Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter: A bigger, cuter, and more vicious animal fantasy

1.13.2025
By Francisco Dominguez, Contributor

Finding a unique spin on the Soulslike is a task that becomes harder with each passing day. Italian? Done in Enotria: The Last Song. Pinocchio? See Lies of P. Crabs? Seriously? Yes, believe it or not that’s been done too, with Another Crab’s Treasure.

For the cinematic 2D action-RPG Tails of Iron, Odd Bug Studio didn’t need to look far. They found inspiration close to home in Character Designer Dan Robinson’s beloved pet rats.

Those medieval rats are now set to return for a deeper and broader sequel, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter. As before, they may look cute, but they’re packing a nasty bite.

Given that rats often play disposable enemies—low-level sewer-dwellers whose lives are cheap—it was an unconventional decision to elevate them to Tails of Iron's major faction. Jack Bennett, Co-Founder and Producer/Designer at Odd Bug Studio, told us how thrusting his former housemate’s pets into dark, brutal medieval combat led to the unlikely resurrection of a fondly remembered (and now neglected) anthropomorphic fantasy genre.

Redwall and The Wind in the Willows are massive franchises that most people have in their childhood memories,” he says. “There are a few similar games, like Ghost of a Tale [a 2016 action-stealth game about a mouse] a few years ago, but there's no modern version, so I think something that's grabbed people's attention with our game is that furry little animal kingdom.”
Tails Of Iron 2 Fire
The next installment of Tails of Iron follows a new character: Arlo, son of the Warden of the Wastes, the snowy lands of the North. Much like the North in Game of Thrones, it’s a frontier land renowned for its cold hostility and dangerous proximity to a foreboding ancient evil, the bat-like Dark Wings. Arlo can rightly be compared to Jon Snow, tasked with uniting the woodland races to fend off the dire threat encroaching their borders.

Bennett states Odd Bug’s goal is to have players feeling like they’re adventuring through an epic medieval world of animals. “We really like the idea of creating this world that feels living and real, even though it's our pet rats!” said Bennett.

This world may have the smallest of origins, but it’s been built out over years into an elaborate fantasy setting full of interconnected species factions and forest politics. The sequel expands the setting further—with an owl society that occupies the golden autumnal town of Nestminster (the name’s a hoot!), a settlement of catfish residing in a dried up muddy riverbed often struck by lightning, and more to be revealed.

The artwork is reminiscent of Eastern European woodblock, with thick black outlines and muted colors. This distinctive look is thanks to Art Director Martin Reimann, who comes from the Czech Republic—but it's more than just an aesthetic choice. It has the added benefit of making each character stand out, despite countless assets cluttering each ultra-detailed background, a comic book look with the depth of a storybook illustration.
 

Uncaged fights


Bennett describes the challenging, weighty combat of Tails of Iron as “the first introduction to a Soulslike." It's as vicious as the Watership Down battles that traumatized generations of children, but with its exacting demands for timing and pattern recognition tempered by telegraphed color-cues and the removal of stamina bar management.

Tails of Iron 2 also introduces a variety of new combat abilities, including an elemental system, new enemy weaknesses to exploit, and more customizable loadouts. Traps can bait multiple enemies, and a new magic system means enemies can be frozen, poisoned, or otherwise manipulated at-will.
Tails Of Iron 2 Bat Fight
Where previous protagonist Redgi often found himself mobbed, struggling to escape with simple swords and spears, Arlo's new abilities in Tails of Iron 2 make a huge difference when confronted by similar hordes of enemies. “You're not just physically doing damage yourself—you can actually control the combat space much better,” says Bennett. You’ll need that control, because the vertical threat of the airborne Dark Wings and their dragon steeds far exceeds the typically one-dimensional onslaught of Tails of Iron’s frogs and moles.

A new crafting system provides a dizzying array of weapon and armor options, and it’s connected to another inclusion that fundamentally reconfigures Tails of Iron 2’s exploration. Unafraid of borrowing good ideas from his favorite games, Bennett is excited to show off their new Monster Hunter-influenced hunt system. Crafting materials are drawn from a world now dense with life to be slaughtered and repurposed.

“Like Monster Hunter, we have these enemies that move around the map,” says Bennett. “It's not just focused on combat, it's focusing on how you're gonna travel through the world. Are you equipped to deal with this poison spider, or do you want to take the longer route around and try to avoid it?”

For Tails of Iron 2, Odd Bug also initially added a weapon sharpening mechanic where weapons dulled over time and inflicted less damage. Player feedback quickly reminded the team that they’d reinvented weapon degradation—or, as Bennett puts it, added a feature they’d gone to deliberate lengths to exclude. “We basically made a funky stamina bar!” says Bennett. The mechanic was reworked, now offering buffs instead of debuffs.
Tails Of Iron 2 Bat Rider
One more new inclusion is a settlement-building feature. The destruction of Arlo's home early on makes for an inauspicious start to the adventure, but players are given the opportunity to refashion their hometown. More than a familiar hub for upgrades and unlocks, it’s a place where connections with the game’s companions are deepened. You’re building an army, and completing side quests can furnish you with a devoted blacksmith, chef, or a new friend and ally.
 

The deep raspy voice behind a wintry gruesome atmosphere


You may recognise the voice narrating the Tails of Iron series—it’s no less than Doug Cockle, voice of Geralt from The Witcher. He’s played an integral role defining the mood of Tails of Iron, an unexpected development even for Odd Bug, which originally planned for nonverbal storytelling with no text or language at all. A "highfalutin concept," as Bennett now admits in hindsight.

“Just having Doug's deep, raspy voice just makes it feel so much darker, so much more weighted when he describes what's going on,” he continues. “Even if it's two rats talking about what they're having for dinner, his voice makes it feel way more meaningful and impactful.”

With an accomplished voice actor involved, they then needed an entire RPG’s script. Odd Bug enlisted Emma Beeby, a comics writer best known for her run on Judge Dredd, to turn Bennett’s story beats into suitably dark and gruesome dialogue for Cockle to deliver with sinister aplomb.

For Tails of Iron 2, the team really wanted to push big dramatic moments. The script's been tailored to reinforce the shock of these story beats, and on the animation side, Odd Bug's used techniques to bolster the expressive limits of 2D animation and make sure the atmosphere comes through.
Tails Of Iron 2 Were Owl
Odd Bug today is very different compared to development of the first Tails of Iron, though. When COVID struck, the team vacated their office and worked from the home Bennett shared with the game’s two artists. Game development happened in a crowded space on the dining table, unsure of the studio’s future or the reception their first action-RPG would receive as funds dwindled and the world around them turned to hell. Fortunately, when the original Tails of Iron released it found an enthusiastic audience.

Now, during the sequel’s development, they all live separately, mortgages secured by the first game’s success. They're still motivated by their fandom to make the best Tails of Iron game possible though, adding over 200 weapons, more than doubling the original game’s length, deepening the combat, adding more variety to the world design, and (of course) including twice the raspy Doug Cockle dialogue.

“We just need to make it bigger and better, and I think we've done that,” says Bennett. “I'm more excited for this one to come out because I know people like it and want it. The first game, when it came out, I thought ‘I think it's good. I don't know. I hope people enjoy it. And then people obviously loved it. I'm just super excited for people to play Tails of Iron 2.”

Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter releases on the Epic Games Store on January 28.