Dust: An Elysian Tail, a hand-drawn 360 Metroidvania

Taiyz

It's gonna be going on sale this Sunday, so if you've got a 360, download the trial and give it a shot right now!

It came out during the summer after a 3-4 year development period (I had seen the game for the first time SO long ago after it won Microsoft's Dream Build Play competition) and still I procrastinated and never got around to trying it...But that changed yesterday, and it's pretty **** awesome.

Now I don't think it's perfect, the combat seems a bit easy and mashy, but at the same time it's extremely visually impressive and absolutely chaotic with the number of things going on on-screen. You're doing yourself a disservice by not trying this out.

All the voice-acting is done by "amateur" voice-actors who have gained popularity via Newgrounds and such, and surprisingly? At least in the trial, it's all **** great. You've even got classics like Edwyn Tiong and Kira Buckland in here.

Anybody who laments the direction that Castlevania has taken since Lords of Shadow should take a look here. It might not be as smooth and the environments might not have as much detail in it, but it's a real treat.
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Conn · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:15 am Post subject:

Why would you talk about how great the visuals and audio are but not include a video?

That said your last paragraph has piqued my interest so maybe I'll check it out.
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Taiyz · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:16 am Post subject:

Because I can't view videos in HD on this computer so I wouldn't know if the video does the game justice?

Here's the launch trailer. This IS the official YouTube channel, it's pretty sparse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg81GcutanQ

Apparently there's a feature film based on this universe in production, simply called Elysian Tail. Wouldn't be surprised, seriously, the art is amazing.

One thing that's really visually striking about the game is the character portraits during dialogue being full-screen, and while not fully-animated, they're damn close.
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Conn · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:18 am Post subject:

But... there's still SD...?
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Taiyz · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:22 am Post subject:

I just have a feeling that it won't compare to the game itself. Nonetheless, I added more info beyond my first paragraph in that last post.
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Prochainezo · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:49 am Post subject:

I kind of want to try this out, if only because it has General Ivan voicing someone.
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Shinryu · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:04 am Post subject:

I was always really surprised no one made a topic about this before. I got it on a whim and couldn't stop playing until I beat it.

Game plays like a charm except for some hazards; you'll hit one and you'll just get stuck in an endless stream of getting knocked into another one (Or maybe that was the high difficulty setting's doing?). Maintains a great style throughout, both visually and musically. Lots of little secrets to find. Story isn't bad, and all but a few characters have well-done voice acting.

I think my favorite thing was the ability to sequence break using wall jumps, which were apparently completely unintended...
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Taiyz · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:53 am Post subject:

Sequence breaks are ALWAYS unintended. I don't know what the hell Chair entertainment was thinking with Shadow Complex's "sequence break." It's more of an easter egg that lets you play the game a different way, especially since if I remember right, it actually uses a different screen that doesn't appear in the standard game where you don't perform the "sequence break."
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Tenshigami · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:40 pm Post subject:

I played it a few months ago and loved it. The gameplay kinda reminds me of Muramasa, which is is just awesome.

It's funny you mention Newgrounds, as I didn't like the character portraits at first because they all have a "someone made these in Flash" look to them. Even that eventually grew on me though.

As for the difficulty, it was pretty damn easy on normal. The game gives you a ton of healing items (every single breakable wall drops a Wall Turkey!) and you could literally just Dust Storm your way through every single enemy to avoid being hit. I don't remember being juggled very often as Shinryu described so that may just be a Hard thing. That or Hard difficulty actually makes juggling a threat.
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Shinryu · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:54 pm Post subject:

Zacewing · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:00 pm Post subject:

Holy ****. That trailer alone has me interested. Too bad I don't have my 360 anymore. Sad

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Prinny · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:12 pm Post subject:

I bought this game when it came out. Don't bother with Normal mode, its very easy. Just start on Tough like everyone at GameFAQS says to do.

I thought the story was pretty good by the end. The animated cutscenes are nice, too.

Giggling Trout · Joined: 28 Jan 2011 Posts: 69

Really wish I had a 360 so I can get this. Sad

As well as Fez.
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Radge · Joined: 14 Dec 2012 Posts: 1003 Location: Town of Duwang

That was an awesome trailer. The gameplay is reminiscent of Vanillaware action title.
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Beedig · Joined: 31 Dec 2008 Posts: 606 Location: High-Five City

I bought it this when they released it. I didn't get to play it much since I got side tracked with work. It irks me that some people look down on this game just because the characters are furries.