Dust: An Elysian Tail

[toblix]

After the disappointment that was Deadlight, I watched the Giant Bomb quicklook of Dust, currently available on XBLA, and decided it seemed fun. It has a lot of weird furry characters that make me think of some weird erotic stuff on Deviantart that someone told me about, and everyone has tails and big wet eyes, but! it's also a really fun Metroidvania (I think I know what that means now) 2D fight-em-up platformer with quests and leveling up and gear that you upgrade. It's really polished, looks really good and has a fine balance between beating up a bunch of dogs and searching for hidden chests. If you can stand furry characters, it's a great game. If you have a furry fetish, you have to buy it!

[Sno]

It's SOOOO furry though.

God, is it ever furry.

[Colourful Stuff]

Damn, that fox thing as boobs. Furry boobs. There seem to be some really smart design decisions (like the segmented skill tree that prevents min-maxing and the replenishing crafting materials) and the animation is great. However, furry boobs.

If anthropomorphic foxes with sweet tits are your thing, then by all means simultaneously knock out a 1000 hit combo and a wank.

[Salacious Snake]

Dude is obsessed with drawing sexy animal women, but he did work on the Jazz Jackrabbit series which was pretty sweet.

[Colourful Stuff]

Dude is obsessed with drawing sexy animal women, but he did work on the Jazz Jackrabbit series which was pretty sweet.

What are mascot platformers if not a furry gateway drug?

[toblix]

My first furry:

[Sno]

What is she resting her arm on?

[Colourful Stuff]

The most disturbing thing is she is furry but also has hair a different colour to her fur. Is it a weave?

[miffy495]

What is she resting her arm on?

Her hair is obviously just that awesome. Or perhaps it's a hat with a built-in armrest, which would explain the colour discrepancy.

[I_smell]

Another all-Newgrounds voice cast! I am totally team-Newgrounds and they are RIPPING UP XBLA and PSN these days, for anyone who doesn't know.

Yeah I also watched the Quick Look aswel. I am pretty turned on by the combat here, I didn't expect it to be this interesting. As a Devil May Cry nut, this is my bread n butter, so the stuff they had with shooting out seperate projectiles and whipping them up into an explosion omelette: all those fun ideas seemed really cool. Also this game deserves MAD FUCKING RESPECT for it's animation, distortion and overall how it looks:

I am totally ready to tear games apart on their animation, and YES: THE TALKING SCENES LOOK WOBBLY AND DOPEY, but the in-game stuff is just magic. I admire it so much.

The only thing that's pulling me away from it, apart from the anime deviantart dog-people thing, is that I get the impression it has a really garbage anime good-vs-darkness plot. It seems like all the characters are corny baby people. It's hard to sit through that stuff. And $15 uhhhhhhhhh maybe I'll get around to it.

I'd never really looked up this game before, but watching the Quick Look it scarily reminded me of a game I tried to make

which was the same kind of 2D Devil May Cty beat-em-up adventure. I tried to do everything myself and it took me A MASSIVE 2 YEARS and I WENT FUCKING CRAZY and hated it. I was totally not ready to make this whole game I had planned out and wanted everything to be perfect. This guy did the exact same thing but took 5 years, and was a lot more ready for it. So seeing this game really feels like someone out there caught the white whale.

Damn, that fox thing as boobs. Furry boobs.

Those are it's hands, buddy. Sorry to dissapoint. Try watching in HD or something next time.

[Frenetic Pony]

This is such an ambitious, oddly designed game.

There is a heck of a lot too this game, a lot of detail and a lot of stuff. The game looks very cool, there's just a ton of solid voice acting, a ton of items, a ton of extra stuff to find and explore, all these little easter eggs.

But it's also a very schizophrenic game, just all over the place. The tone of the story and setting swings back and forth from this overly serious melodramatic stuff that feels like its out of a similarly themed anime; to the next moment being a fourth wall breaking tongue in cheek affair that pretends like it was never serious at any point. The combat controls feel very good but you're given such maniacally good powers that it becomes a non challenge and not really that dynamic.

Perhaps the best example of how schizophrenically this game was designed is the weather. The game is semi open world, but cycles through sunny/misty/rain with lightning/pouring all the time, almost regardless of where you are, or what you are doing. The designer did all this work and art, to code in making it do all these types of weather, and then just set up the game to go through the same cycle again and again and again everywhere. Instead of say, giving map areas unique atmospheres by making one place rainy, another misty, another sunny, and so on. Which results in all the map areas kind of blending together and not feeling unique.

