There’s a little of Hollow Knight in how you save at benches in Tails of Iron, and a little of Dark Souls in the combat and healing systems (although in Tails of Iron, it’s bug juice instead of Estus). It feels as though there’s a little of God of War in the combat too, of Kingdom Come Deliverance in the inventory, and of The Witcher in Tails of Iron’s grim and gory tale. You might recognise a number of influences in there, but after my time with a preview build of Tails of Iron, I can say it absolutely stands apart on its own four paws as an excellent and highly enjoyable action-RPG. One of the first things you’ll notice with Tails of Iron is its gorgeous, medieval/storybook art style — and one of the first things Tails of Iron firmly establishes is that it is not just a “cute” game. It’s gory and brutal with merciless combat and merciless enemies. “We like it to feel almost like a Grimm’s fairytale, like it’s got this cutesy exterior, but underneath all of that it’s got this dark, grim story,” says producer and designer Jack Bennett. We play as young prince Redgi of the Rat Kingdom, and the preview build started me off in the Crimson Keep, where I learned the basics of combat, crafting food, and forging weapons. We’re given little time to enjoy Redgi’s exalted status, however, as an invasion by Green Wart and the Frog Clans sends everything tumbling into chaos. This ensures you’re doubly hooked: you get all the satisfaction of starting practically from nothing, doubled up with that drive to help retake and rebuild your kingdom.“One of the things that we like to do in our games is try and reduce the text as much as possible,” explains Bennett. The story is instead told through images in speech bubbles, complemented by an adorable squeaking and whistling from the speaker themselves, which Bennett says was heavily inspired by the Clangers. “Anyone speaking any language, or with any reading ability, can still piece together the story and understand what’s going on,” Bennett explains. With the dialogue stripped back, you can focus entirely on the action and combat, which is satisfyingly weighty in Tails of Iron. You’ve got your moves like dodging and parrying and charged attacks, but you really need to pay attention to each enemy’s movements and fighting style to ensure you’ll get a victory, and each combat encounter feels distinct and memorable as a result. In my time with the preview build, I alternated between a sword and spear — each will have its own pros and cons, so you’ll need to strategise. Spears don’t deal as much damage, but the speed and range they grant can be invaluable.Along with fighting, you’ll also be busy searching for ingredients and blueprints. Finding ingredients and making food, for example, will be highly important. Each meal gives you a permanent health increase, meaning it’s a great way to level the playing field for Redgi. You’ll also want to be on the lookout for blueprints, to craft new weapons and armour. You can choose between armour and weapons based on different stats such as defense, weight, resistance to frogs, resistance to moles, and more. There’s a whole room in the Crimson Keep dedicated to your finds, and according to Bennett, we’ll see this room fill up with the armour and weapons we’ve gathered. The world of Tails of Iron feels remarkably full and vibrant. I travelled from the Crimson Keep to Long Tail Village, and even with the kingdom in disarray, each screen felt full of life. “A lot of 2D games will just make long flat layers… three or four levels behind each other that make up the whole scene,” explains Bennett, “but we individually place each asset. We don’t make long layers, we make individual assets that we place at different Z-depths and that’s why we get such an intense parallax effect on all of our levels and why everything feels like it’s slightly moving.”The achievements, meanwhile, are all tracked in a big book in-game. “We like our achievements, but Switch doesn’t have an achievement system, so we’ve put it in the book so on Switch, everyone can see their achievements as well,” explains Bennett. Altogether, Tails of Iron achieved what every good preview should — it left me wanting to play more, and impatiently waiting for that September 17th release date. If Tails of Iron has likewise caught your eye, check out our Xbox Indie Spotlight on Tails of Iron where Bennett told us more about Rat wars, Frog Clans, and the brutal world of Tails of Iron.
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