Dust: An Elysian Tale Review

You really have to have a lot of respect for Dust. While it is only an arcade game, it is still rather large with many system interacting through out. There is an enthralling combat system, an interesting take on character progression, a fairly well written narrative, a captivating art style, and it was all done by essentially one man. Speaking from my personal experience, I have made video games before ones that are not even 25% as involved and dense as this game is and I know I could not have made those alone and so Dust is quite an accomplishment.
You play as an amnesiac rabbit-wolf named Dust. He wakes up with the sword of arah in his hand and nothing to go on but the fact that the sword has come to him because he has need of its power to fulfill his destiny. I know it sounds very cliched but if you play the game you will see that the story is actually fairly good for an arcade title.
As you move Dust forward you begin to learn about the game's combo based combat system. The game is a 2D side scroller and Dust can dance around the 2D environment with ease. You will find yourself spinning around and flying through the air fairly often. Dust has a few multiple hit combos with successive presses of the X button as well as a counter and a few magic attack from his partner that can be combined with your blade spinning dust storm to make a variety of interesting effects and build higher combos that do greater damage and grant more experience. Speaking of experience, you will level up when you gain enough allowing you to upgrade strength, speed, magic, Dust's partner, or defense. The catch is the lowest skill cannot be four points away from the highest skill which makes leveling up in Dust very interesting. In addition to the leveling system, there is also a crafting system that allows Dust to make various gear items that can raise his stats and provide different skills.
Dust is regrettably not a very challenging game but at the very least there is a lot to be discovered. The map is revealed through exploration and certain items can only be obtained and crafted by exploring the whole map, not to mention there are tons of side quests to take up and there are a number of caged friends to find throughout the game that once freed will grant Dust even more power.
If you are looking for a great arcade game this year, Dust: An Elysian Tale cannot be beat.