Buy Dust: An Elysian Tail

"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.
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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.

This game definitely scores a 10/10.

Dust: An Elysian Tail kept me playing. I started out using a mouse and keyboard, which worked well, but when I remembered I had a Logitech F310 USB controller lying around, the game really began to shine. The different difficulty levels add a boat load of replay value; a fight you had no issue with on your first playthrough suddenly becomes more daunting on your next playthrough, all because you upped the difficulty this go round. If you want long fights, max out the difficulty. If you're just in it for the storyline, set the difficulty as low as possible and the game does all but walking and jumping for you. Controller support is phenomenal, the levels are beautiful, the storyline is gripping.

There was one small issue, and that's the placement of one mission. During this mission, you are tasked to hit a high hit combo, but I noticed that, generally, you've leveled up quite a bit before you even make it this far. This creates an issue where, by the time you get your combo halfway there, you've knocked out all the enemies. Luckily there's an item in game that weakens you, but that seems to be the item's only purpose. As stated previously, it's a small issue, but it does tend to be a nuisance.

Despite this, I can only hope for a sequel.

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!

This is so good and so fun. I cant add more than that. The story telling is good too.

Alright-y. I have just finished the game with roughly 14 hours worth of playtime, and oh boy what a game. I loved it. The world was deep and rich with lore, all the characters were well rounded with ample story to give them plenty of life. The main character is well thought out in terms of his purpose and what makes him special. The game can be rather changing and isn't afraid to bite you in the ♥♥♥♥ if you aren't ready for it. And the in game secret challenges were well thought out and hard. For a long time I struggled with healing items making it a real challenge fighting all the enemies (specially the bigger ones). Sometimes I struggled with the direction I had to go and I think that might just be because I was thick. The backdrops and scenery are GORGEOUS they are made so well and there is one in particular that was very eye catching (Giant ♥♥♥ statues).

The bosses were amazing, and really challenging, especially the last boss he was a real challenge and I found it very fun to verse him even though I had to burn through all my healing items (even on normal holy ♥♥♥♥). However it would have been nice if as I was fighting him the health bar didn't completely refill after every little story moment, it would have been far better to make one health bar and have it drain far slower then in the X number of times you have to fight him after a story moment (I wont tell you how many), both was though do tell you roughly how long the fight is going to go, my way leaves it less a mystery however. I thoroughly enjoyed the music and ambient noises (save for the mansions after you had to do a little running) and the voice acting was top quality though 2 or 3 voices had gotten a little grating at times.

Overall it is a great game and I highly recommend it if you love side scrolling fighting games. The mechanics are just right for the game and the way it introduces it to you is just right, just watch out all that clicking may warrant a new mouse (Or J, K and L Keys). The music is perfect and the lore is able to pull you in and keep you interested in the world you are fighting for.

9.6/10

P.S. I have more hours then this. I just don't have a constant internet connection.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a game that I would describe as a work of art. After completing this game on normal difficulty, I can say that the gameplay, while refined, is not the easiest to get the hang of, or master, but the game is extremely fun none the less. The art and story are unique, making the game quite memorable. My only gripe about the game is that the story is quite short.

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).

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.