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DNF Duel |OT| The OT I guess?

Pejo

Member
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Kinda low hype for this considering it's an Arcsys fighter from one of the highest revenue grossing IPs in all of gaming.

I'm debating picking it up, I was hoping there'd be a GAF thread about it with impressions. Steam reviews seem to say that all of the characters are fun to play.

2 Important things - NO crossplay between PS/Steam and it DOES have rollback netcode.

Per Miyazaki’s Slave Miyazaki’s Slave below it does support cross-buy on PS4/PS5.

Release Trailer



Character Reveal Trailers (consolidated)



Characters List from Official Site:


A few reviews:







Available on PS4/PS5 and on Steam, $49.99 US


 
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Hoppa

Member
Nice one, I havent been following the development of this game at all but I picked it up. I usually gravitate toward rushdown characters but when normals take up half the screen I don’t expect them to be very effective..
 
Bought it and played with striker in training mode for 10 minutes; there's probably lots of mechanics I'm unaware of, but it seems pretty straightforward.
I'll have to dig into it more before rending judgement, but fun so far.
 

Pejo

Member
Bought it and played with striker in training mode for 10 minutes; there's probably lots of mechanics I'm unaware of, but it seems pretty straightforward.
I'll have to dig into it more before rending judgement, but fun so far.
Would you compare it more to the latest GG, Xrd, or BB? Or none of them?
 
Would you compare it more to the latest GG, Xrd, or BB? Or none of them?
Def not GG, there's too many mechanics to memorise in GG to compare it to this; it's probably closer to bbtag if you took out the tag fighting, but again I haven't had too much time to dig into it yet, got a 16 hit combo with striker just by fucking around.

I'm not even sure if there's a benefit to using the hard inputs vs the easy inputs (definitely no difference damage wise), which granblue versus did do, so it seems the focus is more on finding openings and going to town.

Edit: if you want I can invite you for a remote play together session and you can see for yourself.
 
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Pejo

Member
Def not GG, there's too many mechanics to memorise in GG to compare it to this; it's probably closer to bbtag if you took out the tag fighting, but again I haven't had too much time to dig into it yet, got a 16 hit combo with striker just by fucking around.

I'm not even sure if there's a benefit to using the hard inputs vs the easy inputs (definitely no difference damage wise), which granblue versus did do, so it seems the focus is more on finding openings and going to town.

Edit: if you want I can invite you for a remote play together session and you can see for yourself.
I might take you up on that offer later, I'm technically working right now. Glad to hear they reduced execution requirements. GBVS was my favorite fighting game since BBCF, so that's a positive sign.

At least this game has rollback netcode if I recall.
 

blackjon24

Member
I think I will wait until a discount on this could not care less about the IP could think of a million other things I would have rather arc system do
 
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Pejo

Member
I think I will wait until a discount on this could not care less about the IP could think of a million other things I would have rather arc system do
I'll admit, it does come at a bad time right in the middle of a Steam sale after everyone probably spent their gaming budget for the month. No launch discount either, which I understand, but...
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Seems like it is PS4 PS5 cross buy as well. That's a bonus at least for the purists since the PS5 is reported to have "turible NPUT lagzzzzzz" but at least you the option to play on PS4 in this case.
 

Pejo

Member
Seems like it is PS4 PS5 cross buy as well. That's a bonus at least for the purists since the PS5 is reported to have "turible NPUT lagzzzzzz" but at least you the option to play on PS4 in this case.
Thanks, added that to the OP.
 
I'll wait til/if they release it on Xbox and enable crossplay between all platforms. No reason why it shouldn't have crossplay in the modern age.
 

Doom85

Member
Wow, I didn’t realize the IP was that big, as I honestly had never heard of it until the announcement of this new game.

Anyway, I’ll probably pick it up soon. I do admit though I enjoy all of Arcsys’s fighters but never stick with them super long outside of FighterZ (though that was mainly due to Season 3 adding a lot of new stuff).

Kind of concerned they haven’t announced a season pass for this yet. Granblue Versus also launched with a small roster but IIRC we knew at least there would be one season of additional fighters.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
*take this all with a grain of salt since I have all of 5 hours of play time with the game

Played through the tutorial and trial (I think that is what it is called) with two of the characters (kunoichi and swift master) and to me it feels a lot like Granblue Fantasy Vs. The mix between simplified input and traditional input for specials and the straight forward approach to the characters buttons (two attack, one skill button, one special button) I think will make the game approachable to folks who see traditional fighting games as having a high barrier of entry.

I think some of these mechanics are going to impact how much the "pro" level FGC adopts the game. Each characters BnB combos seem really straight forward to do and variation for character combos seems limited in application/mix up. Outside of some characters instant teleports the mix up game seems rather basic as well. I realize that this is the second day the majority of folks have had a chance to play and I am by no means a great FG player anymore, but corner pressure was almost non-existent when I played last night. Blocking attacks and reading the 50/50's on wake up just seemed very easy in the game. The resource management element of the game can cause some excitement when you get into longer fights.

Pros:
Game looks and runs like a beauty! Animations are great and character "freshness" is a solid 8/10.
Controls are easy to understand while providing some style options for veteran FG players.
Story mode looks good, enough so to get me to play more of it tonight.
Online felt really good (RB netcode).
The game constantly got better after each beta and, imo, what you get for $50 is a solid game that you can have fun with.

Cons:
Combo strings seem extremely linear in nature. Start low, transition to mid/high, launch, air follow up, skill/super, repeat. With little variation in that approach. The inclusion of a guard button makes cross ups almost non-existent.
Balance needed...the instant teleports are easy to abuse and some of the projectile characters (looking at you Trouble Shooter) are broken with insane amounts of chip damage delivered for very little effort...from half a screen away.
Throw breaking in this game is extremely generous...which seems like a positive but really hurts close up/rush down melee characters. Without projectiles some of the characters feel like situational counter picks instead being a character you can main.

Pro/Con:
Zoning feels great with projectile characters with tons of options that all feel like they cover 80% of the screen
Punishing a zoning character feels great with basic reads resulting in huge damage.
 
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manfestival

Member
Played through the tutorial, arcade, and some online matches last night. I am not a big fighting game person. In fact, I usually approach the genre very casually as in I play the story mode and arcade only. Got Granblue Fantasy Versus not too long ago but got hooked on the simplicity of it. Gave the PVP a chance and actually have pretty solid results once I realized how to actually be intentional instead of reactionary/spammy. Since then, I decided to skip GG Strive and went into this one. My buddies are big time FGC people and they went straight into training mode to hammer down combos. I did that for like 10 minutes and got bored.

Anyways, my initial impressions are good. The game seems is harder for sure for me but that is just an obstacle that I will overcome with time and familiarity. What surprises me about this game compared to almost every other fighting game that I have played is that there are so many characters that have abilities that instantly reach across the screen. I know usually there are like 1-2 characters but this roster feels like 12 of the 16 in the game have some base ability to do this.
The art is beautiful. Animations are nice and clean. Everything feels good.

Also had to switch the VA from Korean to Japanese. I know that Korean is the "natural" thing because of DFO but... this is the way.

Started off with Crusader. Funny enough, he is the only one that I am getting some wins with and can do reasonably well with but I just hate his sluggish movement. Starting to like Inquisitor and Vanguard. Absolutely hate going against Enchantress. From videos I have seen, it seems most people are going after Swiftmaster, Enchantress, Dragon Knight, and Ghostblade. Maybe I went hard mode for myself but not sure.
 

Pejo

Member
Thanks for the impressions. GBVS was my favorite fighting game in the past 5 years, so I'm glad it compares favorably to that.

How's the single player content btw?
 

manfestival

Member
Thanks for the impressions. GBVS was my favorite fighting game in the past 5 years, so I'm glad it compares favorably to that.

How's the single player content btw?
Yeah man! I am still hooked on GBVS. I hopped on it for a little bit in between playing DNF Duel last night lol. Bodied a couple of people with Percival and Katalina before hopping back onto DNF Duel. Shame that the lobbies were pretty dead before DNF Duel and seemingly the knife that ends it is this game.
For Singleplayer content hmmm.... I didn't put too much time into it. I know that you unlock Lost Warrior with it and my buddy got him super fast so I think each persons story is likely 30 minutes to 1 hour. Though it was actually pretty nice lore wise from the 2 rounds that I went into before I got distracted. Arcade mode is pretty standard. GBVS is far better when it comes to SP stuff. That RPG/beat em up mode is really fun and a nice change of pace for what I have experienced in fighting games.
 

