Tails of Iron Review

I’m pretty sure my affinity towards games featuring anthropomorphic rodents and other animals stems from my love of the Redwall book series as a child. The first game I reviewed here at the tavern, Micetopia, was one such game, and Odd Bug Studio’s Tails of Iron is the most recent. I’ve heard people compare Tails of Iron to some of the best games out there: Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, and even The Witcher. It does borrow elements from all those games; however, it very much feels like its own game. 

Tails of Iron is a 2D Action-RPG with a wonderful storybook art style. The game stars a young rat named Redgi who is an heir to the throne of the Rat Kingdom. Unsurprisingly, Redgi’s older brother also wants to be king and to settle the matter the two have a duel in front of the king and other spectators. This is your first real taste of combat (the training dummy doesn’t count), but you are destined to win; unfortunately, immediately after you claim victory (and the right to wear the crown) the rat’s sworn enemies, the vile Frog Clan, launch a surprise attack, killing your father, the king, and destroying your home, the Rat Fort.

Redgi wakes up a little later under a pile of rubble. After leading him back to the main area of the fort, past the treacherous frogs, Redgi helps the remaining soldiers take back the fort. Once the fort is secure the king’s assistant (an albino rat) informs you that you will need to rebuild the fort along with the surrounding area. All of the conversations in Tails of Iron consist of pictures depicting what the creature is saying; luckily the narrator, voiced by The Witcher’s Doug Cockle, explains pretty much everything that is happening.  Most of those rebuilding projects require the most valuable of the game’s three types of currency, gold. The assistant tells you that completing quests will earn you gold, and that is what you’ll be doing for a good portion of the game. 

Quests can be undertaken one at a time at a faction board. The locations of these boards are indicated on your map as long as there are any quests available. The first time I opened the pause menu map I got a jolt of excitement. The map has a Metroidvania look to it, it reminded me of the map in Hollow Knight. Each area has its own map and the whole outline is visible and then each section gets filled in as you enter it. The game isn’t a Metroidvania, which I personally found just a little disappointing, but I have to give the developers credit for trying something different with the semi-open world quest system. On the other hand, the basic quests feel very underwhelming and repetitive. A lot of them require you to do stuff like “go destroy the Grub nest”, and they usually take place in areas you’ve already fully explored. The best parts of the game are when you are doing the main storyline quests. A highlight being the big secret (trying to avoid spoilers) you discover under the old mine. The developers also slightly right the ship by making many of the later faction board quests revolve around the slaying of boss-type creatures. There is one quest board that is essentially an arena battle sign-up sheet where you get to fight a half dozen different boss-type creatures, which I enjoyed working my way through. 

The game world is split up into a few sections (each with its own map), and you can hitch a ride to any of the available areas by using one of the travel boards. You spend a good portion of the game exploring two areas in particular and completing quests therein. Looking at the world map from the travel board each time I used it had me constantly wondering when I’d get the opportunity to go somewhere new. I was pretty excited each time I discovered a new area, but that could certainly be because I was getting fairly bored circling around the first few areas.

The combat system is a strong point of the game and the foundation of the gameplay. It borrows a little from Dark Souls in that your attacks need to be deliberate; you have to know when to attack, when to dodge, and when to parry, and your timing is critical (although it is more forgiving than a Souls game). Once you start your attack the action is locked. There’s no way to cancel an animation, so you have to always be aware of your situation – this becomes easier once you learn the different enemies’ movesets. There isn’t a stamina gauge, which is a nice omission; however, you still aren’t able to just wail on enemies though since they will attack you and when you get attacked you are briefly stunned.

There are three weapon categories: one-handed, two-handed, and ranged. Each category has three subsets of weapons: swords, axes (plus a few maces and hammers), and spears for the two melee weapon categories. Each of these subsets has a decent number of weapons that can be acquired.  You can press left and right on the D-pad to switch between your equipped one-handed and two-handed weapons, but this isn’t really necessary because a press of RB initiates a one-handed attack and RT unleashes your two-handed attack. The ranged weapons include the typical bow and crossbow, as well as a more advanced weapon that is found later in the game, but the total number of ranged weapons is much more limited. The great thing about the ranged weapons though is they are easy to use – all you have to do is press Y and you’ll automatically shoot at the nearest enemy you are facing, no need to aim. It doesn’t always hit though – if the enemy is too far across the screen or is flying then the shot could miss. Each ranged weapon type uses a different type of ammo, all of which can be purchased at one of the two stores in the game. You can replenish your supply by finding one of the handy ammo buckets located next to some of the save benches. 

The combat feels sort of slow, but also methodical – you really have to wait for the best moment to strike. There is a nice selection of enemies and they all seem to have varying attack and movement speeds. At the start of the game before fighting your brother for the crown you learn how to dodge, block, and parry, and the best times to use each one technique. Normal attacks can be avoided by using any of the methods, but when an enemy does a stronger attack lines of color will appear in front of the enemy. If the lines are red then you cannot parry the attack and must dodge it. If they are white then you need to block it with your shield by pressing LT; luckily you can still block if you are currently using a two-handed weapon. If the lines are yellow you cannot dodge through the attack but the attack can be parried. Parrying an enemy’s attack usually stuns them for a few seconds allowing you to get multiple hits. I shouldn’t forget to mention how each weapon subset has different combo moves which is a nice touch, although they are all somewhat similar. You can also do a more powerful attack by holding the attack button down to charge it up.

The art style in Tails of Iron is fantastic, the story-book art design fits the game perfectly. It kind of feels like it could be the evolution or a grown-up version of the Redwall series. While it does have a cartoony, graphic novel sort of look to it, the game is gory and violent, and the setting is harsh. Redgi carries a flask that can be filled with bug juice that you can use to heal Redgi. It’s a bright yellow liquid, and while there are many bug juice dispensers throughout the game world an alternative method for refilling your flask is to hack up one of the grubs you have killed. As Redgie chops up a carcass, yellow “juice” splatters all over him, and as he whacks away you can see the flask fill up. Redgi spends a lot of time covered in yellow bug juice. Overall the level layout design is somewhat uninspiring, there’s limited platforming and only a few secret areas, but the art design of each area is fantastic. The best part of the art is how many of the areas change and evolve as you play and repair your kingdom. I also thought the graphic design of the menus and loading screens were very well done.

I didn’t know what to expect in terms of difficulty. After hearing it compared to some of the tougher games out there I thought it might also take that route, but overall the gameplay is somewhat forgiving. There are save benches all over the place, and unlike the Souls games enemies do not respawn when you rest. A few of the bosses gave me some trouble, but I stuck with it and defeated them all. A fair amount of them are optional so if you’re having a lot of trouble you might be able to skip that fight, but you do get some good rewards for toughing it out. In addition to more powerful weapons, you can also be rewarded with armor. There is an armor value and weight balance that you have to keep an eye on, but I realized that going over the line into the middle tier from the lower one doesn’t actually slow you down much. In addition to a regular defense value, many of the body armors have an additional defense stat for one of four enemy creature types. I liked this feature and it spurred me to always plan ahead, wearing the armor type that would give me the best defense. Four types of enemy creatures doesn’t sound like much, but there is a decent amount of variation within each creature type, and there are a few other enemy creatures as well.

Conclusion

Overall Tails of Iron is an enjoyable experience. Action-RPG fans will find a lot to like here. I know some people don’t like 2D games, but everything here works well, especially the beautiful art and the combat. Some of the side quests can feel like a drag, but the main questline will draw you in and keep you hooked.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.