Dust: An Elysian Tail

Or for a bigger youtube window (lags for me when I use media tag, does it lag for anyone else?) :

Spoiler

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cg81GcutanQ[/media]

I'd been wanting this game since I first heard about it years ago. NOW IT'S FINALLY RELEASED!
... But for the X-Box 360 only (for now?).... Gahhh....

If you have a X-Box 360 it's your lucky friggin' day ... Free demo, and full game is 15$.
But, I've been expecting nothing but gold from this game. Take a good look at it if you happen to have the 360.
It's one of those indie games you don't want to miss... [like Braid, Limbo, Super Meat Boy, Cave Story, etc etc... I'm expecting this to be on that level. If it is not quite there, tell me! I still am expecting it to be great though.]

Single-handed

Though Dodrill had some help with the voice acting and writing on the game, Dust is almost entirely a one-man effort, from the art and design to the programming. Not having a team of developers to split up the work did increase the total development time, Dodrill said, but it also helped streamline the process in a weird way.
...
Keeping 2D alive

Despite a resurgence among many indie developers, the 2D games of the past are almost a footnote these days in the light of 3D gameplay. But to Dodrill, "2D is more than an aesthetic—there’s an immediacy to 2D controls. There’s something indescribably satisfying with a good 2D platformer that you rarely get in 3D."

Dust is notable for the way it takes decidedly old-school gameplay and updates it by taking full advantage of modern hardware, something Dodrill says he hopes will become more common as technology continues to improve.

http://arstechnica.c...his-dream-game/

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2D action-platforming RPG for the Xbox 360 console. Grand prize winner of Microsoft's 2009 Dream.Build.Play competition.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is available for purchase on Xbox LIVE Arcade either through the Xbox 360 Dashboard (via Bing Search or the Games/Arcade tab), or through Xbox.com for 1200msp ($15).

Immerse yourself in a gorgeous hand-painted world on a search for your true identity. As the mysterious warrior, Dust, your action-packed journey will take you from peaceful glades to snowy mountaintops and beyond. At your disposal is the mythical Blade of Ahrah, capable of turning its wielder it into an unstoppable force of nature, and the blade's diminutive guardian, Fidget.

Battle dozens of enemies at once with an easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master combat system, take on a variety of quests from friendly villagers, discover ancient secrets and powerful upgrades hidden throughout the massive, open world, and uncover the story of an ancient civilization on the brink of extinction as you fight to uncover your own past.

• Take control of Dust, a warrior searching for his true purpose, as he joins forces with the mystical Blade of Ahrah and its guardian, Fidget, to save the world of Falana from an army unlike any before it!
• Explore an incredible hand-painted world!
• Match wits and weapons against challenging monsters!
• Take on side-quests from a cast of colorful, fully-voiced characters!
• Craft dozens of items and discover Falana's rarest treasures!
• Compete against your friends' high scores in ranked Challenge Arenas!

Featuring music by Alex Brandon and HyperDuck Soundworks.

A review : http://www.joystiq.c...lassic-formula/

Music from the group who did Iji's music. (Hyperduck Studios).





If you liked Odin Sphere, Muramasa, or CAVE STORY... You'll probably like this one.
I just wish I could play it too ......... hopefully it gets ported, same with FEZ.

Don't pass this game up! (If you have a 360 ><)

Game's Website : http://www.elysiantail.com/index.html

 

I'll see if I can scrape together some Microsoft points. Looks great!

 

Interesting. It seems to have nice graphics and the platforming style looks pretty good too. I might want to try it out.

 

Very nice game.

very nice post.

I'm kind of interested in getting this game but I don't have access to an xbox so I GUESS I'll have to wait until that changes or it gets ported.
Who even makes console exclusive games these days anyway I mean come ON.

 

This game had caught my eye but I aint got no Xbox, so I'll have to sit and hope we get a PC release someday.

