Duskfade Switch 2 Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
As a kid, my girlfriends and I used to spend hours taking turns on platformers such as Crash Bandicoot and Pandemonium. I still remember staying up all night with them on our sleepovers, going life for life, having a whale of a time even though there were a lot of deaths. When I heard about Duskfade, I couldn’t resist the chance to revisit the platforming genre. But will Duskfade satiate my desire to reclaim my childhood or make me wish things were still in the past? What’s it like? Grab your potions, equip your massive sword and get ready for adventure as we review Duskfade on Nintendo Switch 2.
A visually stunning intro has you quickly stepping into the shoes of Zirian, a young man checking on his sister Allira, who has been locked away for weeks working on something. In a scene very similar to Frozen’s Do You Want to Build a Snowman, Zirian is on the outside of his sister’s door before it unexpectedly explodes. You awaken in a broken crystalline Galaxy world full of clock parts, and knowing this game was developed by indie Developers Weird Beluga Studio, I was instantly blown away by the polish of the game and the art style. The mechanics of the game are fairly straightforward and a repeat of other platformers that have come before it, with run, dash, wall jumps and item collecting, but it is paced really well to keep you enthralled. Playing on the developer-recommended Clockmaker difficulty, I was still able to successfully navigate the world and the obstacles that presented themselves.
You are introduced to Cuckoo, who will be your companion throughout the game. The worlds are enchanting, and the NPCs you first meet are called, fittingly, Cloudies. Their dialogue ranges from wishing your grandfather was still here to talking gossip about “a boy that’s going around saying he’s going to save his sister” and how humans always have to make it about them. Cloudy, I’ve only just woken up from a concussion; I don’t think that’s fair to say. I’m also not quite sure where this is going, but they clearly don’t have time for my shenanigans.
Having some obvious nods to Kingdom Hearts, your character has been carrying around a large sword this whole time, called Minutero, which you are told was your grandfather’s, who passed away recently. The first mob encounters were quite a shock to the system on this difficulty level; the bigger mobs pack quite a punch, as you are limited to carrying only one health potion at a time. I also found out quickly that falling into water is insta-death. Good to know. Failing at these mob battles sees you presented with a game over screen and returning to the start of the level. Although this was frustrating due to my own skill level at times, I was actually appreciative of the challenge as there were repercussions to not improving or being slightly more tactical in your fights and movement. Interestingly enough, falling into lava isn’t insta-death and will have your character bouncing around the lava with his bum on fire and his life slowly declining. I did sometimes use this to navigate to my next safe spot.
The game is fairly linear in nature as you move along one path to complete the levels, although there were deviations to explore, where you are rewarded with items such as Star Shards, which are the in-game currency alongside upgrade gears that are used to upgrade your equipment. Along with this, you can also find Clock Heart Pieces, which increase your health bar each time you obtain 3. Star core fragments, which increase your Temporal Energy bar. There are Music boxes that require you to complete a quick time event to obtain them. You can also collect Rainbow Ingots, which allow you to change the colour of Minutero and Multicoloured potions, which allow you to change the colour of Zirian’s outfits at Tailord. There are also cats throughout the levels that are particularly difficult to catch, but they open up new outfits for Zirian. Finally, you are also able to collect coins, which you can trade for collectible cards after the 3rd chain is broken.
Bells are also found that you can hit with your sword, which will guide the way. A very handy feature since there isn’t a map and sometimes, regardless of my linear comment from earlier, I would get myself turned around chasing a crystal or gear upgrade. And then be confused about which direction I came from. Quite often I found myself wishing for a map or more frequently placed bells for ease of navigation. You’ll also find teleportation pads which will help you move between levels and return to town when you need gear upgrades. Each level has a set amount of items for you to obtain, allowing for replayability for those chasing perfection.
True to its platformer nature, traversing around the levels will have you rolling, double jumping, balancing on the ridge of roofs, and bouncing on flower pads, but watch out… some explode! Later on, you will be grinding along rails using a sundial as your board, much like in Sonic. Navigating around the world for discovery of items also became its own sort of enjoyment. I can’t tell you the number of times I’d go directly for a shiny object only to be stopped on my ascent, with no clear path to continue, and I’d have to pause and look around for another way to tackle it. I used a 2nd building to jump across balloon platforms in the sky to get to my goal. It was still fairly simple in nature but complex enough that it actually makes you have to think. Along with this, the game also rewards you for your exploring; there were so many times I discovered little hidden treasures in not-so-obvious places, like walking to the end of a random platform that went nowhere only to discover another platform rose out of the water with more Star Shards.
Fights were interesting and varied; mobs had their own art styles with a touch of cell shading which I thought was cool to look at, and during the fights if you landed a perfect dodge there would be a slow motion animation where the colour pallet would change to black and white highlighting what a cool maneauver it was, which was very much a throw back for me to Max Payne. The slow motion was subtle enough and quick enough that it did a really good job of showing it off, while not being so slow to become an annoyance, which is a very fine line to strike and Duskfade did it perfectly. Having said that, I’d quite often find myself trapped at an odd angle where I couldn’t see the rest of the mobs, and I’d have to adjust the camera on the fly; at other times, I’d be overwhelmed by mobs flying at me, hitting me in a row to the point that I’d have difficulty navigating out of it and just die. By the time I figured out most of the mechanics and was ok at it, I still decided to turn my difficulty to apprentice and had a much smoother go of it. I tend to be a gamer that enjoys a slight challenge, but if it becomes too difficult, the game will lose my attention….I’m here for a good time, not a long time. But for those more serious players, the added threat of increasing the difficulty would be a welcome challenge, even more so that it can be done on the fly from your in-game menu.
Boss fights are simultaneously challenging and dynamic. They’ll have you fighting with your sword, managing your dodge to survive, jumping across platforms and using your grapple to navigate around. With one potion to begin with, even on a lower difficulty level, the first two boss fights really had me pulling out all the stops to survive, and I really appreciated the challenge as it was a throwback to games of the past where you get a real sense of achievement. 5 levels and unlocking one of the tower chains finally gave me a 2nd potion spot, and I can’t tell you the amount of happiness that small change invoked. As you progress, you will also unlock a pendulum swing with X, which deals a heavier blow and a range of combos you can perform (and another potion spot). Later boss fights become rage-inducing with their mechanics. Versing Sadness was easy enough, but there are I think, 12ish steps for one phase alone, which was already enough steps to worry about but what made it rage-inducing is that the top platform was at the peak of your jump, making it easy to fail at and restarting that sequence each time was frustrating beyond belief. I ended up muting the sound so I didn’t have to hear her screams while I was doing so.
This kind of frustration kept happening for me even as I moved beyond sadness; I never seemed to be able to time the water spout jumps correctly. I persevered because I’m obstinate like that, but let me know if you found the same frustrations. I did find it particularly annoying when facing Guilt and even just moving through the general map. There were also new things I hadn’t seen before, like platforms that only show up when you heavy hit a bell, making paths visible but only for a limited time. What I also enjoyed was how there are new things almost every level. You’d see things as you progressed and eventually unlock that skill, which explains what you were seeing in earlier levels and also adds to the replayability.
The final level is a really cool amalgamation of all the things you have learnt throughout your playthrough, but it was also a lesson in patience. Particularly as there is no forgiveness. Every mistake sees you having to restart the level completely, which made it unnecessarily annoying. However, the whole game had a really great moral lesson on death and being able to let go. To keep living regardless of your despair.
Characters are a 3D cartoon art style but are incredibly detailed. Honestly, every level was just a visual masterpiece. Stunning in its detail, engaging and almost cinematic. I was enthralled each time the settings changed, and the colours were somehow vibrant but still moody and really set the scene of each area. There was a bit of clipping on Zirian’s hair and the tassels of his hood, but it really wasn’t enough to detract from the overall appeal of the artwork. This, coupled with subtle but intriguing music, really set the scene for an immersive playthrough. A special shoutout is needed for the settings menu screen too! I really liked the art, and the clock hands pointing to the menu options were a special touch. And the cogs of the progress menu were cool too.
Duskfade was near-on perfect for a lot of the game, with its high level of polish I was extremely close to giving it a perfect score and honestly couldn’t find any faults… until I did. Unfortunately, that glitch was quite a huge one. I was navigating around a water level, playing the floors, not lava, because water is insta-death in the game and navigating around a lighthouse, which was quite difficult; one bad catch had me falling under the water and being able to walk around fairly normally. When I tried to navigate out of it to continue with the game, I had insta-death trying to leave the water. Hitting retry put me back to the start of the area, but it was definitely an inconvenience. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a once-off occurrence, and I managed to recreate the glitch again on my next attempt to scale the lighthouse. During my playthrough, I also had some difficulty with the grapples. I would be facing towards the next grapple spot and jump in the direction, only to be pulled back with my own grapple to the previous grapple point. Other times I would be jumping towards a grapple that would clearly be within my grasp, and the grapple just wouldn’t highlight, and I’d fall to my death. At first I thought it was a me issue, but the more I played and the more confident I got, I quickly discovered it was actually a design flaw (noting that some grapples are purposely locked to begin with). There were also times when I became stuck within bridges and couldn’t get out without restarting at the last checkpoint.
For my Clockmakers looking into accessibility options, there aren’t that many except for motion blur controls, and that’s about it. There is a demo on the e-shop for you to try it for yourself, and as always, I recommend further research to see if Duskfade is suitable for your accessibility needs. At just under $44AUD, Duskfade offers a fantastic adventure, lasting about 15 hours for a rushed playthrough, and even more for completionists.
Duskfade is a must-buy if you’re looking for a 3D action platformer, and while there were definitely times when it had me questioning my life choices, that frustration is also part of what makes it feel so authentic to the classic platformers that came before it. It’s tough, it’s sometimes rage-inducing, but overcoming those challenges makes the eventual victories feel all the more rewarding.
So, What’s It Like? Duskfade is like Kingdom Hearts, crossed with Spyro the Dragon.
Duskfade is a What’s It Like certified exceptional game.
In the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this doesn’t influence my score.
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