Tails of Iron (2021)

My first time through I didn't get a chance to play the free dlc added post release. I was pleasantly surprised at how robust it is. While not quite doubling the content I would say it adds a post game a little over half the density of the main game in story and boss fights. This was a complete game and they in no way had to do this. Its just a nice bonus to spend a decent amount of more time in this world. It doesn't innovate at all, just adds more of the same. If you've been enjoying the writing and combat and you're not bored of it, it'll keep you entertained. Of you wanted it to evolve in the post game somehow, it didn't. That's not a bad thing. It knows what it is and it keeps to that path with no dip in quality

Been replaying this recently after 5 years. I forgot how much I adore the art style and how comfortable the gameplay is. I remember having fun with it but I think I was kind of harsh in my review. At a time when I'm running out of games that really feel worthwhile, this is still an experience I don't regret returning to again. Probably play the second one now that I'm in the mood again

4/10 Commençons par les bons points : la direction artistique, le charme du jeu. Mtn les mauvais points, c’est à dire tout le reste : le gameplay est lent, hyper répétitif, les boss ne sont que des sac à pv. Le gameplay vrmt est catastrophique. Les siestes secondaires ne sont finalement pas optionnelles puisque seul moyen de gagner des pièces, nécessaires pour avancer dans l’histoire. J’y ai joué plusieurs heures, j’avais quasiment fini le jeu, mais c’est le gameplay est tellement nul que taper des sacs de PV sans fin ça m’a gavé. Dommage car le jeu a vraiment du charme.

Very decent souls-like rpg metroidvania without much inclination to metroidvania mechanics and without over the top hardcore of action. Very succinct and compact, so I didn't have time to get bored like I do with many lengthier games. Difficulty grows gradually and on time, only 2 or 3 bosses made me lose my temper (normal difficulty, not very much experience in souls-like games). The artstyle with this hand-drawn characters and backgrounds is so neet, like something between Hollow Knight and Castle Crashers. The plot is a little generic if "generic" might be used while depicting a not very satirical story about a tiny rat king recapturing his kingdom from wicked toads. But if you try to dig deeper into the game, you might find some details that make the story not so plain and might even make you want to see a sequel in future. So in my opinion Tails of Iron is not something very special, but still I liked that brief journey a lot, so I'd definitely recommend it for players who like 2D-metroidvanias and don't mind to overcome some agressive action. And for those who liked the way the game looks but are not into harsh battles there is an easy mode, but I didn't try it, so not sure that this way Tails of Iron feels as good as it should. Upd.: after a couple of days after I finished Tails of Iron, a free update released unexpectedly with new main quest line and a lot of side quests, 4+h in total if you play it to 100% completion. The quality of this update is comparable to what I previously saw and new players probably won't even know that it was added more than 2 years after initial release. Old players who liked Tails of Iron will most probably enjoy these new quests and there's even a little bit of fan service for them. Such amount of quality content is rarely given away for free, so that was very nice of developers and publishers to do so and now I recommend this game even more.

I love it when games like this pop up as part of ps plus. I probably never would have gotten it otherwise, but trying it out I was instantly hooked. Beautiful art book graphics with a cute look, combined with bloody violence. I guess it can be called a 2D side scroller with lite metroidvania and RPG aspects inspired by games like Salt&Sanctuary. It was the perfect level of difficulty for this kind of game imo. I died several times during most boss fights, but after switching gear and learning their patterns I was able to struggle through before getting too frustrated. After a challenging boss battle I couldn’t wait to get to the next one. It’s fairly short, I finished it in just under 10 hours. I think that was a good length for this game - I never got bored and feel satisfied with the experience afterwards. It was really fun to run around in my little rat kingdom, and see how my quests improved the castle, village and the lives of the rat population. Many of the side quests were a bit repetitive (go back where you were before, kill a new threat and repeat), and it was a bit annoying that you only could have one active side quest at a time. Other than that it was a lovely little adventure.