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Featuring 3 playable characters (and the ability to allow your friends to control the other 2 if you’re able) you’ll choose between the title balanced bunny Dusty, the quick and slashing fox Kitsune, and the burly brawler by the name of Darg. As you progress you’ll gain experience and opportunities to add to their abilities, mostly in the form of new combos for you to experiment with. In addition, you’ll continue to slowly get introduced to elemental attacks and summons, all of which serve as alternative options for how you upgrade, though in general aside from new visual flourishes it didn’t feel like your choices directly carried a great deal of consequence. What helps set the game apart are your added support characters, a sniper and a heavy munitions expert who’ll chip in to take out enemies and sometimes obstacles when things get tough. Between these support characters, the mild variations between your base character options, and a bevy of added choices like which style of summon you choose there’s some variety in how you can choose to play, and between levels you’re able to make some minor choices if you believe one suits you better in specific situations. Currently, in order to switch characters you’ll need to exit to the main menu and reload the game but the option is there, even if cumbersome. Where the game struggles is in execution, especially when it comes to getting into any sort of meaningful flow of combat. While the art for the game is very cool and stylized its big issues are that there aren’t that many frames so the motion is a bit rough around the edges. Unfortunately, the bigger issue is the long animations that you can’t cancel once your next move has been committed. This leads to you needing to anticipate when a counter-attack is coming and not just wait for the right timing to block, but instead anticipate when an attack might happen, be sure not to be attacking, and then wait for them to attack so you actually have an option to dodge. Add to that the fact that too many enemies tend to shoot at you from a distance and their shots will interrupt anything you’re trying to get going and it can be frustrating. The result, more often than not, is sticking to a core set of simpler moves that are a bit cheesy but work, and building your bar to call in your support. Since the action keeps moving while they’re setting up their shots even this can be aggravating though as you tend to get smacked around a bit while trying to aim for their assistance. The shame is that there’s plenty of game to be walked through here, the story campaign is a pretty long one, but it’s hard to feel like you’re ever getting into a rhythm. Without there being some front-to-back means of movement you really need to dodge around repeatedly, hoping to get your enemies into one big pack, and then try to unload on them all at once. Otherwise, the tendency is just to get shot from a distance which steps all over you trying to get a decent combo going. Dusty Raging Fist isn’t without its moments, and has some novel ideas to add to the genre to make it more interesting, but there’s just enough that doesn’t quite work and holds it back from greatness.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.0]