izigame.me

TL;DR: 8/10, story focused, fully voiced dialogue, metroidvania with with fun combat, will leave you crying and wanting more
INTRO:
If you're trying to decide if you want to buy this game, this is my recommendation: if you like games focused on good story that also come with fun and enjoyable gameplay, this is a hidden gem waiting for you. If you seek challenging gameplay and just skip dialogue even if the story is the main point of the game, you will hate this game. This review has no spoilers, but I will be revealing some information that is not important.
STORY:
This is the main reason why you want to buy the game. The main character is Dust, an amnesiac who is almost instantly joined by a companion Fidget and an ancient wise talking sword, forming the core trio that travels together. The dynamic between the characters is honestly great, and the banter between stoic Dust and emotional big-mouthed Fidget is just comedy gold that made me laugh out loud several times during my playthrough.
The story is split into several chapters, with the first chapters being mostly aimless wandering after quest markers and helping people, which later transitions into seeking the truth about Dust, and who he really is. Each chapter ends with a strong emotional beat: a twist, a revelation or just a tough pill to swallow. The emotional beats are great and have a very strong emotional payoff at the end of the adventure. The ending will leave you in an emotional turmoil, absolutely heartbroken, and with a faint hope for a sequel that is probably never going to happen. T_T
The theme of finding one's own identity will make not only Dust, but also you as the player, reflect on your actions from the first chapters, and the story conveys a positive message about finding one's place in the world. While everyone can connect with Dust's struggles, this message will resonate mostly with teens/young adults, who are currently going through a similar phase of self-discovery.
Oh, and one more thing: EVERY SINGLE DIALOG LINE IS VOICE ACTED!
GAMEPLAY:
This game borrows gameplay mechanics from several different genres. It is mostly a metroidvania: you travel through distinct areas, unlock new movement abilities, then backtrack to previous areas to collect treasure from previously unreachable places. It even has a built-in tracker that shows you the rough location of undiscovered treasures, alleviating the need for an online wiki to be open on your second monitor.
It also has RPG mechanics, which see you collect XP, gold and materials to craft gear. With these mechanics you can boost your stats and generally make Dust stronger over time. There are also a few sidequests (but not too many) that don't really detract from the main story; they actually enhance it as they mostly take place during the early chapters while you are aimlessly wandering around and helping people.
And finally, the combat. Most of the time, it's just a power trip that sees you cutting up mobs of enemies and collecting plenty of loot. The game has a combo-based combat, but it has only 3 ground combos and 1 aerial combo that are unlocked from the start. I wish there were more combos that unlocked as you progressed through the game. Thankfully, it's not really a problem. By the end of the game, while you will feel proficient in the combos, they have not started feeling stale yet. It also has a parrying and dodging mechanics that you use mostly when fighting big monsters and bosess. And there is also a unique mechanic with Fidget casting a spell and Dust performing a SPIN TO WI- I mean Dust Storm. When these two are combined together, you deal TONS OF DAMAGE.
GRAPHICS:
About 95% of the game's visuals are hand-drawn sprites and hand-painted environments, which allows the game to never get graphically outdated. While the enemies and villagers you encounter are mostly animated using Flash-style animation with skeletons, Dust himself has fully drawn traditional animations and it's very hard not to stare at him while he slashes stuff. The environments are well-painted, but what steals the show for me are the background paintings that are just gorgeous to look at. The few 3D objects you will see are noticeable, but visually they try to comply with the rest of the game's style and don't detract from the overall 2D aesthetic.
SOUND & MUSIC:
For me, this is the weaker part of the game. While the combat sound effects are mostly fine and the game plays a sound cue when you need to perform a dodge, there is a lack of sound cues for enemies where the only way to defeat them is to parry them. For non-combat sounds, sounds for important world objects are very satisfying, and while standing on a teleporter, the background music volume goes down as a sign of safety and reprieve from the monster-infested world. Unfortunately, in most areas, there are very few environmental sounds, with only the music playing in the background.
And when it comes to the music, the first forest areas have great, uplifting music that pulls you into the fairytale fantasy world of Dust, but the music in other areas just... didn't do that. It felt like generic music matching the area it played in, but it didn't feel like it had the same identity as the music in the forest areas. It could be just me, but... I feel like music should tie the whole game together, and music in Dust just didn't seem to do that.
OTHER:
My playthrough of the game clocked in at 13 hours while playing on "Tough" difficulty, the 3rd of the 4 difficulty tiers, and I got almost 100% completion, which makes this quite a short game. But I can confidently say that I enjoyed every single minute of it.
Even on the "Tough" difficulty, I didn't feel like it was difficult to defeat enemies. I just chopped enemies up like nothing and bosses usually fell down under half a minute. The hardest aspect of this difficulty setting was the fact that the only way to heal was to use consumables, which was forcing me to actually use consumables (which I usually don't do), but later on enemies were dropping so many healing items it didn't really matter that much, it was just annoying. I would definitely recommend playing through the game on "Normal" difficulty instead.
PERSONAL NOTES:
I played this game for the first time shortly after it came out, when I was a teenager with no money, sooo... let's say I got a free copy. It was the first game ever to affect me emotionally, and even make me cry during a few cutscenes. When I finished the game, I was left completely broken, unable to process the fact that my adventures with Dust have come to an end, and I just stared at the main menu for an hour, with its sad, yet hopeful simple piano tunes hitting me even harder in the feels.
This game gave me a reason to pick up drawing. It gave me a dream to one day construct a game with traditional animations and gorgeous environments, an impactful story what will leave a lasting impact on others. That dream will sadly never come true as I don't have much free time outside of my job, but right now, I am a software developer, and I am still drawing in my free time. And this game is probably the reason why I love artwork with furry characters. I am not going to deny it, this game affected me as a teenager for the rest of my life.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This was my second playthrough after 10 years, and I can say that this game still holds up exceptionally well.
While I would objectively score this game as a 8/10, I 100% recommend it. It's gorgeous to look at, the controls are responsive, not janky, combat is a fun power trip and the story (WITH FULLY VOICED DIALOGUE!) has once again emotionally destroyed me. If you give this game a chance, you will begin to love furries and you will regret playing it. Now I need to get my blanket, some ice cream and try to recover from the emotional damage this game has inflicted onto me. I will definitely play it again after another 10 years have passed.