If I’d known I was going to enjoy DNF Duel this much, I would have bought it sooner

My taste in fighting games leans towards the refined. I love Virtua Fighter, I think GGXX Accent Core has too much stuff in it. I admire really wild anything-goes fighting games like Marvel Vs. Capcom and the folks who play them. But as a player, games where you spend all your time learning to land one hit into a two-minute combo to kill simply bore me.1

So why do I like veteran oddball fighting game developer Eighting’s2 DNF Duel so much? It’s certainly a game of the “wild” type, but it’s focused on approachability and fun. It’s ridiculously easy to pick up a character, and it feels so good to press buttons. I’m not good at DNF Duel and it’s never going to be my main fighting game. But I’ve been unable to tear myself away.

DNF Duel marries the “accessibility” design of modern fighting games with extremely powerful characters and an anything-goes high-level philosophy. Easy controls, brutal offense. You thought that setup was cheap?, DNF Duel asks. You don’t even know cheap.

But we’ll get to that! DNF Duel is a fighting game modeled after the venerable (and still running!) 2000s Korean MMO beat-em-up Dungeon And Fighter (Dungeon Fighter Online). All the characters are in fact based on specific sub-classes from the online game, so their names are things like Crusader, Vanguard, and Ranger.

As you would expect from an MMORPG cast, the classes vary from extremely straightforward jobs like the self-explanatory Grappler and Striker to progressively more complex and unique characters like the Dragon Knight and Ghostblade.

DNF Duel is a colorful game— do the Dreamcast-era vibes this game gives off qualify as retro if its source material is already 20 years old?3 All of these characters have more personality than you’d expect from characters whose names are their jobs. Arc System Works is a co-developer, and the game’s gorgeous 3D animation was clearly achieved using their signature anime-style methods.

DNF Duel commits to “easy” fighting controls like few other fighting games dare to. Traditional “fireball” commands are rendered unnecessary4 by a single “special” button that handles all of a character’s special techniques, similar to the one in Smash Brothers. Even the “super move” is handled by one button.

Combine this with the traditional “anime fighter” style, where every move flows into every other move— and the special moves even cancel into one another— you quickly find yourself unleashing a long, winding stream of flashy attacks with just a few button presses, even if you don’t know what the hell you just did. The feeling is a little addictive, to be honest.

This simple but powerful flow focuses DNF Duel players on one thing: landing powerful combos. Due to the free-form system, players can turn even a single stray hit into devastating combo damage. Thus beyond the absolute beginner button-masher level, we must think of DNF Duel as a combo game. It is about coming up with combos, practicing them, and landing them in battle. If you’re offended by the idea of getting hit 35 times and having your life bar deleted, DNF Duel may not be the game for you, even if it is “accessible”.5

But it would not be fair to call DNF Duel a game of “first hit kills” like Marvel or Fist of the North Star: while such combos certainly exist, the game is designed not to play out that way. Players have limited MP for the special moves that dish out the real damage, and if they run it out they have to wait a few seconds for it to regenerate. They only gain higher MP levels-- increasing their potential combo damage and ultimately unlocking their strongest attack-- as they take hits and lose life.

So at the start of the fight, players can only do a little damage with their combos. But as the fight goes on, they quickly get stronger and stronger until they’re finally on a razor’s edge, one combo from death themselves but with the potential to KO the opponent in a single strike. It’s a system designed to create massive comeback victories.

By the mid-point of an evenly matched DNF Duel fight, both players have the means to finish the other off in one good hit. The bleeding-edge tension of that moment is extremely compelling.

I’ve been using Striker, a fast close-range melee character who has trouble moving in on the opponent— this is a game where many characters boast full-screen attacks— but wields relentless offense and crushing damage up close. Battering opponents with Striker’s barrage of punches and kicks is just too much fun; like I said, I’m addicted.

But the wide roster allows for plenty of other play styles. The Launcher pulls a whole arsenal of cartoon guns out of her pocket to unleash massive ranged blasts. The big man Crusader uses the power of the Lord to lock opponents in place before smiting them with his hammer. And if you want to make things complicated, pick the Swift Master, practice for a couple of days, and do whatever the hell you want.6 I’m really curious to keep playing around this roster.

The package of modes is pretty standard. There is a brief story mode for single-players to enjoy and a final boss to be unlocked, but otherwise the content is focused on multi-player. A robust training mode allows players to perfect their combos and test any situation they could imagine.

The best news for online versus players is that the game has rollback netcode: thankfully, we are getting close to the point where rollback is a given for any new fighting game. In a couple years I won’t even have to mention it anymore.

DNF Duel is a hardcore, merciless fighting game that I nevertheless feel like I can recommend to anybody. It simply feels good.

(If you’re reading this as it goes up, it’s also $25 on PSN. Character DLC is forthcoming this year.)