Kind of Dumb, Kind of Fun

As a long time fan of the fighting game genre, when I see the name “Arc System Works” being associated with a new upcoming fighter, I pay attention.

After all, they are responsible for some of my favorites in the genre like Blazblue and Guilty Gear. However, DNF: Duel was a bit of an odd duck as it was based off of an original IP named “Dungeon Fighters Online” which is a free to play game that has been around for more than 15 years that I knew absolutely nothing about.

Even more so than that, the reception of the game during its beta tests were mixed to be generous with many enthusiasts dropping the “Kusoge” terminology which affectionately translates to “Shit Game”. Just to clarify, when something is a Kusoge, it usually doesn’t mean the game is bad and unplayable, it’s often associated with poor balancing, overtuned characters and wild mechanics that allow for one touch kills and the like.

After my time with DNF: Duel, I can confirm that it kind of is a Kusoge but at the very least, it’s a fun one to play.

The visuals and animation work is stellar as we’ve come to expect from Arc System Works fighters.

MSRP: $49.99
Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC
Voice Acting: JPN/KOR/CHN
Played: 30~ hours

As someone that is oblivious to the original IP this fighter is based on, I hoped to perhaps learn about the story and characters from the various single player modes but unfortunately there is slim picking in terms of single player content.

There is a “story” mode that plays and feels more like an Arcade mode than a fully flushed out story mode as there is a series of visual novel conversations with different characters that leads to a fight and the cycle repeats until the final boss is defeated.

Even though each of the characters has their own story modes to go through, none of it was particularly interesting or involved. They met with NPCs that I’ve never seen before, conveniently making excuses to change the scene to fight the next character and so on and so forth. It does at least serve to unlock the one hidden character but after playing through a handful of story modes, I had no desire to continue.

It’s a shame because the character designs are interesting and I would wager there’s some cool lore hidden away somewhere but I wasn’t experiencing that through the given story mode.

The other single player offerings like Arcade/Challenge/Score Attack modes were barebones as well which is a shame as if this series were to continue past this entry, it would behoove the developers to get players more invested in its characters past how they play.

You can hit me from where?!

As for the meat of any fighter, the gameplay is a mixed bag.

All special attacks are governed by the use of “MP” which starts out at 100 and increases to a maximum of 200 the more damage the player takes. At 30% life, every character enters “Awakening” which unlocked supers as well as a different passive buff for each fighter with some not being that big of a deal to others being absolutely game-changing.

There is a system to allow for all special attacks to be done with a press of a direction and an attack button but using the attacks with this method delays the recovery of MP so it behooves the player to learn the correct commands which are all fairly simple to begin with.

Even though the game supports the traditional blocking method of holding back, it also offered a block button which works great against ambiguous cross over attacks but it also ate up the guard meter faster so it was not advised to use it all the time.

Ease of play seemed to be a major focus as I found that I was able to pick up most characters and start being somewhat effective in only a few minutes in the training mode compared to the hours it might take for more complex fighters.

That isn’t to say that there isn’t depth to explore here but if the aim was to pick up a fighter to play with a bunch of friends who have never played it before, this might be one of the better choices on offer.

I mained Launcher during my playthrough thinking it would be cool to mix things up from my usual archetypes but this might have been a mistake.

While it’s all good and well that it’s a game that’s simple to get into, the reason why I personally don’t enjoy DNF: Duel comes down to its balancing and a few of the core mechanics that are frustrating to deal with.

As I mostly played the resident zoner, “Launcher” during my time with the game, I was shocked to learn that she basically had no overhead attacks. Even her jump attacks were mids and I pondered how the hell I was expected to open up my opponent if all they need to do is hold down back until I was out of MP but then I learned of the Guard Meter and how to break it.

The basics are simple, the more they blocked without having a moment to rest, the guard meter will drain until it is emptied and my opponent becomes open to a follow up attack. Most attacks when blocked also did chip damage that would slowly recover unless they were hit with a special move.

So I often found myself keeping my opponents in nearly inescapable block stun for as long as I could, chipping away at both their health and guard meter until they were opened up so I could win the round.

However, having chipped damage allowed my opponents to cancel moves to close the distance or employ other options and given that I was always doing some kind of chip damage, I was constantly giving my opponents additional options whether I wanted to or not. That alongside the fact that the majority of the cast had attacks that would hit halfway across the screen with ease, it felt like an uphill battle.

Lastly by expanding 100 MP, I could break out of guard stun but it was fairly easy to bait and even after successfully escaping pressure, chances are I was going right back into the blender after blocking one hit.

This translated to having to play in a very specific way where I was paying closer attention to the guard meter than I was to the health bar which I didn’t particularly enjoy.

There’s also some characters that feel entirely too overtuned for the game’s own good like Swiftmaster who has already been banned in some tournaments. There were also things like the infamous Crusader infinite but that has thankfully been patched out at the time of writing.

At least the online experience felt pretty good and the rollback netcode was implemented properly allowing for solid connections around the world.

The animation work for the supers are quite exceptional, I just wish each character had more than one.

As it stands, DNF:Duel is not a fighter I will continue to play as it’s not the kind of experience I’m looking for in a fighting game. However, that is not to say that I don’t see the value in having a game where bombastic, overtuned characters do dumb things to each other as I don’t believe every fighter needs to be meticulously balanced and brutally deep to have a place in the FGC. All that really means is that I’ll just be watching instead of playing.

Fun Tidbit: I don’t think I’ve ever played another fighting game where blocking is often just as bad, if not worse than getting hit.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.