Jumping And Fighting Through Grief

“Treasure Planet is a big one,” narrative designer Ricardo Chorques Mesa tells me when I ask about tonal inspirations for Duskfade’s world and story. It surprises me, as the 2002 film from arguably Disney’s most successful animated film director pair, Ron Clements and John Musker, is inarguably their biggest flop. But it is beloved by those who happened to find it more than 20 years ago. And once Chorques Mesa brings it up, I can’t unsee the influence in the game’s trailers and screenshots and in my hands-on time. “It came out pretty early in development, the Treasure Planet idea,” Chorques Mesa says. “It’s why I fought to keep the rat tail for [protagonist] Zirian.”

Despite the direct Disney inspiration, however, Duskfade is not an adaptation. It is a wholly original game whose creators love platformers and wanted to create a new one. “We were starting to make a  platformer, and then Astro Bot came out of nowhere, and it won Game of the Year, and we were like, ‘Okay. We’re not rescuing the genre from oblivion,’” Chorques Mesa says.

In the game, you are Zirian, one of only a few humans among a citizenry of cloud people. Zirian and his sister are grappling with the loss of a recently departed loved one, and while she is grieving, a gigantic clock tower appears, attached to gigantic chains stretching across their home. Zirian must unlock the chains by completing platforming and combat challenges using a sword that, admittedly, looks a whole lot like a big key.