Rising Dusk (Review)

Rising Dusk is an Anti-Coin Platformer inspired by Japanese folktales, with beautiful studio Ghibli style 16-bit art. Developed and published by Studio Stobie. Heads up if you plan on playing with a controller, you will need to go into the options menu and set the controller button binding manually, since the game currently has partial controller support. It also starts in windowed mode, but settings will fix that too.

You are a young girl named Tamako who finds a Yokai and gets herself trapped in their world, the world of Rising Dusk is a land permanently shrouded in the hours of twilight and inhabited by an assortment of ghouls and demons. And the only way out may be to avoid every coin, The key to returning home lies atop the strange new mountain on the horizon. Rising Dusk's art style is a beautiful vibrant mix of 16-bit pixel art and studio Ghibli charm, the background and level art is detailed and vivid, And the animations and characters are charming and very adorable. The overworld is lush and delightful, accompanied by calming music and full of little animations like the silhouettes of moving clouds and grass brushing in the wind, giving it a relaxing vibe. The soundtrack in this game is great, a mix of fantastic relaxing tunes and mystifying tracks.

What sets Rising Dusk apart from the average platformer/puzzle platformer, is the main theme of anti-coin platforming. This mechanic is very original and makes Rising Dusk one of the most unique platformer I've played in the past few years. The way it works is simple enough, the blocks are all numbered, so if a platform is marked with a 2 and you've collected 2 coins, that platform will disappear when touched, There are also platforms that only appear once you have collected a specific amount of coins. This will also be used to open up alternative pathways used to retrieve secrets and collectibles. There are collectibles in every level such as golden cat statues (that you will need to access the dojo challenges), cassette tapes that can be played at the radio station in the overworld, and finally quest items that can be turned in to the villagers of the local town. you will need to strategically choose which coins you are going to collect if you want to get the collectibles as well as pass the level.

Challenges can be unlocked at the dojo, these are more difficult than most levels and play out more like puzzles. The goal is to collect every coin in a certain order, maneuvering around the platforms as they appear and disappear. There are a total of 10 dojo challenges each harder than the last, and each requiring more golden cat statues to access. There is a reward for completing all of them, I won't spoil it but it's not really worth it if you weren't already going for a 100% completion, it's more of a nod of appreciation for getting all the collectibles and beating all the challenges. The level designs are clever but not very hard once you've got the pattern down, apart from managing coins collected, you also have to watch out for enemies or other characters rather as they don't attack you directly and there is no real combat in the game. There are dudes that push you around or throw you, turtle/platypus things that change direction when their head is jumped on, racoon like creatures that steal your coins, and a few others.

There are a couple of side-scrolling levels that felt tedious and too long, because they were moving so slowly, I got kind of bored during a few of these levels but thankfully they don't take up the majority of the game. The last level is a side-scrolling segment followed up by a very disappointingly easy boss fight. there are 3 bosses you must find and defeat before facing the final boss, sadly they are all very easy to overcome and can be finished in about 15 seconds or less. This is the weakest point of Rising Dusk, not only are the bosses ridiculously unchallenging, but so are a good chunk of the levels. Multiple checkpoints are placed throughout every level (Checkpoints have an absolutely adorable animation), so even harder areas aren't that hard to overcome. The mechanic that drives this game has so much potential to be something amazing, but it almost falls flat in this instance. I feel like if the developers ever decide to make a sequel, they could improve upon the groundwork they've already created for themselves and make something truly special.

Rising Dusk is a wonderfully charming and stylish platformer with beautiful art and a great concept that definitely needs some work, but nonetheless is a very enjoyable game from start to finish. I feel like if the developers ever decided to make a sequel, using the groundwork they've already laid out for themselves with Rising Dusk, they could build upon the mechanics and world they've created and make something truly special. Rising Dusk is available for the small price of $6.99 on Pc/Steam and Mac. If you love good design and great puzzle platfomers, and don't mind a slower pace. than this is something you shouldn't miss out on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSpmMgUnhhM