Buy Dust: An Elysian Tail

A colourful, characterful, entertaining game. The gameplay is reasonably easy to pick up even for someone not experienced in the genre, the puzzles are often challenging without being overly frustrating, the story is decent and there is a reasonable amount of content.

It is not without its flaws - the ending really falls down a bit both through overblown writing and by turning combat into a confusing mess by flooding it with both allies and enemies, and the game is prone to sharp framerate drops even on a GTX1080 - but the good definitely outweighs the bad.

"Dust: An Elysian Tail" is a Metroidvania style platforming action-RPG in which you play as the protagonist, Dust, accomponied by sidekick Fidget on a mission to save Falana and it's inhabitants from General Gauis' wrath. The game was almost entirely made by Dean Dodrill (the creator) alone. He handpainted the games' visulals and vistas, wrote the story alongside Alex Kain and programmed the game himself.

I played the game on the normal difficulty setting using a keyboard and a mouse and spent about 16 hours completing all the levels and collecting all the collectibles. I made short notes about what I felt was positive and negative about the game. The following are the positives and negatives of my experience of the game.


- You start you adventure with a descriptive tutorial in which you learn the basic controls. The tutorial also features the beginning of the story and is almost perfectly integrated into it.
- The game has smooth and solid platforming. Special skills are aqquired as the story progresses such as, double jump and iron grip, which help you platform better and visit places which you couldn't get to early in the game.
- Platforming is also quite challenging and there are many terrain based puzzles you need to solve to get to some platforms. There are many different types of barriers and obstacles and you often need to find alternative paths or make calculated sacrifices to health to overcome them.
- The game also has a strong RPG aspect to it such as collecting materials for crafting different items, completing main quests and optional side quests and grinding for XP.
- The graphics are really good in the game. The backgrounds are all handpainted and animated meaning they change dynamically as you platform and move. There are different terrains, weather conditions and day cycles which makes the game very immersive and atmospheric.
- This is also an action game in which you need to learn different combos to defeat your enemies. The combat animations are smooth and satisfying. You see different animations while executing different combos which is really important.
- The story is well-written and I personally like how it developed. There are also several reccuring themes and plot twists in the story. There is flow in how the story progresses.
- There are many different characters in the game, each with unique backstories and motivations. Doing quests for these charachters enhances the experience of the game and makes it more fun. Some characters make hilarious jokes.
- The voice acting is phenomenal and one can see the effort put into it by the actors and the director. I watched some uncut youtube videos in which the voice actors recorded their dialouges and man they were funny.
- The sound tracks was made by HyperDuck Soundworks. It is really good. My favourite is the "Abadis Forest" track.
- There are many types of enemies, each with unique traits and charachter models depending on their locations. There is also a learning curve as each type of enemy has it's own combos and attack patterns.
- You can level up from XP by defeating monsters and completing quests. The level cap is 60 as of writing this review. Going up a level rewards you with an ability point which can be used on four different traits such as attack, health, defense and Fidget's magic power.


- There is no enemy scaling and the combat becomes very hack and slash after you obtain decent weapons.
- The boss fights were a major let down. First of all there were not many bosses and second, they were short. Also mini bosses with some sidestory would have made the story much better
- Some characters lacked sidestory and contextualization. I really enjoyed Fidget for example but would have liked more of her lore etc.
- There is no way to obtain some items, except for them randomly dropping from enemies. It was frustraiting grinding and waiting for these random drops, as someone who likes to max their charachters in games.
- There were some minor bugs I encountered and I had to restart the game once due to the screen getting stuck. Apart from that the gameplay was smooth.



Dust: An Elysian Tail has a solid story, combat, platforming, soundtrack and other things it advertises. The game is well optimzed and polished. There is flow in the gameplay and the game has replay value and potential. I would recommend buying this game for an enjoyable 15+ hours experience.




I received this game for review purposes from Steamified. All these reviews are unsponsored, unsolicited meaning that I am not entitled to favor all reviews with either a positive or negative score for any games I am sent for review.
This review is part of the Steamified Community Review program. For similar reviews and giveaways please visit http://www.steamified.com/

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a wonderful experience of a Side Scrolling Hack N' Slash game, and I'm here to tell you why.

The game starts off with you playing as Dust, a... furry (?) who woke up in the middle of the forests who dealt with amnesia, and is awfully confused on whom he is, and is confronted by Fidget the Nimbat, and Ahrah the Sword. You set out on a perilious journey to discover Dust's past and face all kinds of wicked monsters across the world.

The game features extremely satisfying and smooth combat despite it being limited to 2D, yet, it plays so well.

The game's combo system works by pressing two buttons, one for slashing, and another for extra combos. You gain new abilities, most likely to help you in enemy confrontrations when you play more of the game.

The game world is absolutely lovely and beautiful to look at, as well as the scenery you come across. It is quite expansive, as you head out to new areas to explore the world.

The combat can sometimes get repetitive and tiring after a while, as the fight mechanics do not change, but the game can make up for this with it's wonderful speed and fluent style of gameplay, that happens so quickly. It is very awesome.

The difficulty is not in any way lacking, unless if you have mastered the combat to the extreme, as it allows you to pick which difficulty you would prefer, easy, moderate, or hard.
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There are many characters and side quests to tackle on if you do not want to try and finish the main game's storyline, as they give you time to explore the world for secrets, treasures, and quests to start on your own time.

It features a nice quick leveling up system, that once you've gained enough experience points, you can choose a stat you'd like to improve, as it keeps the game extremely fresh and impressive.

The game allows you to craft new items to your liking that has stats you'd generally prefer to have and use, such as armor, sword buffs, pendents, rings, etc.

Dust An Elysian Tail may seem short to some who've played and decided to go on a quick speed-through, but it is a fun experience nevertheless and I suggest buying at full price to support the developer 100%, since a lot of love andeffort to making this game. Kudos.

HOPING SEQUEL COMES OUT IN THE FUTURE! MUAAAAAAH!

When it comes to RPG's there are several key factors that often serve to define and disparate each one from every other one. Naming some of these major factors would lead one to include RPG elements like World Lore, Expansiveness , Story ,Quest Design, Side Quests quantity, Exploration, Character Customization, Skill Trees, Crafting , Grinding, The Combat System and just Overall Immersion in the game. In an era where RPG's are trying to Reinvent, Innovate and Push the Boundaries of such thematics to Revolutionize the genre and broadcast their distinctive traits and appeal, Where does a game such as Dust:An Elysian Tail stand? Ultimately the success of every RPG no matter what kind of revolutionary concept they bring to the table boils down to one simple attribute Execution.

Dust:An Elysian Tail is a game that has every one of the aforementioned RPG elements, While none of these elements come of as prodigious or unique, The game however excels in one simple aspect, 'Execution' and that is exactly what makes this game succceed and a joy to play.

Dust plays an 2D side scroller platformer RPG with a hack n slash variant of combat. As I mentioned above all the elements exist in a very simple form. Combat consists of basic combo chaining and just beating up every mob of enemies you find. Platforming involves basic jumping, Dodging traps and so on. The skill tree consists of 4 simple attributes (HP, Attack, Defence, Magic) and every level gives you the chance to increase any one of them by 1 level. There's the classic RPG inventory system. Questing mostly involves point to point movement and fetching for side quests. Perhaps the most noteworthy element of Dust would be the Crafting system, You only need to accquire a material once after which you can sell it to the shop which will restock the material over time. This saves an enormous amount of grinding which would otherwise be needed,

When it comes to difficulty they game is actually fairly easy since your character is pretty much overpowered but beating up those mobs still feels enjoyable and really cool. I started out on Tough difficulty and pretty much had no trouble at all, Boss Fights are straight forward and easy for the most part.

Supporting all these elements is yet another simple but charming storyline about a man on a search for his identity, His search for himself brings him across diverse beautifully drawn areas(Backgrounds) ranging from underground basins to snowtop mountains,volcanic lands and rustic villages. Accompanied by a small flying sidekick and a talking sword what else do you need in a fantasical story? By far the only complaint I have for the game would be that Voice Acting feels a bit forced at times but it is nowhere near an issue to hinder the game.

If it isn't clear by now, The game is simple but the way all these simplistic elements mesh together to create a feeling of fluidity is nothing sort of excellence. Perhaps this fluidity is the main reason this game is so much fun to play despite it's overly simplistic and straightforward demeanour.

8/10, The game is worth the money you put in.

this game is amazing 14.99 is a steal for the fun youll have, well if you enjoy games like masumora demon blade, no sidegrades though, but it duesnt need them (plus sometimes sidegrades can be a little dumb), amazing story beutiful characters, and a little bit of a feel trip, i recommed playing on tough or higher, HAVE FUN!

Good game,i liked the story,good design,I liked this game a lot and it's a very good game to play

This game is a jam-packed adventure game with a great artstyle and story. I'm a personal fan of the character called "Fidget" and their very interesting personality. This game is full of side quests, too. There are many different rewards you can also get form the quests. Many of the NPC's in the gane are interactive and may give you many tasks too complete. I love this game and it's many counter-parts.

This has probably become one of my favourite Metroidvanias on Steam (along with Valdis Story)! Not something I'd hold as the hallmark of game design, but the combat is so good that it makes playing the whole game really fun, despite being somewhat monotonous, otherwise.

