Death or Treat from Saona Studios and Perp Games is a hand-drawn 2D roguelite action platformer worth checking out on PS5. Learn more in our Death or Treat review!
Death or Treat from Saona Studios and Perp Games is a hand-drawn 2D roguelite action platformer worth checking out on PlayStation. This one will place you in the role of a ghost named Scary. As the owner of Ghost Mart and a busy candy entrepreneur in HallowTown, you’re being affected by FaceBoo owner Fackerberg, who has taken all of your business thanks to his Storyum chain of stores. Your journey will first require you to go through the Darkchat factory, which is Storyum’s main factory.
You’ll control Scary with the left analog stick, jumping, and double jumping with the X button. He’ll be able to interact by pressing the L1 button. He can attack with the Square button, which you can press in quick succession to unleash a combo. Pressing up on the left analog stick and the Square button will make Scary perform an uppercut. The Triangle button will allow him to perform a secondary, slower attack. This can be used while jumping to perform a smash attack. Scary can dash with the Circle button, which can be used to avoid incoming attacks or to clear some of the long gaps on your path while jumping.
Your skill will be mapped to the R1 button. To use it, you’ll need to fill up the skill bar right below Scary’s health bar. Before leaving town, you’ll need to choose your weapon and your skill. At first, the only option you’ll have for a weapon will be a broomstick. It used to be a full broom, but it lost its brush. It’s a basic weapon that will help you progress a bit further in the game. As for the skills, they include the ghost explosion, which allows you to invoke an army of explosive ghosts; the boomerang, which will return to you after throwing it; or the jumpscare, which will deal some damage to any enemies on your path.
Since this one is a roguelite, that means that for each run, you’ll be able to make some progress that will eventually allow you to get close enough to beat the game. But to do this, you’ll need to collect as many resources as you can during each of your runs. You won’t be able to keep everything when defeated since you only have a limited number of slots to which you can transfer resources. This is why you will need to work on upgrading your character as much as possible so that subsequent runs are more productive.
You can trade items to repair shops to help you on your quest. Repair Detox Bucks to get a health upgrade to boost your health. Once you obtain enough candies, pumpkin seeds, and pieces of wood, visit Detox Bucks for a treat! The Pumpkin store can be repaired with some candies, pumpkin seeds, and cerebrospinal plasma. Necrosoft has certainly seen better days, and it’s important that you repair it since it will act as the skills store. Just bring a ton of candies, some a bat wing, and some pieces of wood to get the job done.
Frank’s Forge is where you can purchase powerful weapons for your adventure. It will require a ton of candies, some metal nuggets, and some pieces of wood to get it back into the best shape possible. But out of the whole bunch, the first one that you can repair, thanks to the few pieces of candy near your starting location, is Joe Bite Them’s Store. Fix the store, and you’ll get your first trophy – more on these below. As for Joe Bite Them, he will take some of the resources you collect in exchange for adding slots for you to keep ingredients and materials.
Later you’ll also be able to spend resources to open up fast travel points to FaceBoo, DevilTube, and Rip-Tok. You’ll also find Hatter’s Mystery Shop, where you can buy a random potion that could help you… or hurt you. There will also be artifacts to collect that will aid you. Grab some Sharp Blades, and you’ll be able to deal damage to enemies when dashing. Obtain a Backpack, and you can save one extra ingredient when you’re defeated. The longer your run, the more artifacts you’ll be able to stack.
Death or Treat has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. The list includes 6 Bronze trophies, 7 Silver trophies, and 8 Gold trophies for you to work on. You’ll get trophies for conquering each of the areas for the first time – Darkchat, RipTok, Deviltube, and Faceboo, for restoring each of the buildings in town, for unlocking one upgrade in each building, for unlocking all improvements on three of the buildings, restoring all portals, defeating 1,000 and 6,666 enemies, and for stocking 10,000 and 20,000 pieces of candy. It won’t be an easy one, so you might want to check out this Death or Treat Trophy Guide.
Death or Treat gives us a great-looking hand-drawn 2D roguelite on PlayStation 5. As you make your way through each area to try and reach Faceboo and beat Fackerberg, Scary will go over the same stages over and over again, just presented in a different order for each run. Save as many resources as possible from each run so that you can restore the buildings in town and unlock more upgrades that will hopefully help you to extend subsequent runs. Because of this, it’s a game that won’t be for everyone since progress can feel a bit slow. Death or Treat is out on PlayStation 5 at a $24.99 price.
Disclaimer
This Death or Treat review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Perp Games.
