Tails of Iron, published by United Label Games and developed by Manchester's Odd Bug Studio, is a 2D action adventure with a highly appealing art style seemingly drawn from illuminated manuscripts and bold comic book linework. Eschewing human characters for lightly anthropomorphized rodents and frogs, Tails of Iron’s crown jewel is its intuitive combat system, not to mention its highly recognizable narrator. For a burgeoning niche genre, the game is a curious entrant that feels great during play and looks fantastic in motion.
The great war between rats and frogs is now distant history, with the former emerging as the victors over their medieval-styled kingdom. Following a period of peace under aging King Rattus, the rats now face the return of their amphibious nemeses, who see their successful kingdom as plump for the pillaging. Here’s where the player takes arms as the throne’s heir Redgi, with the Tails of Iron playable intro sequence bringing some tragic Game of Thrones energy to this detailed world realized in miniature.
Players will immediately recognize how Tails of Iron’s cast converses wordlessly, with all dialogue composed of animated images and icons in speech bubbles, a system both economic and appealing (and one which probably makes the game much easier to translate, too). For broader omniscient narrative, Doug Cockle - best known as the grizzled voice in CD Projekt Red's The Witcher series as Geralt of Rivia - steps in to detail the goings-on of Tails of Iron’s world, which is admittedly a little hit-or-miss in execution, though it does impart a sense of authorial foundation to the lore.
The meat of the game lies in its exploration, quest boards, and combat, and what was available to us in the Tails of Iron preview proved a tantalizing sample of the finished game. The prince’s squire-like assistant walks the player through some early tutorials, showing them how to bring pantry items to Redgi’s chef for stat-boosting dishes and walking them through the resources and training in the Crimson Keep, right before everything goes Ned Stark.
All throughout this expository sequence, Tails of Iron’s grimly intricate painterly presentation oozes with personality. Fans of David Petersen’s iconic Mouse Guard series or Brian Jacques's Redwall will feel immediately at home, and the multiple moving background layers and tiny brushwork details render every screen a playable page out of a graphic novel. Once combat comes into full swing everything gets even more colorful, especially thanks to copious blood and slime splatter effects, with each sortie showcasing the game’s highly impactful and reactive feel.
Really, this seems to be Tails of Iron’s primary hat-tip to the Souls games: a tendency to turn every enemy encounter into a formidable bout. With no stamina bars to speak of, players are free to experiment with constant repositioning, blocking and dodging to their heart’s content, eyes always centered on the action. One fight involves multiple frogs and an archer on a higher ledge, requiring dodging and shield positioning, all the while luring each enemy within blade-distance. A healthy parry window leads to brutal counters and even more brutal execution moves, and an estus-like refillable canteen of bug juice lets players sneak in carefully timed sips of healing.
Multiple weapons and armor pieces impart various effects and status protections as well, with Tails of Iron oriented towards equipment loadouts dictating combat styles. The preview didn’t reveal enough about the crafting and cooking systems, but these seem linked to exploration and fulfillment of objectives on quest boards. A world map reveals several different biomes to storm, explore, and/or liberate from the Frog Clan, and some press-provided images hint at a few exciting gear items and animal-types to encounter in the finished game.
The main feeling left following the Tails of Iron preview remains its impactful combat system, which should stimulate those Souls reflexes in a way yet distinct from more acrobatic 2D Soulslikes Hollow Knight and Salt & Sanctuary. The lack of lengthy text or dialogue trees allows the visual and environmental storytelling to carry the bulk of the narrative, which should keep the pacing snappy between battles. It’s also nice how this cast of rats were also fully drawn from actual pets owned by the Odd Bug Studio team, lending a personal quality to this fantasy land of tiny mammals. Tails of Iron looks to be a mighty addition to the 2D Soulslike library come September.
Tails of Iron releases on September 17 for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Screen Rant was provided with preview access for the purpose of this article.