Dust: An Elysian Tail

As title said, pretty much must have if you into that sort of games. Not bad with keyboard+mouse combo.

The presentation of Dust: An Elysian Tale is (mostly) excellent, but I simply did not find it fun to play. What initially seems like a promising combat system quickly reveals itself as shallow and unsatisfying (and awkward without a gamepad). It's visually impressive, especially the dust storm manoeuvre, but devoid of both impact and variety. There are a number of odd mechanical choices which I will not go into here but it seemed to me that there was a new and disappointing discovery around every corner. Platforming is very imprecise. The visual design makes it hard to tell where the solid parts are, and I encountered several platforms that just did not work properly: one with a section that could not be jumped on from below; another that could not be reached with any other method than jumping and performing a single slash at the apex. The story seems decent. The characters are nothing amazing, but they are well designed and become engaging thanks to the game's charming presentation. Conversations seem too frequent and just a little too long since they bring the game to a halt, and there are too many game-related in-jokes for my tastes. Admittedly I didn't play more than a couple of hours. There are too many small yet noticeable flaws and they eventually overwhelmed my patience. If you do buy Dust, bear in mind that playing on "tough" difficulty will render you - at least to my knowledge - unable to heal without the use of items that are far too expensive for the benefit they provide. You will also be prohibited from leaving an area until you've dealt with all the enemies near an exit, so you won't be making any tactical retreats, even if you're completely out of healing and haven't saved since before the last boss fight. Dust is impressive, since it was apparently made by one person, and even moreso for the creative visual flair which is sadly lacking in many titles. I truly applaud the developer's effort. It's just not (in my opinion) particularly good.

A metroid\vania plattformer by the book.. perhaps too much by the book.. but when done this well i cant fault it. It's quite easy tho, play it on hard if ya be experianced plattformer!

I suspect every game is the game that got you into a genre or resonated so strongly with you, even years later, and Dust an Elysian Tail is one such game for me. I'm not the hugest fan of the Metroidvania genre, though I've tried to find Dust's equal in it, as the majority of the supposedly "good" games are so borderline evil and creepy or support ideologies I just can't get behind. Dust is a "lightning in a bottle" game, like Final Fantasy 2 on the SNES was before it: something you experience that leaves you hungering for years and in some ways, decades later for its equal and you never find it. A unicorn, if you will. "I remember *everything* and it changes nothing!" changed so much for me. This game, for good and ill, brought me out of my video game retirement and made me hope again that there were games that could elicit that electrifying experience that only exists in your dreams. I have tried to recapture that experience, spending mounds of money on games, looking in every nook and cranny, and never seeming to find that unicorn game that harkens to a "better time" or perhaps takes you away from "dark places." Dust is one such game. At least for me. I am both glad and saddened that there has never been a sequel. How do you iterate on something that is complete and finished? I hope to never know. You are unlikely to experience Dust like I did; you may even find it derivative of the Metroidvania genre and believe there are better mechanically, graphically, etc., and you'd probably be right, but for a game that tails such a fantastic tale, I can only hope one more person steps into the wonder and joy that swept me away and made me believe in the video game medium again and that they, too, will stay haunted by one of life's great "lightning in a bottle" moments that they can never get back...

+ Cool fun unique combat system + Nice drawn art + Good music + Interesting characters and story - Inconsistency art/design sometimes - Some bad VFX Must play classic