Dust: An Elysian Tail Reviews

Looks goofy at first, but is surprisingly good and responsive.

Good game. Dev is unfortunately far-right. Spend your money elsewhere.

Maybe Dust is meant for kids but it's so simple I could feel my mind frying from lack of any meaningful challenge. If you invest all your gems into strength early on you can easily one shot most enemies and bosses just melt. It's the kind of design where they fill the screen with enemies but all of them are completely useless so combat just ends up feeling button mashey. The only thing that even comes close to a challenge are some of the environmental hazards that are more a test of patience than anything else. The floaty feel of the physics doesn't do the game any favors either. As bad as the combat is what's worse is that Dust is meant to be a metroidvania but it takes too long to start finding abilities to open up exploration. The way navigation is designed doesn't help. Level layout isn't represented well by the map making the onscreen map practically useless and diving into the options menu to check the map can be a chore in a game like this.

i played through this a couple of times back on the Xbox 360. and revisiting so many years later. still holds up. good characters, fun combat and exploration. awesome story. runs great. definitely worth it.

If you like the Ori games, you'll love this, though it is somewhat short, and can be easy at times, I only died once on my first playthrough, and beat the game a second time on hardcore difficulty. It can be somewhat tedious to move around the map sometimes, since Dust doesn't unlock any movement abilities aside from a double jump, but aside from that, my only other major complaint is the ending, which I won't spoil, but it'll leave you with a disappointed feeling. Other than that, this game is really just simple and fun, with a great artstyle and character designs.

12 years ago, I found out about this game from Totalbiscuit's showcase with the game bought it and played it on both the 360 and the pc loved the game so much and went to 100% it on the 360 back then this game has such a great artstyle, gameplay, and wonderful music, not to mention that you can choose between playing it with keyboard or controller this game is worth the price and try to get it's amazing soundtrack as well

Great gameplay, wonderful art, good story/characters, and all together an awesome experience to play through.

Fantastic game! I loved the art style, the game play was a lot of fun, though I wish there were more combos. The story and characters were pitch perfect, and it hit all the right emotional notes. Easy 9/10, would recommend even at full price. ^_^

Man, I remember playing this back in the day.... One of my first indie videogames (or videogames in general) after a long time... and even it holds up to this day. Art (especially), gameplay (simple but fun) and story (simple [again] but enjoyable, overdramatic [at time] but it's suited for all ages) are amazing! Downside? a little *too* simple.... but again, it is meant for everyone. So, yeah, recommended!

[h2] A beautiful fairy tale with soul. My rating: 8/10 [/h2] [b]Short version:[/b] A beautiful fairy tale, great platformer, worth checking out. But keep in mind it's a 2012 game and some aspects feel a bit dated. My rating: 8/10 [b]1. Gameplay[/b] - the game calls itself a Metroidvania, but it's more of a platformer mixed with a slasher. Levels are full of enemies who die in two hits on normal difficulty. Some people find it boring, but I think it's fun. It's enjoyable to tear through levels like a hurricane, mowing down hordes of enemies. It's nice to take a break from games where every enemy can kill you. Here that won't happen. The whole experience is about having fun, and even bosses aren't much of a challenge. Though there are some really bad design choices. For example, any environmental damage knocks the character back a huge distance. Or teleportation only works at map entrances/exits, so if you need to get to the middle of the map - you have to run there. On the other hand, there are good decisions rare for the genre - an extremely convenient map showing treasure locations from the start. Or the "Whirlwind" mechanic (one of Dust's abilities) allowing you to fly through a whole section with one button press while killing enemies along the way. [b]2. Design and graphics[/b] - graphic design is this project's strong point. I'm not a furry fan, but everything here is depicted beautifully, lively, and emotionally. Every character feels alive. As for the graphics, despite being pretty, they're unfortunately outdated. Backgrounds are rather blurry, playing in 4K is impossible, and some effects like snow have to be turned off because otherwise the game becomes unplayable. The game definitely needed remaster. [b]3. Lore and characters[/b] - the plot is fairly interesting, though it leaves some questions unanswered. This game is part of the Elysian Tail universe, so maybe checking it out would help understand what's going on. But anyway, these are details, the general story is decent. Characters - they're just great. You believe in them. There are no boring or forced characters. Quality humor that always fits, and equally good dramatic moments. Can't skip mentioning the voice acting. Rarely will you find better quality character voices than here. [b]To sum up[/b]. I played the game back in 2012 at release, and even then noticed how fun it was. Now, in 2025, I've only confirmed my initial impressions. This game is for relaxing - there are practically no hard gaming moments, no ambiguous plot, or dumb characters. I'm very disappointed that this project didn't grow into something bigger and we never got Dust 2. Though, maybe it's for the best. At least the memory of this project isn't tarnished by failed sequels.