For those uninitiated, Deathbulge originated as a series of webcomics that feature recurring characters and running gags. Transforming the comic into video game form works beautifully, and the humor is very well done. Being a Deathbulge fan is not a requirement, as the jokes stand well on their own, but having the extra layer gives the avid fan even more to appreciate.

Still, the game performs great as a clever mix and twist on the staple turn-based combat, done instead with sick tunes, absurd monsters (you fight a muscle snail), and an approachable but still satisfying system on top of it. I have not had enough time to play as much as I'd like, but I can tell that I'm already happy enough with this game to overwhelmingly recommend this game to any fans of Deathbulge, turn-based RPGs, or Music.

If you like "kick in the door" gameplay with RPG elements, this is for you! Support Dan, responsible for "The Moatee" and buy this game.

IMMEDIATELY.

Way back in the ancient times of November 2015 I shared a table at Thought Bubble, the Yorkshire Comic Art Festival, and on the table next to mine was Alex Norris and Dan Martin. Only one person bought my ♥♥♥♥ comic that weekend, and I think only 2 people bought one of my stickers, but when it came time to pack up I took that small bit of change and bought one of Alex's Dorris McComics prints and a set of Dan's Deathbulge postcards. I always regretted not being able to afford Prettier On The Outside then, and when Jeff came out after I couldn't afford that at the time either; nor Horseback Earth Smack or Premium Treats after that. 19th Feb 2019: I turn 25, Battle of the Bands hits Kickstarter. That birthday money had to go other places, another miss. But I held onto those postcards all this time.

I gave up on trying to make comics in 2016, and pretty soon after gave up on drawing entirely. My life has been all over the place since then but playing through this game took me back to a time when I didn't feel like I was constantly questioning what I was doing every day. When things seemed a lot simpler, when I felt more creative, when the most pressing issue on the table was wrist pain in my writing hand. I miss those days, and I'm glad I could feel some kind of connection to them. This game made me want to draw again.

I can't overstate how wonderful this game is, please buy it.

Much like its doors after I'm done with 'em, this game is completely UNHINGED. Really neat gameplay, and possibly the sickest beats ever conceived. Very, very good and great.

If you're not giggling with every door you kick down I don't know what to do with you. I don't even care about talking to these well-written NPCs anymore, I'm just going door-to-door looking for my FIX

This game SLAPS harder than my mom when I would talk back as a child
PLAY IT unless you're allergic to anything RAD in which case BUY AN EPIPEN and then PLAY IT

I was a bit worried all these positive reviews were from people who just liked the comics, pity positive reviews for a bad game from a creator they like, seen it before. Good news, its actually good. I've never read the comics and found the humor to be a bit too much of the random wacky kind for my taste, but just from the battle system and visuals alone its a good game. If you actually like the comedy style it will be even better.

'Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands' is an old-school style RPG with turn-based combat but with a very unique premise and style. In a world of masses of generic medieval fantasy RPGs, Deathbulge feels fresh, light-hearted and different. It takes place in a modern-day setting and the premise revolves around a fictional band that signs up for a rock contest between bands only to realise that they can now fight using musical skills and the battles are to the death. So they go on an adventure to find a way to lift this curse and avoid having to fight to the death with music.

Our leading protagonists are Faye the guitarist of the band, Ian the bassist, and Briff the drummer. Each of them has their own unique skills, a few they start with, and the rest can be obtained over the course of the game. They each also have a unique out-of-combat skill that allows them to avoid enemy encounters. Like for example Faye can dash forward very fast, whereas Ian stuns nearby enemies by flexing his muscles. Despite unique skills, the band members are not forced into narrow roles in combat, as the game features 9 different classes, and it's possible to assign any of your band members to any class you desire. You can even make them all the same class. The class can be changed at will when outside of battles by changing the skill mod that is equipped in the character's class mod slot.

Perhaps the main allure of the combat system is that although the battles are turn-based ATB-style, we can use the skills and abilities to add buffs and debuffs to our own turn bar or the enemy's. So while we see a marker showing one of our band members making its way along the bar till their next turn, if the marker passes through buffs, say healing or haste, these will have their effect immediately. Likewise we can put crippling debuffs on the enemy bar, such as pain status that causes enemies to receiving passive damage or slow which means their turn takes longer to come.

We also usually have one active band member in combat and two backup members, and we can switch between them at any time. This creates extra degrees of tactics in combat. For example if one of your band members has the highest speed, they will go through the turn bar the fastest, so you can switch onto them if you want to get your next turn faster. Or you can switch lets say to a tankier member if you see the enemy is about to have their turn and preparing to hit you with a highly damaging attack.

The boss fights is when your strategy is really going to be put to the test, and each dungeon area has an optional boss you can defeat. The optional bosses are the ultimate challenge and will really test your mettle to the max. But with the sheer amount of customization of character skills, each of those bosses is beatable and there are many strategies to doing it, which is great and rewarding, because you're not stuck trying to figure out that only one strategy that works.

The innovative and fun combat is not the only reason why Deathbulge is so fun. The entire narrative style, setting and story is incredibly original and fun. This is not a generic save-the-world RPG, but rather a group of quirky protagonists trying to save their own hides because they've accidentally made a deal with the otherworldly forces. And during the adventure, there are many characters to meet, who are just as quirky and weird, some having their own backstories and reasons to exist. In fact the world in the game is so well-designed that you'd often come across references which could become relevant later on in the story. Some character randomly mentioned in conversation for example? Be sure you'll meet said character at some point.

The humour is abundant and really well-placed. I've found myself chuckling every now and again during random banter between the characters as they're going through the main story or when interacting with NPCs and doing sidequests. The setting manages to have a lot of inside jokes, but you always end up 'getting it' because the references are all around us.

For a game about music and musical skills, expect that Deathbulge has a brilliant soundtrack. Almost every location has a memorable tune playing in it, and the battle tracks are cool and upbeat and get you headbanging. Also notable is the use of musical sound effects for character skills and other actions. A lot of attention to detail has been given. The art style is cartoonish in its look and really fits the light-hearted atmosphere and silly jokes that the game is going for. The character animations are stellar, and the portraits of their faces during dialogue are often hilarious because of how well they convey the character's emotions. The game is apparently based on a series of comics, though as someone who's never even looked at the comics, I'd say it's easily possible to enjoy and understand the game's plot without being familiar with the comics.

For a game that's developed by a small team of developers, Deathbulge is really original, well put-together and well-polished. It took me about 20 hours to beat the main story and complete all of the sidequests and optional bosses, though some players might take less or more time, but 20 hours is a pretty reasonable length for a game like this. A handful of late-game dungeons did feel like they overstayed their welcome a bit, but that's mostly because I was going back and forth through them a lot and trying to complete all of the sidequests and make sure I didn't miss anything, and enemy encounters can be a tad too frequent there.

I first tried a demo of this game a few years back and its premise and style captivated me. Now that I've gotten through the entire game, it matched my expectations in every regard. This is easily a hidden gem of 2023 games and needs more love and attention. For fans of JRPGs or quirky stories with quirky protagonists, it's a must.

This game was sent to me by like, 5 of my friends right as it came out because it "seemed like something I would like" I had been a fan of the comic for a while and thought they were pretty unique compared to the other webcomics out there and it looked like a pretty solid game so I figured why not!

