Dust: An Elysian Tail (PC, 2013)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-6.5/7** Story-6
Level Design-7/7.5** Frustration-6.5/7*/7** Fun-7/7.5** Originality-6
Overall Score-7/7.5**
*Parts of the final area, see fighting alongside NPCs below
**On Hard
+
Manual stat allocation on level up (HP, AP, DEF, Fidget's projectile, highest stat must be within 4 points of your lowest however; Zelda II)
Some interesting gameplay options (auto-use healing items, auto-distribute stat points on level up, HUD position and scale toggle)
Difficulty options (easy/casual-very hard/hardcore; enemies dodge a bit more and do more damage+shorter invincibility time+save points only heal if under 25% health+slower stamina regen+other differences (see notes; enemies also don't take more hits to kill which is good), no death penalty on easy)
Stats screen in the alternate pause menu (time playeed, completion percentages, max hit chain, enemies killed, friends found)
Crafting with found materials (Ultima Underworld, Secret of Evermore, Daggerfall)
Quest log
Good map system (shows the room layout, your location, if there's an item in a room/segment and if it's been collected, save points, shops and challenge rooms)
Encourages playing aggressively by refilling your energy/stamina through performing combos
Hit chain mechanic (awards you with bonus exp which is lost if you get hit before it ends)
Smart bomb-like dust storm ability gained early on (shoot projectiles via fidget and then hold a button to make them go back and forth while damaging the enemies (the fire projectiles instead create large fire pillars), don't activate the storm for too long or you'll take damage). It also works like an item drop magnet however it tends to make they items stop in front of you and continuously twirl around until you stop using it
Also gain an aerial attack early on which homes in on flying enemies (like dust storm you'll take damage if you use it for too long, can sometimes be used to reach higher as well as if a mid-air enemy is positioned higher than you you can gain a huge a vertical boost)
Quick item slot for healing items
Start with air juggling and a downstab (quickly gain a dash as well which can be used in mid-air although you start falling after it triggers)
Your fairy/animal sidekick Fidget senses if there's nearby treasure. She can also gain different kinds of projectiles which can be switched between on the fly (a bit like the dragons in Alisia Dragoon)
Parry mechanic (block by using the main attack just as an enemy attacks to stun it)
Some decent puzzles (guiding explosive fruit towards breakable walls using dust storm at the farm, listening for the right path to slide down at one point, some spatial awareness ones, using enemies above you to pull yourself upward with aerial dust storm) and one good one (fez guy cage puzzle - a sort of illusion where the screen is split into 9 rooms and some are connected)
Teleport to the hub map screen using bought teleport stones
Can gain remote access to the crafting shop/smithy in the early game
Optional timed challenge areas (mainly for points but you do gain exp and loot from the enemies as well as a minor gear reward for getting through each once which is pretty easy)
Some memorable locations (caverns, mansions, second half of snow area with the avalanches and moving platforms)
Nice projectile effects and overall background art direction (some environmental effects are also good), Some nice cutscenes (ending)
Pretty satisfying impact from combat
Selling materials makes the shops start stocking them (wait for a while and they'll eventually have more to sell). Can also buy missing materials remotely from the blacksmith
Decent sense of vulnerability in the mansions (get chased by an invincible enemy, at one point the layout changes suddenly - similar to Silent Hill 2)
Decent-pretty good lore through the various notes you can find
Can move quite far horizontally in mid-air as well using a variety of moves like double jump, dash, aerial dust storm and attacking (might have influenced Ori 2)
One meaningful dialogue choice (choosing whether to poison Giovanni's laundry for example - no effect on the main story though)
One good boss (Gaius (final boss) - four phases) and some decent ones on hard mode (second boss, )
Decent amount of movement abilities gained (aerial dust storm/air dash which can also be used as a stamina-based super jump (can also be used to rise through trails of bomb enemies), slide, double jump, super jump in upwards air streams) however the last is only required in some parts of the final area and there's no challenge to using it
Mostly skippable cutscenes including dialogue scenes (not the staff roll though)
Some sequence breaking possibilities (skip vine climbing ability by repeatedly dust storming in mid-air then attacking twice away from the wall after bouncing against the wall - doesn't let you skip the mansions however, ones where you use lured enemies above you instead of a boost jump to reach an item, )
A few shortcuts opened at dead ends (could've had a few more though)
Some mini-bosses
+/-
