Dust: An Elysian Tail

A very beautiful game i really enjoy every second i played it, the art style is what actually got my eye even though my eyes burn me a lot but that's cuse i have very sensitive eyes... Over all i highly recommended to any metroidvania lovers

Though I generally dislike games in the Metroidvania genre, I found the combat in this game quite enjoyable, if not too complex. It is fun to juggle enemies! :) The game's presentation isn't my cup of tea, but it's far from terrible, and the story... well, it didn't capture me, anyway. 5/10?

It's funny how time can change perspective. I played this for the first time around 2018 and back then I looked at artstyle of this game and thought to myself, how neat looking it is, just like some old Disney animated movie or saturday morning cartoon. But now I am a grown up who spends too much time on the internet. All I can do is look at those characters, and spit on the floor, saying with disgust: “Fcking furries everywhere” Well, jokes aside. Dust: An Elysian Tail is a one man project. Yup, you read it correctly — aside from voice acting, and playtesting, all of the rest: characters, animations, gameplay mechanics or story (albeit this part was co-produced) and cutscenes, was made by only one person. That is something incredible, an achievement worthy of celebration, although it should not shield this game from truth. And the truth is simple: Aside from graphics and art direction the rest is pretty generic and trivial. We have here a metroidvania with basics and nothing standing out — combat is generic: mash X button to light attack, Y for your special, B for spell. There are maybe 4 or 5 combos you can create by combining them, and Y+B (Fidget range attack plus Dust Storm) will carry you through the entire game. And the combat is not very challenging — on normal difficulty enemies like to stand in place and attack you sporadically, from time to time jumping in random directions to avoid yours. Even bosses are pushovers, I died maybe 2 times fighting with them. Hardcore difficulty is more frustrating — once again dev picks the easiest route and just cranked up the numbers to 11. Enemies are too tanky and deal too much damage to make this difficulty something more than a trip to the frustration zone. The easiest way to mitigate this unbalanced mess is to level up your character. Yeah, we have a bare bones RPG mechanic here. You kill enemies, you gain experience and level up. There are four stats you can improve — health, attack, defense and Fidget’s attack power. But you cannot put all your eggs in one basket, and pump one stat to maximum, because dev put a limit of how big the difference between your lowest and highest stat can be. On top of that you can also equip items that you need to buy, find in the world or craft. It is not rocket science nor deep enough to be something more than nuance. Instead of an interconnected map we have a separate level you can access via world map, and your movement abilities are limited — you can unlock slide, double jump, wall grip and boosted jump upwards… and that’s it. Plus you need to find keys to open different colored gates. The game is not long — 10-12 hours, depending on your difficulty, and without enormous backtracking to previous areas, non-existing grinding and how small levels are, it can be a more casual, relaxed experience, at least on regular difficulty. There are three negative things worth pointing out. Firstly — while art direction is entirely debatable and subjective, level readability is not. Sometimes it's hard to see the difference between what is a part of the level geometry, and what is just a background image. I jumped on the platform and fell down because said thing was just a piece of texture, instead of part of the route. It’s even more confusing in caves, because there are part of them engulfed in darkness and you need external light sources to progress. Guess how fast you can lose sense of direction. Secondly, levels and map — this game has automap, but it's very bare bones. It cannot pinpoint your exact location. The areas are separated into smaller sections with loading screens, represented on automap as square boxes. You know only in which location you are at the moment, not exact place. It can be confusing, especially when you look for secrets or collectables. You think you progress in the right direction and then suddenly hit the wall. Combine this with the mentioned above sections without light and you will experience true rage. Thirdly — platforming. You know how in other games you can stand on the edge of the platform, and one leg of your character will “float” in air and they won’t fall? Not in this game. As soon as Dust's one leg is beyond edge, he will fall immediately. It’s irritating and annoying, because it works against your muscle memory. Other things that pissed me off were spikes in this game — they hitbox do not match their textures, and they will send your flying over half of the screen when you merely touch them. What is more hilarious, in later levels you are introduced to passive regeneration items, so you can literally shrug off all the damage taken from them. Well, what else? Oh yeah, story. It’s fine. It starts promising, but falls off at the ends. The main villain is racist. Just that. He hates race called moonbloods. Why? We don’t know. We don’t know why he hates them, what is his backstory, why no one will hold him accountable (he is a general, not a king, there is someone above him). The dynamic trio we follow is fine, with Fidget being mandatory comedic relief, Dust being a generic “struggling main protagonist” and Arah… well, it is a talking sword. The story has basic plot — go there, help NPC, go there, yada, yada, yada — but it is more busywork than engaging experience. Overall — big ok, could've been better. And that’s it. Nothing more to say. It's over. Go home or something.

I am 13 years late to the party, but I am so happy I finally got to playing this game. This game's art style is amazing. It really feels like a late 90's cartoon. The animation and combat fluidity is top notch as well as a great heart-wrenching story. This is a 10/10 in my book!

sem zoeira, q jogo ruim, o combate até q é bom já o rewsto é horrivel, level desinh, bosses, lore e etc... jogue se tu curte bater em qualquer coisa

Metroidvania light with beat 'em up elements. Played with an x-box controller. What you need to know: -There is a world map, leading to discrete metroid style areas. Bite sized, easier to traverse, you'll be going back often as you unlock new abilities. -Otherwise, very linear. -Beat 'em up style. Hey, another group of 4-7 enemies in a row! Fairly mild with only a few combos all given to you at the start. -You can grind for xp, gold, and drops. There are rings that give bonuses for those. Shops stock new materials after you sell them, so sell away then save your gold and buy what you need when you need it. -Food heals you instantly and is nearly unlimited. Worst case scenario you can just stock up on healing items and tank till you win. -It's a decent story for an amnesiac protagonist plot. Character driven. -It's a cast of furries but it doesn't get weird. Good art and animation. -Read the notes, they are important. Some notes for a 12 year old game: What is wrong with the sound mixing? Some voices are very soft. Then, when it goes to a cut-scene, the audio is twice as loud! The long bridge treassure is very weird to get. FYI, you have to fly by jumping and using the dust storm near the right side of the bridge. Gather up lots of flying enemies.