Take a Metroidvania-ish gameplay, add quite a few antropomorphic animals (aka acting like humans), mix these with a well-balanced beat’em up mechanic, spill the basic „I try to remember my past” history all over it, give a touch of Korean influence on top of the final product, and you’re there! This is what the game is in short.

Dust: An Elysian Tail has an interesting story so far. Originally, it was released on the Xbox Live Arcade platform back in 2012’s summer, which was followed up by the Windows/Linux/OSX triumvirate release a bit more than a year later. Now it’s time for the game to shine on the PlayStation 4. We can clearly say about Dean Dodrill’s game that is walks from platform to platform… But is it worth subscribing to PS Plus because of this game?

Animal

No, because multiplayer is much more important.  Or not, it’s a subjective thing actually. Anyway, as part of the Instant Game Collection, Dust can be looked at as a good title. I’m not saying that because of the story though; I think that is a bit clichéd nowadays in my opinion. Dust tries to remember the past, but there’s only two things that is clear in the life for him. They would be the Blade of Ahrah, which could have been an inspiration for Transistor’s sword too, as both characters are acting like a sidekick for the hero; the other would be Fidget, who’s the sword’s protector. Both of them are helping us in an offensive way: the former one is obviously going for physical attacks, but Fidget is going to act like our „MP” for is, throwing them spells at our enemies.

But speaking of the world of Falana, it does look really great. Why the title of this paragraph? Well, simply put, we will encounter many of antropomorhic animals on our quest – both good and evil. The good guys will sometimes offer quests for us to do, which not only extends the length of the game, but it also gives us an opportunity to improve. Gaining levels is never a good thing: if one part of a level seems a bit hard at first, then those quests can actually help our progress. Improvement never hurts.

Fast paced

This is the easiest way to describe the gameplay. Dust gives an almost extraordinary speed, even within the beat’em up genre! I haven’t encountered something like this for a long time, but it didn’t fall to the other side of the horse, that’s the most important thing. It’s not TOO fast.

Throughout our victories, the RPG-ish improvement will step in, because yes, we won’t just randomly gain levels and skills as we go through the levels. New attacks, new combos will open up for us, which can make a huge difference if used at the right time and at the right place. You’ll need them, because the game will get difficult by the end – I especially mean the final boss here, which… well, let’s put it this way, kicked my ass several times!

Appealing

Despite being a sidescroller, I believe that a game can be good despite lacking a dimension. I’d only say three titles that managed to pull this off: Shovel Knight, Guacamelee, Rogue Legacy – all three has shown in various ways how a 2D game can still keep a fun gameplay intact.

This triumvirate welcomes Dust, which reminded me of the Gameboy Advance title Castlevania: Symphony of Night. The gameplay has mixed nicely with the visuals of Falana, resembling my childhood’s Disney cartoons no less. And the music… All I can say about it is that it’s genial: HyperDuck SoundWorks’ soundtrack was released in 2012 on its own, and I have to say, it’s worth a listening, for example, it can be good for background listening, while we write something… 🙂

Go for Plus

If we already have a PS Plus subscription, then Dust awaits us on the IGC. The game is a well-made beat’em up/RPG, which is pulled slightly back by the progression of the story, but despite this, it has ended up stepping up to the aforementioned three games. I don’t even have to talk about the price this time around, so to wrap up, I only say it’s really worth a try, because there is literally nothing to lose.

-V-

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Editor: Humble Hearts
Developer: Humble Hearts
Genres: akció, platform,
Publication: 2014 October (PSN version)

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