Partially non-linear structure however the main area progression is linear (can go to archer's pass (side area) or abadis forest after the first boss, some basic side quests (collect/fetch/rescue), open up three optional areas after beating the first boss although you can't explore hidden cove (optional area) until you gain sliding near the underground town (and then you also need vine climbing (iron grip) to explore it fully which you find in the meadows after the caverns), non-linear progression through the meadows area after the first mansion there - 3 mansions, double jump (snow area) is used to finish some side areas/quests and to progress in the same area)
Features a hub map (the world is interconnected until you reach the main town, after that you learn about new areas through NPCs/story progression and go to them via the map besides when going to the mountains via a door in the meadows, multiple entry points to most areas and you can pick which one to use when re-entering an area if you've found more than one)
Frequent save points which also heal you up to 50% health (10 save slots+auto-save slot (overwritten if loading a save or starting a new game however))
Stamina-based dashing (uses up energy) - for movement and dodging (Shoot Out, Altered Beast)
Automatic (but slow) energy regeneration
Can't cancel a dash (pretty long) nor buffer a jump right after it - also can't do a dash jump like in MMX
Some movement delay at the end of a combo if you end it with a throw (press main attack twice then alternate attack twice - pressing MA twice then alternate once actually performs a four hit combo)
Some forced encounters (force fields sometimes go up until you've cleared the screen next to it of enemies)
Overpowered dust storm attacks especially if you focus on upgrading the projectile AP stat
Can buy treasure keys (very expensive early on though)
Level up rather quickly (you also gain a lot of exp simply from talking to quest related NPCs)
Some very small areas (the farm, ivydale glen, hidden cove is also pretty small)
No control config unless using KB&M controls - the default controller mapping is good though
Some points of no return however you can get around them with teleport stones
The caged friends aren't integrated into the world/story (shallow character cameos from other indie games around the same time - these can't be interacted with)
Some grinding for gold to afford the best equipment early on (gets better after you can find/buy gear that increases the gold drop rate, in the late game money basically isn't an issue until the final area where there's some more grinding for the best gear)
Surprising plot twist however it would've been more impactful if there were more moral choices before it and if you could take your own path, affecting the story (even if binary like in SW: Dark Forces 2)
The ending is pretty vague (did Dust survive? What happened to everyone afterwards?)
-
Some interface/control issues (pretty high default jump height - makes some vertical platforming not flow as well as it could've, can't place map markers and the map doesn't show room topology, automatically turn around after a dash - can counter-steer right afterwards but feels a bit awkward still and if you attack before stopping and steering yourself right you will always attack in the opposite direction (if you press attack right after stopping then you attack in the direction you dashed but also dash slightly backwards at the same time which feels off), after running for a few steps the movement becomes a bit loose making you take one additional step after letting go of the d-pad, minor movement delay after landing from a mi-dair dash, can't cancel a slide nor change direction during one (Quackshot, 1991), can't equip a bought item from within a shop/crafting menu, can't compare a crafted item to what you have equipped from within that menu, sometimes you can't look down unless facing the right direction, the combo counter gets in the way of the mini-map, the game still shows tutorial messages which pause gameplay when replaying it)
Some tedious aspects (some dead space and backtracking of the boring kind - could've let you teleport between visited save points within areas, revival stones are way too expensive considering you have to buy them and they are auto-used upon death (which can happen suddenly vs some enemies), backtracking for the caged friend in the caverns - the game also says you need 3 keys when you actually need 4 and there are 4 locks, too much dialogue at times considering it always pauses gameplay, quest givers tend to be placed in towns (few exceptions) making the pacing slow to a crawl in them, get knocked over from touching spikes and similar hazards; On Hard: lower default item and blueprint drop rates, slower stamina regen means slower traversal - could've been unaffected if there weren't enemies or hazards around or there could've been less dead space here and there (or there could've been expensive stamina/regen raising gear), the final boss blocks a bit too much on Hard)
Some trial & error (the game doesn't tell you from where a piece of material can be gathered when checking it in your inventory)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (occasional enemies that do a lot of damage (and you automatically use the expensive revival stone if you die, more of an issue on Hard where attacks you have to parry early on take away all but 1 HP although they're fairly rare); dips: pretty easy second boss (caverns, better on Hard), can healing item spam to get through most challenges, mostly easy meadows area and pretty easy boss (still fairly easy on Hard), easy ice area mini-boss (easy on Hard too), some of the fruit bomb guiding puzzles later on are so easy they might as well not exist)
Minor slowdown at times
While fighting alongside NPCs is cool there are too many and they blend in with the enemies making combat too messy in various parts of the last area (can rely on aerial dust storm boosted projectiles but it gets boring and the enemies there require dashing around a lot and seeing who's doing what to not get killed if you don't do this)
Could've had a bit more variety in enemy patterns (enemies tend to fall into one of three categories - groups and flying enemies which act much like the groups, big ones you have to parry (although some you can dash through), bombs that you'll generally want to stand back and shoot instead; there are exceptions like the fly nests, dual wielding enemies and teleporting mages later on though (these are more fun on hard where stamina matters more), the yetis too but there aren't enough of them and they still go down quickly to dust storm boosted projectiles)
Sometimes so-so VA (the intro narrator - very melodramatic, fidget - squeaky)
Mostly cliché story (amnesiac and edgy (in kind of a nerdy way) hero, some contrived scenes like after the water quest, not a very developed villain and his motives are unclear)
Sometimes uneven artwork quality (most of the village NPCs look worse for example, the pre-rendered airships in the last area)
A few invisible walls (to the W of the starting screen, beginning of blackmoor mountains and one other part, end of hidden cove)
No alternate main weapons (axes, spears, clubs, etc)
Some plot oddities (annoying how fidget tells you that you're wrong when you're prompted to say who you are (one of the two souls or a combination) unless you say the latter, weird how Dust doesn't even try to escape the lava flood when even Gaius told him to cherish the new world)
Occasionally weak rewards from chests and a few later ones are placed on the main path or out in the open
Notes:
-Originally from 2012 (XBLA)
-Difficulty differences: https://elysiantail.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty
Bugs:
-Enemy drops can occasionally get stuck in walls
-Sometimes you can just dash through a force field
-Crashed once after the final chapter 4 cutscene
-Pause menu glitches out during the staff roll
Level Design-7/7.5** Frustration-6.5/7*/7** Fun-7/7.5** Originality-6
Overall Score-7/7.5**
*Parts of the final area, see fighting alongside NPCs below
**On Hard
+
Manual stat allocation on level up (HP, AP, DEF, Fidget's projectile, highest stat must be within 4 points of your lowest however; Zelda II)
Some interesting gameplay options (auto-use healing items, auto-distribute stat points on level up, HUD position and scale toggle)
Difficulty options (easy/casual-very hard/hardcore; enemies dodge a bit more and do more damage+shorter invincibility time+save points only heal if under 25% health+slower stamina regen+other differences (see notes; enemies also don't take more hits to kill which is good), no death penalty on easy)
Stats screen in the alternate pause menu (time playeed, completion percentages, max hit chain, enemies killed, friends found)
Crafting with found materials (Ultima Underworld, Secret of Evermore, Daggerfall)
Quest log
Good map system (shows the room layout, your location, if there's an item in a room/segment and if it's been collected, save points, shops and challenge rooms)
Encourages playing aggressively by refilling your energy/stamina through performing combos
Hit chain mechanic (awards you with bonus exp which is lost if you get hit before it ends)
Smart bomb-like dust storm ability gained early on (shoot projectiles via fidget and then hold a button to make them go back and forth while damaging the enemies (the fire projectiles instead create large fire pillars), don't activate the storm for too long or you'll take damage). It also works like an item drop magnet however it tends to make they items stop in front of you and continuously twirl around until you stop using it
Also gain an aerial attack early on which homes in on flying enemies (like dust storm you'll take damage if you use it for too long, can sometimes be used to reach higher as well as if a mid-air enemy is positioned higher than you you can gain a huge a vertical boost)
Quick item slot for healing items
Start with air juggling and a downstab (quickly gain a dash as well which can be used in mid-air although you start falling after it triggers)
Your fairy/animal sidekick Fidget senses if there's nearby treasure. She can also gain different kinds of projectiles which can be switched between on the fly (a bit like the dragons in Alisia Dragoon)
Parry mechanic (block by using the main attack just as an enemy attacks to stun it)
Some decent puzzles (guiding explosive fruit towards breakable walls using dust storm at the farm, listening for the right path to slide down at one point, some spatial awareness ones, using enemies above you to pull yourself upward with aerial dust storm) and one good one (fez guy cage puzzle - a sort of illusion where the screen is split into 9 rooms and some are connected)