 

Carrot, Dunc, tell us your impressions if you get it
[I might cry in a corner though]

I'm kind of interested in getting this game but I don't have access to an xbox so I GUESS I'll have to wait until that changes or it gets ported.
Who even makes console exclusive games these days anyway I mean come ON.

FEZ. Those treacherous developers at Polytron Corporation hooked me on FEZ. Then finally...
...it was announced to be XBox360 exclusive -_-

That game too deserves a thread, but since I can't play it... NO!
http://polytroncorporation.com/what-is-fez

 

Alright well I played the trial before buying, and I'm glad I did, for a couple reasons.
For one, the voice acting was terrible. Dust was monotonous with no personality, the sword is just annoying, Fidget... Ugh. She's got this squeaky high-pitched voice that is the most annoying thing I have ever heard, and she's an arrogant cowardly idiot. She's more annoying than Navi.
I didn't like the fact that so far, the game has no story. I mean, that's fine in some cases, but not here.
And most importantly: in this game, I am a furry. it's me.
I cannot get over this fact.

However, I'm not saying it was all bad. The battle system was wonderful, the music captivating, and the art beautiful. If they removed the voice acting, gave it a better story, and didn't make you a furry, it'd be an amazing game, and I'd buy it in an instant.

 

Here's a slightly more favorable review on the escapist. While it does touch on the shoddy quality of the voice acting (perhaps there's an option to just turn it off and go old-school. Or if not maybe there should be) they actually praise the pacing of the story so I'm assuming it does get better once you pass tutorial island or whatever

ofc I still haven't had a chance to try it so bla :V

 

@Dunc - Hmmm... I was surprised by your impression of the voice acting, so I watched a walkthrough~
[13 parts of it]


http://www.youtube.c...t=ELyKt1aKsNVq4

The voice acting isn't bad at all in my opinion... Quite good actually, and with many different voices in the first town.
I CAN understand how Fidget can be annoying, but she grew on me the longer I watched... Truthfully I only cringed once in her many dialogues, and it was in the tutorial stage. And as for Dust, he had way more life to him than I was expecting [maybe even too much!?], and the sword is ... normal I suppose.

As for the story, I'm guessing about the place your trial quit, was right after you save the two rabbit people?
After that you get hit with a lot of dialogue in the town. Also, it's important to talk to people several times if you want to hear more about the story; otherwise you just get the manadatory information.

Here's my impression of the game just from the first 90 minutes or so :
Music 8/10
[Nothing too memorible, but it's all good.]

Story 7/10
[There are hints at big things to come, but so far it's mostly just getting to know the villagers]

Gameplay ... from an observer's point of view 7.5?/10 (Hoping it's about 8/10 - 8.5/10 when actually playing)
[It looks pretty, the combat looks pretty wild, it's kind of a sword dance. I defintely wish I could get my hands on the controller... watching is painful It could be quite smooth and fun. I'm not sure how intelligent the monsters are though. Just can't tell without playing...]

Characters 8/10
[Dust and Fidget ... and even the sword make a fun trio. Dialogue takes a general audience movie/humorous approach. It doesn't feel brooding, or normal; it's fun, kinda like someone is telling a story. They seem to have a decent amount of depth... They don't feel empty by any means.]

Art 9/10
[There are two sides to the art. The background and monster artwork, and the NPC artwork, aka Furries.
Although the screen feels a little too shiny... The artwork is quite beautiful, and I imagine pleasing on a nice big screen. The NPC pictures are well done too. BUT, the style obviously has its critics...]

So in conclusion... looks like a really good game, not the epic game I was hoping for, but still an indie achievement on the level of Odin Sphere by mostly ONE PERSON...


... On the Furry style. I don't really understand the general deal with it. It's not my favorite style by any means, but the NPCs were interesting and varied in the village.
I don't have a prejudice against it, but maybe that's because I don't know much furry stuff. I mean If this game was someone's introduction to that art style; I would think they'd find it weird, but cute. It grows on you like getting used to anime art styles... probably.

