Faisal Ghaffar 
Overview
DNF Duel takes place in the world of Dungeon Fighter Online, but prior knowledge of that game is not required. The source material is mostly allusional, serving as a backdrop for the main story and characters. Each of these characters is based on a playable class in the MMO. Some of the characters appear to be lifted from another fighting game; for example, the Grappler is a dark-haired, hand-to-hand fighter dressed in a martial-arts outfit, which sounds similar. Others, such as the Ghostblade and the Berserker, hold out due to its incredible and intimidating appearance. The Berserker’s red eyes, spiky blond hair, and scaly red arm give him the appearance of an evil Super Saiyan, while the Ghostblade is twice as frightening.
Mechanics
In DNF Duel, two mechanics are critical to success: conversion and awakening. Conversion is an innovative mechanic that casual players may not be aware of unless they accidentally activate it. Conversion allows a player to spend their white health—health that has been lost but is still within the glass where it can be regenerated—to cancel all movement and restore MP, with the amount restored depending on how much white health was spent. This results in longer combos that deal more harm, but using it at the wrong moment leaves you vulnerable to counterattacks.
Challenges
The trick is to figure out how everything here connects, resulting in flashy and amazingly combos while staying within MP limits to avert exhaustion. Each character is a massive puzzle, with each piece representing a unique attack, Conversion chance, or key movement. The in-game tutorials are useful for getting ideas, and the combo trials are designed specifically for this, but experimenting in free training is much more fun. It also helps that each character’s fighting style is distinct—the variety helps to keep the game feeling fresh—but mastering each character requires learning 16 different movesets. It has a steep learning curve, but nothing beats the rush of implementing a combo in the heat of battle.
Training and Tutorial
After you’ve found and mastered your main character, there’s plenty to do besides training and tutorials. Arcade mode is self-explanatory: a series of matches leading up to a strong final boss, just like in the arcade. Story mode provides some context for each character through cutscenes, but the mode ultimately plays out similarly to Arcade. It was expected a more rigorous story akin to other Arc System Works games like Dragon Ball FighterZ or Guilty Gear Strive for a game that references nearly two decades of source material. Instead, each persona fights eight fights with some action scenes thrown in for good measure.
Final Comments
Arc System Works persists to set a high benchmark for fighting games with DNF Duel, creating an expertise that is both simple enough even for new players and robust enough for having to fight veterans. The core fighting system favors players who dig in to it and, and the online options feel like old arcade scenes.
