For context, Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2D beat-em-up platformer that has some mild Metroidvania elements, though personally I feel it gravitates more towards traditional beat-em-ups rather than being a true Metroidvania in its own right. Anyway, it was released all the way back in 2012, was developed by indie team Humble Hearts (which at the time consisted of one man, Dean Dodrill, and about five or six voice actors). This game released to high critical acclaim, thanks to a charming story, vibrant artstyle, lovable characters, and an awe-inspiring soundtrack. In other words, it was UNDERTALE before UNDERTALE was UNDERTALE. Both games were even developed almost entirely by one person (the only thing Dean Dodrill had help on was voice acting and marketing).
Our story begins when Dust, an anthropomorphic samurai fox wakes up in the middle of a forest. He has no memory of who he is, where he came from, or what he is supposed to be doing. Early on a sentient sword known as the Blade of Ahrah, who tells Dust he is destined for greatness, comes into Dust's possession. Joined by the sword's caretaker, a cat-dragon hybrid named Fidget, Dust heads off on a quest to rediscover his identity and help people in need. The story is, on paper, rather cliche, but considering that Dust is supposed to be a walking homage to classic fairy tales, its actually intentionally using tropes and cliches associated with the genre. Not that there's anything wrong with that, because the execution of the story is so well done that you don't realize that the story Dust is trying to tell has been done before dozens of times. And really, the whole point of storytelling is not to be unique, for true originality is impossible, but to be entertaining, and that comes down to the execution of the story.
First, let's talk about the characters. Dust could have easily been just a brooding, edgy anti-hero, and given his design he looks the part of an edgy anti-hero, but no. The edgiest he gets is some sarcastic banter with Fidget. I mean, yeah, he gets upset when he (SPOILERS FOR A SEVEN-YEAR OLD GAME) fails to save the life of a elderly frog person, but it's less that he's angsting about a failure and more about he's being hard on himself for not being better. It's also the only time we see Dust openly lose his temper, and for the rest of the game he's a calm and even sociable person. Heck, the main villain of the game doesn't make him lose his cool nearly as much as his failure to save the elderly frog (while Dust is angry at the villain for his misdeeds, Dust puts a lid on his temper and embraces a kind of tranquil fury during the final showdown). Anyway, I really like his dynamic with Fidget. They start off bickering with each other, but over the course of the story their bond grows so much that the two of them become true life partners ready to sacrifice themself to save the other.
Frankly, the bond between Dust and Fidget is arguably the best thing about the game, storywise. And part of the reason for that is thanks to the strong writing and equally strong voice acting. Like Fidget's voice is a significantly sweeter sounding version of Navi's voice from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Dust sounds like a perfect blend of sassy and heroic. Just to be clear, I do NOT 'ship them romantically, nor do I interpret their relationship as anything other than platonic. If anything they have a older-brother, younger-sister dynamic.
But anyway, the story itself is your typical Hero's Journey, though like I said, it's a Hero's Journey done right. And don't think that there are moments of darkness just because the game wears its love of fairy tales on its sleeve. It can get pretty dark. The aforementioned scene where Dust and Fidget fail to save the elderly frog's life is the biggest example of this. Before that moment I was expecting everything to go smoothly, since that's how stories of this nature tend to be. But the moment Dust (and by extension, myself) found out what happened to him, it served as a kind of wake-up call that yes, the game with cute anime rabbit people, fourth-wall meta humor, and impossibly cool samurai foxes can, and will, kill off its colorful cast to remind you that should Dust screw up in his adventure, everyone will die horrible deaths. Now, Dust is by no means a violent game, nor is an overtly bleak game, but it still sets up the stakes so that you are really invested in whether or not Dust can save everyone.
