Dust: An Elysian Tail is a rewarding experience providing the player with incentive to explore areas and discover new secrets throughout a vibrant landscape, while providing a quality storyline to boot.
The story of the game begins with the main protagonist, a fox-like creature named Dust, waking up in the woods with no recollection of what brought him there. Upon waking he meets a talking sword called Ahrah that is accompanied by a flying cat-like creature named Fidget who agree to help Dust on his journey. This sets the stage for Dust’s quest to find out who he is and about his mysterious past. Throughout the game the player will discover a set of memorable characters that help drive an engaging story composed of dark undertones of genocide and war that you will want to see to the end.
Being an action-RPG, the mechanics focus on making Dust stronger though leveling up by gaining experience and using various pieces of loot scattered throughout the game. Leveling up rewards the player with skill points used to increase the common categories of health, attack, defense, and luck. The game, however, adds the option of increasing your ‘Fidget’ ability, a projectile attack coming from your partner and a crucial element for completing high combos and getting through later parts of the game. Experience is typically gained through battles consisting of endless swarms of enemies, with bonus experience awarded for performing high combos. A number of different combos are given to the player to use in battle, but none too complex to the point that it becomes a chore to use them.
Experience can also be gained through interaction with numerous characters met throughout the game, who often times have a problem that Dust can help them out with. Upon completion of these side quests, the player is rewarded with money and essential items used toward progressing into new areas or discovering secrets. Outside of gaining experience, the player can also obtain pieces of loot that Dust wears to further increase his abilities. The game implements a simple, easy to use crafting system that utilizes various materials found throughout the game. The player also is given the option of just skipping the process and buying the loot from shops, although some pieces aren’t available for direct purchase, giving the player incentive to invest in purchasing and selling new materials to craft better loot.
The ambiance in the world of Dust is varied, with the areas you set out to explore ranging from bright forests and snowy mountain tops, to haunted cemeteries and underground caves, each full of secrets and treasures waiting to be discovered. Each area is set up in a classic Metroid-like layout with each featuring a unique ability Dust can use to progress further, as well as backtrack to previously unreachable sections of the game. The map for each area illustrates which sections have shops for purchasing items, save stations, as well as areas with undiscovered secrets. Secrets such as keys, treasure chests, and cages that hold recognizable characters from other indie games all provide incentive for discovery. Keys unlock treasure chests and cages, treasure chests hold loot, money, and health items, while the indie characters provide health bonuses to go along with their cool cameo appearances. Select areas also contain challenges tasking the player with completing a score based obstacle course within a certain time limit. While challenging, rewards for completing these trials are merely common pieces of loot, giving little incentive to try and top previous scores outside of achievement and leaderboard purposes.
Visually, this is a gorgeous game. The character design and animations are on par with a typical animated movie or television show, and make light of a story consisting of fairly mature themes. The backgrounds mesh well with the character designs, while setting a good tone for each of the diverse areas the player is tasked to explore. It’s also worth noting that some of the backgrounds where secret characters are found resemble a theme from the game they are associated with, which I thought was a pretty neat part of the cameos. The music also gives Dust a heroic feel that provides a good theme to go along with the enemy encounters and exploration. Cut-scenes are displayed with a close in view of the animation and dialogue of the character speaking, while some of the more important story related sequences are presented as a fully animated cut scene. The cuts-scenes, while sometimes excessive and cheesy, provide quality voice acting that allows the characters to become more intriguing and likeable as the game progresses.
Although this is clearly an exceptional game, it is not without its flaws. With large numbers of enemies constantly being thrown at you, slowed down frame rate was an issue at times, especially when attempting large combos involving Fidget. Another problem with the amount of enemies is clutter and confusion on screen during combat, mostly due to too much character and enemy animation. This can often lead to a lot of unexplained deaths, resulting in some frustrating moments. Some areas also consist of precision platforming, usually jumping while avoiding environmental hazards such as spikes or poison, which is not a strong suit of the game. When Dust is hit by an enemy or hazard, it always results in him being incapacitated for a short time, which sometimes opens up for excessive punishment in these platforming areas.
Dying usually isn’t too frustrating as long as the player has recently saved their game. Sometimes save points can be few and far between, however, resulting in long treks back through large sections of the game, which can be annoying at times. Boss battles are also a bit bland, usually solved through exploitation and using the same attacks over and over instead of requiring much strategy or skill. Around half way through the game and again at the end, I also encountered a couple of major spikes in difficulty that made progress almost impossible, which disrupts the pacing a little bit. However, these difficulty spikes can be a blessing in disguise, in that they can encouraged more exploration of previous areas to find new and better loot while gaining experience in the process, making it feel more rewarding than simply grinding. I found this to be an important element for success, especially at the end boss, which can be brutal if not fully prepared.
Despite some annoying platforming areas and occasional screen clutter during combat, Dust overall does a great job at what it sets out to do. It provides a quality story consisting of interesting characters and mystery, backed by amazing visuals and ambiance, while topping it off with great action-RPG elements. Not only is there an abundant amount of extra secrets and treasures available to be discovered, but also an incentive for the player to go and find them, making it rewarding and a completionist’s dream and a top XBLA title.
Note: 117% completion, Tough difficulty, 17 hours