Dust: An Elysian Tail

Dust is a game that harks back to the good old days of Castlevania and Metroid, a 2-D side-scroller with fast paced frantic combat and RPG elements, with a solid story built in to boot. First of all the game is just beautiful to look at, the hand painted graphics and character design is brilliant. Considering that everything in this game was made and designed by one man is truly inspiring.

The combat strikes the perfect balance between being easy to pick up but hard to master, the basics of combat are introduced at a steady pace, making it easier to get to grips with. With one button letting you do a basic attack and another letting you perform a heavy attack, holding down the heavy attack will make you spin your blade. On top of this you can dodge left and right and have a button for magic, whilst the magic is very weak when initially cast, if it's combined with your spinning heavy attack then it will create mass homing missiles or pillars of fire depending on the selected magic.

The story of the game is deftly told with a strong cast of voice acting and beautiful animations, the main character is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, who's other notable performances include Izaya from Durarara and Renton from Eureka Seven. He really brings the character of Dust to life. Fidget  Dusts main companion throughout the story provides often needed comic relief and a few hilarious 4th wall breaking comments such as early on she screams "mash all the buttons!!!" during one of the first fights you encounter.

The RPG elements of this game are well done being able to level up and assign a stat point according to your play style. There is a crafting system as well enabling you to craft items found in the field. However something I haven't come across before which I loved was the ability to sell materials you find to the merchant who will in turn then be able to stock them for you. This removes the need to grind X monsters for Y material which is a breath of fresh air for the genre.

If you enjoy the Castlevania sides scrolling action of ages past or just enjoy a game with a good story and fun combat I can't recommend Dust enough. Truly worthy of more praise than it has received thus far.