approach to its gameplay and story, modern take on Metroidvania-level design, and intent on bringing back challenging boss fights are just some of the game’s features that have been replicated time and time again since its release. Dark Souls’ infamous difficulty can be off-putting for some, though it’s worth persisting as it provides one of gaming’s most memorable adventures.
9 Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham Asylum topped off a fantastic end to the 2000s for the caped crusader, following the release of The Dark Knight just under a year prior. Batman: Arkham Asylum continued the dark and gritty tone presented in The Dark Knight by trapping Batman in Arkham Asylum, where players will have to encounter some genuinely scary moments in their quest to stop the Joker.
Arkham Asylum’s 3D Metroidvania-inspired level design is its main similarity to Death’s Door, though the dark tones and sense of entrapment also draw comparisons.
8 Salt And Sanctuary
What people consider to be the most Soulslike 2D action game would have to be Salt and Sanctuary. It has all the familiar trappings of a Dark Souls game, including a souls-like difficulty. It has the collecting of souls (in this case salt), sanctuaries to rejuvenate and grow stronger, and even a stamina meter.
The most obvious thread between this game and Death’s Door is how both games approach combat. It’s all about dodging enemies and taking small bits of their health down at a time. Not to mention the slew of smaller enemies that the player will have to move their way through in order to progress.
7 Hades
In terms of isometric action goodness, Hades cannot be beaten. Now on Xbox Game Pass and with a gameplay loop that has been polished to a mirror sheen, those who enjoyed the combat in Death’s Door will be guaranteed a satisfying adventure over the course of their time with Hades.
The combat is very similar in both games but in Hades, the player has a lot more variety and choice in how they can approach an encounter through the use of different weapons and different buffs. A pleasant bonus is a well-crafted story that ties all of the mechanics of the game together in a neat bow.
6 The Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
For a game that borrows many of its elements from Zelda, it is only right that a Zelda game should be compared to it. One such 2D Zelda is the loose sequel to A Link To The Past, A Link Between Worlds. The idea of puzzling across a semi-3D world is one such mechanic that both games share.
Death’s Door even has the classic puzzle of shooting a fire arrow to light torches that so many other action-adventure games share. There is even a vaguely dungeon-like quality that levels in Death’s Door possess that inextricably links the game with the Zeldas of old.
5 Death And Taxes
At first glance, it would seem that the two games couldn’t be any more dissimilar, at least from a gameplay standpoint. However, this game is just right for the players whose favorite part of Death’s Door was the atmosphere and silly bureaucratic twist to the world of the non-living.
The player will fill the shoes of an everyday reaper but unlike the exciting adventures of a crow doing battle for the sake of their own mortality, the player will simply review peoples’ lives and decide, based on their quota, who lives and who dies. Both games have that morbid charm that is sure to lure players in.
4 Titan Souls
In case the player thought the boss fights in Death’s Door were too easy, there is Titan Souls. The premise is simple. The player has one arrow that they can shoot, which can be summoned back to them. Both the player and the series of bosses that they will encounter are exceptionally fragile, only able to take one hit before dying.
The trick is to land the fatal blow on the boss before they can do the same to the player. Like the best boss fights, it also acts as a mini-puzzle for the player to solve, both in learning the boss’s moves and also just how exactly they can land that fatal blow. Though some players may still struggle with The Soul.
3 Hollow Knight
While the lineage is a bit unclear, Death’s Door can trace itself back to the genre known as Metroidvania. One of the best of these Metroidvanias, with a similar atmosphere of adorable decay, is Hollow Knight. Both games contain a cute little main character who must face the dangers of a much greater and more dangerous world.
Simply take the combat of Death’s Door and flatten it with a splash of platforming and what the player is left with is the fair but difficult gameplay loop of Hollow Knight.
2 Bloodborne
One of the most direct comparisons to Death’s Door would have to be the Dark Souls franchise. Bloodborne is considered by many to be the best game of its kind, with a difficulty to boot.
Although players of Death’s Door may be turned off from the game’s greater focus on its horror aspects, what players will instead be drawn to is the tried and true gameplay of fighting through hordes of enemies, leveling up, and conquering great mythical monstrosities that take everything a player has to defeat. There is a reason that Souls games are a genre of their own.
1 Rogue Heroes: Ruins Of Tasos
Almost everything can be improved with the help of a buddy. Death’s Door is no exception. Rogue Heroes is a cooperative, Zelda-like dungeon-crawler. The player and up to 3 other friends, will explore procedurally generated dungeons to fight monsters and earn loot.
With this loot, the player and their party will gradually improve their home base and their characters. There is an undeniable charm to this game that those who fell in love with Death’s Door will instantly gravitate towards. So for the more casual player, this is a great follow-up to Death’s Door.
Death’s Door is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.