Dust: An Elysian Tail Hands-on - Preview
by Karl Koebke , posted on 12 June 2012 / 3,546 Views
XBLA's Summer of Arcarde is almost upon us and with it usually come some of the best downloadable titles to release in any given year. Among these games is a strange title called Dust: An Elysian Tail, which firmly plants its artstyle in the anthropomorphic human or “furry” camp. Don't let that turn you away, though, as Dust is one of the prettiest games I saw at E3 and features some fun gameplay to boot.
The first thing to note about Dust: An Elysian Tail is that it's pretty. Not like, The Last of Us “how the heck did they do this with pixels” pretty, but with smooth 2D animations and a stark color contrast it's like playing a classic cartoon. You play as Dust, who appears to be some kind of wandering warrior and is accompanied by a legendary talking sword and a talking fairy sidekick named Fidget. Mentioning a fairy sidekick will make some gamers jump out of their skin, but thankfully Fidget is a lot less annoying than certain other fairies who shall remain nameless. The two characters have a kind of playful relationship that seems more buddy/buddy than master/sidekick.
After a short introduction to characters the demo went right into the gameplay. The X button performs a normal attack, Y kicks up a dust storm in which Dust swings his sword quickly to make a whirlwind which can blow around enemies, and Fidget has a lame little projectile that doesn't do much of anything. It's only when you combine these last two attacks that things get interesting. Fire Fidget's little projectiles into the dust storm and they will rapidly multiply and swirl around within the dust storm. Catch some enemies in this new hurricane of fairy energy bombs and you have yourself a real attack.
This isn't an “I win” button, though, because the dust storm can only be maintained for so long. If you want to continue your kill combo (and thus your score bonus) you're going to have to rely on your own sword skills. There are also parries which you can perform by attacking at the same time as your opponent and holding the X button as you do so. Parried enemies are stunned momentarily and it's the only way to get through some defenses.
I didn't get to spend much time with Dust: An Elysian Tail, but what I did play was really fun. Just remember, once things like Deadlight and Wreckateer start rocking your Summer of Arcade, that there's a pretty little action platformer out there as well that deserves your attention. Stay tuned for our review of Dust when it releases.