Which is a shame, as all this schizophrenia, as if once a game feature is "in" then its done, and you don't have to think about how to use it or where it goes, drags down a game that has a lot to offer. It could have been a really great game with all it does, but instead its more of an interesting game that's decently enjoyable. I suppose I'd recommend it for people that like similar anime stuff and don't mind highly repetitive stuff. Just like my brother, for whom both desriptions apply and from what I know he enjoys this game well enough.

[Frenetic Pony]

Oh yeah, and that Fox/Cat/Flying thing totally has furry boobs. It does.

[syntheticgerbil]

Those are it's hands, buddy. Sorry to dissapoint. Try watching in HD or something next time.

Yep, not animal tits at all:

Also I sure love curvy hips on foxes.

[I_smell]

ho jeez, alright yeah you're right.

I remember it having the generic cartoon tuft of hair there, but yeah I guess that's a bit much.

Also damn that's the well-written review I didn't wanna read, I was starting to think it might be a really great game.

[Frenetic Pony]

I suppose one example of how this game is schizo in its design, but can still be fun at times is a power you get very early on, like right at the beginning. You jump and then go into this kind of guided tornado spin attack that twirls you through the air. If you're near enough enemies you can do it continuously, turning your guy into this crazy guided missile tornado that just spins all around the map doing an insane amount of damage. Heck, exploiting this can get you to kill these mini boss rock giant enemies in a flash by just tornadoing them back and forth. But it can get can get so ridiculous that its still fun, you'll tornado off into the air and get going so fast you'll end up halfway across map/stage area, wondering where the heck you are.

[toblix]

I smile resignedly whenever they mention the 1000x combo. Unless something magical happens that completely changes all the combat, I'll never be able to get close. Not only is it an achievement, it's also a quest. Hmm, maybe there's some special thing... time will tell. Still liking this game, though instant enemy repopulation is super annoying.

[lumberbaron]

I smile resignedly whenever they mention the 1000x combo. Unless something magical happens that completely changes all the combat, I'll never be able to get close. Not only is it an achievement, it's also a quest. Hmm, maybe there's some special thing... time will tell. Still liking this game, though instant enemy repopulation is super annoying.

It doesn't end up being that hard. You just have to do the "Dust Storm" (Y Button attack) in the air when there are a ton of enemies and avoid getting hit. At one point I had over 2k combo and got hit, and had to attempt it again. Later in the game they throw tons of enemies at you and the flying fox thing's attacks do so little damage, but stun the enemies, that you can basically just let them soak up the attacks.

[Twig]

I find the furry fetish pretty creepy and weird, but that thing is pretty innocent. Then again, I was raised on Disney movies so I guess I'm part of the problem. U;

At any rate, I want to play the shit out of this game, because I love the art. A lot. But I CAN'T. weepingopenly

[toblix]

Finished it! A real gem, if you ask me. I always enjoy when I'm told «this is the last save point before the boss,» so I can head back and get all the secret stuff, then head back and destroy the boss with my ridiculously overpowered character. If you go into it, expecting a fun, polished 2D platform-em-up with fast-paced combat, light RPG elements and secrets that you don't have to peruse GameFAQs to find, you'll be satisfied. I almost guarantee it.

[Orv]

I find the furry fetish pretty creepy and weird, but that thing is pretty innocent. Then again, I was raised on Disney movies so I guess I'm part of the problem. U;

At any rate, I want to play the shit out of this game, because I love the art. A lot. But I CAN'T. weepingopenly

There's nothing inherently wrong with anthropomorphized animals, I dare anyone to watch Disney's Robin Hood adaptation and feel that way. It's the creepy shit that creepy, fucked up people get up to regarding anthropomorphized animals. The creators comment that he's "not making this for the average white adult male" makes me shy away from this because, who is he making it for then?

[Twig]

There's nothing inherently wrong with anthropomorphized animals, I dare anyone to watch Disney's Robin Hood adaptation and feel that way.

Robin Hood is one of my personal favorites!

[I_smell]

Animal people in American cartoons is not the same as animal people in anime. This is common sense.

That's like saying little girls in The Powerpuff Girls is the same as little girls in Powerpuff Girls Z.

...wait this is a dumb argument, why am I joining in here.

[Twig]

There is no argument!

[twmac]

Been playing the game over the weekend and absolutely loving it. The combat and traversal has this wonderful flow to it. Easily one of the best games this year.