Backlogbattlehammer Reviews

Tails of Iron was a great experience on Nintendo Switch. This itty bitty adventure packs a lot of heart and soul into one game. It only took me a few days to see the credits, but this dungeon-filled Metroid-vania soulslike was an absolute joy to dive into.

Tails of Iron takes place in a medieval realm, inhabited by regal rats and bugthirsty frogs. With rich hues, beautifully drawn details, and marionette style animations, I was transported away from my 9-5 lyfe, to a tiny kingdom, filled with noble furry friends and deep danger-filled dungeons.

The story is fairly straight-forward, where you play as Redgi, son of the king. An evil froggy warlord and his many froggy minions, has come to your door, killed your father, and destroyed your mighty kingdom. Your job, as the heir to the throne is to rebuild and take some good old fashioned rat-bastard revenge.

Thankfully, you have plenty of help along the way, from rat rangers, to inventive mole allies. Even your big brother joins your side on occasion. There’s a blacksmith that can make weapons for you, and of course there is a rat who’s a chef. Ahem. I’ll only say this once, beware of mole puns.

The gameplay is fitting for the environment, where death awaits you at every turn once you venture out of your cozy torch-lit castle. The action is tight, and thoughtful, where button mashing will just make you frog-food all too quickly. Tails of Iron is very soulslike in that aspect, where you need to learn patterns, use your estus, I mean bug juice, sparingly, and manage your weapon and armor load-out wisely, which you’ll be acquiring lots of, as you progress. Yay loot!

As a souls-veteren, I still found a lot of challenge with this, at times, unforgiving game. Thankfully, just like a souls-like, there are plenty of check points before each battle, and plenty of resource re-ups before each boss fight. And there are a lot of boss fights!

Unfortunately the grubs and mozis weren’t the only bugs in the game, with a couple crashes and one weird event where I lost sound all together, but they weren’t enough to ruin my overall experience. And though the game seemed to drag you back and forth at times, in true Metroidvania fashion, I still really enjoyed my tiny rat-legged romp through this beautifully dynamic medieval realm.

With tough but rewarding combat, a charming score, excellent narration, and a compelling need to restore my tiny kingdom, I had a hard time putting down the controller, thinking, just one more boss battle. It’s currently on sale in the Nintendo Switch e-shop, and includes the expansion DLC, so check it out now and don’t forget to fill your bug juice!