DNF Duel Review – Easy to Play Fighter with Something for Everyone

DNF Duel is a 2.5D fighter based on an immensely popular game, Dungeon Fighter Online. I’m sure that you’re at least slightly familiar with the game, and if not, you should check it out. Someone had the idea of turning the classic 2D side-scrolling beat ’em up MMORPG into a fighting game, and it definitely works. I’m just surprised it took this long to happen.

Game Name: DNF Duel
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PS4, PS5
Publisher(s):  Nexon
Developer(s): Arc System Works, Eighting, Neople
Release Date: June 28th, 2022

Before I go into this review, I wanted to prefix this with I didn’t just want to play a few hours and then push out this review. When it comes to fighting games, you have to play it, win some bouts, and get your ass supremely handed to you in others. With DNF Duel, I’ve managed to play all the single-player modes, as well as partake in about 250+ fights, and afterward, I felt I was ready to properly review the title. So, forgive me for the delayed review. 

DNF Duel is yet another fighting game that looks to dazzle anyone who dares play it with amazing-looking visuals, an easy-to-learn system, and yes, dare I say it, simplified inputs. Special moves can either be performed by using the proper circular inputs, or you can use a direction, and the magic put and perform the same move. The only difference is that if you perform the proper input, your magic recovery will be just a smidge faster. And when I say smidge, I mean you’ll hardly notice it. This is why during my time with the game, I opted to use the simplified inputs. 

The character/player Controls are handled by 6 buttons; A (light), B (medium), S (Skill), MP (Magic Points), Guard, and Awakening (more of that later). Yes, there’s a guard button, but you can also simply hold back to block. However, there are attacks in the game that simply can’t be guarded by holding back… I’m looking at you Lost Warrior. The guard button is a must-have and you might as well get used to it.  The guard button is also used for rolling, which can be used to avoid attacks or slip past your opponent and get behind them. 

DNF Duel does bring a unique take to a number of things that we take for granted in a fighting game, and after a few matches, I enjoy those changes. The first is the way health is handled. Simple yet effective, the game uses colors to signify the type of damage you received. Certain attacks will provide white damage to your health bar, which is recoverable over time. However, red damage means that you have permanently lost that portion of your health. It’s an interesting system that affects how you attack, which moves you’ll use and how to recover lost health while being pressured.

I love how meter is handled in DNF Duel. Instead of building up meter, every character starts out with 100 Magic Points or MP. This is how characters dish out damage using special moves, and each move uses a specific amount of magic. Running out of magic puts you into Exhaustion, and you’ll have to wait for your magic to recover or hit your opponent with standard attacks. But it’s not as straightforward as it seems. As long as you have a single magic point, you can still perform a special attack, but you’ll stay in exhaustion longer. Or, if you have white damage, you can convert that into magic points using the skilled Conversion, which is great for extending combos when your MP meter is almost dry. The downside is the white heath is converted into red health, and you lose it.  Lastly, the more health you start to lose throughout a match, your magic point meter will expand. 

While you can attempt to guard and block attacks all day, I wouldn’t advise doing so as characters’ defenses can be broken with a Guard Crush. Next to the health bar is a meter that includes how much blocking ability you have. Special attacks will whittle this down, and once it’s completely gone, you or your opponent can score a guard crush. It’s not a long window, but when this happens, that character is entirely open to any attack.

There’s a “come back” mechanic, and I don’t care if anyone doesn’t agree with me calling it, called Awakening. Once you’re down to 30% of your health, your health bar will start to glow. At this point, several things will happen to your characters, such as the MP jumping from 100 to 200 or gaining  Awakening Skills that will change the properties of characters and their attacks.

For example, Dragon Knight’s awakening skill allows her to increase the amount of MP she covers, the Grappler will take far less white damage, and the Swift Master just gets faster. It’s important to take note of those changes, as they can easily turn the tide of a losing fight.  On top of that, you’ll be able to unleash a devastating attack using the Awakening button. This skill can either kill or do massive damage, depending on how much health you or your opponent has. 

