The rats are back
Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter feels like it ticked off all the boxes for a classic sequel by delivering a bigger, better version of the first game. In Whiskers of Winter players will play as a new character in a new part of the world with the same hard as balls combat as players hunt down the bats that have destroyed their home.
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $24.99
Let’s talk about some of the new things to Tails of Iron, the first of which is the day/night cycle, which helps the world feel very dynamic, and if I am being completely honest, a lot like Monster Hunter. As players travel into each new area the time of day will affect which enemies appear. And as players lay these beasts, they will use their drops to upgrade their armor and weapons. Players are encouraged to create multiple loadouts that can be switched as they run into various creatures. This is made even more necessary because of the new addition of the elemental attacks that enemies and the player can use. Honestly, switching between loadouts gets old; especially early on when players don’t have really good gear, by late game it isn’t much of a problem.
Combat as a whole feel much more improved this go-round, the addition of the elemental attacks, traps and tools like the whetstone that can buff attacks all helps the brutal melee feel faster. Tails of Iron 2 is still a 2D game which means players movement options are only limited to left and right, but the movement still feels very stiff in and out of combat. The developers did improve the traversal throughout the overworld with more fast travel points and a grappling hook (which all the cools’ kids are adding in their games now) But much like the last game, Whiskers of Winter has a lot of metroidvania type backtracking which gets old, but it doesn’t distract from the overall fun of the game.
As I said at the outset, the story is pretty similar to the original where we met young Redgi. In Whiskers of Winter players meet young Arlo who becomes warden of his people when his father is murdered by the Dark Clan who is a group of bats this time around. The visuals in this dark fantasy anthropomorphic game are all hand drawn and simply beautiful. Creature designs are all clever and well designed and honestly its nice to see a souls game that doesn’t have grotesque monsters like Elden Ring and their kin. Lastly while Whiskers of Winter doesn’t have traditional voice acting what it does have is a phenomenal narrator in actor Doug Cockle. Who fans will instantly recognize him as the voice of grizzled monster hunter Geralt from The Witcher games.
I enjoyed the original Tails of Iron, its hand drawn art and the story is what really did it. Tails of Iron 2 delivers more but polishes some of the rough edges that the original launched with. The new setting of the game is nice as well as the additions to the combat. The best addition by far is the ability to dial down the challenge, I love that we are seeing these sliders more and more in “soulslike” games. Whiskers of Winter is a solid sequel, even if it played it safe by not really making drastic changes to the formula from the original.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