Teleport to the hub map screen using bought teleport stones
Can gain remote access to the crafting shop/smithy in the early game
Optional timed challenge areas (mainly for points but you do gain exp and loot from the enemies as well as a minor gear reward for getting through each once which is pretty easy)
Some memorable locations (caverns, mansions, second half of snow area with the avalanches and moving platforms)
Nice projectile effects and overall background art direction (some environmental effects are also good), Some nice cutscenes (ending)
Pretty satisfying impact from combat
Selling materials makes the shops start stocking them (wait for a while and they'll eventually have more to sell). Can also buy missing materials remotely from the blacksmith
Decent sense of vulnerability in the mansions (get chased by an invincible enemy, at one point the layout changes suddenly - similar to Silent Hill 2)
Decent-pretty good lore through the various notes you can find
Can move quite far horizontally in mid-air as well using a variety of moves like double jump, dash, aerial dust storm and attacking (might have influenced Ori 2)
One meaningful dialogue choice (choosing whether to poison Giovanni's laundry for example - no effect on the main story though)
One good boss (Gaius (final boss) - four phases) and some decent ones on hard mode (second boss, )
Decent amount of movement abilities gained (aerial dust storm/air dash which can also be used as a stamina-based super jump (can also be used to rise through trails of bomb enemies), slide, double jump, super jump in upwards air streams) however the last is only required in some parts of the final area and there's no challenge to using it
Mostly skippable cutscenes including dialogue scenes (not the staff roll though)
Some sequence breaking possibilities (skip vine climbing ability by repeatedly dust storming in mid-air then attacking twice away from the wall after bouncing against the wall - doesn't let you skip the mansions however, ones where you use lured enemies above you instead of a boost jump to reach an item, )
A few shortcuts opened at dead ends (could've had a few more though)
Some mini-bosses
+/-
Partially non-linear structure however the main area progression is linear (can go to archer's pass (side area) or abadis forest after the first boss, some basic side quests (collect/fetch/rescue), open up three optional areas after beating the first boss although you can't explore hidden cove (optional area) until you gain sliding near the underground town (and then you also need vine climbing (iron grip) to explore it fully which you find in the meadows after the caverns), non-linear progression through the meadows area after the first mansion there - 3 mansions, double jump (snow area) is used to finish some side areas/quests and to progress in the same area)
Features a hub map (the world is interconnected until you reach the main town, after that you learn about new areas through NPCs/story progression and go to them via the map besides when going to the mountains via a door in the meadows, multiple entry points to most areas and you can pick which one to use when re-entering an area if you've found more than one)
Frequent save points which also heal you up to 50% health (10 save slots+auto-save slot (overwritten if loading a save or starting a new game however))
Stamina-based dashing (uses up energy) - for movement and dodging (Shoot Out, Altered Beast)
Automatic (but slow) energy regeneration
Can't cancel a dash (pretty long) nor buffer a jump right after it - also can't do a dash jump like in MMX
Some movement delay at the end of a combo if you end it with a throw (press main attack twice then alternate attack twice - pressing MA twice then alternate once actually performs a four hit combo)
Some forced encounters (force fields sometimes go up until you've cleared the screen next to it of enemies)
Overpowered dust storm attacks especially if you focus on upgrading the projectile AP stat
Can buy treasure keys (very expensive early on though)
Level up rather quickly (you also gain a lot of exp simply from talking to quest related NPCs)
Some very small areas (the farm, ivydale glen, hidden cove is also pretty small)
No control config unless using KB&M controls - the default controller mapping is good though
Some points of no return however you can get around them with teleport stones
The caged friends aren't integrated into the world/story (shallow character cameos from other indie games around the same time - these can't be interacted with)
Some grinding for gold to afford the best equipment early on (gets better after you can find/buy gear that increases the gold drop rate, in the late game money basically isn't an issue until the final area where there's some more grinding for the best gear)
Surprising plot twist however it would've been more impactful if there were more moral choices before it and if you could take your own path, affecting the story (even if binary like in SW: Dark Forces 2)
The ending is pretty vague (did Dust survive? What happened to everyone afterwards?)
