Duil

An immortal man, an undead warlord, and a kingdom in ashes

Duil is solo developer JL studio's dark, pixel-art action-platformer, released 27 November 2025 for Windows. The story opens on the ashes of Targat, a once-great kingdom burned to the ground by an army of the undead led by the ruthless Vezruvil, who executed the player character's family and left him to rot in chains. Freed and unable to die, Duil sets out to fight his way to the heart of that darkness, but the game's own framing makes clear the journey is about more than combat: as Duil descends deeper into a living, dying world, he uncovers secrets and faces choices, whether to show mercy or exact vengeance on the people and creatures he meets, that shape which of the game's several endings he ultimately reaches.

A Dead Cells-inflected build, and choices reviewers say actually land

The single most consistent thread running through Duil's review corpus is genuine, specific enthusiasm for its combat and choice systems working together. Reviewers repeatedly compare the game favourably to Dead Cells, describing "nice and varied power-ups" and enjoyable, if imperfect, combat across weapons, ancient spells and dark relics collected along the way, with one detailed review, written after finishing the roughly four-hour campaign, specifically thanking the developer for a complete, supportable solo release. The game's branching mercy-or-vengeance system draws its own independent, specific praise, with one reviewer calling out "the fact that there's choices that seem to matter" as "really cool," even while still working through the game's early hours, a sentiment echoed by the developer's own marketing, which frames the choice between execution and mercy as one of the game's key features.

Controls, a dash with no bite, and a death penalty reviewers call pointless

Set against that praise, a specific and independently repeated complaint concerns how Duil actually controls moment to moment. One detailed review describes trying to play with a PS5 controller as producing "some of the weirdest controls I have ever had to deal with," an experience that improved substantially only after switching to keyboard and mouse, while a separate reviewer flags the game's dash specifically, noting it "doesn't seem very useful at the moment" because it can't be used to dodge attacks and offers no invincibility frames during its animation. A further, specific complaint targets the game's death-and-resurrection system: falling in battle sends Duil into a shadowy labyrinth he must escape to resume his journey, losing one inventory item as a cost, and more than one reviewer describes the resulting detour as, in one reviewer's words, a "pointless waste of time" rather than a mechanic that meaningfully raises the stakes of combat.

A metroidvania that reviewers say won't let them go back

A further, independently repeated complaint concerns the game's approach to exploration and backtracking. Despite drawing metroidvania comparisons, including from the developer's own marketing, at least one detailed review describes confusion at discovering they couldn't return to previously explored areas once they'd advanced, missing a specific skill that would have opened up content they'd already passed by the time they realized it was needed. That same review noted enemy encounters could feel repetitive once a stun-lock pattern was discovered, with a separate review independently making the same observation about enemies dying too easily to interrupted combo chains, a criticism that recurs across the corpus's small sample despite otherwise consistent praise for the variety of Duil's weapons and spells.

A visual style split between pixels and something more

A smaller, more specific point of discussion across Duil's review corpus concerns its visual presentation. The game blends traditional pixel-art environments and enemies with occasional, more three-dimensional character animation, a stylistic choice one detailed review says they personally aren't drawn to, while simultaneously acknowledging the practical reasoning behind it: for a solo developer, blending simplified three-dimensional rigging with a pixel-art frame makes character animation considerably more manageable than hand-drawing every frame from scratch. That kind of specific, sympathetic reading of the game's technical choices recurs across Duil's small review corpus, with reviewers repeatedly framing rough edges, in controls, pacing or visual consistency, as reasonable trade-offs for a single developer's ambitious, narratively-driven scope rather than simple shortcomings.

A summoning system reviewers haven't fully weighed in on yet

Alongside its weapons, spells and relics, Duil's own store page lists a summoning system, the ability to call forth otherworldly beings to fight alongside the player through its relentless battles, as one of its headline gameplay features, sitting beside the mercy-or-vengeance choice system reviewers have engaged with more directly. That feature goes largely unmentioned in the current review corpus, a gap that's less a red flag than a reflection of just how small and early the game's review sample still is: with only two full days between launch and the reviews currently available, most of the corpus reads as impressions from the game's opening hours rather than full playthroughs weighing every system on offer. JL studio's own pre-release marketing, run largely through direct developer posts rather than a publisher's press push, specifically foregrounded the "execute or spare" choice mechanic ahead of launch, suggesting the branching mercy-or-vengeance system reviewers already single out for praise was always intended as Duil's central hook, with its combat systems, summons included, built to support that narrative spine rather than stand as the game's primary draw.

Value

At NZ$17.49, Duil asks a modest price for an atmospheric, narratively ambitious action-platformer built by one developer, and its currently small but strongly Positive review base, 19 positive against 2 negative across 21 reviews, reflects real enthusiasm for its branching choices, power-up variety and dark fantasy setting. That reception comes with the caveat of a still-limited sample size, and reviewers are consistent in flagging rough controls, an unreliable dash, and a death-and-resurrection penalty several describe as tedious rather than tense. For fans of dark, Dead Cells-inspired action-platformers curious about a solo developer's take on branching, consequence-driven storytelling, Duil is worth a look at its price; for players expecting metroidvania-grade backtracking or fully polished combat on day one, the current review corpus suggests tempering expectations first.