Death Palette Review (Mobile)

Don’t worry, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t annoy me (•ᴗ•)🔪

I’m not one to play mobile games. Mainly because my family could never afford a phone that would be able to play most phone games, let alone have enough storage space. There are also certain games that I just don’t like playing on phones. However, when I heard about Death Palette (aka Matsuro Palette), I was so intrigued I just had to play it. I didn’t think it would be too intensive on my phone’s storage space, I was sure my phone would be able to play it, and it fell under the types of games I wouldn’t mind playing on a phone. Of course, I found out it was on PC a month later when it got its major update since I knew it as Death Palette rather than as Matsuro Palette. Anyway, I finally had some free time to play Death Palette and I felt like writing up a review for it!

Death Palette has you take up the role of a painter who may need to reevaluate who his friends really are. The protagonist seems to be experiencing some artist block when his friend decided to pay him a visit. He’s not just here to chat, however, as he brought along a peculiar painting. The friend not only is referring to the painting like it’s a living being, but also saying that it’s a painting of a girl with a blue flower despite the canvas almost being completely smudged with black paint. The friend also mentions how the painting was actually left unfinished and how there were others that tried to finish it but were annihilated. Luckily, the friend also mentions the painting’s temper and hoping that you’ll finish the painting before he…suddenly dies. When you go to pick up your phone to call for help, you’re met with your phone glitching out and the painting suddenly is a girl with a flower in her hair in monochrome. Not to mention that she’s talking to you, able to do small and creepy movements, and can affect you.

From then on, you’re trapped in her little pocket universe, which takes the form of a home with a couple rooms. It seems that you’re the first painter that have come in possession of this painting and she makes sure to take your soul. Not only to keep control of you, but also so you can use it as paint. The girl in the painting definitely has a temper and will lash out at anything that upsets or annoys her. Thankfully, you do have the help of the notes from the previous victims that gets sent to your phone. This not only gives you some lore and tips, but also hints towards what you need to paint to satisfy her. Taking place over the course of a week, you must help the protagonist survive by fulfilling all of her requests.

The story here is pretty interesting and boy was I not expecting the ending to be so horrifying and heartbreaking. The game does a good job at hooking you in with its premise, how the girl in the painting conducts herself, and the notes of the previous victims. Then it reels you in as it starts to explore the mystery of the overall painting at the perfect time, slowly revealing past events as you progress through the days. It was honestly pretty interesting reading about what happened back with the original painter, the thoughts of him and the others in that time, and finding out why the painting is the way she is. This also might be weird, but I also did like the girl in the painting. She’s mean, yes, but she is written well, I really liked her dialogue, and I do like how you can tell that she is getting a bit softer the longer you’re surviving. You’d think you’d hate the girl, but I did find it hard to really hate her. Even before I learned the truth behind the painting.

The gameplay here is pretty simple as it’s basically a point and click puzzle game. The game is split by short, but sweet, chapters representing each day the protagonist is alive. The majority of the days will have the protagonist start their day waking up and end it by going to sleep. You’ll also be greeted with memories as the protagonist dreams after a certain point, giving you the painting’s backstory and a hint on what’s coming up next. Every day, you’ll be faced with the same girl in the painting, but with the painting changing. The girl will have a quick (one sided) chat, request what she wants, and she’ll wait for you to paint it. You’ll also get the notes from those that came before you to give you a hint at certain points through your phone (and you’ll even get notes when you’re not having to paint something to give you some lore).

Each request is a puzzle that you have to figure out. After hearing what the girl wants, you’ll be able to explore the space that you’re in. After all, you can’t really paint without getting inspiration from things around you and doing a quick sketch. Using the arrows at both sides of your screen, you’ll be able to look around the various rooms that make up the little pocket universe the girl in the painting sent you to. At first, you’ll only be able to look around the room the painting is in for inspiration, but as days pass more doors will appear and you’ll be able to see what’s in those rooms. When you click an item that you need, or is a red herring, the protagonist will sketch it. Some items do require a bit more to get them, though. Of course, you also should check out the phone to read the notes and spot any hints whenever it notifies you.

Once you found all the items you need, you’ll then be ready to paint. The girl does give you some instructions or help sometimes, but even then you do need to figure what she exactly wants. Not only do you need to pick out what item she specifically wants you to paint, but place it where she wants it to be and the color. Unlike selecting what item to paint, however, you get a selection of colors that spin around and you need to click when the color you want overlaps with the reticle. If you do something wrong at any step, the girl will kill you (though the girl does allow you one mistake at certain points). Don’t worry though, you can just retry from the beginning of the painting sequence (and on mobile, you do have a chance at getting an ad) or choose to go to the main menu to start the chapter at the beginning.

I quite liked the gameplay. I don’t mind playing point and click games on my phone, the game was quite easy to get the hang of, and it ran well on my phone. I also did like the puzzles. It did a nice job at introducing its mechanics, how picky the girl is, and it does a nice job at gradually upping the difficulty of the puzzles. None of the puzzles are actually hard, it is quite easy to figure out what you need to do, but the game does increase how much you need to do and it does start doing some clever things. It’s pretty easy to get tricked if you’re not paying attention. I only got stuck twice and one was due to a clever painting puzzle and another was when I didn’t realize I needed to click an item twice.

In addition to the notes you get throughout the game that helps you satisfying the girl in the painting, you can view the backstories of the previous victims. You only get to see a small snippet, which is usually when they first acquire the painting, but it’s pretty interesting reading about how each victim came across the painting and seeing the supernatural allure of the painting affect them. I didn’t notice this at first, but you can also see when each of the victims died based on you stop getting their notes. Anyway, yeah, if you wanted to learn more about the story check out their backstories after finishing the main story.

While Death Palette is a linear game, there is some excuse to go back and replay chapters. It’s through the many different deaths that the protagonist can go through if you fail to paint what the girl wanted or simply annoyed her. The extras menu has a section where you can view all the different deaths, whether you already seen them or not, and which chapter you can get them in. From there, you can aim to figure out how you get them by trying out different interactions and color choices or you can just look up a guide. You don’t have to collect all the death screens, but the short description of what was found when a third party came to investigate the protagonist’s place and the chalk outline was admittedly pretty cool and slightly horrifying. In a way, you can say that finding all the deaths is another puzzle as well.

I don’t really have any negatives here. I do just have a nitpick on how every dialogue box for the protagonist starts with an open parenthesis, but doesn’t end with a closed one.

To paint a pretty bow on this, I do want to mention the music and artwork. The music and sound design was quite good, the track that plays during the painting sequences in particular sets the high stakes mood of the action, and I really liked all of the artwork. The art style was really nice, the painting and sketches do give off a painting and sketchy feel, and I liked the use of color among the monochrome. Not to mention how eerie the girl in the painting is animated and how some deaths will affect the screen before you get to the death screen. I also did like how creative the deaths are and how they’re shown to you on the death screen.

Verdict

I ended up liking Death Palette quite a lot. I honestly wasn’t too sure about it when I first started, but the game did win me over with its nice gameplay and puzzles, the interesting story that was slowly unfolding, creative deaths, and the great art direction. Plus the game isn’t that long and the ending is definitely worth experiencing for yourself. I also didn’t mind the ads; it certainly helped that getting an ad on a retry was chance and most of the ones I got were quick and painless. So yeah, I recommend checking out Death Palette/Matsuro Palette, especially if you want a well written short and sweet game that has some horror sprinkled in.

I’m even planning on actually buying on Steam at a later date, which recently added in new content. I also decided this before I completed my playthrough so it’ll also be when I’ll aim to get all the deaths.