I'm just going to let you know that this review contains a lot of spoilers as I pick apart some things.

Death of a Wish and its predecessor, Lucah: Born of a Dream, are games that are both incredibly close to my heart, in a way that makes me wonder if i should even bother writing this review because I feel like it will be revealing, in some way. I suppose that is always the danger of writing a review in the first place, no? Anyway, I've read countless things about this game; Its fine, but it doesn't hold up to lucah, its not as deep, its not as interesting, its story too straightforward, its combat robbed of any real decision making. I want to point out that I think this is a shame, because Death of a Wish is not only just as fun a game as lucah to play, but its story is a struggle for meaning in a world that has rejected you. While Lucah was a rumination on being a gay baby brought up in a hostile, fanatical religious community, Death is asking us what we do with that once the people important to us are gone, and I think that's a question worth thinking about on its own terms.

First, the unimportant stuff: The gameplay has seen a lot of improvements from lucah. Things are very fast, there's even more enemies to fight at once, and I find that very challenging in a satisfying way. Stamina was removed to make way for this, but parrying enemies no longer puts them into 'break' state like in the first game, requiring multiple parries to break their guard. I find this interesting because it means that you're free to attack and whittle away at the enemy's guard, and if you got really good at parrying attacks in lucah, you'll get punished for relying on your old ways here. Being forced to relearn how to play something you thought you knew isn't just a fascinating thing from a gameplay context, it actually just fits into the setting. Things that you thought you knew end up different over time, alien, more aggressive. It is reflective of Christian's personality, well suited to it. Taunting is really funny, and the fact that it gives both a buff and a debuff to the enemy is even funnier, honestly, but it feels good when it works in your favor. Honestly, I breezed through this game like I did Lucah, but I'm quite experienced with these sorts of games, and I also had a blast playing through it. Some of the gameplay sequences near the end just feel so god damn triumphant, its incredible.

I also want to say that I don't think them taking out stamina was all that bad in the first place. Hard mode in lucah could be absolutely brutal because dealing dmg with anything other than Thanatos was very difficult, which used a lot of stamina, so even getting 3 good parries in a row might leave you in a state where its difficult to actually attack because you've run out of ability to do anything about those juicy breaks right in front of your face. Slice up the baddies in stunlock, gay one. Oh, you're stamina is depleted from doing this? What a shame, i guess you die. Obviously I got through the game, and much of this depends on the sort of build that you go with through the game, but ultimately I think allowing the player to be hyper aggressive just suits the second game better. Christian is the hyper aggressive baby, so it makes sense to let him exist this way.

The story, I think, is unfairly judged. I'm not going to try and invalidate anyone who has feels the story is too angsty, but it is just as angsty as lucah is, so if you liked the way that game reads, there is plenty to see here, as well. The fact that we are playing as Christian is extremely important given who Lucah was to the boy, so we're seeing the world from his perspective now. Christian is a classic abused and tortured gay baby. (Please understand I am using the term 'gay baby' in an endearing manner) He's suffered constantly as a marked child, bearing the curse of the nightmare, and time and time and time again he endures this life, but he has faced his fears and will do so no longer, to the detriment of almost everyone else around him. Christian's journey is challenging. He is a headstrong kid, he is composed almost entirely of hatred and retribution; hatred for his father, hatred for the sanctum that hurt him and the people he loves, hatred for the world that allows it all to happen. He doesn't understand, initially, that his 'righteous zeal' to punish what he sees as the wicked is being used to other ends. As the game progresses, Christian eventually comes to see that even in his journey to kill what he saw as the greatest evildoers of the sanctum, that he has only made what replaced them stronger. Hate nearly consumes him, to the point that he even comes to blows with someone that outright cares about him, even if she doesn't want to.

There's a line in here that is probably too adolescent, but as a similarly gay baby who went through a lot of intense experiences in her youth, it resonated with me so powerfully. 'Why do I fuck it up so badly every time I try to help someone? Why??'

This feels like something we have all had to confront. It seems stupid and overly sentimental and outright chaotic for a boy so hellbent on destroying 'church' to nearly end the world in his quest for blood, but I think it speaks to a greater meaning. Ultimately, vengeance doesn't really solve much, especially when the people you mean to help along the way get squashed. Is this a bit of wisdom that we are only learning now, in 2025? No, obviously not. Its very common knowledge that seeking revenge for past ills is generally going to be a Bad Time, but there's a part of me that feels so in love with the earnestness of this game's story. It feels very much like Chris to be so open and outright like this. Over time, Chris learns that the only way to move forward, to move on, to perhaps, give his friends the opportunity to get out of the nightmare they find themselves in, is to make sacrifices of himself. You actually have to take in game penalties to do this, and they are fairly significant!

I'd understand if people play this game and bounce off. It is a game that is unabashedly grim, bleak, and Christian's anger at the world feels particularly obnoxious at times, giving off his anguished emo child radiation that would give anyone Sadness Cancer. But yknow? I remember a time where that was me. I was not this exact kid, obviously, slicing people in half, but I was that anguished, that angry, that ready to lash out at the people who hurt me, to prove to them that I was better than what they thought I could be. A teen-aged me needed this game more than I needed it now, but i'm still so happy that I got to experience it. Something about playing this game makes me feel seen on a molecular level, and in the process of going through it all, i ended up soothing a few ghosts from my own past. The fact that this game speaks to such a particular experience, makes you fight for a good ending and rewards you for it by getting to see the people you get attached to find happiness...i don't even know how to describe how wonderful that is. Beneath all its grim storytelling, beneath all the anguish and angst, there is something beautiful, hidden. A journey to liberate the suffering from a nightmare that never seems to end. A reason to hope, to want to be surrounded by your friends and to love them so much that you would die for them. I don't play a lot of games that actually speak to this kind of beauty. I believe in this game's message, ultimately; that things can be better if we put our faith in our friends and fight for a future we can all see.