Another quick one for you guys as I’m going on an important trip a day after writing this. Duskfade is a fantastic throwback to those PS2-era action platformers that’ll tug at your heartstrings with its story and nostalgic gameplay.
As somebody going through Kingdom Hearts again after all these years, playing this felt even more special since its aesthetic and, to a point, its gameplay are clearly inspired by it.
NOTE: I received a review copy of Duskfade and here are my thoughts on the experience.
A Whimsical Adventure
Duskfade starts off fast, with the story quickly pushing you into the action soon after the opening cutscene. It’s here that the game teaches you about some simple platforming controls, and it quickly becomes clear that movement will play an important role in the game.
Eventually, you learn to grapple, grind, glide, and more, which all get used in important fights throughout the story. But I digress, I wanna keep this review as spoiler-free as possible since it’s a relatively short narrative-driven adventure game.
Speaking of adventure, the game has you running across beautiful fantasy landscapes as a child named Zirian, who’s on a journey to save his sister from a mysterious threat. I’m finding it difficult to keep this as vague as possible, so let’s just cut to the chase.
I like to think of its story as a more family-friendly Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as it tackles themes of loss and grief in a more… juvenile manner as befits its younger protagonist and whimsical presentation. It definitely knocks it out of the park with its intention to be a love letter to old 3D platformers in both style and storytelling.
A Few Rough Edges
While I enjoy the game for what it is, I do have to point out how the combat can be pretty hit or miss, especially in the earlier sections. It’s no Kingdom Hearts in that regard, as it feels way too floaty, and enemies can just kind of get cheap hits on you from offscreen.
It’s easy enough that I don’t find the hardest difficulty all that hard, but it does get annoying when my HP gets whittled down by the occasional ink monster swooping in behind me and landing a hit. The combat is also fairly basic while dealing with normal enemies, which admittedly gets old after a while as it feels like I’m just going through the motions.
Duskfade makes up for it with its boss fights, which is where there are suddenly varying mechanics that come into play in both combat and movement. Even the first real boss you have to fight will force you into platforming sections unless you want to start eating a lot of free damage.
The platforming, while satisfying when it works, can be a bit frustrating with how it can feel janky at times. It’s incredibly smooth when you have a clear path forward and can easily tell where you’re supposed to run to next. However, it can devolve into an exercise in tedium when you’re in a rush and find yourself repeatedly failing to grab a ledge that, going off of visuals, should have worked.
Still, It’s Amazing Overall
Despite its flaws, the game is such a wonderful experience when it works as intended, and eventually, you do get used to the movement and learn to work around the jank a bit.
Aesthetically, the game has a lot of flashy visuals, especially as you unlock more abilities and have to, for the lack of a better way to describe it, jump through temporal space. There’s a lot of straightforward but varied platforming to be done throughout the levels, and it starts ramping up a bit even in early zones, like Meridian Town and the Clockwork Academy.
It features a short but sweet sci-fantasy coming-of-age story tied to an extremely simple quest to break some chains and free a loved one from, without spelling it out completely, themselves. I’ll leave it at that as to not spoil anything, but I’m sure a lot of you can figure out the plot very early on.
Overall, Duskfade is a great game that serves as a callback to the olden days for fossils like me, while also serving as a worthy gateway to 3D action platformers for the younger generation.