Reviews: Kitsune Tails
Not Spoiler free review of the game Kitsune Tails played on the steam deck OLED. I discuss some specifics of the gameplay and story to explain my experience, which gives a twist or two away.
About the game
Run, jump, and dash across a land inspired by Japanese mythology and untangle the love triangle between three young women on a journey of self discovery. Explore the complicated relationships between kitsune and humans through classic platforming action.
Margot’s stats
Device: Steam Deck Oled
Difficulty: Equivalent of story mode
Completed: yes
Time: ~5 hours
Summary:
This is a game of two halves for me. First half was frustrating and a bit boring, and the second half was all I hoped for from this game.
For me this was nostalgia on steroids. I loved the pixel art and the Mario-esque feel. You play a fox girl spirit and there are LGBTQ+ themes of love, which didn’t add or take away from the game. The levels didn’t really make sense to me in that initially it talks about doing deliveries but you never deliver anything, but there are cute upgrades transforming the character and I wanted to keep playing to see more of these. But in the end the gaming controls and enemy placement let it down for the first act. The second act is all I wanted from the game, a reinvention based on the genre with fresher move sets and fun movement, it is just a shame you have to wait 2-3 hours to get there. I could rate this so mich higher if it was just the second act.Score: 6.5/10
Narrative
The story of the game is very much told through the dialogue and I find it a bit on the nose. The main thread is that 3 girls end up in a love triangle with the main character being the focus of the loving attention but she’s a bit aloof to the whole thing until her mum spells it out to her. There is some cute anime-esque voice acting which really surprised me and added to the game overall.
The underlying thread details a bit about Japanese mythology and the relationships between Kitsune, trickster foxes from Japanese mythology and humans. I do love mythology and folklore in general so this attracted me to the game more so than a love story. Maybe I am too old for that? haha.
There aren’t many cut scenes I have come across, just dialogue scenes where you speak to your parents through a magical postcard, or you are interacting with other characters. These all are voice acted which I think helps the game tell its story and gets you invested in the characters. This attention to detail was pretty sweet.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very inspired by / a bit of a copy of Super Mario Brothers 3, down to the sound effects of jumping and shrinking when hit. This might have been my favourite thing, when you become the equivalent of small Mario, you become a little purple fox. Loved this detail.
The platforming is really tricky, and so is jumping on enemies. Sometimes I felt like I should have killed the baddie but instead I lost health. Once I am home (I am currently staying with a family member to support them) I will have to pay for switch online to replay these Super Mario Brothers titles, as I was a young child playing these and I want to compare the mechanics.
The jumps and changes of direction didn't feel quite polished enough for me to be fun in the first act. This coupled with the way the enemies were placed just caused a lot of death. However on the easiest mode you simply spawn in the same place which helped me not get frustrated a lot.
I must praise the fact that the game has different difficulty levels. I love having an easy mode or story mode. I don’t have anything to prove. I just want to experience the game and story. Give me story mode any day :D So thank you for including this.
As I have been playing I kept getting frustrated at the platforming, but I think I might be playing it wrong? I have been collecting power ups and using these more frequently as I went through the game (you can buy more with the coins you collect) and this seems to help a lot.
The game uses these power ups, to give you a different look and powers, a bit like the feather did in SMB 3. These keep the gameplay fun and you always hope to discover a new one.
Enjoy watching a minute of me being super bad at the game on story mode in Act 1.
The level design has some pluses and minuses. I like the general length of these and most are not very memorable, some just annoying (I dislike the swimming ones a lot).
But some highlights were the haunted houses. There are some nice tricks of carrying a lantern to show doors or disarm ghosts and some puzzle like platforming levels which were really fun.
Overall though I am not enamoured with the gameplay of the first half of the game, I am not sure if it is trying too hard to be like Super Mario Brothers 3 and failing, or if it is too much of a copy and SMB 3 is actually just as difficult? I will have to try and find out. This might be my lack of knowledge and understanding of the genre.
In the second half, the game actually does what I wish it would have done from the start. Reinvent the move set so it makes sense in its world, by letting you play as one of the other characters. While this one does not use the power ups in the same way, she has a weapon and learns more moves as you go along, making the game play more fun. The only negative here is, that you replay the same levels as this character as you did in act 1 , when it might have been even more exciting to have levels designed around her moves. BUT the levels were so much more enjoyable as the second character, and a small change in her platforming style, made the game play much more accessible and fun.
I wish the whole game was being played as this character. The first half seemed like a bit of a painful waste of time, sorry. The character and the power ups are cute though.
Pixel Art
The art style is very similar to SMB 3 with a Japanese iconology twist. For example you finish each level at a shinto shrine. I like this world setting and the mini maps are really cute and reminiscent of this too. I love the characters and the way the power ups change the look of the character. The pixel art is very very nicely done.
When you change in act 2 of the game, you lose the power ups, but you get new fighting animations and actions and these work well too. The overall art style works very well for me and I smiled a lot playing the game due to how it looked.
Verdict 6.5/10
I wish this was less of an attempt to copy SMB3, especially the first half. If the game mechanics and level design had been a “tighter” or not trying to copy the SMB 3 physics for the initial part, this would easily go up in my rating. It could be a cool reinvention / extension of SBM3 inspired games if it stuck with what it did in act 2.
The game has a lot I love, pixel art, 2D side scroller, the character design, Japanese mythology, foxes, story mode,… but in the end the actual fun factor was not quite there for me for the whole game due to the challenges I had playing it to begin with. It is sad that I think many might be put off by the first 2-3 hours of game play, and might miss out on the actual fun in the second half.
Love the art style