Duskfade Review – A Stunning Return to PS2-Era Platformers

Set in a Clockpunk universe, Duskfade drops you into the shoes of Zirian, a youngster living in the wonderfully beautiful Tick Town whose sister has become trapped in a massive Tower that magically appeared out of nowhere.

It’s up to Zirian to travel across this fantastic world to not only save his sister, but also to discover the secrets of the mysterious Clock Tower and that of the worlds architects, the Master Clockmakers. Accompanied by the enigmatic mechanical bird, Cuckoo, Zirian at least won’t have to tackle this quest on his own.

A Familiar Look With Its Own Identity

Developer Weird Beluga’s first game does, initially, bear a striking resemblance to Kingdom Hearts in it’s visual design. The oversized weapons, inky blots of darkness for enemies and the sumptuous visual design scream Square’s juggernaut RPG series. While there’s a significant touch of Disney-ness to Duskfades story, the resemblance ends there as this is a game that quickly charts its own course for story, gameplay and expanding visual clout.

That doesn’t mean Duskfade doesn’t have a good story. There’s an odd pairing between the happy-go-lucky Zarian and the angry, something to prove Cuckoo. The game manages to work in some effective emotional beats about coming to terms with oneself and past trauma, along with building a budding relationship between this odd couple. It adds a much appreciated depth to the proceedings and the world itself.

A Stunning Clockpunk World

Visually, Duskfade is as gorgeous as it gets. Its stylised world and character design is never anything short of stunning and inspiring to look at. From the vibrant use of colour and lighting in Tick Town to the visually sumptuous, calming visuals of a flooded Mexican inspired beach town, Duskfade throws out consistently beautiful and inventive visual and area design.

While there’s a rush to replicate the real world in most games with ray-tracing and all kinds of visual lighting tricks, this is a game resplendent and confident in its fantasy inspired, colourful and cartoon-inspired lighting and design.

PS2-Inspired Action Platforming

While the visuals may be what you first notice about Duskfade, it’s the gameplay that is its defining and compelling trait. Duskfade takes us back to the good old days of PS2 inspired action platformers, tackling everything that made that era of gaming so great while also, noticeably, side-stepping many of its issues.

Exploring Tick Town and Beyond

Tick Town acts as the games central hub, with the rest of the games areas branching out from it like the hands of a clock. While this isn’t an open world adventure, you can run from one of the games latrge, open areas to the next and back again in a logical world flow that makes sense. There is some loading between areas, but it’s neither long enough and often enough to break the impression of moving through a cohesive, unified world.

That sunken beach town I mentioned earlier been a perfect example as you navigate the rooftops jutting from the waters to a series of small islands and then into the ruins of the Clockmakers Academy in one long, excellent platforming sequence.

There are fast travel and checkpoints scattered around to save your game at and to make returning to Tick Town easier, but you could, for most areas just as easily run all the way back. It’s a simple and smart piece of design that makes the world feel connected.

Combat and Boss Battles

You’ll be double jumping, dodge-rolling and air dashing your way across this fantastical adventure. Combat is par for the course with a hack and slash combo focus, multiple enemies at a time and a lock-on that didn’t always work all that well. You can parry ranged attacks back at enemies while Cuckoo can attack with ranged attacks.

A perfect dodge gives you a small slice of time slowdown but in general you should pay attention to what’s going on around you. Boss fights are one of the games combat highlights as they usually take place in arenas that become as much a part of the battle as the bosses themselves, with lava that can flood the area, grappling hooks to swing around on or platforms to make your way across to hit a boss before it can charge up an attack.

Generally, all the skills you use for movement can be used in combat as well.

Collectibles, Crystals and Upgrades

As with the PS2 era, there’s plenty of collectibles to find and currency in the form of crystals to collect. You are hard-capped to how many crystals you can have, which can be a bit annoying when you’re too far away from a fast travel point. Instead of a skill tree, you buy new attacks, abilities and customisation for your sword from Tick Towns vendors.

Platforming at Its Best

Duskfade also excels in its platforming. Movement is a generous joy here, with a double-jump and air-dash that’s been perfectly calibrated to carry you from one platform or grapple point to the next. The game is at its best when it’s chaining sequences of platforming together in an exhiliratingly fun course to get from one end of the world to the next.

And as with many platformers, the further into the game you get, the more abilities you unlock to return to earlier locations housing areas you couldn’t reach before. A grappling hook becomes available early on that opens up those areas closed off by chasms before and the ability to grind rails comes into play later.

A Few Minor Issues

The games few, small issues, namely the cap on currency and that the fast travel points are certainly too far and too few between are tiny issues on what is an outstanding debut game.

Final Verdict

Duskfade is a breath of fresh air in the gaming landscape right now. Not because it does anything drastically different to modern games, or because it’s re-inventing the gears and cogs we’re all so used to, but rather because it’s a throwback to a game type that just doesn’t get developed anymore. As such, Duskfade is a love letter to a time of gaming that has all but disappeared.

One that’s executed with such skill and panache that it both brings back fond memories of old games while feeling like somewhat of a palate cleanser to modern libraries. That I played through it with a constant smile on my face is just the icing on this wonderful slice of platforming cake.

Duskfade Launch Trailer

This review was based off a Xbox playthrough.

Adam Ligocki

Writer, 3D modeller, philosopher and unenthusiastic Polka dancer extraordinaire. When not crafting delicious tales of horror to thrill and enchant, he doffs the cap of a world weary armchair archaeologist searching for the means to awaken The Great Old Ones into this reality. What’s that? Not real you say? The same thing could be said of David Hasselhoff’s Pop career. When the search proves fruitless, he retires deeper into his chair with a packet of snacks to raid. . .