The way items (and the precious blueprints) are dropped by enemies is highly reminiscent of the Castlevania series, with a higher probability of a downed enemy dropping a crucial pick-up if you are using a luck-enhancing charm in your inventory.
Items are an important factor, a blacksmith is able to forge new weapons, armour and augments for you if you have the right stuff in your inventory and a blueprint to show her how to make it. It is a huge challenge finding and unlocking all of these chests, but helpfully Fidget, your sidekick, will let you know if there is still an as yet sniffed-out chest in a particular area. Some areas of the map contain treasures which may or may not be hidden from view and can be opened using keys that are strewn around the world or can be purchased (at a hefty price) from the merchant. It is eminently playable and I easily sank in five hours in my first sitting, there is so much to do and it is great fun doing it. It has the exploratory platform gameplay you know and love, with all of the stuff you would come to expect from the genre: Experience points, levelling up, buying and selling items, opening up more areas on the world map after gaining new abilities, masses of side quests, finding the necessary gems to open colour co-ordinated gates.
If only it were that simple it soon turns out that there are many more threads to the story, which plays out wonderfully, introducing some surprisingly strong characters, moral dilemmas and Dust’s quest to find out the secrets in his past.ĭust is an excellent Metroidvania-style action platformer, which means that regardless of anything else, Noogy was off on the right foot with me, barely a podcast goes by without a mention of “rpg elements”. You play the part of Dust, an amnesia-stricken young chap who, with the help of an ancient talking sword and a motormouthed flying squirrel, ends up embroiled in a mission to save a village from monster-related oppression.
Much the same as the stellar Cave Story, Dust is the work of one man.Īfter spending a few minutes in Dodrill’s world, it isn’t difficult to see why Microsoft put their faith in him.
Completely free of the constraints that come with licensing and working for The Man, the artist also known as Noogy has been able to spend years working on his projects. An animation artist by trade, Dodrill had spent time working on early Cliffy B endeavour Jazz Jackrabbit, but his true love was designing and bringing to life his own characters in the fantasy world of Elysium, the setting for Dust and a still-in-development Elysian Tail animated movie. Way back in 2009, a gentleman by the name of Dean Dodrill scooped the grand prize in Microsoft’s “Dream, Build, Play” Challenge, winning a contract to produce a new Xbox LIVE Arcade title, as well as a cool forty grand.