IT'S THE COOLEST GAME EVER MADE AND HERE'S WHY

the writing and the setting are both great, the sense of humor carries over from the comics really well and they tie the tone of the writing and the silliness of the setting to actually explain and add to the gameplay and I think that its a cool level of thoughtfulness you don't see put into things these days

As an RPG it's honestly really solid, the combat system is simplified in a lot of ways, you have 3 characters that are capable of having multiple different loadouts. Each of them capable of equipping a different normal attack and 3 special attacks, and some equipment that can effect different things. It has turn based combat but you can switch between your three party members on the fly and you take turns as a band so you have to strategize on what moves to use first and when and theres a system where you need to go back and forth with the enemies trying to dominate the field with postive effects for you and negative effects for your foes as they try to do the same thing to you, so theres a fun back and forth and a measure of nuance as you're building your team in order to be good at countering different effects or strategies your enemies will use. I'm sure you could find a way to get through the game without thinking about it too much, but I had a lot of fun trying to find the optimal way to do things.

The music is great and it really fits the setting, with a few bangers peppered in

The item system is really simple and well balanced, once you find an item you have it forever, and it simply has a stock cost to use, and as long as you have enough your stock value to use the item you can use it as many times as you like, and you replenish your stock value at an npc

The maps are well designed, savepoints are really generously placed. Exploration is almost always rewarded with a cool new item or piece of gear or a funny interaction.

THE VERY FEW NITPICKY COMPLAINTS I COULD LODGE

If you want to collect all of the drops from enemies, it takes a good bit of grinding, there are items that increase your chances but even with them it took me a very long time. But also I think the developer is going to make it easier in a future patch. I found the grinding for drops a bit tedious, but also it was rewarding collecting everything

The combat, while i did sing its praises up there, sometimes felt like it moves a little bit slow, near the end of the game i was avoiding battles a lot and running from things. It almost feels a bit like you dont do quite enough damage, or that the enemies have too much health, or maybe they have annoying moves that make their turns last longer than normal as they apply multiple effects. Either way, it wasnt too bad, just something i found myself not having too much fun with once i got to the point that i had gotten the drop from that enemy and wasnt earning experience.

SOME ITEMS ARE REALLY SUPER HIDDEN. It took me HOURS to find all of the collectibles and upgrades, near the end i was stuck looking for one small upgrade and combing through the entire world map over and over again before finally finding it. Its not necessary to find all these items in order to beat the game at all, but I wanted to complete things. Honestly it might subtract from the game for a lot of people, but if there was some kind of indication if an area still had treasure or not in it i think it would make the game much more pleasant and easy to complete. But then it maybe wouldn't feel like much of an accomplishment. who knows?

IN SUMMATION THIS GAME IS GREAT AND I LOVE IT AND YOU SHOULD GET IT AND I WISH MORE STUFF LIKE THIS WAS BEING MADE THANK YOU DEATHBULGE

A review copy was provided by the developer.

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Maybe this is just me, but having played so many games, sometimes the best way for a title to stand out is by being bold and outright odd. After all, I can't say that the name Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands (DBB) didn't catch my attention. Although, I would also admit that I'm not really privy to checking out bulges of any sort. Regardless, the style of this game seemed intriguing, so I accepted a review key for it.


Many RPGs allow players to see and dodge enemies while walking around in the overworld, and I have to admit that it's the style I prefer over unavoidable random encounters. What's unique in DBB is how the theme of music alters combat. Your three member band is represented by one of the three at any given time. That character's icon moves across the four meters, being affected by whatever moves have already been used in the fight. These can range from attacks you'd use to increase your speed or reduce damage, while enemies might drain your HP. Once that icon reaches the end, you can freely swap between members, choosing whichever move you think is best in the moment, but most of which will use up some amount of hype. It's this game's version of MP. Hype will refill fastest for the characters you don't have selected, so you'll often rotate through your band to keep everyone balanced.

