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Dusk Diver 2 is a good game, until it’s not. This anime open-world hack-and-slack is an oxymoron – a great, inane, shallow and yet efficient, average and still addictive action RPG. It’s both an over and underachiever, but doesn’t level out as merely average.
Objectively, Dusk Diver 2 would fare poorly in a scoreboard compare-fest, as this low budget open-world isn’t feature-rich and can’t keep up with the gameplay variety of a Yakuza or Persona 5, and yet it manages to emulate the high-quality anime presentation of the latter.
Furthermore, the game benefits from having a short runtime with personable characters, but the main story drags on, and the action – while addictive – can’t reach the production values of similar AAA hack-and-slashers in the genre.
On the other hand, what Metacritic loses in its zero sum game, is the smaller picture. It’s not ground-breaking and won’t be making any headlines, but the experience comes together well enough for this to remain a staple in the downloaded games on my hard drive for short playthroughs of relaxing, mindless action.
Simply put – it’s an enjoyable experience, and isn’t that what we are all looking for?
The story of Dusk Diver 2 picks up a year later after the events of the first game and the chaos beasts – the enemies populating the interdimensional ‘underworld’ dungeons – are back with a vengeance, attracted to the large amount of Dragon Vein energy passing through Taipei due to the actions of some shadowy organizations.
Adding to this existing concept is a slightly ridiculous and carefree anime story, that stretches and dances around relaxed slice-of-life tones, a team of individuals who moonlight as convenient store clerks and models, students and maids, all while intergalactic/interdimensional subterfuge and potential war moves from the background to the forefront of the story.
Needing to constantly link the two main elements of the game – the open-world and interdimensional action – the main narrative quickly runs out of legitimate reasons to justify another dungeon run, and while the sometimes bizarre reasons are waved away in a tongue-in-cheek manner, it can sometimes frustrate more than it helps the pace of the story.
The daily lives of the main characters is really where the heart of game lays though, making you feel part of a warm group of friends, even if you wish there was a bit more character development to sink your teeth into. Side content mostly consists of fetch quests, battle goals and collectibles – the barebones every open-world offers – but it adds yet a further vibrance and warmth through its real-life location Ximen, Taipei, which is infused with colour and upbeat music.
While an open-world/dungeon hack-and-slasher is a combination quite unique, there are clear influences from well-known titles such as Persona 5‘s presentation, for the lack of a better open-world example – a Yakuza-esque influence in a open city map, and a JRPG approach to battle encounters on the main map with static NPCs that spawn battles in the ‘otherworld’.
There are also improvements and quite significant changes from the original, including improved overall visuals, an expanded city and a battle system that went from Dynasty Warriors-esque crowd-based attack system to more a singular enemy battle gameplay in Devil May Cry, but even with these upgrades, there’s still no guarantee that everyone will share my appreciation for what is objectively a convenience store-quality version of a hack-and-slash/action RPG – it’s not the best quality, but you’ll want to keep coming back.
The satisfying battle system with great combos and abilities is well implemented, but the format is nothing that you haven’t seen before, taking place within dungeons in the interdimensional world, with your switchable team of an initial four (expanding to eight in new game +) characters facing off against waves of various enemies and bosses.
Although enemies do vary, the AI is pretty basic and while player skill and special moves has some effect (with a powered-up state and the awesome special staggered attacks), your ability to defeat the enemies has more to do with levelling up and bluntly powering through them as the story progresses rather than any particular strategy. There may be one or two bosses that require your attacks to be launched from close proximity, but most can be dispatched easily with ranged attacks.
Thankfully, the levelling up and customization process is a fun one, providing a plethora of ways to upgrade your characters which constantly changes how they feel in battle.
While combining standard attacks with your abilities does more damage, overall, the quickest and safest way to inflict damage on the enemy is through your character abilities launched via shortcuts. They look great and are very satisfying when you can reel in multiple enemies at a time, but it is a relatively simplistic system as battles can be resolved by spamming said attacks on the relatively immobile damage-sponge enemies.
It doesn’t reduce the fun of the action, per se, as it is more fun to play around with the different attacking styles of the characters, and it can be mitigated somewhat if you utilize an in-battle feature that removes all your team members bar yourself from the battlefield, but the potential of the system is certainly affected.
One thing that really would have brought the battle system up a notch though, if not from the enemy AI side of things, would have been the addition of team attacks and the ability to interrupt and continue combos with another character. That’s not to say that this battle system cannot function without it, but the larger dungeons can get a bit long in the tooth when you’ve been facing the same type of enemy the whole way through.
Furthermore, the dungeon design which starts off so promisingly – with a dungeon styled like an arcade – tails off rather quickly, meaning that the vast majority of them are either banal streets or underground shopping mall corridors. They might be joined by an groovy high tempo and excellent metal soundtrack, but there is certainly room for improvement.
While Dusk Diver 2 might fall short of greatness due to the battle system and dungeons design missing a few extra features, there is still magic here – with a relaxing atmosphere with personality to spare, and addictive action – making this is a good choice for those who wish to indulge in a harmless and enjoyable action RPG without the need to schedule an entire month for it.
