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Dust: An Elysian Tail |OT| Become the Storm

I've played for about 3 hours so far and I'm really enjoying my time with this one. I knew Dust was a game I had to try as soon as a heard the word "metroidvania" tossed around and sure enough the game is fantastic. What impresses me the most about it so far is that the combat actually goes well beyond what is typically seen in a Castlevania game but it still manages to maintain the wonderful exploration elements that the genre is known for. Muramasa is probably a decent comparison but the actual level design and exploration elements of Dust surpass that game in just about every way, and personally I prefer the feel of the combat as well. Even the towns, dialogue, and quest structure feel a few steps above anything else in the genre. It feels like the best of a few different worlds.

You really knocked it out of the park with this one, Noogy. Congrats!

Also, (friend spoiler)
Super Meat Boy cameo's are seriously the best.
 
Ok, now how do I get past this?

ibzA4J5ZcsVNyG.jpg
 

Noogy

Member
Interesting, ok.

Now how the hell do I do this Cliff wall jumping to get to the girl?! I try to slide down a little to get to the top near the spike, but the one where you have to go directly horizontal with spikes up and down is impossible! Now I forgot how to even make past this first few spikes, can't get to the top right one!

ibbKfTgDWYN2LA.jpg

You have direct control which direction you can jump off a vine. I personally find it easier with the thumbstick but it's also possible with the dPad. Just hold in the direction you want before tapping A.

Your second jump.. you can either
Double jump, which I'm guessing you dont' have, or jump then evade right in midair.
 
You have direct control which direction you can jump off a vine. I personally find it easier with the thumbstick but it's also possible with the dPad. Just hold in the direction you want before tapping A.

Your second jump.. you can either
Double jump, which I'm guessing you dont' have, or jump then evade right in midair.

jump then press X works to cover distance too, it's what I did about 10 seconds ago :p
 
You have direct control which direction you can jump off a vine. I personally find it easier with the thumbstick but it's also possible with the dPad. Just hold in the direction you want before tapping A.

Your second jump.. you can either
Double jump, which I'm guessing you dont' have, or jump then evade right in midair.

OH HAHA YES I DID IT! Just attacked in mid-air, then did evade and got there.

THANKS!

Wait, is there no actual girl here, just treasure?
 

Zampano

Member
This game is just blowing my mind. The fact that it's largely a one man labour of love is making me ask some questions about what I'm doing with my life!
 

Noogy

Member
Just made a quick gif, how do I get past this wind for this wall climb? (Abadis Forest)

iipGy1qq5OvTI.gif

You can
jump up and then Dust Storm through the wind to the left
. And might I add, for some reason seeing screenshots taken with a camera always look rad for some reason.

One thing though, it might just be me, but skipping scenes feels entirety too easy. Already accidentally skipped like 3 cutscenes already. =/

Yeah, admittedly having it default to 'Skip Cutscene' after pausing wasn't the best decision. Noted, thanks.
 

ryushe

Member
So, I booted this game up before bed yesterday and two hours later I realized that I'm going to be very cranky at work in the morning. Both because I didn't go to bed on time and that I'd have to wait HOURS before I'm able to play Dust again.

So yeah, Dust is the real deal. So real in fact, I'm going to throw away my moral oath of not ever buying digital clothes for my avatars just so I can give support to this game (got a free code). Didn't know this game existed a few days ago, but I'm so happy I do now.

Incredible.

One thing though, it might just be me, but skipping scenes feels entirety too easy. Already accidentally skipped like 3 cutscenes already. =/
 

bumpkin

Member
Alright Noogy, I swear that tonight my procrastination ends; I will be buying Dust! I've had the space bucks earmarked for it since the release date was announced, I've just been busy every night this week programming my own game engine, ironically!

At any rate, the game looks and sounds beautiful based on the trailers and I'm really excited to finally dig in tonight! :D
 

watership

Member
So, I booted this game up before bed yesterday and two hours later I realized that I'm going to be very cranky at work in the morning.

I did the exact same thing. I started with the trail, played less than 4 mins of it and I said fuck it, and bought the game. I finally stopped when I realized I was 23% through the game. The game is brilliant.
 

aku:jiki

Member
Yesterday, I posted that this game makes me feel like ignoring my real-life responsibilities and just playing it...so today I just said fuck it and went straight home and sat down, and now I'm not getting my ass out of this couch until I hit 117%! Let's do this!

Also thought I'd throw my 2 cents in on the difficulty debate... Have to say that if you're used to the genre and have some skills built up through the years, you might even want to start on Hardcore. I wouldn't even call myself a pro at this stuff and only a few enemies give me trouble on Tough. (And I currently have like 40 various healing items and 40k gold.)

20559 players as of right now, steadily growing! That can't be bad at all, considering Fez was the most hyped XBLA game of the year and it took them around a month to hit 100k.
 
I think Dust might have been a bit unlucky with its release date. All the other SoA titles got front and centre billing on my Xbox homepage, but this week it's full of Black Ops shit instead so Dust only gets the second scrolling spot, which I imagine is gonna lead to a bunch of people missing it.

Still, I think this is far more of a word-of-mouth game than a lot of stuff on XBLA, so even with 20k on the leaderboards already it feels like it might be a slow burner. If you know someone with kids, make sure they know about Dust!
 
Just bought some points to play this tonight. Can't wait! I haven't powered any of my systems on in over a month. Looking forward to getting into this and back to gaming in the fall.
 

Dartastic

Member
I think Dust might have been a bit unlucky with its release date. All the other SoA titles got front and centre billing on my Xbox homepage, but this week it's full of Black Ops shit instead so Dust only gets the second scrolling spot, which I imagine is gonna lead to a bunch of people missing it.

Still, I think this is far more of a word-of-mouth game than a lot of stuff on XBLA, so even with 20k on the leaderboards already it feels like it might be a slow burner. If you know someone with kids, make sure they know about Dust!
It's actually top spot for me, while other SoA games have been second. I wonder if it's different per person?
 

Ra1den

Member
This is so tough for me. I already bought Dust and played for an hour and a half, totally in love with the game. The problem is I bought Darksiders 2 and I'm totally in love with it as well. Between working and trying to balance my girl with two games, is killing me. I'm going to have to flip a coin and see which game I go through first.

First-world problems ;)
 

bill.cosby

Neo Member
I marathon ran this game yesterday, probably right up there with Journey and Trials Evo for my favorite game this year. Incredible job Noogy, such a great experience!
 

bumpkin

Member
It's actually top spot for me, while other SoA games have been second. I wonder if it's different per person?
So I'm a little confused... Do all indie games submitted via the XNA Creators' Club have "Microsoft Game Studios" shown as a publisher, or is Noogy registered as a developer differently?
 
so i'm at a bit in the
graveyard
level that seems to hate me. i can't progress as the
zombie-spawning
enemy catches up to me before i can leave, then kicks my ass with his spawns. i can't kill him as my magic is too low. any ideas?
 
so i'm at a bit in the
graveyard
level that seems to hate me. i can't progress as the
zombie-spawning
enemy catches up to me before i can leave, then kicks my ass with his spawns. i can't kill him as my magic is too low. any ideas?

I'd suggest you try flying back and forth between enemies using the mid-air Dust Storm ability while using Fidget's Fire or, preferably, Lightning attack as much as possible. You shouldn't have much of a problem, but it may take a little bit of time unless you want to grind out a level or two.
 

zulux21

Member
so i'm at a bit in the
graveyard
level that seems to hate me. i can't progress as the
zombie-spawning
enemy catches up to me before i can leave, then kicks my ass with his spawns. i can't kill him as my magic is too low. any ideas?

If your issue is that your magic is to low, the logical thing to do is rise you magic :p
I had issues with them too, I went and leveled a little bit and after 2-3 levels of just putting it in fidget I was able to easily take them out. Alternatively the game plan of lure them to one side of the screen and then run to the other side and escape by killing everything before they get there also works... it's just tedious :p
 
Currently at 49% on Hardcore difficulty.

I hate spikes, lol.

Too much awesomeness in this game (aside from the spikes, haha). Taking a break for now but I'll be playing for a few hours later tonight.
 

Feep

Banned
I agree with all of your points, pros and cons, (except for the minimap one, I thought it did what it needed to do and searching for treasure was actually fun) but really, a 3.5/5? :/

I don't know how G4 uses its review scale, but 3.5 feels like a "bad" score.
I am a self-admitted "harsh" reviewer. I hate the compressed review scale (10 = great, 9 = pretty good, 8 = okay, 7 = bad, 6 = holy shit this is the worst game ever made). I would have given Final Fantasy XIII a 2/5 or 2.5/5, for instance.

I wouldn't include a number at all if G4 didn't make me. = P

Edit: From G4's review guidelines:

4 - Very good. Games that are at the top of all our lists, but are missing that strange intangible aura of perfection, and unfortunately that's keeping them from getting in the realm of the almighty five.
3 - Good. Fun to play, pretty solid titles, with a few minor flaws. Most games will probably fall into this category. They're the games that if you like the genre, or liked other similar titles, you might consider giving it a good look. Otherwise, you might not be into it.
 
Anything below a 8 is bad in 2012 video game world. Either it's totally awesome or it sucks ass. No room for grey, sorry, we only like black and white.
 
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