Dust: An Elysian Tail

Dust: An Elysian Tail combines nonlinear platforming with fights against groups of enemies and an open world of quests and secrets. If this hand-painted single-player adventure suits your plans now, ≈ $4.36 at Kinguin gets you into it; combat is easy to learn but designed for mastery.

If the purchase can wait, the next announced Steam sale window is Dec 17, 2026 – Jan 4, 2027; that does not guarantee the game will participate or receive a discount. At $14.99 from Kinguin, Dust: An Elysian Tail costs ≈ $10.63 less than the comparable base game on Steam.

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95%Steam Reviews14.3K reviews85Metacritic/100

Released: May 24, 2013

Action · Platformer · Metroidvania · Indie · RPG

KinguinDust: An Elysian Tail PC Steam CD Key·Platform:·Checked 2026-10-19~~~ $15.70~~-72%from~ $4.36(~ €3.88)Save $10.63 vs SteamBuy now

GAMIVODust: An Elysian Tail EN/DE/FR/IT/JA/ES Global·Platform:·Checked 2026-10-19-70%from~ $4.48(~ €3.99)Buy now

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GOGDust: An Elysian Tail·Platform:·Checked 2026-10-19-38%from~ $9.35Buy now

Steam·Platform:·United States Steam official price~ $14.99Buy now

Humble BundleDust: An Elysian Tail·Platform:·Checked 2026-10-19~ $14.99Buy now

All-time low ~ $2.99across Steam & third-party stores

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Price History

Past 36 months · Updated daily

Historical Low~ $2.992024-06Current Low Across Stores~ $5.75GOGvs. Historical Low+92%

Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.

01About Dust: An Elysian Tail

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a hand-painted action adventure about a mysterious warrior searching for his past and true identity. Armed with the Blade of Ahrah and its small guardian, Fidget, Dust explores an expansive world, tackles nonlinear platforming, and takes quests from villagers. Hidden secrets and upgrades await alongside battles against groups of enemies. Players rate it 95%% positive from 14,273 reviews. The interface is available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and German. Released May 24, 2013.

Credits

LEAD DESIGNER

Dean Dodrill

video game developer

NotableDust: An Elysian Tail

Composer

Alexander Brandon

Developer

Humble Hearts LLC

Publisher

Xbox Game Studios

Steam player reviews

95%positiveOverwhelmingly Positive14,273 Steam reviews

Lowest recorded in 36 months

$2.992024-06-19 · GOGBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.

Language support

Language	Interface	Subtitles	Audio
English	Yes	—	Yes
French	Yes	—	—
Italian	Yes	—	—

Show 3 more languages

Language	Interface	Subtitles	Audio
Spanish	Yes	—	—
Japanese	Yes	—	—
German	Yes	—	—

Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-20

02Before you buy

Controls

The Steam PC version has full controller support and can also be played with mouse and keyboard or keyboard alone.

Languages

English is fully voiced. The interface is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.

03Frequently asked questions

What is the story about?

Dust searches for his true identity and fights with the Blade of Ahrah and its guardian, Fidget.

Is there anything to explore?

Yes. Nonlinear platforming rewards exploration and experimentation, while the open world holds quests, secrets, and upgrades.

How does combat work?

Combat is easy to learn but difficult to master, with Dust able to battle many enemies at once.

Popular Steam reviews

Native-language selection · 10 reviews

Selected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.

RecommendedSteam player

11/25/2013

Great game. I really enjoyed it. The game looks really nice. Even though there is one weapon, you are able to do a few different moves and fidgit attacks. The game is metroid styled and you will have to return to some areas if you want to get the extra stuff. But just have fun hacking and slashing your way through. The voice acting isn't too bad and the characters look nice. The soundtrack is beautifull. It's really great. Though the game isn't that long and there isn't really a replay value. It's worth picking up for a good experience. If you don't have anything against furries atleast.. Because the game is full of them. I would pick it up when you get the chance. Maybe during a sale if you really prefer. But no matter when you pick it up.. You should pick it up if you enjoy a metroid styled game that looks amazing. Just hack 'n' slash to the end~Show moreShow less

18.2 hours at review358 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

11/09/2014

I'm going to be objective (as humanly possible) with this review because I know a lot of people truly enjoyed Dust, which is great. As a huge indie game supporter, I am ecstatic to see games like Dust do so well. I'm not trying to hate on it, but I personally did not enjoy Dust. Let's take a look: Pros: + The graphics are absolutely gorgeous. Easily one of the prettiest games I've ever played. + The controls are very tight and feel good. There is no slipping. Very important for this type of gameplay. Good job here. + I don't understand how a single person made this game. Major props because this game is very long compared to other titles which were made by one to two people. Cons: - It's really important to connect with the characters in order to enjoy your time in the game. Unfortunately, the main character in this game has zero personality and I cringed every time he opened his mouth. He does transform in the end into someone with character and zeal but it took 8 hours for that to happen. For 90% of the game he is possibly the most boring protagonist I have ever witnessed. I understand his "beginning personality" was part of "who he is" but it made for an extremely boring character. - The combat is beyond oversimplified. You basically use the same two abilities over and over again. With the type of combat that exists in this game, I feel like some really cool intricate combos could have been created. Where is the strategy? Where is the strategic planning? Where are the ridiculous crazy combos? - The enemies for the first 80% of the game are also oversimplified and unimaginative. You can use the same strategy for almost every enemy you encounter barring a select few with specific abilities. - The item choices are so bland. There are almost no "choices" you have to make between items. 95% of the time, they simply just become better and better. They have no tradeoffs. This causes the game to become very linear and simplified. - The storyline was... borderline acceptable at best. I felt like so much effort was put into the end of the game that the entire 90% of the rest game was just left out. The ending was good. I liked the ending. Nothing happens though for the entire rest of the game. Overall, Dust is very beautiful visually, and I enjoyed the message at the end. Unfortunately, Dust feels like a shell that was never fully developed and lacks depth. The characters are bland, the combat is oversimplified, and the item choices are made for you due to having very little tradeoffs. Dust takes about 8 hours to complete. 5/10Show moreShow less

7.8 hours at review187 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

12/03/2013

This is everything an action rpg sidescroller can offer! Fluid combat, gripping story and characters, nice music, good voice actors and a good gear system for upgrades and armor. This is a game that I highly recommend to anyone. It's major selling point is actually it's combat that is so fluid, smooth and makes you feel like a total badass when chopping up your foes. Worth mentioning is also that only one guy made this game (not counting voice actors and artists working on music) in only four years!Show moreShow less

15.1 hours at review343 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

06/22/2015

Overall I disliked this game, but its probably just not for me. I can see why others like it. Cons - Combat system is too simplistic. You will use the same moves over and over. Some moves are really not even useful against any enemies. - Game gets repetative fairly quicky, about the 3-4 hour mark. - Not a true metroidvania. Would call it metroidvania-lite. - Dialogue is bad to the point of cringey at times. Pros - Great art. - Decent story. - Fun hidden secrets for those who like treasure hunting.Show moreShow less

9.6 hours at review120 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

04/02/2015

Intro I want to start off by saying I would not call “Dust: An Elysian Tail” a bad game. I would, however, call it a mediocre game for someone like me. I want to explain my criticisms of this game, and I want to emphasize that there are people to whom I would recommend this game, and I will expand on that point at the end. My main criticisms of this game are: Story I recognize that this criticism is mostly personal preference, but I found the story good by video game standards but not movie or book standards, which is not saying much. In addition, I felt that the story took a left turn in Act III that was not built up to much at all, but the characters acted like it had been foreshadowed all along, which was kind of annoying. Combat The combat system is acceptable but not great. It’s mostly button-mashing and there’s not a lot of variety in the moves you can perform, so by the end of the game, the combat will feel quite repetitive. There are ways to counter enemy attacks and other special moves, but when enemies fill the screen (as they often do), it’s very difficult to see when enemies are attacking, which often makes button-mashing the most effective strategy. RPG System I would only consider this game an RPG in the loosest sense. The RPG system in this game boils down to “you get stronger as the game progresses.” There are no interesting choices to make regarding your stats or playstyle. As you level up your stats, the game forces you to keep them roughly equal, and you’ll eventually be able to max out on everything anyway. Difficulty The game has a difficulty selection screen at the beginning, which is not a great way of setting difficulty in general. Fundamentally, the game does not play well on higher difficulties. As I said before, it can be hard to see when enemies are attacking, so you’ll often be hit without much warning. On higher difficulties, in which enemies do more damage, this can lead to quick deaths out of nowhere. Movement is very loose, which means that you can die repeatedly without it ever feeling like your fault. Ultimately, any difficulty in this game feels frustrating rather than rewarding. Conclusion My criticisms above are more than enough for me to give this game a thumbs-down. However, “Dust: An Elysian Tail” certainly has numerous redeeming qualities. The artwork and voice acting are great, and I can’t say that there’s anything wrong on the technical side of this game. I would recommend this game to people who plan on playing it for the story and artwork, and I would definitely recommend playing on the lower difficulty levels. If you consider yourself more of a “hardcore” gamer, I suggest passing on this game in favor of a different 2D metroidvania game.Show moreShow less