From my description, battles might sound complicated, but they're actually pretty simple. Unlike a lot of RPGs, you'll activate a lot more status effects in battles than you would otherwise. Once you get used to properly managing your hype, routinely altering status effects, and keeping the band's HP in check, you'll mainly have to focus on finding secrets, completing optional gigs, and grinding enough money for everything you can buy and upgrade.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3043849435
Despite the combat timer, you don't have to worry about enemies disrupting your turn as you think about what move to use. This would be helpful for anyone who'd get stuck with a control scheme that's not their favorite. In my case, it responded perfectly well to my controller, and I saw no issues while playing. Sometimes, while exploring, my character would get a bit hung up on something in the environment, but that's more of a level design and hit detection problem than anything being wrong with the controls.


Considering the title and appearance of DBB, it's not too shocking that a battle of the bands is the central plot point for the game. As a three member band, Ian, Faye, and Briff enter the competition as DEATHBULGE, wanting to show that they rock harder than any other bands out there. Odd things start happening shortly after agreeing to participate, as this tournament sponsored by demons might not be so friendly after all. They might not be the only poor souls trying to find a way out of this contract though, since they don't really want to rock their friends to death.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3043848401
Plenty of games make use of vibrant colors for a striking effect, yet I've seen exaggerated character expressions in DBB that I don't expect to see anywhere else. I believe many developers would have used a skeleton as a valid excuse for muted facial expressions, but that wasn't a limit in this case. All of this ties into the writing in the sense that there's a particular style in this game that I'd think would be naturally divisive. You'll either enjoy the humor and visual style, or find it too childish and silly. Maybe it's because I don't fawn over music like a love-struck canary, but I enjoyed the antics and mockery of musical fads and the field as a whole.


To be my honest, my knowledge of music is lacking to the point I wouldn't know the clear difference between rock and roll music or metal. From my POV, I'd draw it somewhere along the lines of sheer volume, screaming, and how many references to death were made. So although I'm not positive what genre the OST falls into, I still enjoyed the soundtrack for the game. You'd really hope a game centered around music would put forward quality songs, and I wouldn't mind having these tunes available for car rides. Admittedly, the atmosphere can vary quite a bit, but I enjoyed the composition during my playthrough. Many of the sound effects were based around instrumental noises, such as a guitar riff to whale on an enemy.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3043848959
🌟 Other games have emphasized music, yet you won't find another game quite like this either. It has a unique style.
🌟 I appreciate that the theme didn't lead to a stereotypical, edgey presentation, “Music is life, and life is bleak.”
🌟 As long as you have solid moves, music battles are pretty fun.


❌ Each character has an ability that deals with enemies or the overworld, which isn't a bad touch. However, you don't get the fast travel system until so late in the game that it's kind of annoying.
❌ DBB starts off slowly, as just assembling your band takes more than an hour.
❌ Could benefit from a New Game+ option.


🔍 How you set up your party over time may vary based on what attacks and gear you have available for each character. By default, Ian's speed was the slowest, so I wasn't using him as often. Whatever set up you go for, it's important to balance the party well with status effects and healing.
🔍 There's so many things to spend money on, even early in the game, that grinding for extra cash isn't a bad idea. I didn't use beats very often, in favor of special moves, but you may want to max them out if you're more reliant on them.
🔍 You don't have to fight the legends when you first find them. It's possible to level up a bit first before trying to beat one.


Searching for all of the secrets and grinding battles to earn all the achievements did add some nuisance to my time with DBB. There's a little too much reliance on invisible passages and I'm not sure why so many items needed to be priced for thousands of bops each. Aside from a few minor gripes though, my biggest issue with the game is how some of the classes and moves available just don't seem very useful or viable. When some attacks offer high damage or a status change for multiple meters, options with low output simply can't compare. For the most part though, it was a fun and interesting game to play through, with more range in the emotions than I'd have first thought. If you like RPGs, I'd recommend picking this title up.

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Incredibly Charming game. Once the fighting clicks its a very fun experience. It also is not super difficult which I appreciate in a time where dying 100 times is the tutorial for some games. The writing is funny and the visuals are straight out of a comic book. Feels like a sleeper hit like Undertale, but I hope this game gets the recognition it deserves