Dzab

Member
Bought it on Steam. I usually have no issue with fighting games and getting into them, but for some reason I'm not sure how to approach this lol. The "correct" combo routes and such.
Need to get some games in with people
 

Labolas

Member
I think the game is fun. I'm steam btw if anyone wants some games let me know. I think the game has sauce but I've only really touched Berserker and he has really interesting and somewhat complicated combos, one of the few characters that uses the conversion mechanic and I think he's one of the harder to characters to get good with imo. Obviously, some characters are easier to use, I'm looking at you, Crusader. I also appreciate the fact that it doesn't take FOREVER to get into the online servers. Generally speaking I like the characters here more than Granblue Fantasy because it fits more of a style character I like. I've played DFO before I remember it was to fun play and customized your character but it is grindy as hell.

I also wonder how 8ing is going to handle the future DLC for game. Hopefully they'll add these characters:
spectre_03_neo.jpg

priest_m_04_neo.jpg

lancer_03_neo.jpg

fighter_f_03_neo.jpg
 
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So, I skipped the beta and thought this was a hard pass for me as I know basically nothing about DFO and the cast seemed quite generic in design and all. But I bought it anyway on Psn to give it a go with my brothers and friends because I've heard it was a simple fighting as in the veins of Street Fighter and Granblue Fantasy Versus.

First, the game is harder than Granblue but much closer to it than Guilty Gear Strive. Mechanics like simple inputs and dedicated Super/Awakening button helps to be more pick-and-play friendly compared to most fighting games, which is a positive in my book to bring the casual crowd and keep them interested for longer. Having Rollback might be what keeps the longevity of the game compared to Granblue...

The bad. The roster is kind of generic, but it's good that everyone fills a specific role and archetype for a releasing cast (16 characters is not too shabby, which is a good beginning). Everyone is kinda broken in their own way, what makes the game extremely fun. However, let's see how long it takes for the magic to wear off and people start to complain about certain things (normals are ridiculous in this game. Their range is insane) and characters (striker fake infinite, switfmaster as a whole, troubleshooter abusing the conversion system, kunoichi loops, ghostblade, lost warrior in the hands of a good player is basically a single long combo and you are dead).

Surprisingly enough, I didn't expect much depth to be in the game and I'm quite surprised about some passives changing the whole play style of certain characters like Berserker (good players will have a nice chance of reverting a whole set of matches with his health regen mechanic and conversion abuse). There is a lot of micro management behind the white life bar and the conversion system that will truly separate a good player from a great one.

Another thing, Striker is fucking rad to play with. She is easy to pick up but her free form/free-flow button input is something that I don't remember many games doing and it works pretty well if you are creative enough. I labbed her for a few minutes to get the feeling of her battle rhythm and did some crazy combos with basically no optimization whatsoever. Love to play as switfmaster, hate to play against him.

It's a surprisingly great game. I just hope Arc System doesn't go the Granblue route and start nerfing shit left and right. Keep the game "broken". Only gripe I really have is not being able to block mid air but that is understandable when aerial combat is minimal for the most part aside from a few characters who get some nice juggling combos mid-air.
 
Don't know if anyone is still playing the game daily as I am, but there is already a meta established.

SS tier - Swiftmaster alone (too strong compared to everyone else)

S tier - Hitman, Berserker, Crusader; (make you feel strong even with low execution but not borderline broken or braindead. Awakened Hitman is debatable SS tier)

A tier - Striker, Grappler, Dragon Knight, Enchantress, Kunoichi, Launcher; (All characters are strong in their own way but take a little more time and practice without being as rewarding as S tier characters. Enchantress has the potential to be S tier but is by far the hardest character to play optimally. Launcher is slept-on character with a harder execution as a Zoner as Ranger but I think she can do more than him as people get more used to her)

B tier - Ranger, Ghost Blade, Inquisitor; (Aren't by any means bad characters but it feels something is lacking. Ranger has a good kit and is annoying with its guns but I'm not that proficient with it, but I could clearly take him to A tier with a little more polish. Ghost Blade has no DP or Counter skill, making him hard to use in higher levels. Inquisitor has her fire wheel and not much else and has one of the smallest health pools.)

C tier - Vanguard, Lost Warrior. (Vanguard is not BAD but not good either. He has a bad guard cancel but still can do a lot of damage like most of the cast. Lost Warrior is a funny one. With awakening and time stop he is crazy strong, likely S tier but after a few couple matches against some, you start to catch on to their tactics and to evade or block the skills, making his offense partially meaningless. Can't see how to balance him without breaking him or making the most broken shit in the game.)