-
Some interface/control issues (pretty high default jump height - makes some vertical platforming not flow as well as it could've, can't place map markers and the map doesn't show room topology, automatically turn around after a dash - can counter-steer right afterwards but feels a bit awkward still and if you attack before stopping and steering yourself right you will always attack in the opposite direction (if you press attack right after stopping then you attack in the direction you dashed but also dash slightly backwards at the same time which feels off), after running for a few steps the movement becomes a bit loose making you take one additional step after letting go of the d-pad, minor movement delay after landing from a mi-dair dash, can't cancel a slide nor change direction during one (Quackshot, 1991), can't equip a bought item from within a shop/crafting menu, can't compare a crafted item to what you have equipped from within that menu, sometimes you can't look down unless facing the right direction, the combo counter gets in the way of the mini-map, the game still shows tutorial messages which pause gameplay when replaying it)
Some tedious aspects (some dead space and backtracking of the boring kind - could've let you teleport between visited save points within areas, revival stones are way too expensive considering you have to buy them and they are auto-used upon death (which can happen suddenly vs some enemies), backtracking for the caged friend in the caverns - the game also says you need 3 keys when you actually need 4 and there are 4 locks, too much dialogue at times considering it always pauses gameplay, quest givers tend to be placed in towns (few exceptions) making the pacing slow to a crawl in them, get knocked over from touching spikes and similar hazards; On Hard: lower default item and blueprint drop rates, slower stamina regen means slower traversal - could've been unaffected if there weren't enemies or hazards around or there could've been less dead space here and there (or there could've been expensive stamina/regen raising gear), the final boss blocks a bit too much on Hard)
Some trial & error (the game doesn't tell you from where a piece of material can be gathered when checking it in your inventory)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (occasional enemies that do a lot of damage (and you automatically use the expensive revival stone if you die, more of an issue on Hard where attacks you have to parry early on take away all but 1 HP although they're fairly rare); dips: pretty easy second boss (caverns, better on Hard), can healing item spam to get through most challenges, mostly easy meadows area and pretty easy boss (still fairly easy on Hard), easy ice area mini-boss (easy on Hard too), some of the fruit bomb guiding puzzles later on are so easy they might as well not exist)
Minor slowdown at times
While fighting alongside NPCs is cool there are too many and they blend in with the enemies making combat too messy in various parts of the last area (can rely on aerial dust storm boosted projectiles but it gets boring and the enemies there require dashing around a lot and seeing who's doing what to not get killed if you don't do this)
Could've had a bit more variety in enemy patterns (enemies tend to fall into one of three categories - groups and flying enemies which act much like the groups, big ones you have to parry (although some you can dash through), bombs that you'll generally want to stand back and shoot instead; there are exceptions like the fly nests, dual wielding enemies and teleporting mages later on though (these are more fun on hard where stamina matters more), the yetis too but there aren't enough of them and they still go down quickly to dust storm boosted projectiles)
Sometimes so-so VA (the intro narrator - very melodramatic, fidget - squeaky)
Mostly cliché story (amnesiac and edgy (in kind of a nerdy way) hero, some contrived scenes like after the water quest, not a very developed villain and his motives are unclear)
Sometimes uneven artwork quality (most of the village NPCs look worse for example, the pre-rendered airships in the last area)
A few invisible walls (to the W of the starting screen, beginning of blackmoor mountains and one other part, end of hidden cove)
No alternate main weapons (axes, spears, clubs, etc)
Some plot oddities (annoying how fidget tells you that you're wrong when you're prompted to say who you are (one of the two souls or a combination) unless you say the latter, weird how Dust doesn't even try to escape the lava flood when even Gaius told him to cherish the new world)
Occasionally weak rewards from chests and a few later ones are placed on the main path or out in the open
Notes:
-Originally from 2012 (XBLA)
-Difficulty differences: https://elysiantail.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty
Bugs:
-Enemy drops can occasionally get stuck in walls
-Sometimes you can just dash through a force field
-Crashed once after the final chapter 4 cutscene
-Pause menu glitches out during the staff roll