15.9 hours at review63 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

12/03/2013

I just couldn't bring myself to like this game no matter how hard I tried. I'm a huge fan of the Metroidvania genre, which includes games like Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid, Cave Story, Muramasa The Demon Blade and so forth... I approached Dust thinking it would be a bit like Muramasa because of its huge character sprites, similar anime-style art direction and also a big focus on melee combat. That's also what Dust is in essence, but when compared to Muramasa everything just seems very dull. The combat is floaty and I think there is not enough impact when you execute all your moves. The animations are very cool and flashy but the execution just feels wrong and rewardless. Your combo meter goes up into the hundreds, but there is just no feeling of impact. Also where Muramasa kind of had this alternation between combat and exploration, Dust is basically combat all the time, and the already average combat system becomes annoying after a few hours. And that is basically my biggest problem in the gameplay of Dust, but then we get into the elephant in the room... The artstyle and the voice acting There's nothing wrong with the execution and I know what they were going for, but the governing ideas behind it all rubbed me the wrong way. I just don't like the overly humanized furry design of the game. I know this is probably a reason why many people became interested about the game in the first place, but me as a fan of only the Metroidvania genre would not have wanted these characters to look that way. Also a very personal nitpick is the voice acting for the two main leads. I found Dust and Fidget extremely annoying. I can hear that both the voice actors are very talented in their own right, but it just annoys me when Dust has to deliver all his lines with this annoying emo kid vibe and Fidget has this high pitched overly enthusiastic voice. Fidget is basically Navi from Ocarina of Time whit a huge amount of fully spoken dialogue. I don't know why they wanted to choose their voices to sound this way, but I'm kind of saddened that they did, because the awful delivery totally ruins the story for me. I won't comment much on the story, because I have not completely finished the game, but I think I have played enough to form an opinion of the game in general. So far I think the story is kind of interesting and has had a nice amount of twists. The boss battles have also been very well integrated into the story. It is entertaining, and generally well acted besides my gripes about the main leads.Show moreShow less

11.3 hours at review53 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

08/17/2014

Initially Dust: An Elysian Tail was supposed to be a cartoon, titled Elysian Tail. Most of the work was done just by one person, Dean Dodrill, who was an artist, animator, screenwriter, producer etc. Development lasted 7 years and it seemed that Elysian Tail will never be finished. And may be so would be if Dean Dodrill had not decided to turn his project into the game. 　TOTAL RECALL 　　The protagonist (Named Dust) wakes up in the woods and doesn't remember anything about his past. Immediately he meets new friends who will be with him all the way. Wise and calm speaking Blade of Ahrah and the keeper of this sword, a charming flying little creature (Nimbat) named Fidget. By the end of the game, we'll know who is actually Dust and what hides his past. 　ELYSIAN TALE 　　From 2D game with cartoon furry characters i didn't expect epic or exciting stories. But in fact, everything is different. The story begins with a fairly quiet atmosphere of a small adventure, but ends by epic confrontation between the two armies fighting for their cause. And the personal story of the protagonist is intriguing to the end of the story. I can’t don't say special thanks to the awesome work of actors. I want to underline a terrific job of actors and artist. With their help, the game fascinates and keeps interest until the end. 　DUST IN ACTION 　　Dust: An Elysian Tail is 2D beat ‘em up action RPG. Combat system uses 4 buttons with which you can perform various combos. In the game is not very many kinds of enemies, but their combinations create a variety of interesting situations, making fights interesting enough. Boss battles can be quite difficult, but still interesting. 　DUST TO DUST 　　Quite unexpectedly (at least to me) the game was not just entertainment for few evenings, but very exciting story with charming characters and interesting gameplay. Watching the final credits, i had only the pleasant sensations. Wants to be back to this enchanting world to see more adventurous of the Dust and Fidget. 　　Special attention is worthy of the music written by the composer HyperDuck SoundWorks. Alluring beautiful songs which helps plunge into this fabulous world and enjoy while playing Dust: An Elysian Tail. 　Multiplayer: 　　Online: Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ 　　Co-op: Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ Θ 　Storyline: ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺ 　Graphics: ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺O 　Gameplay: ☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺O 　　Complexity of the achievements: All achievements can be easily earned for 10-20 hours (Depending on the chosen difficulty) 　　　　 Surprisingly interesting story 　　about furry, telling us about the inner 　　demons, worthy of the good movie 　　(or cartoon, probably). 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Amazing story and cutest companion Fidget [9/10].Show moreShow less

