Our Verdict
Booned by a timelessly fairly artwork type and fulfilling journey construction, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is an exquisite, sprawling hack-and-slash soulslike let down by its overly forgiving fight.
Spurred by his father’s premature demise, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter sees Arlo, the little rat that might, setting out on a sprawling fantasy hack-and-slash journey. With a powerful core loop, lovely presentation, and a decent translation of soulslike fight to a 2D recreation, Tails of Iron 2 comes near greatness however is let down by a number of disappointing design selections.
Essentially the most instantly putting aspect of Tails of Iron 2 can be its biggest power: the attractive artwork route. The gorgeous hand-painted type stays an actual spectacle all through, combining with the fluid motion and fight animations to make for a shocking slasher. There are additionally clear distinctions between the design language of the numerous animalian tribes and biomes Arlo comes throughout, making a splendidly lived-in and intentional fantasy world.
One other ace up its sleeve is the narration by the white-haired Witcher himself, Doug Cockle, who successfully serves as an omniscient fairytale storyteller. Whereas remaining principally critical and delivering his distinct gravelly gravitas, the writers additionally give him a number of genuinely humorous strains, that are sufficiently subtle to not injury the dark-fantasy tone.
Sadly, the efficient presentation brings an underwhelming aspect of the story into sharper focus; not one of the characters, together with Arlo, have precise strains, their phrases as a substitute restricted to speech bubbles with pictures vaguely depicting their locutions. Cockle’s narration achieves sufficient alone to current the story, nevertheless it’s a disgrace that’s all there’s. And whereas there’s nothing drastically flawed with the sport’s soundtrack, as its instrumentation and tone befit the setting, there aren’t any standout tracks.
Whereas the general vibe of Tails of Iron 2 is explicitly impressed by soulslikes, its journey loop is arguably nearer to the Monster Hunter sequence. Arlo ventures out to a number of biomes and takes down no matter colossal monstrosity is plaguing the inhabitants’ peaceable properties. With every monster defeated, Arlo is granted each armor elements and weapons derived from that monster, in addition to the blueprints essential to forge, improve, and recreate any lacking elements.
Repeat this, with more and more difficult bosses and extra highly effective armor, and you’ve got the core gameplay loop of Monster Hunter. It’s simply as efficient right here in driving the participant forth to acquire new gear as it’s in Capcom’s sequence, as Arlo actually feels stronger as each your ability and his tools develop extra formidable. You can even count on Metroidvania components, with some upgrades and areas solely changing into obtainable upon elective backtracking with an merchandise or skill acquired afterward. Nevertheless, a stable loop is nothing if the fight grounding it isn’t satisfying.
As with its soulslike inspirations, Arlo is succesful of some core actions: dodge roll, parry, block, and light-weight and heavy assaults, in addition to consuming from a regenerating therapeutic flask. The pace and restoration of his assaults differ between swords, axes, and hammers, however the fight fundamentals stay the identical all through. Enemies will flash up with Spider Sense-like indicators of methods to counter their subsequent assault: white will be blocked, yellow have to be parried, and crimson have to be dodged. This trifecta is intuitive and simply understood, and there are just a few cases the place it’s unclear methods to correctly defend your self. When you perceive the fight, you’re set for Tails of Iron 2’s total runtime.
Whereas understanding the fight inside out might really feel like an influence fantasy to some, it additionally comes with the danger of the fight feeling ‘solved’, and a recreation bought partly on its problem changing into too easy. This concern is realized within the parry and dodge roll techniques. Within the case of the previous, the window for achievement is very large. Many video games will go for small parry home windows of round 10-20 frames or much less, reminiscent of Sekiro and Elden Ring’s 12-frame parries, to make sure it’s important to work to earn them. Contrastingly, you possibly can activate Arlo’s parry virtually a complete second (measured to be round 48 frames) earlier than an assault lands and nonetheless blow the enemy again into a protracted, weak stagger. It’s beneficiant to a fault, and leads to the parry’s big reward feeling unearned and unsatisfying.
As for the dodge roll, there’s nothing inherently flawed concerning the transfer itself. Arlo can leap right into a roll with full invincibility frames on startup to keep away from assaults, comply with up right into a second roll to cowl further distance, and even cancel assault animations right into a roll. It really works as meant when used to keep away from red-indicated assaults. The problem is that Arlo can simply maintain rolling on, with nothing to restrict him. Different video games with this skill introduce stamina meters or diminishing returns to cease you from roll spamming, however with none limiting issue, avoiding assaults is virtually risk-free right here, reducing the fight stakes significantly.
After some adventuring, Arlo can be imbued with the fundamental powers of fireplace, ice, poison, and lightning. These are as highly effective as you’d think about, with ice freezing opponents in place and poison laying down a effervescent subject that damages enemies over time. Whereas gratifying to make use of, the fundamental powers fall into the identical lure because the dodge roll; with no significant draw back limiting their use, they develop into overpowered. With solely a brief damage-based cooldown for every, Arlo can incessantly cycle between high-damage spell casts to decimate enemies and managers because the grasp of all components.
Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter does loads of issues confidently and efficiently. There’s the soul and skeleton of an ideal soulslike right here, so it’s unlucky that its largest points are current all through the entire journey. It’s nonetheless price your time, however its flaws chew simply sufficient to maintain it from being the perfect in its class.
