Dust: An Elysian Tail

Dust: An Elysian Tail (Dust) was originally released on the XBOX 360 during 2012's Summer of Arcade promotion and has, after a relatively short period of time compared to many other XBOX exclusives, arrived on the PC via Steam. Dust has an impressive history behind it with creator Dean Dodrill doing all the design, programming art and animation for the project -- only contracting the voice acting, soundtrack and some parts of the story -- over the course of 3½ years.

Test Machine: 2010 Macbook Pro

Dust starts with the titular character waking up with no memory of who he is. He is immediately acquainted with a talking sword named Ahrah and his fourth wall breaking sidekick-to-be Fidget, a flying created who seems to be a cross of a fox and a bat. The story quickly gains speed from the expository opening and is surprisingly good. I'll stay away from details, but safe enough to say that if you're familiar with the general genres Dust takes it's inspiration from, you'll have an idea of how the story plays out. That being said, while not entirely original, the storytelling is done quite well and is certainly engaging. There were also several points in the game where it explores themes with a surprising amount of depth and emotion.

The voice acting is a little uneven but falls on "good" far more often than not. There are points where the worst aspect of the voice acting is by far the technical aspect of it; at times it seems almost as if some of the recording was done with poorer quality equipment or in a subpar recording space. The voice acting itself is certainly obnoxious at times, but I never felt like it wasn't aware of it being that. Rather that simply poor voice actors, some characters seem designed to have irritating voices; Figet -- your main sidekick -- in particular has a very high-pitched voice. While it can be annoying at times, it seems designed as a recognition of the (alarming) convention of having sidekicks with annoying voices. It's not all that bad, though; Figet's character is written with such earnestness that it won't take long before you become somewhat attached to her and look forward to the (often) funny and sometimes moving conversations her and Dust have.

The artwork in the game is simply gorgeous. Embracing all the tricks and techniques of 2D games, Dust's completely hand-drawn aesthetic stands out immensely. Character sprites are large, sharp and full of detail. Backgrounds are lush and multilayered with rich colours and attention to detail. Sean's experience comes through in spades with the graphics (and animation): the various characters in the game are given more personality just by their detailed appearances while each location quickly becomes it's own through the detailed, unique environments. Animations are fluid and an amazing amount motion can be happening at once; Dust is extremely agile and it's not long before the screen is filled with enemies and effects with Dust flying all over the place. It's a real testament that the game can handle all this at 1440x900 on my modest system without even a hiccup, even with all the bells and whistles turned on. The game is absolutely beautiful to see in motion and easily one of the best looking games I've played in years; not for it's massive technical achievements but rather for it's expertly executed and holistic artistic vision.

Onto the game...

So how does the game play? Dust is a 2D action-RPG. Most of your time will be spent fighting enemies with the simple, but surprisingly deep, combat system. Dust himself has two attacks: a standard melee attack with his sword, Ahrah, and a secondary attack that's context sensitive. When on the ground, it can quickly toss enemies into the air after a quick attack or, when held, initiate the dust storm attack that has Dust twirling his sword in the air creating a vortex that pulls enemies towards him. His sidekick, Fidget, also has a magic attack that is weak by itself, but when combined with the dust storm will dramatically increase the effectiveness. Fights are combo-driven, no two doubts about it. One of the missions in the game even asks you to achieve a 1000-hit combo. You learn most of your attacks through the first third of the game and spend the rest of it exploring the depth of the system. It's fast, frantic and a whole lot of fun. I've read some people complaining that they found the combat repetitive through the back half of the game, but I didn't experience that. Right up to the final boss I was constantly testing and learning new intricacies of the system.

There are "just enough" side quests -- of which many seem to acknowledge their side-questiness -- to keep you feeling like you're always making progress. Very few ask you to deviate off the path you'll be travelling on, so many end up simply actions you'll accomplish and if you remember to go back and "cash in" the side quest you'll get a small reward. There are all manners of secrets to be found through the world in treasure chests that can be found just off the beaten path or tucked away in hard-to-reach places. Dust also has a crafting system that works quite well. Dust will collect materials throughout the game as well as blueprints. Blueprints build equipment and require materials. For a brief period you must return to the blacksmith to make things, but the plot introduces a device that explains that need away. Merchants will sell you materials, but outside of only a few basics, they can only sell you materials that you've sold to them at least once. After that, they'll slowly stock up on all their materials. What this means is that what was once rare is no longer, but the restock rates at the merchants are never so high that the rarer items become overly abundant.

The world map is a hub-based structure, and each location consists of strongly Metroid-inspired layout where you'll encounter plenty of areas you can't make it to until you unlock specific powers that enable you to make it past certain obstacles. The world is a joy to explore while navigation is made simple and easy.

I can easily say that Dust is one of the better games I've played in quite a while. The mechanics are sound, it's a feat from a technical perspective, the story is engaging and well done (if not particularly original) and it's simply a joy to look at. As long as you have no long-standing hatred of 2D "Metroidvania"-style games, you'll be sure to find something you like in Dust: An Elysian Tale.