Valdis Story is a very methodical metroivania with a pretty deep combat system (with combo-cancelling, lot's of timed dodges and parries, etc.) and tough, pattern based boss fights that you really need to try to learn and pay attention to learn the game, and it's incredibly satisfying when you do!

Dust: An Elysian Tail, on the other hand, is very loose. You fight dozens of enemies at once, if necessary, but your attacks are very large and throw enemies all over the place, making you feel like a badass! Fighting these many enemies at once is really satisfying, if not a bit too chaotic to be challenging (in a fair way).
The crux of it is that your sword attacks have a rather wide range, and you have the ability to suck enemies in. With that, plus a helpful magic, you'll easily manage dozens of enemies, racking up combos of 1000+, at times.

In short, you're like a ♥♥♥♥ing tornado. With fire/lightning at the center.

And that's enough, surprisingly enough. The combat is very fluid and looks awesome!
Most of the game will be you tearing throw many enemies at once. However, there are different enemies, some of which can be tough, and require more attention, and parrying to defeat. Which helps a lot to keep things somewhat fresh!

The most disappointing thing was the boss fights. They're mostly really easy. And I was playing on the highest difficulty. On the whole, the game is fairly easy, if you take your time to explore and learn how to deal with different enemies. Only one of the bosses was somewhat hard to me, requiring a few tries, making me switch my tactics a bit.

The game had one frustrating element, which was the environmental hazards, in some places. These do a ton of damage, often killing you in 1 or 2 hits... But, otherwise, the game was very fair.

With one exception (graveyard), checkpoints were very kindly placed, so you never lose much progress on death.

The game as a lot of other features, like a crafting system, and fairly wide equipment system, leveling up, etc. etc. These all worked pretty well, giving you several options to tackle your progression, but they couldn't really be a focus for any player. They're there to support the combat and keep the progression up, nothing more.


As a metroidvania, especially regarding the abilities you gain, it wasn't spectacular (well, the abilities weren't very interesting), but the exploration element is very present, and in a good way!
The game has side-quests that cannot be completed when you first get them, making you go back to the places you've been to after you get more abilities and... have grown overpowered. Going back to previously hard areas and feeling like a God is ... well, it makes you feel like a God. (The leveling system is exponential which explains how much more powerful you get after each area)

There are several references to other games, which are nice, and lots of treasure and blueprints to help you get stronger.

The map system is also very generous, telling you the screens where you've missed something with an icon so you can easily check back later and know more or less what you may be missing.´


I don't want to write much more about it. The game is beautifully drawn and has some nice screen effects (distortions, for the most part), with one of the most fun combat systems around. So definitely give it a go!
Not the most challenging game, so try Valdis Story if you're looking for a more difficult game.

Only one word can be used to describe this game: Beautiful.

A marvel in it's genre, Dust: An Elysian Tail is without a doubt the best indie game I have ever played. It is one of the few games that have their own unique atmosphere. Every aspect of the game blends so well, that it creates an immersive experience like no other.

I really enjoyed the game "despite" the gameplay issues I mention below. To be honest the atmosphere simply sucks you in and the mix of platforming, combat and RPG works out quite well.

Positives
- A game with a signature mechanic which looks and feels very, very cool.
- A good amount of combat and platforming. The latter becomes increasingly trickier.
- Stunning graphics. Basically all of them are hand-made.
- Great music and voice acting is well-done.
- Cliché story (homage to retro games) with a good twist.
- A good mix of serious and cheesy/funny dialogues.
- RPG Elements such as customizing your different pieces of armor. Upgrades are available throughout the entire game.
- Very gamer-friendly mechanics. No material grinding or unnecessary backtracking!
- Talking to NPCs is literally rewarding as each dialogue grants exp - and often a side-quest.
- Opening treasure chests is fun as each of them requires you to beat a mini-game.
- Completing the game grants you a rather unique reward!
- Many Easter eggs and references to older games.

Negatives
- Gameplay... is the biggest issue as the combat becomes very repetitive.
1) Spamming two moves is not only the strongest, but also the most-exp-earning move in the game.
2) The main character doesn't learn any new combat moves.
3) Later on in the game, most of your regular moves will be blocked, so we're back at 1).
4) Intermediate and chapter bosses don't feel that much different from regular mobs.
- "Normal" gamemode is not challenging at all, even for average players like myself. There is no difficulty spike. I'd recommend playing it on a harder setting from the very beginning.
- 1 mandatory BS Indie game secret (which the game openly admits with a cutscene).
- Only one coin of the story is shown. Unfortunately the other half was cut due to time pressure (more information available in the post-mortem which you can find on the discussion boards).