Minecraft Stories Episode 20: Dust: an Elysian Tail review.

Channel:

Sapphire Crook

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Published on August 22, 2012 12:33:34 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFx-5NBOIIU

Game:

Dust: An Elysian Tail (2012)

Category:

Review

Duration: 46:31

1,184 views

3

Biggest turn-off: That awful, awful pun.
I also forgot to mention the game is quite meta. But not over the top. People understand button stuff, notice you can put entire sheep in your 'Inventory' but nothing really else.

So yea, recording is a lot better now that I purged Fraps and reinstalled anew. That said, on to the game.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is about a naive amnesiac warrior Dust, a summoned and omniscient sword Ahrah and floaty guardian of Ahrah that also functions as cutie sidekick, Fidget the flying fox Nimbat thing.

The characters are eh. I like the main trio, though when Dust gets angsty and ragy it's... just awful. "Oh no I can't stop death of this redneck goon! I blame you Mr. Sword and my own personal memory issues! Oh Mr. Sword, stop keeping secrets!"

EDIT: That said, he doesn't reflect on this at all later. The writing isn't very cohesive about these 'detail' encounters, but I'm glad about that! ^_^

Ahrah is just that. He's omniscient, helpful but denies saying everything. He looks pretty sweet too! Instead of getting new weapons, you 'augment' him.
Dust is... eh. He's okay. He's kinda quirky in how they set him up, but he's tolerable. That said, he looks WAY too contrasting. Cyan is an okay colour, but his monochromy just clashes with everything else.
Fidget is the typical hungry-helpy-HEY character. However, she's helpful since she can make Dust Storm OP.

Eh.
I'm at chapter 3 now, so who knows what I miss.

The style is lovely. It feels well set up and it's nice to see something that isn't human or demonic. Just animal people. And there's lizard people who are the 'bad guys' according to some general with issues.
The areas are nice and varied and have their own styles, though I dislike how the darkness is put in.

Gameplay is bleh. It's floaty, jittery, precice platforming is rather fidgety *wink* but doesn't appear to much. It's hack-slashy with little combos and all. There's a few cool moves, but it's mostly mashing X for attacks. Y can be used for special attacks to launch or ground enemies.

Y also initiates Dust Storm. This sucks in dropped items, floating bombs, projectiles. Using B shoots a weak projectile attack from Fidget, but use Y and the attack goes Super Sayan. The first projectile becomes more, the second makes columns of ouch and the third lightning storm or something. It's easy to exploit, BTW. In air, works the same. The Dust Storm itself is rather weak.

You can also Parry. Like Ahrah said, Press and Hold X to Parry. Enemies are dazed and take like 4 times more damage. Some enmies REQUIRE you to do this, if only so you don't one shot them. Really, there's a balance issue in this game, or that might just be me.

Chains are also important. You get bonus XP by hitting a lot and dealing damage. Just that. Damage is just as important as the amount of hits. Also, you can do an evade to keep chains alive. Even in air.

Shops are expensive as hell, though you don't need to buy a lot of things, unless you have that rare worthwhile craft able. Selling materials to shop makes them 'catalogue' it so you can buy it when they restock.

Levelling up is typical. 4 stats: Health, Attack, Defence and Fidget (AKA Dust Storm). Note that you HIGHEST start can never be more than FOUR levels away from the LOWEST stat.

EDIT: Chuck Testa B****H! The game suddenly kicks it up a few notches at Chapter 4! Enemies are tougher adn parrying is harder and some are even "immune" to it (don't get weak/dazed). And the Dust Storm loses a lot of potency! That said, seems the game's not that unbalanced.

The quests are really cool. The Dust Storm is your typical answer to puzzles, but the lovely voice acting makes it worth having the characters talk. Note that you might needs certain upgrades before you can complete a quest... that's awful.
Bosses aren't ever a challenge, might I say.

There's also 'friends' or references that give a 5% health boost. Pretty weet.

Overall, the game is HYPE. It's good, better than most AAA titles that claim to be 'awesome', though the game does decline when it tries to be hard. It mixes it up with environmental hazards, faster attacking enemies and enemies that require Parries to kill, though.

EDIT: Reaching Chapter 4, the game picks up again, in both writing and gameplay! :D

I would say... get this game. Or at least give the demo a shot.


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