 

Actually, the trial ended before you even get to any villages. You walk up to a door and Fidget tells you to use the no-clip cheat (ugh) to get through, and Dust informs her (and by extent, you) that it's the end of the trial. I remember that I fought something I needed to parry, and then there was that door.

 

And most importantly: in this game, I am a furry. it's me.
I cannot get over this fact.

But that's obviously the best part

No but seriously, games/movies/cartoons/etc should be able to use anthropomorphic characters without it being considered murrpurr furry yiff yiff stuff, it's just a design choice. It's really no different than using characters of various real world races to further develop and distinguish characters, it's just a fictional extension of that.

 

But that's obviously the best part

No but seriously, games/movies/cartoons/etc should be able to use anthropomorphic characters without it being considered murrpurr furry yiff yiff stuff, it's just a design choice. It's really no different than using characters of various real world races to further develop and distinguish characters, it's just a fictional extension of that.

Seconded. It's a literary technique that's been around for centuries and honestly, before I started frequenting THE INTORNENT I would have never thought twice about it. There are tons of examples, like, Beatrix Potter's works (peter rabbit), various mythologies & folk tales (chicken little? anubis?), etc.
It's nothing really weird or unusual to just use it as a storytelling or character building device.

 

I thought i should post to tell people that its coming to pc in a few months on steam. It was only announced recently.

http://indiestatik.com/2013/03/23/dust-an-elysian-tail-coming-to-steam-wont-use-games-for-windows-live/

 

I might try this again but I still think that the voice acting is terrible and really hope I'm able to turn it off, because seriously the actual game part was awesome, along with the music and art. Rereading this thread is giving me the impression that past the tutorial it gets a lot better, and if it does I'll really enjoy this game.

 

Steam??? Interesting, I will pick this up ... when the price is right...


Just wanted to say it's out on Steam! And it looks great on PC...
Requires a pretty good video card; mine barely cuts it~

The price is, 13.49$, a bit more than I like to spend atm (cheap, cheap!). But, couldn't resist getting the last game I'd been waiting to go PC. And it plays even better than I hoped, even using the keyboard. It's kind of like what I wished how Odin Sphere's levels would have been setup.

Music, art and voice acting is great; story remains to be seen...
Dust himself is a lot less dark or brooding than I imagined xD And I love Fidget lol
It looks like I could just reach out and grab him out of my monitor!

 

I went over to a friend's yesterday to check the game out myself and get a "first impression". The environments are pretty although imo the character art is a bit sub-par, I suppose it's forgivable. Controls looked smooth and it looks overall pretty fun to play.
I thought I'd end up hating fidget but she's not so bad, even funny sometimes in a kind of dumb way.
I'd play it.

 

Hmmm. I wonder how long the game is... the completion % is rising fairly fast.
.....Wow, it's already that time?!

 

I've been watching a friend play it, the combat looks real fast and flashy and it has loads of voice acted dialogue, which is always something I can enjoy. I'll probably pick it up as soon as I get home from this pseudo-camping trip I'm on

Also, Fidget isn't nearly as obnoxious as I had imagined. She actually seems pretty adorable, she's got the voice and appearance to be an obnoxious "navi" character, but she has lots of dialogue and personality and all her different emotion portraits are pretty cute.

 

Played this for about 5 hours so far and im enjoying this immensely, I agree with noxid in that the character art is subpar, but honestly i think he had to do that since each character is animated in the chat parts even if it is slightly, otherwise it would of taken far more effort for no reason. I dont know why people had previously mentioned that fidget was annoying in other stuff i had read, i found them quite funny and she made me smile at the stupid lines. The combat is pretty great too, although the game seems a little on the easy side so i set it to tough and its still easy.

 

Yeah, from looking over my friend's shoulder it looks like the character designs range from nice and likable to god-awful deviant art tier. Imma pick the game up later tonight so I can see for myself.
For example, I think the shopkeeper is cute and well-designed but the mushroom folks in that cave make me want to cry