21.4 hours at review225 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

03/15/2016

Honestly, if there was a neutral option I'd use it. However, there isn't, and I decided to lean against recommending this game, if only because I feel that, while not bad, the game is certainly highly overrated already. You can read some 12,000 reviews raving about how awesome this is, so let me summarize here why I'm not recommending this game to all my friends like 96% of the other reviewers would have me do: - Gameplay: standard action platformer, really. You gain some extra abilities as you progress; however, they are almost all direct upgrades to a special skill you can perform. To my knowledge, there are no sidegrades (at least none that you get in the first 11 or so hours - I haven't finished the game yet), and all your core abilities and attacks remain the same. The enemies get harder, of course, but since your stats increase too, I haven't felt much of a difficulty curve. There are select few special enemies that can be interesting to fight, but they are found seldom and between each notable encounter, you're going to have to kill hundreds upon hundreds of grunts, super grunts, tough grunts, grunty grunts... - More on gameplay, but regarding the platformer aspect: it really isn't the focus of the game. As such, while there are some instances of interesting level design, most of it just functions as terrain for the fighting. ...And now you see my problem: since the fighting (at least on non-hard difficulties) basically involves repeating a perma-stunlock combination of moves over and over until everything on-screen dies, there isn't much to do in this game. - The story: ah yes, the story. It's what ties the game together; what makes plowing through waves of grunts worth it, to get to the boss battle and get a cutscene and get on with the story. Unfortunately, the story, as far as I have seen it, is highly cliche. I can't really comment on the entire main plotline, since I haven't finished the game, but here's what I have seen: - - - You start in some sacred clearing in a random forest, with amnesia. What an original plot device! I'm sure the game won't be about the main character trying to regain their memories while getting mixed up in a quest they don't understand helping people they don't know, which is actually very much tied into what the character did before losing their memories, only to emerge changed and a better person than they were before! - - - Oh wait, that's exactly what happens. - On the same note as the story, the sidequests are all extremely cliche. You know the usual model of the protagonist just going around, having everyone unload all of their worries on him, and then going to find various monster loot, misplaced keys, and random trivialities that really have no consequence whatsoever in the bigger picture? Yeah, that's exactly how every single sidequest in this game is like. Back when Zelda et al. did it 20 years ago, it was fine, not only because the technology of the time didn't allow anything too complex, but also because a) this particular format hadn't been beated to death yet, and b) there wasn't really much precedent for better quests, so there was nothing to take example from. But this is a 2013 game, it can do better! Or, apparently, not. - This was made by a single person. While some people talk about how this has let them put their all into the game, unhampered by a marketing department or disagreements in the team, etc., in my opinion this also has a downside: there is a limit to the creativity of a single person, and I really feel like a second or third pair of eyes helping develop the game could have only made it better, and a lot of the aforementioned problems stem from this. CONCLUSION: this game is alright. I got it at something like 90% off, and more or less enjoyed the 10 or so hours I put into it. It's definitely not one of those horrible indie games that seem to be built solely for marketing (and screaming "Look! I'm a new and innovative indie game, unhampered by the conventions of the gaming industry, and I'm definitely not a poorly-executed cash-grabbing attempt!") and not actual entertainment. But if it's not on sale, I still think it's not worth the money.Show moreShow less

9.3 hours at review43 people found this helpful

Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.