Game Review: Howl

A quiet countryside is terrorized by supernatural beasts, ravaging the lands and turning all those who hear the infectious howls into bloodthirsty monsters. A deaf hunter, gifted with the foresight of battles to come, is immune to the howls. She ventures from her home and deep into the woods in Howl. Developed by Mi’pu’mi Games and published by Astragon, Howl is a tactical turn-based adventure title in a medieval setting. This game features a hand-drawn art style and is presented like European folklore. Howl focuses on telling the story of a nameless protagonist who can prophesies events. This allows her to see the actions of her enemies and the consequences her choices will have in her journey.

The player guides the protagonist on her adventure around different areas of the ravaged landscapes. Each chapter of the game shows a selection of the protagonist’s journey and is represented as a simple world map of locations and points of interest the player can visit. The map is filled with many combat stages and helpful upgrade events that unlock more abilities for the protagonist to use. Almost every combat stage is a mandatory requirement to complete the chapter, but there are alternate pathways and optional fights that can be taken to reach the end of the world map faster. But some areas only unlock when certain requirements are met from winning previous battles.

The turn-based gameplay is a mix of strategy and puzzle-solving skills. Unlike other turn-based RPGs, the enemies and the player share the turn phase to generate their individual actions and are executed all together when the player finishes their actions. The player can’t simply stack their attack actions in one turn. They will have to be aware of the enemy’s position to avoid being outmaneuvered and counterattacked. The protagonist is armed with a bow and a magical ability to force push. Arrows safely pick off enemies from a distance but are limited to three and do not refill during the whole battle. The force push moves enemies a few spots away from the player but has limited range and does no initial damage. However, the push becomes deadly when enemies are pushed into each other or the surroundings on the field, dealing out a good amount of damage. There is also a wait option that takes up an action, which is useful for aligning with an enemy’s movement or baiting an enemy to waste an action.

There are also special abilities that can unlocked and upgraded that can make tight situations more managable. There is a more powerful version of the force push, a vault that lets the player leap over titles on the field, and a smoke bomb that confuses the enemies. These abilities are useful to deal greater damage or do some crowd control, but the skills can only be activated on certain action slots along the player’s action board. This means chaining other actions beforehand to set up the specific special ability. In addition, these abilities also require a recharge period, so you can’t spam these abilities too often.

In certain stages, some villagers can be rescued from danger. These villagers are bystanders who do not move on the battle grid and have to be manually picked up by the player. Enemies will make their way towards the villagers to either kill them or convert them into beastly monsters. When a beast gets within range of a villager, it unleashes a howl that begins to transform the villager. If the same beast is not killed by the end of a turn, the villager will become an enemy beast.

There are two types of objectives in every combat situation. One is to reach the exit point of the field alive. The other is to eliminate all the enemies in the field.  The game rates how well the player can complete the objective and is ranked by finishing the event within a certain limit. The limits are ranked by the number of turns taken, the number of villagers rescued, and the number of enemies killed. Luckily, Howl does not pressure its players to complete a single perfect run to achieve all objectives for a 100% completion of each combat event. Battles can be replayed multiple times to focus on one goal at a time. Some combat events can be 100% completed on one attempt, but the game encourages to revisit previous battles once the protagonist has grown stronger.

There is a lot of trial and error that occurs when experimenting with different tactics. It will take a few rounds to understand how each game has patterns that the player can exploit. However, sometimes a bad action early in a turn leads to harsh choices later on. Like Chess, moving to a certain spot makes the player vulnerable or cancels a much-needed tactical decision. When backed into a corner, taking damage from an enemy or letting a villager get howled can be a tactic. The limitations and restrictive gameplay make fights appear very casual but require some clever thinking to chain the perfect set of actions.

Howl overall experience is compact yet very enjoyable. The game does not overextend its premise and flows evenly from start to finish. The game has great visuals and a storybook-style narration that nicely immerses the player in the setting. The gameplay introduces small game mechanics that quickly become vital tools for the player to utilize, but the player can get a little careless and still enjoy the game. If the player doesn’t care about optimal turns, they can force-push every enemy and never use an arrow. But the game feels very rewarding by experimenting with different tactics to find the right set of actions that can complete a stage with a perfect ranking. If you a fan of casual tactical games and enjoy being a gaming perfectionist, Howl is a great strategy title to pick up. Howl is now available for the Nintendo Switch and Steam, and will be arriving on Epic Games, PS5 & Xbox X|S this upcoming January 15th.