Howl Review: A Fiendishly Addictive Puzzler

Every now and then, I click with a game that I generally wouldn’t expect to. More often than not, I don’t click with puzzle games for the simple reason that I’m not the most patient of people, but every so often, a puzzle game comes along that is just so damn clever that I cannot help but become obsessed with it. Howl, part-tactical RPG and part-puzzler, is one such experience that I think puzzle fans will absolutely love.

A Dark Fairytale

Howl’s narrative is simple yet effective. You assume control of a young lady known as the Prophet as she journeys through a fantasy land that feels like a blend of fairy tale and the middle ages. Her world has been turned upside down, torn apart by a werewolf plague, with anyone who hears a werewolf howl instantly turning into one of the ghastly beasts themselves. The Prophet, however, has an ace up her sleeve that makes her perfectly suited to combat the werewolf invasion – that being that she’s deaf, so she cannot be turned as countless others have. It’s a simple premise, but one that does a great job of grounding the gameplay as the Prophet journeys throughout the lands in an effort to bring about peace. By keeping things simple, the gameplay, which is the real star of the show here, takes center stage.

Deceptively Simple

On the surface, Howl’s gameplay loop is deceptively simple and, at first glance, doesn’t appear to be a puzzle game at all. Leaning into tactical RPG territory, you’ll take control of the Prophet in each level on a grid-based map, with the map dotted with varying numbers of enemies, environmental hazards, and obstacles to overcome. Combat plays out in turn-based fashion, with the Phrophet able to take three actions initially, though this can be increased via upgrades. Actions at the outset are fairly limited, with the only options being to move, attack, wait, and use a force push that serves as a useful tactic in moving enemies to new areas of the grid. Making things slightly more complicated is that you need to queue up all your selections for that turn, which then plays out in one continuous chain while the enemies simultaneously carry out their actions.

I’ll be completely honest: the first hour or so I spent with Howl was a disaster. I was approaching each map with a tactical RPG mindset, solely focusing on how to go about taking my enemies out as efficiently as possible, and it caused me more than a few deaths, even on the easier opening levels. The Prophet can only survive one attack, meaning two hits from an enemy and you’re dead, which led to me restarting levels repeatedly as I tried to wrap my head around enemies taking their turns while mine played out. It’s genius, though, and you’ll soon realize that Howl is a puzzle game, first and foremost. You’ll start to anticipate enemy patterns and understand how to bait them in, in turn developing a greater understanding of whereabouts in your action queue to place your attacks. Encounters become tense, cerebral affairs that require you to plan ahead, especially as you hit the later levels that contain more enemies than you have arrows, forcing you to think outside the box and use the battlefield and your tools in increasingly clever ways. These

Howl also does a fantastic job of introducing new mechanics as the levels increase in difficulties. Citizens in peril need to be rescued, new abilities are unlocked, and new enemy types, including brutal boss battles, all enter the equation, ensuring that just as you start to feel comfortable, the rug gets pulled out from underneath you. It’s not quite as overwhelming as it sounds, with new mechanics introduced at a sensible pace so as not to overburden the player with new information. There are also player upgrades that unlock new moves and grant you additional actions per turn that help soften the difficulty somewhat. The introduction of new abilities also makes going back and playing earlier levels a joy, as you’re suddenly able to crack a map within the recommended number of turns due to having new tools to play with.

My main issue with Howl is that getting to the point where you fully understand the methods behind its madness can take some amount of trial and error. I’m a naturally curious person, so I don’t mind messing around with systems in-game and trying to figure them out. Still, the opening hours, despite some brief tutorials, can test the patience a little as you find yourself aimlessly dying on repeat in an effort to understand concepts like enemy movement and attack patterns and how best to deploy the Prophet’s abilities. It’s not a deal breaker, and Howl does contain accessibility features that enable you to press a button that then displays enemy attack and movement patterns on screen, so if you do find yourself getting frustrated at how obtuse an experience it initially seems, Howl does have tools there to help.

Fairytale Visuals

Howl’s narrative and world feel like they’ve been ripped straight out of a dark fairytale, so it’s very fitting that its visuals match the tone set by the story.

Adopting a hand-drawn art style that looks like it’s been lifted straight out of a fairytale book, Howl looks beautiful and is an absolute treat to play through on the Switch’s stunning OLED screen. The hand-drawn art also ensures things never get too graphic or heavy – Howl is a game that will repeatedly see the Prophet torn to shreds by packs of hungry werewolves. It’s a horror story at its core, but the welcoming visuals lend themselves well to players who are uncomfortable with horror.

Conclusion

Despite initially relying a little too much on trial and error, Howl is an absolute delight once its mechanics click. What initially appears as a simplistic tactical RPG soon morphs into a devilishly difficult puzzle game that begs for repeated playthroughs as you gain a greater command of new mechanics and the core gameplay loops. Whether you’re after a tactical RPG that does things a little bit differently or a puzzle experience that gets increasingly rewarding the more you invest yourself in it, Howl is an easy recommendation.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available On: Switch (reviewed), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC; Publisher: astragon Entertainment; Developer: Mi’pu’mi Games GmbH; Released: 14 November, 2023; Players: 1; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP: $14.99

Full Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher.