You are a clockmaker named Zirian who lives in a strange clock-infested place called Tick Town.
Your sister Allira causes a timeflux (a ferking great explosion!) that sends you both to a strange place known as 'The Tower' full of floating platforms and clock-related scenery. You discover a large clock hand that turns out to be your Grandfather's sword, Minutero.
You save Cuckoo, an oddly robotic-looking bird that seems to know more about what's going on than you do, and it becomes your companion. You manage to escape The Tower but Allira remains trapped…
The overall look is stunning and colourful, with plenty of weird but imaginative enemies. I must be honest and say I don't really like the character design, and I found Zirian to be a difficult character to like in a game with a lot to like.
Controls
'X' is basic attack
'A' is jump (and double-jump.)
'B' is roll forward and evade, and can also be used to extend jumps. Grandfather clocks are save points.
Cloudies are ghostly-looking creatures that share Tick Town peacefully with your people. You can buy various upgrades from The Traveler, a Cloudie trader who can massively improve your chances of surviving on this epic (15 hours-ish) adventure.
Rather than leading you by the nose you can ring strategically placed bells to point you in the right direction, but these seem sporadic and disappear at the oddest of times, like when the levels become their most complex and confusing–a map would have been a real help. There's a ton of content tucked away in the levels, both hidden and/or unavailable because you haven't obtained the required ability yet. I honestly think you could be playing Duskfade for weeks!
While death doesn't actually cost you anything, the restart points are also always generous. When you take damage you can heal–as long as you've found one of the plentiful star potions–by pressing 'RB'.
Platform adventures this good don't come along very often and it plays like a dream–few games this side of a Nintendo console allow a character's movement to flow this well. A map would have helped avoid getting lost and backtracking through levels, but at a price of £24.99 or less you can't go wrong if you're a fan of the genre.
Many thanks to Weird Beluga and JF Games