This summer of arcade has been a huge disappointment for me, the past few years I've really wanted every title available (more or less) but this year, only Deadlight and Dust caught my attention, I was very interested in Deadlight, but after hearing about the problems I was turned off rather quickly, luckily Dust: An Elysian Tail haven't disappointed so far. Granted, I'm only 3 hours in (just under 30% completion) but everything so far has been great, and I'm truly amazed that this is the work of one man. The art design is stunning, and the soundtrack is certainly up to par. The story and the characters aren't as great, but I'm still enjoying the very cute, fury, fairy tale like universe, there is a certain charm to the characters and the voice acting has been surprisingly solid too, however I could see some people being turned off by the cuteness, tough the story itself contains some pretty dark and serious subject matter. Lastly, the gameplay is spot on, very rarely do I feel like developers are able to hit a combination of simplicity and fun, but Dust has been able to do just that and a big part of that is how impressive it looks when you achieve a hitchain of more that 400. The RPG system could be deeper, but there are a lot of levels and since this is metroidvania, the game seems to have some good replay value as well, and along with plenty of secrets including 12 "friends" (I won't spoil who or what they are, but it is certainly worth finding) there is plenty to find and see. 
 
Oh, and finally there is a healing item called "Mysterious Wall Chicken", which is a fully-cooked and seasoned chicken from unknown origins, and it can be found in various walls... yep. So in case you didn't know whether or not to get the game, I can highly recommend it.

So how did you acquire the day game 1 day before release?

So how did you acquire the day game 1 day before release?

Is it wrong that I have a murderous jealousy of you right now that you're playing a day before I can? I have been waiting for this for a long time and cannot wait to get my damned hands on it.

@Smokay said:

So how did you acquire the day game 1 day before release?

Review copy most likely. 

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Smokay said:

So how did you acquire the day game 1 day before release?

Review copy most likely. 

Spot on, reviewing it for a website.

@JacDG: I know that you a little navi type flying thingy friend with during the course of the game,I was just wondering is she becomes annoying after a while or is she acceptable?

@JacDG: I know that you a little navi type flying thingy friend with during the course of the game,I was just wondering is she becomes annoying after a while or is she acceptable?

@JacDG said:

Oh, and finally there is a healing item called "Mysterious Wall Chicken", which is a fully-cooked and seasoned chicken from unknown origins, and it can be found in various walls... yep. So in case you didn't know whether or not to get the game, I can highly recommend it.

Sick Castlevania reference.

Really looking forward to giving this a go as it looks really good. One question though. How deep is the combat system? Is it pretty button mashy or is there a nice deep combo system to it?

Is there a new game plus or something similar? Really looking forward to this.

Just played the trial version. Wow, this game is amazing!

It's a shame so many people will avoid this game because of the art style. Then again, if they're that dumb to pass on a game because it looks bad, they deserve it.

I might have to turn my xbox on for the first time since Gears 3 launch.

So this is what games would be like today if the Saturn had won the 32bit battle. Neat.

@LikeaSsur said:

It's a shame so many people will avoid this game because of the art style. Then again, if they're that dumb to pass on a game because it looks bad, they deserve it.

I totally agree with you. Just reading some of those comments on the Quick Look video just makes me shake my head because they're missing out on an excellent game. I'm loving it so far.

@Scottish_Sin said:

@LikeaSsur said:

It's a shame so many people will avoid this game because of the art style. Then again, if they're that dumb to pass on a game because it looks bad, they deserve it.

I totally agree with you. Just reading some of those comments on the Quick Look video just makes me shake my head because they're missing out on an excellent game. I'm loving it so far.

totally agree. I bought it today, its just great fun to play. no regrets in buying it at all.

BTW @Atramentous lol yes :-)

@LikeaSsur: Ignorance is bliss. Let their stupid asses miss out on it. They don't deserve this game.

Sure is!

Agreed. I just got out of the first village and I'm as charmed as ever. Hopefully it does well for the guy who made it after devoting so much of his time to it.

@NegativeCero: If the Leaderboards are any indication, it's already sold well over 10k copies, and it's only been out a little over 12 hours. He deserves every damn sale, being a one-man band and producing a game of this level of quality. Honestly, it's inspiring. I've always wanted to make a game, and seeing him do this makes me want to start messing around with Unity engine or something.

Yeah, I played the demo and consistently kept enemies up in the air and got 100 or more hit combos. The art style is fine with me, I'm not a huge fan of it but the combat is freakin' awesome no matter how you slice it. The story seems somewhat interesting and so do the characters, though I could easily see the flying fox girl get annoying real, real quickly.

Hey, guys? XBL Arcade really ain't so bad if stuff like this can still happen. It exposes a large audience to a small well-crafted game by a passionate one-man dev. I somehow feel like this wouldn't be nearly as big if it just came out on Steam. And I'm not at all hating on Steam here, so please.

Yeah, I played the demo and consistently kept enemies up in the air and got 100 or more hit combos. The art style is fine with me, I'm not a huge fan of it but the combat is freakin' awesome no matter how you slice it. The story seems somewhat interesting and so do the characters, though I could easily see the flying fox girl get annoying real, real quickly.

It is indeed pretty great, without a doubt the saving grace for this years Summer of Arcade, and if it keeps up being awesome - then I might nominate it to my favorite Download-able Console game this generation.

I annoyingly got a 1200 chain combo then got hit. No achievement for me.

@DelroyLindo said:

I annoyingly got a 1200 chain combo then got hit. No achievement for me.

Don't worry, you get an item at one point in the game that basically allows you to do nearly infinite combos.

Anyways, after 100%'ing this game I can safely say this is the best made indie game I've ever played. While I would still say Isaac (which I have also played a lot this summer) is a better game, Dust could've probably been sold as a $60 box on storeshelves. This game has the full package and doesn't in any way feel lackluster compared to your traditional studio games. And to think that it's all sourced from one mans initiative is just insane. Not to diminish other indie games, but Dust really sets a new standard for what indie games can achieve.

@Ares42 Agreed. This game is up there with Bastion, LIMBO, Fez, Braid...it's just fantastic.

@DelroyLindo said:

I annoyingly got a 1200 chain combo then got hit. No achievement for me.

Don't worry, you get an item at one point in the game that basically allows you to do nearly infinite combos.

Anyways, after 100%'ing this game I can safely say this is the best made indie game I've ever played. While I would still say Isaac (which I have also played a lot this summer) is a better game, Dust could've probably been sold as a $60 box on storeshelves. This game has the full package and doesn't in any way feel lackluster compared to your traditional studio games. And to think that it's all sourced from one mans initiative is just insane. Not to diminish other indie games, but Dust really sets a new standard for what indie games can achieve.

@JacDG:

@JacDG:

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Ehm, Fidget has 3 abilities, all you need to do is make her spit some fire on the vines.

@JacDG:

I think this game might just be the best XBLA title, everyone should at least give it a try.

@JacDG:

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

You get it from killing Fuse. Quite an accomplishment to go through almost the entire game without one of the abilities =D Although, tbh I barely ever used it myself. I guess you should be able to find it in the forest if you go all the way back.

It took me this long to realize it was 'An Elysian Tail' and not 'An Elysian Tale.'

@Ares42 said:

This game has the full package and doesn't in any way feel lackluster compared to your traditional studio games. And to think that it's all sourced from one mans initiative is just insane. Not to diminish other indie games, but Dust really sets a new standard for what indie games can achieve.

Agreed. I'm about 40% through right now, just unlocked the 1000 hit combo achievement, and I'm still consistently impressed by the game.

This game is fantastic! Love to see an awesome 2D game like this making it today. Beautiful visuals and a lot of colorful characters and dialogue. The voice acting is even better than I thought it would be. Glad that this guy's dream project has been a success; maybe he'll consider continuing to make good metroidvania games, who knows.

Yes it is. Also, the people who were freaking out about the art are insane.

I bought Darksiders 2 and took a Friday off work in order to play it. I loved the QL of Dust and thought why not. I'll download it, play it for an hour or so then get back to Darksiders 2. 12 hours later and Darksiders 2 is still sitting on my shelf with a forlorn look in it's eyes begging to be played whilst I'm mesmerised by Dust. Can't rate this highly enough. Have loved every part of it.

Haven't had a single "You !$"£%£$ SOB!!!" moment. I get one in almost, nee, every game. Even Solitaire. Hasn't happened once in Dust.