Last year, I previewed Tails of Iron 2, a sequel to the incredible Hollow Knight/Salt and Sanctuary-inspired Soulslike where you defend Ratdom from an army of frogs. This time, we have a colony of headbanging, frost-breathing bats to contend with. They’re essentially the rodent equivalent of dragons.
I had a lot of fun with my brief time in Tails of Iron 2’s northern, winter-clad world in 2024. But there was one major problem that made combat far less fluid than it was in the first game — the whetstone. This new item was added to your hotbar for you to use in combat to sharpen your blade, otherwise it would dull and bounce off enemies.
An integral part of the Soulslike loop is finding openings, whether that’s to block, parry, heal, or attack, pushing you to master each enemy’s movements and immerse yourself in the flow of every encounter so that you can make the most of these opportunities. But adding another mechanic into the mix needlessly dragged fights out since you were forced to waste time fiddling with an item instead of using that brief moment to your advantage.
I wasn’t the only one that had this problem — it was a frustration shared by the community.
Tails Of Iron Didn’t Need A Gimmick
Following the June demo, players raised the same concern, so Odd Bug Studio completely overhauled the whetstone. Instead of being a reusable and mandatory piece of equipment, it’s now a limited item that briefly increases your damage, taking it from being an annoying hindrance to a useful tool.
After diving back into Tails of Iron 2 to try out the game now that the whetstone has been revamped, I’m happy to report that the combat has clicked back into place.
The iterations to the original’s already great combat can now be felt unabated. Weapon swings feel punchier, dodging more responsive, and the variety of gear on offer allows more room for fine-tuning your build. Tails of Iron 2 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it never needed to. The first game is one of the best Soulslikes ever made, surpassing even its inspirations, but it’s easy to see why a mechanic like the whetstone might have been introduced.
For the Dark Souls 2 freaks out there, Tails of Iron 2 even has twinblades. We have our GOTY fellas.
Soulslikes have a pretty basic formula — dodge, wait, attack. Dark Souls moved away from the hub of Demon’s Souls to an interconnected, Metroidvania-style world; Bloodborne enticed you to be more aggressive by allowing you to regain health when retaliating against enemies; Sekiro emphasised parrying, making it the most effective way to break an enemy’s posture. These are subtle iterations that create an entirely new, unique feeling for each game, as opposed to shoehorning in an unnecessary item.
Perhaps Odd Bug Studio wanted its sequel to have a unique feeling like FromSoftware’s spiritual successors do, but Tails of Iron already stands out with its visual cues, the colour-coded flashes that tell you to parry, dodge, or block. Its own spin on the Soulslike formula was in making the experience more approachable, which is especially fitting as the entire game feels like you’re being read a fairy tale by Geralt of Rivia himself, Doug Cockle.
The post-launch difficulty settings — a controversial move in the world of Soulslikes — that are included by default in Tails of Iron 2, and which can be changed on the fly during your playthrough, are the perfect evolution of that philosophy. That’s what makes this series stand out, and taking that further feels natural. The whetstone felt jarring and out of place by contrast, and Odd Bug Studio’s humility in being able to see and admit that has made this sequel a far better game.
Just as the Rats of the South start to piece their lives together, following the great war between Rodent and Frog, an old and unspeakable evil stirs in the North; wings black as death; fangs sharp as steel; and a thirst for blood rivalled only by their insatiable hunger… for vengeance.
As Arlo, young heir to the Warden of the Wastes, journey through the vast, snow-ravaged lands of the North in an epic quest to overcome the Dark Wings once and for all. Hunt down giant beasts. Unite disparate clans. Upgrade your settlement. And discover a terrible secret of blood and crown…
The time for heroes is over. For the Kingdom needs a warrior; forged of the North and as cold as the snow that shrouds these lands. A rat… carved from iron.