In terms of the character roster, there’s something here for everyone; Zoners, mid-rangers, and of course, characters that do their best when they’re up in your face. Each character possesses something that I’m sure will fit your playstyle. For example, the Launcher can zone all day and with ease, keeping most characters at bay while she whittles down your white health while waiting for you to make a mistake. The Striker is all about chaining special moves in a fashion that other characters can’t. Which makes her adapt at pressuring characters, at the cost of not being very strong. While the Berserker is a mid-range character, who can easily put a hurt on you and can sacrifice his life to do ultra-damaging attacks, and even put himself into a unique situation by enabling his Awakening skill. 

As you can see, there’s lots of versatility here. Just like every fighting game before DNF Duel, this is all about picking one and learning everything about that character. Of course, this means taking on the training mode, and once you feel comfortable, go and play a few online matches. It does need to be mentioned that this game is heavy on the Kusoge. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, I highly recommend checking out this video.

People are finding infinities and ridiculous combo strings every day, that unless ArcSys and Eighting are on the ball, DNF Duel could find itself in a situation where people flock to other games. Well, outside of the hardcore audience. 

"God truly is infinite. Therefore nothing can oppose Him."

Psalms 139:7-8#DNF_CRS #DNF_CRU pic.twitter.com/bw1hnrN6ip

— Dacidbro (@Dacidbro) June 30, 2022

Perhaps the most important aspect of an online multiplayer fighting game is its netcode. Thankfully, ArcSys and Eighting decided to do things right and incorporated rollback netcode from the start, instead of opting to add it later. Due to this, DNF Duel’s online matches have been smooth for the most part. Out of the 200+ matches I’ve had so far, I’ve only had 2 or 3 terrible matches. It’s great. But it goes further, as you can also see your ping displayed on-screen (RTT) and your opponents (RBF).

Jumping into a random game is as simple as queuing up and waiting for your match. However, instead of just sitting there, you can either jump into the Training mode to get some practice in or perfect that combo. Head to the Tutorial mode, which you should do before you even go online, or play a few rounds in the Arcade. Currently, you can get play in ranked games, or just casual matches.

The cutesy lobby system that was featured in Dragon Ball FighterZ and Granblue Fantasy Versus also makes a return (UGH!), with in-game arcade machines placed in a room where you have to walk up to them to start a match. I wasn’t a fan of this in those games, and I still am not. Once someone sets up a lobby, it’s straightforward to access them. 

Should you not only want to play online but there’s also plenty to do. A story mode is available for each character, though it’s not very long and you can blast through each in about 35-40 minutes. A training and tutorial mode is accessible and recommended that you check out so you can learn the ins and outs of both the game and get used to the characters. Once that’s done, you can jump into arcade mode or survival mode. There’s even something for those who like collecting things and can purchase various avatars, nameplates, and more by playing the game and accumulating gold.

Visually, the game is beautiful, especially in motion, as the game shares the same 2.5D cel-shaded art style as a number of recent ArcSys games have. The character designs are striking, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything to complain about. They’re oozing with personalization, and each character has a look that’s their own. Special attacks look stunning, and when you’re either setting up an Awakening attack or being caught in one, you can help but to enjoy the show. 

For everything that DNF Duel does right, there are still a number of things that frustrated me with the game. 

There’s a lack of defensive capabilities, which does tend to cause players to get blown up. There’s air blocking, no universal air-dash, though several characters have access to this as part of their moveset. While rolling is available, some of the character’s rolls are flat-out terrible and end up doing more harm than good. This can also be said about the guard break, which lets you break out of attack strings by performing a special move to push your opponent way that costs way too many magic points. And even then, a guard break isn’t guaranteed and can be countered. Seeing your character getting caught in a combo string that never ends, with you being swooped into the air, back to the ground, and over again, is simply no fun. It wasn’t fun in the Marvel Versus games, it wasn’t fun in Dragon Ball Fighterz, and it isn’t fun here.

Then there’s the lack of cross-play, which I feel should be an essential part of any fighting game. As it stands now, those on the PC version can only play against other PC players, while PS4 and PS5 players are also stuck playing cross-gen. It should be stated that cross-play would be arriving to DNF Duel at a later date, but we don’t know when that is. 

Despite those gripes, I haven’t been able to put down DNF Duel. It’s been fun to jump into a game and enjoy myself most of the time. Which has been something I haven’t been able to do with a fighting game for quite some time.

Review Disclosure Statement: DNF Duel review code was provided to us by PR for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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