The game is good. I'd dare say BROKEN kind of Good. Every character has tolls that make you think "oh, I can work with this!" and a few make you scratch your head and say "how did this pass through Q&A?" of how broken some are compared to others (Swiftmaster, Awakened Hitman, Striker to break Guard Gauge). I still some things could be brought down a lit bit just to give players breathing room against the most broken character and then balance the game from there.

I don't know if there are any plans for DLC for this game, but I hope we get at least one season with more broken characters from the DFO universe. Nonetheless, the game is still new and fresh so I'll enjoy it while it lasts because we never with fighting games. I would like to see it on Evo for this year as a game you can play outside of the main ones, and maybe in the main event for the next year.
 

Pejo

Member
Don't know if anyone is still playing the game daily as I am, but there is already a meta established.

SS tier - Swiftmaster alone (too strong compared to everyone else)

S tier - Hitman, Berserker, Crusader; (make you feel strong even with low execution but not borderline broken or braindead. Awakened Hitman is debatable SS tier)

A tier - Striker, Grappler, Dragon Knight, Enchantress, Kunoichi, Launcher; (All characters are strong in their own way but take a little more time and practice without being as rewarding as S tier characters. Enchantress has the potential to be S tier but is by far the hardest character to play optimally. Launcher is slept-on character with a harder execution as a Zoner as Ranger but I think she can do more than him as people get more used to her)

B tier - Ranger, Ghost Blade, Inquisitor; (Aren't by any means bad characters but it feels something is lacking. Ranger has a good kit and is annoying with its guns but I'm not that proficient with it, but I could clearly take him to A tier with a little more polish. Ghost Blade has no DP or Counter skill, making him hard to use in higher levels. Inquisitor has her fire wheel and not much else and has one of the smallest health pools.)

C tier - Vanguard, Lost Warrior. (Vanguard is not BAD but not good either. He has a bad guard cancel but still can do a lot of damage like most of the cast. Lost Warrior is a funny one. With awakening and time stop he is crazy strong, likely S tier but after a few couple matches against some, you start to catch on to their tactics and to evade or block the skills, making his offense partially meaningless. Can't see how to balance him without breaking him or making the most broken shit in the game.)

The game is good. I'd dare say BROKEN kind of Good. Every character has tolls that make you think "oh, I can work with this!" and a few make you scratch your head and say "how did this pass through Q&A?" of how broken some are compared to others (Swiftmaster, Awakened Hitman, Striker to break Guard Gauge). I still some things could be brought down a lit bit just to give players breathing room against the most broken character and then balance the game from there.

I don't know if there are any plans for DLC for this game, but I hope we get at least one season with more broken characters from the DFO universe. Nonetheless, the game is still new and fresh so I'll enjoy it while it lasts because we never with fighting games. I would like to see it on Evo for this year as a game you can play outside of the main ones, and maybe in the main event for the next year.
Thanks for the impressions. I read a lot that Crusader was the easiest to use and really strong, I'll have to check out some Swiftmaster vids.
 
Thanks for the impressions. I read a lot that Crusader was the easiest to use and really strong, I'll have to check out some Swiftmaster vids.
There are lot of swiftmaster videos out there cause it's an obligatory match-up for anyone on future tournaments until he gets addressed and brought down a little bit. Just yesterday Justin Wong was hosting a tournament on his twitch channel and there were 4 swiftmaster players... And mostly proceeded to semi-finals.

The Grand Finals were decided between Berserker (Punkdagod) X Swiftmaster (Boku no Pump). Punkdagod's Berserker was already in the latest "big" tournament hosted by Diaphone last Saturday, and proceeded again to the finals. He showed mastery of the character and I can see being a hard counter to Swiftmaster's gameplan because of Berserker high damage output and long pokes. Boku no Pump's Swiftmaster was a great showcase of the character's potential but I'm still under the impression of not showing everything the character can do if played optimally (which goes to show how scary Swiftmaster can be right now).
 
This game is tragically underrated. Love the way the MP system works, how broken everything feels(but it's still balanced since everyone is broken) and playing as Ghostblade.

Also I haven't gotten back to it post-patch but I hope they nerfed SM and Striker, apart from that idc I don't think there was really a problem other than those two.
 
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Labolas

Member
I haven't played this since I reached Diamond rank. Fun ass game with a lot of broken shit. I kinda wished this had the support Granblue has in terms of SP content and keep fans updated on any news with game.

I am looking forward to playing Female Slayer though.
 
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