Dust: An Elysian Tail is a beat-em-up, and as such, the gameplay consists of Dust (and Fidget) moving from area to area, fighting various enemies along the way. And the best part of the whole game, in my honest opinion, is the combat. Dust's combos and abilities feel great to use, and consistently make Dust look and feel like a shonen anime protagonist in the best possible way. You'll be launching foes into the air, slamming them back down, and then dancing between monsters as they get sliced to ribbons with the Blade of Ahrah, or blasted to smithereens by Fidget's magic. Fidget can help Dust out by casting magic spells, by the way. She unlocks more spells as the game carries on, though I have noticed that the damage output and range of her later spells far outclasses the damage output of her basic energy blast spell, which kind of makes her earlier spells redundant. But anyway, Dust can enhance Fidget's spells by using his signature attack, the Dust Storm. By holding down Triangle (I played the PS4 version of the game, the input changes based on version) Dust can twirl the Blade of Ahrah around at supersonic speed, which not only looks awesome, but if Fidget fires a spell into the Dust Storm, it transforms into a much stronger spell. The basic energy blast fires off only one sphere of energy normally, but add the Dust Storm into the equation and that one sphere turns into a barrage of magical homing arrows. A simple fireball becomes a screen-covering pillar of flames, and a mere spark of electricity transforms into a chain reaction of raw lightning.
There are also platforming and puzzle segments, but outside of the ones where you guide a floating explosive by using the Dust Storm, none of them really stand out. They're not bad, per se, but they are by far the weakest aspect of the game. But each level contains a set of treasure chests that contain, amongst other things, money and crafting materials. Because Dust: An Elysian Tail was an indie game released in a post-Minecraft world, and indie games with crafting systems has somewhat become the norm. That said, I like the way it was handled. If you find a new material and sell it to the merchant that pops up from time to time, he will actually stock up on that specific material more frequently. Because of this, some side-quests that normally would be very annoying to do, like grinding for 10 Trolk Fingers (a rare item that drops from a rare and rather annoying miniboss), can be trivialized by getting one just Trolk Finger, selling it to the merchant, waiting five-six minutes for him to restock, and then just buy his entire stock of Trolk Fingers. I make it sound overpowered, and in some cases it is, but does save time and reduce repetition. Because let's be real, who really wants to spend five-six hours grinding minibosses just for a side-quest, when there's an alternative method that can be done in five-six minutes?
As for the presentation, Dust: An Elysian Tail is a game that is simply gorgeous to look at. The art style reminds me somewhat of Hollow Knight, due to using different color palettes to display different emotions in the environment, but Dust is more vibrant and, well, anime-inspired than Hollow Knight. Seriously, on more than one occasion, I thought to myself, "Man, this game is in desperate need of an anime spin-off". But the main difference in art between Dust and Hollow Knight is that Hollow Knight is far more melancholic in its atmosphere, while Dust is more whimsical. The character designs are also really good. Every character in the game is an anthropomorphic animal, but their designs are, like previously stated, inspired by Japanese animation, complete with large, expressive eyes, and the environments look as though they came straight out of a Renaissance painting.
The music in this game is decent. The main theme is comprised of nothing more than a somber piano playing a tune that is equal parts soothing and sad, and at first glance it doesn't really seem to fit with the whimsical tone of the game itself, but upon learning what (or rather, who) Dust is and how he was born, not only does the choice of music make more sense, but also why the box art depicts Dust cradling someone's body. But other than the main theme and the music from the final battle, there's no really memorable songs on the soundtrack. But you wanna what is memorable? The voice acting. Dust: An Elysian Tail has what I feel to be the best voice acting in a video game. Period. Every actor (of which there are only five) brings their absolute A-game to their characters. Portraying a perfect amount of joy, wit, sorrow, anger, and everything in between. Even the side-characters with one or two lines of dialogue sound absolutely perfect. Frankly, it's worth playing the game just for the voice acting alone.
If I was to make a criticism against Dust: An Elysian Tail, it would be that the game is way too short. There's only five chapters, each barely an hour long, and particularly skilled players can probably clear each chapter even sooner than that if they try hard enough. It is to my understanding that Dean Dodrill had plans for a sixth chapter, presumably where Dust confronts the unnamed King that Gaius (the main antagonist of the story) serves, but the sixth chapter was scrapped to save time, so as to meet Microsoft's deadline for the Xbox Game Awards. But aside from a painfully short length, Dust: An Elysian Tail is a fantastic game in every sense of the word, and is definitely worth $20. I give Dust 9 impossibly cool samurai foxes out of 10.
Oh, and Dean Dodrill has stated he plans on making a sequel, planned to be bigger and more ambitious than this game ever would be. And considering it's been seven years since, I found it appropriate to leave this little gag.
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