However, last week I thought I’d give it a go. And what a
delightful game it is! It is at its heart a platform game with RPG elements,
and makes no apology for it. It’s got good graphics, excellent gameplay and a
great story. It’s seriously like the best Super Nintendo game I never played.
The art style certainly looks ‘cartoony,’ but is as good as
any 6th-gen game might have been if they’d bothered with 2D
platformers. You play as Dust, an anthropomorphic rabbit-like creature that has
all the hall-markings of a troubled hero but still manages to sneak in a sense
of humour. You’re joined on your quest to save the world and remember who you
are by your sword Ahrah which talks to you, and an irritating flying creature
called Fidget. You meet a cast of NPCs that are a mixture of anthropomorphic rabbits,
bears and toads. You battle a range of enemies that breaks out from the usual
mix of ‘like Tolkien, but…’ The visuals are gorgeous, the backgrounds are
amazing and the character models are really well put together.
 |
| This game really does kick ass... |
In terms of gameplay, the controls are fluid and responsive,
but its trump card is the brilliant combat system. There are three ways to
attack[1]:
You can press X to attack with your sword and develop a combo using a
combination of X and Y, use Y to create a ‘Dust storm’ which allows a short
amount of flight and slightly damages the enemies, or you can use B to have
Fidget cast a spell. The real fun comes into combining the effects of the
different attacks. For example, in the early stages of the game, pressing B
will have Fidget splash a magic missile style of attack, that doesn’t do much damage.
Combine that with a Dust Storm and the missile multiplies and flies all over
the screen, doing a lot of combined damage. You only have a limited amount of
time to do either – your spells and your dodge is limited by an energy bar, and
you can do the dust storm for around six seconds before you’ll injure yourself,
but you can recover them by landing your attack combos as well. This all makes
for a rapid attack system that looks and feels very impressive.
Elsewhere, the platforming is challenging but not
insurmountable, the puzzles are not hard to work out but are a little tricky to
put off, and the treasure is useful but not essential. This is one of the best
parts of the game’s design – you don’t have to feel obliged to do all the side
quests and collect all the treasure. If you do, great, and that can add an
extra level of fun for the completionists among us, but the game won’t punish
you for wanting to get to the end.
I won’t talk much about the story; it’s great but needs to
be experienced by yourself. I will, however, mention the sound. The background
music is gorgeous; it strikes the balance of being memorable enough for it not
to be merely background noise, but not so much that it becomes cheesy or
ridiculous. A lot of work went into those compositions, and it shows. The voice
acting was very good, and they didn’t ruin it by trying to draw facial
animations. And the game’s sound effects are visceral and effective; all the
bells and whistles happen in the right places.
All in all, a very well-designed game that does its job, is
fun to play and doesn’t outstay its welcome. I might return to this at some
point for a completionist run, but the game is as long as it needs to be and I’m
ready to move on.
[1]
Controls refer to an Xbox 360 controller
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