This weekend I finally beat Duskfade after playing through it slowly for the past month. From the very beginning I was fully into this Kingdom Hearts-inspired 3D action-adventure platformer. The original story is what caught my attention in this world full of clocks and magic.
In Duskfade you play as Zirian accompanied by his mechanical sidekick, Cuckoo. The world has been plunged into eternal night, and the two must work together to save Zirian’s sister, Allira, from a mysterious Clock Tower.
SIMPLE GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in Duskfade is fairly simple and not overly complicated. Playing this game reassured me that not every game needs to be painfully difficult. I had a few moments of struggle against some larger mobs and big boss fights, but the solution was to slow down and figure out the timing.
Duskfade is never a hard game, but it’s the PS2-era wonky control-style that makes it tough to master. At times it almost feels like going back and playing an old game, but with new visuals. Whenever I would die in battle, it was because I was mashing buttons too fast or I hadn’t figured out how to solve the current puzzle.
This game was a welcome break from the fast-paced action in Marvel’s Wolverine, the tactical combat and exploration in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and the massive destruction in Donkey Kong Bananza. Those are just a few of the games I have recently played.
EXPLORING TICK TOWN
Duskfade’s simple combat (which does get a bit more complicated as you unlock new abilities) is blended with exploration. There are smashable crystals and boxes throughout the journey, but there are also so many hidden paths full of more hidden items. Some help you upgrade, others are just collectibles.
The one thing that did bother me was the cap on shards. Once I reached 9,999 shards I could no longer collect any more until I spent some. Ideally, you should be collecting shards along with cogs and gears to upgrade Zirian’s abilities. I wasn’t exploring enough of the hidden areas to pick up many cogs or gears, so once I reached the cap of 9,999 shards and couldn’t upgrade anything, there was no point in smashing for more shards.
I like that each area is its own level which you can revisit to collect whatever you missed. The game is set up this way to entice the player to come back with new abilities. I was never interested in returning to any of these past areas. I was mostly in it for the story — to save my sister, Allira.
THE END — SPOILERS AHEAD!
Your main objectives in Duskfade are laid out from the start. Break the chains and save our world. Each area consists of some exploration with mob battles, a boss fight, and then setting the area free by breaking the chains.
Each boss fight also features some puzzle elements. Instead of just beating each boss down to zero HP, there are puzzles scattered throughout each fight. The puzzles pit together platforming and Zirian’s latest abilities — the grapple hook, rail grinding, and gliding.
[Here come the SPOILERS!]
I knew there would be a final boss fight against our big villain, Despair — I won’t talk about the big twist here. What I did enjoy was that after this two-part boss battle, there was one more thing — an obstacle course-style escape sequence where Zirian must showcase all of his abilities. I also like that it didn’t go further than that.
Many games today overstay their ending. You think you’re onto the final boss fight, only to learn you were really halfway through. Maybe, you just beat the final boss (or main objective), but now there’s all this extra stuff to tie everything together. I like that Duskfade was like, “You did the thing, now get out of here! The End.”
Overall, Duskfade was a nice little break and reminder of games of the past. I love to see game developers pull from the past to create new experiences. That along with the story and world building is what really pulled me into Duskfade. 16 hours was the perfect length for this game.
*myVGBC was given a review code for Duskfade by the publisher.
