Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter Review – A Cold Dark Ratventure (PS5)

Last year I was looking through my backlog and decided to give the first Tails of Iron a spin. I was brought into a fantasy world filled with rats, toads and other anthropomorphic people. The game developed by Odd Bug Studio gave off both Game of Thrones and Redwall vibes and as a fan of both, I was hooked. Then low and behold, a sequel to this fantastic world emerges in the latter half of winter in 2025. Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is the next chapter focusing on the rats up north dealing with the Dark Wing menace. 

Like the previous game, Tails of Iron 2 is an action RPG that puts you in the role of Warden of the Wastes. You’ll explore new areas of the world inhabited by new and old races. Fight the Darkwing threat that bears the similarities to the White Walkers from Game of Thrones. You’re provided with many different types of weapons to use and like the original, dodging, parrying and picking the right moment to strike is crucial. Almost everything is practically improved upon from the original game with only a few small details that put the game down from being perfection. If you want to learn more, then sit back and read my thoughts down below. 

Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is available for PC, PS4/PS5, and Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S for $24.99

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Story – Another Tail of Ratvenge

For anyone who played the previous title, you’ll be very familiar with many of the story beats repeating in the sequel. You play as Arlo, son of Lord Avor, Warden of the Wastes. After a dangerous hunt, the dreaded Darkwing menace attacks Arlo’s home, Winters Edge. After the battle, Arlo is left in the wreckage with vengeance and responsibility on his mind. The next parts of the story center around exploring different biomes recruiting individuals who will aid you on your quest. Meeting many different races and exploring unique environments filled with different enemies and content. Eventually, you complete enough prep to begin assisting other villages with the Darkwings and begin marching on their castle fortress.

Alongside the main narrative, you’ll get to take on bounties and other side quests from different residents of each biome. From monster hunting, discovering lost items, and delivering precious Moledonalds. These can be fun but annoyingly you can’t accept more than one mission which is a little annoying. The overall story isn’t grand but for what it does it keeps you entertained enough to proceed onwards. Throughout Arlo’s adventure, you’ll find a handful of allies willing to help. They can even help you in fights though don’t expect them to perform high amounts of damage. The villains are an improvement this time with the Darkwings being a more ferocious enemy compared to the Toads. Overall, it’s an enjoyable experience and I’m looking forward to seeing what future updates will bring. 

Characters & Narration – Colourful Allies & A Witcher Returns

Like in the first Tails of Iron, we get to meet quite a few characters. From northern ratfolk of the Outskirts, frogs and Merpeople of the Rift, and the Owl folk of the Golden Forest. You’ll meet loads of new characters to get to know among a few returning characters from the original. Some standout individuals include Captain Black Tail, Robin the Ranger (welcome back friend), Rita the blacksmith mermaid, and the hedgehog druid Merlin. A somewhat nitpick is with Arlo since other than his character design, his personality doesn’t feel that different to the first game’s protagonist, though that’s mainly due to how they handle dialogue and the fact that many plot points are repeating from the first game.

One unique aspect of Tails of Iron is that none of the characters use regular dialogue. Instead, you see speech bubbles with images to help describe what they’re saying. In addition to this way of portraying dialogue, we have a talented narrator who describes everything in a storytelling fashion. Who is this narrator you may ask? The one the only, Doug Cockle aka Geralt of Rivia. He narrated the first game and returned for the sequel providing witty humor and emotional reads describing Arlo’s thoughts. 

Gameplay – Engaging Battles of Rats and Bats

Moving onto the meat of Tails of Iron 2, the gameplay is both punishing and rewarding for first-time players. The dance of Tails of Iron 2‘s combat heavily involves parrying. It borrows a gameplay style similar to the souls-like genre, especially with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which had parrying as a crucial component. Luckily with Tails of Iron 2, you can change difficulty in case you need some practice. Of course, if you’re not the best at that, dodging and defending can work for most attacks. However, be wary of attacks that are highlighted in red since they’re usually unblockable.

A new addition is useable items that can be used during/outside of combat. This includes elemental traps, potions that cure negative status effects, and the whetstone. This item can be very helpful with harder bosses since it applies extra damage to your weapon. Outside of combat, you’re able to use the new grappling hook to explore areas that are higher up. You can also collect resources for crafting weapons, armour, and building upgrades via the land and by defeating enemies. One returning feature is the healing flask that requires you to hold a button down to use. It still requires strategy in combat to use it, especially when you’ve upgraded your health which requires more time to heal. 

Alas a Snake was found

Weapons and Armour – Swords & Sorcery

Just like the first Tails of Iron, the sequel has a grand arsenal of weapons and armour to play with. You can go into battle with three weapons equipped, my favourites were the light axe, heavy spear, and a gun. A new addition to the sequel is elemental effects, fire, ice, poison, and lightning. Most weapons and armour have either positive or negative stats regarding these effects that can change how you tackle each fight. The Beastiary really helps with identifying the weaknesses and strengths of enemies so that I can wear and use the right gear for every occasion. 

In addition to elemental status effects, you are granted magical attacks from the four shrines located in different biomes. You can use these abilities once and then you wait for it to become available again. In the early parts when I only had one or two powers available, I rarely used them. However, after unlocking all 4 and even upgrading a few of them, I would use them for most boss fights. I particularly like using the lightning power to hit flying bosses which would send them flying down onto the ground. Was a very satisfying ability. 

Enemies & Bosses – From Challenging to Instant Kill

As stated above, Tails of Iron takes aspects of Souls-like games which of course means that most enemies can kill you with a few hits. Most interactions left me with 1% of my health left in the early stages. However, once I got back into the swing of things, especially with parrying and timed dodges, I was ploughing through most enemies and minor bosses. Enemies range from armed warriors from the Toad and Bat factions, and beast enemies like spiders, birds, and lizards. I prefer fighting the wildlife since they’re easier to deal with but faction enemies provide a fun challenge and look cool. 

Regarding boss fights, these are the best parts of Tails of Iron 2. Most fights will feel unique compared to fighting regular enemies and can be quite tough. Practically every boss fight with the Darkwing faction was challenging and often left me with most of my items used and barely any health. The wildlife bosses were a different beast since most were quite easy to deal with due to the lack of attacks and my loadouts at the time. However, one annoying feature is when they would flee to another part of the map. I don’t mind having to hunt them down similar to games like Monster Hunter but I’d also prefer to be able to take them down in one fight. 

Base Building and Customisation – Winter’s Edge Anew 

One of the early main objectives is to go out into the world and recruit characters. You’ll search for a chef, blacksmith, merchant, and a builder. The latter was the most important since they opened up crafting/customising buildings for Winter’s Edge. You can craft each of the possible four buildings pretty much straight away, though the shop building is delayed for story reasons. You’ll collect the items for crafting via story missions and looting from specific enemies.

There is also some space for decorating where you can place non-interactable buildings and items around the keep. I placed some beehives, extra homes for refugees, a fountain and a grand rat statue near the front entrance. This feature does feel lacking since there’s not much you can place into your home. I would have liked to have had some items provide some form of bonus effects like increased healing speed or other status effects. 

In this menu, you can build and upgrade Winter’s Edge

Graphics & Audio – A Beautiful Feast for the Eyes and Ears

My first impression of Tails of Iron 2 was that it has a gorgeous art style with every biome feeling unique. My favourite biomes had to be the Golden Forest with their treehouse kingdom of Owls, and the Rift, home to many gorgeous background pieces like the octopus (possibly Cthulhu-inspired) statue and the giant skeletons of beasts long deceased. Additionally, the weather effects looked great with the Rift constantly raining and the winter backdrop of the Outskirts. It gets even better that we now have a day-and-night cycle that further increases the beauty. The maps you use to get around are again gorgeous with their paper design and as a bonus, you can look at any map wherever you are. 

Regarding audio, the voice acting of Doug Cockle is as great as expected. If you wanted to hear The Witcher narrate a dark story while telling a few jokes from the mind of a rat warrior, then you got your wish. Now, the music is a slightly different story since like the original it just feels like background music. However, when a boss fight occurs, the music ramps up just enough to keep you entertained. The sequel does have a great idea for the Darkwing bosses since they have an in-game metal band providing the boss music. It’s probably my favourite thing the sequel has done aesthetically, plus those bats know how to shred. 

Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter was reviewed on PS5 with a review code provided by Oddbug Studios.