5/5 ★ – Diluted_Thought's review of Dust: An Elysian Tail.

"Dust: An Elysian Tail" was the perfect blend of action and platforming and is one the best examples of a Metroid-Vania for anyone looking to get into this particular type of game. Right off the bat the game moves very quickly and I mean this in multiple way. The controls are responsive and movement / combat feels tight and snappy. The progression system was also very fair and I was upping my stats and feeling powerful through most of the levels. By the time I finished the game I had almost maxed out my stats and Dust was quite the force to be reckoned with. Granted it did take some grinding, but it never felt forced like in other games with level up progressions and the reason being was because of the incredibly fun combat. Most of the time I spent grinding was due to the fact that I was re-visiting areas for hidden treasures, challenges or boxes; therefore grinding felt more natural to me. I was very impressed with its story and how it tackled the theme of racism and classism while also giving us one of the most unique hero backstories I've had the pleasure to discover over the course of the game. Of course there are so many other positives to this game outside of its gameplay. Fidget, your companion, provides some great help with her projectiles that make for some great crowd control. She actually felt helpful and necessary to have on my adventure. The writing and dialogue were also spot on and, in many instances, incredibly funny and quirky with Fidget occasionally breaking the forth wall. I loved how the game was pretty self aware in that way, it really made for some great banter between the characters. Also, a quick shoutout to Mysterious Wall Chicken which is so prevalent in the Castlevania franchise that just so happened to find its way in here. The art style is great as its very unique. Where most games these days take a more Anime art style, "Dust" takes a more western approach which really make its stand out. Of course the main character of Dust is beautifully animated and while it all feels very cartoony it also evokes a very Eastern vibe within it Western aesthetics. I know that might sound odd but it made sense in my head. I also loved how there are many creatures in this game that feel very Eldritch. I was surprised at how creepy some of the designs were and yet fit right into this world that evoked so much beauty. The Soundtrack for this game is phenomenal! I've collected many beautiful soundtracks in my time but this one floored me. It had many great cues, tracks were fairly long and transitioned to build up tension and came back down with fantastic stirring melodies. I was deeply impressed. I'd never heard of HyperDuck SoundWorks until this game and now I have to go check out the rest of their work. The last thing I want to mention is the inclusion of guest characters from other games as well as a having them all gather for a sick house party while the HyperDucks provided some Fat Beats! Being able to find them all was definitely a highlight and a lot of thought went into some of those discoveries in order to pay homage to the respective games they came from. I was incredibly surprised to find out this game came out some 11 years ago on the Xbox 360 and yet I've never heard anyone mention this title. It really throws me off since this game is as great as it is and yet it seemed like an over looked gem. I did try to find this game in a physical format but Limited Run has a copy going for about $200 on Amazon, so unfortunately I can't justify it but man would I LOVE to own this game! Normally I would throw any negatives toward the end of my review but I have nothing negative to say about this title. Instead I'll just end with this: "Dust: An Elysian Tale" is a perfect Action platformer, its a perfect Metroid-Vania and most importantly its a perfect experience.