I'm mixed about this game. I think the adventure and dialogue elements are great. The combat and music sections are not. Dustborn is at its best when you're taking time to explore the scenery and talk to your teammates. It's at its worst during the combat sequences. I find the reactionary reviews here particularly amusing, in that they could be lifted from Dustborn's NPCs. The combat is not good because many of the animations stutter noticeably at a low framerate. Additionally, your bread-and-butter melee combo puts you at a disadvantage because you're stuck in animation lock while others can wail on you. You're much safer doing ranged attacks by throwing the bat, and using Taunts to heal if needed. Additionally, the blocking mechanics aren't solid and a lot of times doesn't come out when you expect it to. You also don't get quite enough distance out of your dodge roll, so you'll end up getting clipped by enemy projectiles at the end of the roll. Because of this, the combat becomes kind of a chore to beat so you can get on with the story content. The rhythm minigame is also just okay. The music the band plays is not good, save for one or two tracks. I love pop punk, but this is not great pop punk. Even after calibration, the visuals for the notes were arriving too early compared to the hit zone. Also, some art textures during this minigame appear very stretched and blurry on a 4K monitor. Worth mentioning: the music outside of the rhythm minigame is fantastic. The art is phenomenal. I think it has some of the best cel-shading and outlining for real time graphics in awhile. The 2D comic portions after each chapter are also fantastic. If you liked Red Thread's other games, you should play Dustborn. If you like point-and-click adventure games, or reading-heavy games with lots of dialogue, you should try Dustborn. If you're looking for a new Souls-like or rhythm game, you will not like Dustborn. $30 is very overpriced for this title. Grab it at $15 or so.
