A Tail of Witchers and Whiskers
While I never played the original game, something I plan on rectifying immediately, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter was a delight and stands as the best game so far of 2025. Its brutal combat, gorgeous visuals, and meaningful characters made this one journey I adored from start to finish, especially with the game being narrated by another character that knows how to defeat impressive beasts and monsters; Geralt of Rivia.
Tails of Iron 2 starts with a village being destroyed by a threat known as the Dark Wings. Arlo, who is deep into his training, must avenge the death of his father and rebuild his kingdom. He has become the Warden of the Wastes, and must find those who can attend to facilities that will keep this fight strong and lasting. While Doug Cockle of Witcher fame’s narration does wonders for the story and its presentation, the characters themselves only talk through images, such as the buildings you need to visit, the places you’ll travel to, and the people you’ll need to find. The combination of this allows each method of story-telling to flourish and find its way to be engaging, emotional, and entertaining. While I won’t spoil the ending whatsoever, its conclusion is very well handled with a final moment that certainly looks to set up one hell of a third entry.
The Kingdom and its outskirts, as well as the other kingdoms across the land, are wonderfully detailed and hand-drawn. From forests and ruins, snowy mountains and more, there is a lot to take in despite the title’s 10-15 hours length. Villages are packed with a lot to see, and the details of each environment are breathtaking. The animations, characters, and enemies are impressive, allowing everything to work in unison to keep you engaged and wanting to dive deeper into its combat, story, and mechanics. While everything shares in some way to its visuals, I never lost track of my character or the enemies I was destined to butcher.
Combat is certainly the star of the show and feels weighted and hard-hitting. Every slash feels like you are cleaving them in two, every arrow feels like it is hitting bone. The dodge, parry, and defensive block feels weighted well enough to be more than useful, especially as you shield bash your foe across the screen. The wind-up of your attacks, and the way you slam into them is impressive, making it one of the best side-scrolling fighters I’ve played in years.
Arlo will also find statues of past heroes who will grant him abilities. From shooting out fire to freezing gusts of wind, you’ll use these to fend off impressive foes and intimidating bosses. These abilities have a cooldown that feels generous, and once you unlock each of them, you become this incredible threat that can destroy anything in your path, or prove your worth to those who would ask of it.
Your arsenal begins to take shape once you find more towns to explore or resources to craft new gear. As you carve out the materials from your fallen foe to harvesting what you need, you’ll build up an armor set that works for what you want with weapons that feel incredible deadly. Each armor set has various resistances, such as cold, fire, or poison, granting you aid from those sources. I loved the changes the armor would make visually as Arlo would continue to thrive under new gear as the game went on. This also affects your movement if your gear is too heavy, making long jumps to ladders more of a challenge or making your dodge roll a tad slower.
However, a King wouldn’t be such if he didn’t have a Kingdom to rely on. As you rebuild your home, you’ll have to travel to distant places to find those suitable for building your smithy, kitchen, shop, and more. You’ll place where you want these things, albeit in a small area, but you’ll also level them up with materials to make their offers more enticing and more suited to the task at hand. I also loved that with each upgrade and as the story went on, your throne room begins to be rebuilt, with allies showing up around the table. It adds this sense of progression through the community you build. It shows that Arlo cannot do this on his own, and some characters will even join him in battle, such as the take on Robin Hood and Little John that can prove to be the perfect pair of allies.
Each place you encounter will have new characters, and leaders that need Arlo to prove himself. You’ll do this through a series of missions, side quests, and hunts. Each location will have a mission that allows you to recruit your new ally, whereas side quests will be from the townsfolk, and hunts are available at locations in each town. These require that you seek out a threat that moves around the map after a set amount of damage has been sustained. These fights are against larger foes like spiders and snakes, and provide quite the challenge.
Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter truly surprised me. It looked engaging from the few trailers that were released, but I never expected to be fully blown away and yet, it’s a game that I adore. The game runs impressively on the Switch with not a single technical blemish. Arlo’s journey is emotional and engaging, with combat that suits the Warden of Wastes to find allies to combat this vampiric threat. With a wide arrangement of weapons and impressive abilities, you’ll find this to be a memorable adventure and one worth taking. Simply put, this game is a masterpiece.
Developer - Odd Bug Studios.
Publisher - United Label, CI Games. Released - January 28th, 2025. Available On - Xbox One/Series X/S, PS4/PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC. Rated - (T) - Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch/PC. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.