Welcome to Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, Reanimated, from Shadow Layer Games. The original Breath of Death VII debuted in 2010 on Xbox and this is the same game with a bit more than a fresh coat of paint.

Developer: Shadow Layer Games
Publisher: Shadow Layer Games
Platform: PC/Steam
Release Date: Dec 12th 2024
Price: $4.99

Okay you know the drill, the usual apocalyptic event destroys the world, humanity is extinct, the world has become populated with demons, ghosts, and monsters oh my. The characters don’t really recall the pre-apocalypse world but for their own reasons decide to revive it anyway. We join our protagonist. A mute skeleton named Dem in a dungeon as he learns how to fight and break the fourth wall with his “thoughts.” Exiting the dungeon, he meets Sara, a ghost who is studying some ruins and develops feelings for Dem. Later, they encounter a vampire nerd named Lita and a zombie named Erik, who has a romantic soul and cries “le brains!” when he is rejected, which of course is every time. Now that the party is complete, this band of freaks and disasters travels through the world hoping to find the usual usual magic maguffin (cough I mean crystals) that will restore the past.

It’s not Shakespeare, but despite being corny and derivative it works in setting up the band of weirdos and gives them a reasonably plausible reason to go adventuring. Normally this is where I tear the story down but in this case I stay my forked tongue because like a 1980s action movie, the game knows what it is and just needs a reason to get on with the action; it doesn't need to be Shakespeare, it just needs to work. So it just gets on with the quest, the characters breaking the fourth wall as we go making puns along the way. The only problem is the puns, dad jokes and inside references get a little repetitive but fortunately this is not a long game and the price is right. Regardless, the story knows what to do and what its audience expects and gets it done in workman-like fashion.

Erik’s ability hasn’t changed since before the apocalypse.

So once again, you know the drill here, you journey between “dungeons” battling whatever comes your way from mutant cars to something that looks like R2D2s homicidal cousin crossed with a Roomba. Combat in Breath of Death VII resembles games such as Dragon Quest and is presented in first-person. You can see the enemy’s hit points and a combo gauge, with some skills doing more damage if the combo count is higher. However, for every turn the battle takes, enemies will receive a 10% increase in their stats, so the longer a battle goes on, the more dangerous it becomes,so like Cobra Kai, don’t fool around, strike hard, strike fast. This makes the pacing quite brisk, but there is a rhythm once you get the hang of it.

Health is replenished after battle but just to spite you, magic is not and you have to find a save point to refill. Characters that wind up pushing up the daisies, can be resurrected with potions, but once they are all gone, you will be desperately trying to find more. So be warned, as the game progresses potion management will become increasingly important. Aside from battle there isn’t a lot of side content and my ten year old got through it in about four hours and I managed it in… uh, longer.

Bottom line, the original title made its mark in its genre and this reissue/refresh/Port whatever you want to call it manages to carry the torch pretty well, which is unusual among remakes, re-release/reissue/re-whatever these days. It’s a corny dungeon crawl that knows it’s a corny dungeon crawl, and doesn't try to be anything else. If you like this sort of game, pick this one up its on Steam for a quite reasonable $4.99 as of the time of writing.

Technical note, as of the time of writing, this game runs without difficulty on Linux Mint 22.1 using Valve’s Proton compatibility layer.

The Good:

Solid Story
Solid Game-play
Good Value

The Bad:

A bit short
Humor isn’t for everyone
a bit repetitive

Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, Reanimated Review (PC)