Dust: An Elysian Tail

Humble Hearts may tug at your heart strings a little in the Summer of Arcade this year with the XBLA version of Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Dust has come a long way and shown marked improvement since it’s showing at PAX 2009 where it won the grand prize from Dream.Build.Play and the XNA Indie Games People’s Choice Award.

There’s much more to this 2D, side-scrolling, action RPG than just hacking up waves of enemies and bosses with insane combos where hits can quickly mount up over 100 in a well-timed string. There’s more here than the fast paced combat and fully thought out quest lines to keep players busy. There’s even more than the beautifully hand-painted and animated characters (which may look cute in character models but really can be serious business in the heat of battle), settings with well placed weather effects, and enemies who look genuinely evil (always a motivation to defeat them).

Enhanced by all of the things listed above is a touching story of love and death. I won’t delve into the story here so that I don’t run the risk of ruining just how much impact it can have. Do yourself a favour when playing Dust: An Elysian Tail, make sure to pay close attention and soak up every moment and every word.

  

Dust: An Elysian Tail, 5.0 out of 5 based on 3 ratings