I can now confirm that I have a very soft spot somewhere in my heart dedicated to 2D Action RPGs, sometimes known as Metroid-Vanias. It's not exactly a well-populated list, now that I think about it, but I count among it some of my favorites like Metroid, Megaman, Odin Sphere, and now Dust: An Elysian Tail.

So yeah, that's the short description. Side-scrolling action RPG. If it had stopped there, it would have been a wonderful romp down video-game memory lane, but it didn't stop there. Dust took that basic framework for the gameplay, and then decided to bring so much more!

Beautifully animated and excellently voiced, this game follows the story of a strange animal-person thing that has no memory of its past but somehow has a decent grasp of two languages: english, and turning enemies into red powdered sugar. The story is engaging enough, and the characters a very well realized, even if one of them has a tendency to get a little on my nerves. The main strength this game has is the combat. The combat is very intuitive and responsive, to the point of being borderline-overpowered in a skilled set of hands, and I had a blast flying around the battlefield, juggling enemies in massive 1,000+ hit combos without ever touching the ground. I suggest playing on a harder difficulty if you have any experience with fast-based action-RPG's, simply because I felt like nothing could challenge me with even the minimal amount of grinding. The combat is literally a whirlwind of combos and skill, and once you get a hang of it you will have a blast.

As for a downside, this game has a habit of teasing you with areas you can't reach until much later in the game, though backtracking is common for Metroid-Vanias. Luckily, that's helped by a dynamic map system that keeps track of all the areas that still house unclaimed treasure. It never felt grindy, but some areas did take a little longer to return to just to receive a slight boost to my character's money. The crafting is also a letdown, as it is mostly just a straight upgrade to stats, without offering more options for playstyle. Still, this downside is less of something that was done wrong and more of something I wanted added, so really, I can't fault the game for that!

All in all, this game was a surprise winner. I hadn't heard anything about it beforehand, but now it's in the running for my Game of the Year. This game even has shoutouts to other recent indie games! It's little touches like that, built upon a solid foundation of sidescrolling action, that let you know that Dust: An Elysian Tail is something special.