No Korean popstars in this one.
This one is most similar to Grand Blue Fantasy VS, their other fighter based on another RPG game. The game is slower paced than you might expect, no aerial dash in this one, but it gets the job done. You get a weak attack and a medium attack, but your other two attack buttons are more interesting. The Strong attack button and the MP button produce different attacks depending on whether you are in the air, press it by itself, when crouching, when holding back or forward the opponent, which nets you a ton of different moves on these two buttons. You can input MP attacks by using traditional, simple, quarter-circle motion inputs, which makes them consume less MP.
Things get a bit more unique when it comes to MP and grey health. Your basic attacks don't deal as much damage as they would on your fighting basic game, they deal a small amount of red, non-recoverable damage to their health bar, as well as a bit more in white damage, which an opponent will slowly regenerate as long as they don't take damage. The only way to take away their white, recoverable health is by landing an MP attack. Mind you, if an opponent only has white health left, they will die, so it's not like you have to end a match on a MP attack, this only makes it so that they can't recover some of their missing health.
MP starts capped at 100, and it slowly regenerates during battle. Certain actions, such as landing non-MP attacks will make it recharge faster. If you over-spend your mana, the delay before it starts filling up again will be slightly longer. As you take damage, your MP cap will increase, but it resets back to 100 on a new round.
Something I really loved is that even though this is quite clearly a more streamlined fighting game, easy to pick up for people that don't tend to play fighting games... there are no auto-combos. I've hated auto-combos ever since P4 arena first introduced them, in a way you couldn't toggle off, so I'm so happy they are gone. In this game, you can also block either by holding back against your opponent... or by holding down the R2 button, which is curious for a Japanese fighter. Pressing R2 and either left or right will produce a dodge. When you are low on health, you get a single stock of an Awakening move, performed by pressing L2, which is basically a cinematic comeback attack that deals a ton of damage if you land it.
The game has a roster of 16 characters, which is pretty surprising from ArkSys, this is their largest base-game roster next to Dragon Ball FighterZ 21. Each character gets 8 different colors. As for the character designs... some are hit or miss, they are based on a Korean MMORPG, so of course they feel a bit overdone. That said, some of the proportions are kinda whack. There are 3 white haired, lanky guys that tower over most of the other characters. Are they supposed to be giants or something? And the Dragon Knight looks like she is many sizes too small, she looks to be about as old as, say, Striker, but she looks way smaller. She is as small as the child-characters, while having proportions of a young adult. She looks really jarring next to pretty much anyone else.
As for modes, it offers the now trademark ArkSys in-depth tutorial mode, as well as a Training Mode, Free Battle, Story Mode, Arcade Mode and Survival Mode. Survival Mode is interesting 'cause you can buy enhancements, such as more Attack Power or healing in between rounds. Story Mode... was such a drag, it takes forever, and you can't skip the scenes. It may be a Korean license, but the story is as asinine as the worst anime drivel you can find.
I liked DNF Duel, but I didn't find it any better than ArkSys other attempts. I will praise it for being rather different to their other fighting games, which is worth mentioning considering how samey their games can feel. That said, the slower pace simply didn't appeal to me, but I can appreciate the game for what it is.
7.0
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