Ever have a game come along that instantly you know you’re going to enjoy thoroughly, to the point of calling it one of your favorite games of the year, if not of all time? Well, that’s what happened to me with Tails Of Iron II: Whiskers Of Winter, a game I originally wasn’t too interested in but now I can’t stop playing. Seriously, I never found myself wanting to keep playing a game, even after the credits rolled, as much as I did with this one.
Normally, I would talk about the story, but seeing as I want to avoid spoilers, the most I’ll say is that you play as Arlo, a young mouse who is tasked with rebuilding his kingdom after his father is brutally killed by the leader of the Deathwings (that name alone already gets top marks in my book). I’ll also say that the story has this nice Redwall-meets-Game Of Thrones, minus any of the more adult themes and terrible finale, feel going on, especially with the whole idea of mice running a kingdom alongside various other critters, ranging from owls to rabbits to moles. Still, I don’t want to say too much more, outside of a few moments where my mouth dropped at what happened and some moments where I couldn’t help but laugh, so we’ll leave it at that and move onto the real meat of this game: The gameplay, which is where, I think, Tails II really shines.
Right off the bat, pun not intended, I really enjoyed the combat. It’s one of those simple to learn, but difficult to master-styles that I do enjoy from time to time, though the controls did trip me up at first. Instead of attacks being assigned to the ‘face buttons’, they’re actually assigned to the shoulder buttons and that did kinda throw me off guard a few times but I very quickly got used to it, with the right shoulder being a one-handed weapon and the left assigned to two-handed weapons, which both consists of swords, axes, spears, hammers, and maces and can come with one of four special atributes, those being Fire, Poison, Ice, and Lightning. You also have a button assigned to a long-range weapon, which can be either a bow, crossbow, or a gun. Yes, a gun, though don’t be expecting 12-gauge autoloaders or a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range. Instead, these are literal hand cannons from that era of history and BOY do they pack a wallop, making short work of certain bosses and enemies that go airborne. Granted, you only get so many shots with the projectile weapons, so as to not fully rely on them, but they’re still a blast to use. These weapons, like the melee gear, can also be upgraded which, again, I’ll touch on in a bit. Outside of those weapons, you also get four special abilities: Fire, Poison, Ice, and Lightning. You earn them from statues you find during the main quest and these can really help turn a battle in your favor, especially the lightning as I felt like Beta-Ray Bill whenever I called upon it. Thankfully, you can’t just spam the attacks as they do take a good while to recharge, or else I think the game would be too easy, so they’re more of a last-ditch attack then anything. There’s also traps you can get, each with the same abilities, but you only can carry one of each trap so, again, you have to use them sparingly, which brings a surprising yet welcomed bit of stragety to the game.
When you aren't fighting the Darkwings, you can visit your home castle or one of the many strongholds in the game and obtain quests or upgrade your gear. Either at your home castle or one of the strongholds, there are smithies you can visit and these can build and upgrade your weapons and armor a total of three times: First time is the base, second is a power tier, and third is legendary. Of course, like all things in life, nothing is free so you’ll need both the gold and crafting materials to craft these items and, thankfully, finding the material is ridiculously easy as not only are there are tell-tell places where you can mind and chop wood, but every enemy and boss you slay drops crafting materials, so you don’t have to worry about grinding at all. The only item I did notice was slightly hard to come by was gold coins as I was barely able to get to the 200 gold mark throughout my playtime, though thankfully there are ways to make coins, outside of selling items to the various vendors. I do like how all the gear in the game actually have unique looks to them, depending on what material is used, and actually change their looks when being upgraded, with my favorite armor set looking almost like Daedric Armor from Skyrim.
Outside of the main quest-line and various side-quests, the later I’ll touch upon in a bit, each stronghold, outside of your main home, also has a bounty board of sorts you can interact with to earn coins and special rewards like weapons and armor. These bounties mostly consist of enemy slaying and do get repetitive but never to the point of annoyance or boredom. In fact, a few of these bounties were these nice references to media I grew up watching, with one, when I realized exactly what it was referencing, bringing a huge smile and laugh to my face. The same goes with the side-quests and some of these are surprisingly fun to do. One in particular, I kid you not, had you being a Doordash deliver for a family who never received their meal and, when I saw the name of the food, I just about fell out of my chair from laughing. What helped here was the narrator’s quips and delivery of the events; oh yeah, the narrator. This game has one and he helps elevate this game to an incredible level. Voiced by Doug Cockle (Geralt from The Witcher), who I swear can make the phone book sound interesting, his dry sense of humor and his narration fits well within Tails II’s world. From the moment he began, I already felt myself being sucked into the world, latching on to everything he said and described. It almost felt like Arlo was the one telling the story (Which he kinda does look a bit like a furry version of Geralt) to a captive audience. Now, while Doug is the only real speaking voice you’ll hear, that doesn’t mean the rest of the characters don’t talk. They kinda do, but it’s with image balloons and musical instruments suited to their species, which is actually kinda cute and, I will admit, I got a chuckle out of some of the sounds, which leads me to the overall soundtrack: It’s decent, though nothing really stood out to me. Save for one track that came out of the blue: During certain fights against select Darkwings, there is, and I am not joking, a small group of darkwing bards playing some really good heavy metal music!
Now, graphically, I do think this is a good looking game. Not Crysis or Cyberpunk 2033 levels of good but still a good looking one. It has this nice story-book-like aesthetic to it with slight hints of heavy metal in some places. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did take inspiration from the metal genre as some of the locations you visit would look right at home on a cover of an 80’s metal album. A few of the underground locations did feel same-y, at times, but I can give that a pass as there really isn’t any way to make an underground location really stand out. The only real standout underground locations are the mole homes as they have this surprising modern feel to them. By ‘modern’, I mean they have radios, electricity, and electric guitars. Does it fit in this world? No. Do I care? Heck no, it’s actually pretty cool and does kinda fit. I mean, they live underground, it makes sense they’d find the materials to craft such modern items.
I mean this when I say that this is probably one of the best games I’ve played all year, so far. From its gripping story to its simple, yet fun, gameplay and enjoyable characters, I never had a game dig its claws into me and keep me hooked for as long as this game did. Yes, there are some minor things I had issues with, but they were not enough to even affect my enjoyment. If you love Game Of Thrones and want something to rid your mind of the final season or if you miss Redwall, then do yourself a favor: Check out Tails Of Iron II: Whiskers Of Winter. I heaped praises onto games before I love and this one is no different.
