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Dusk Diver 2 Review

Dusk Diver 2

Developer: Wanin International
Publisher: Idea Factory International
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Switch
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here

Overview

When the original Dusk Diver released three years ago few would have guessed that a sequel would eventually arrive in the West as well. With competent combat and an interesting enough storyline, the original title settled in nicely as a fairly solid action RPG developed in Taiwan and now the story continues almost directly with Dusk Diver 2. Now, with Idea Factory International behind the Western release and a few refined mechanics, is this sequel worth delving into?

Story

One year after the events of the first game, Yumo is continuing her training in order to master the Dragon Vein energy coursing through her body and the D.Arm weapon she uses to battle against the Chaos Beasts that still appear from fissures connecting her home in the shopping district Ximending in Taipei to the energy filled realm of Youshanding. Balancing her life as a college freshman and continuing to work as a Diver alongside her friends and allies at Tumaz Mart, she has come to welcome her new life despite occasional bouts of pain that still persist due to her human body containing Dragon Vein power.

Things suddenly take a turn for the worse when the otherworldly Youshanding begins to blend with the human realm and a strange and, once again, a mysterious boy begins to appear within the realm and is hunted by someone possessing abilities similar to Yumo. With her hometown in danger and more mysteries appearing left and right, Yumo must do her best to find the reason behind the latest disturbances and who or what may be behind it. Of course, Yumo is not alone in this fight as all of her friends from the past game have returned with her Zunlun allies ready to fight alongside her in the spiritual realm and her human allies willing to support her at home.

Now while Dusk Diver 2 does provide a brief recap of events that happened in the first game, it only provides the briefest of introduction to the actual world itself and most of the characters that players are meant to know. There are some extra details provided in the game’s glossary shortly after starting but beyond that, the game does very little to catch players up as to who characters are and what had happened in the previous game. This can make the introduction very rough for those who are jumping into the game now as the character interactions and plot progression act as if players are fully knowledgeable about the first game. That being said, the overarching storyline does eventually work decently for newcomers once it begins to unfold and reveal twists and major events at a rapid pace. Though, minus one highly unexpected reveal, players shouldn’t expect a highly memorable storyline in the end and this is partially thanks to the game’s pacing.

Between slowly introducing a few new characters, introducing various new factions, and bringing returning characters back into the party the storyline takes an incredibly long time to get going. Nearly the first half of the entire game feels like a slow drag which can be incredibly difficult to push through at times. Thankfully one thing that might help players push through the slow burn is the fact that the characters themselves are incredibly charming and each one has some time to shine as they continue to develop throughout the game. Even side characters can get some time to themselves which is a bit surprising given the overarching storyline. It is worth noting that although many side-quests that players can take on are incredibly bland or simply reveal more history about Ximending, there are also side-quests that help develop main characters and even the side characters of Tumaz Mart even more, making the characters the real driving force behind this mostly unremarkable storyline.

Gameplay

Dusk Diver 2‘s gameplay is split into two mostly separate parts as players will spend most of their time fighting Chaos Beasts in dungeons and through side-quests but will be spending the rest of their time walking around Ximending, preparing for fights, taking on quests that have to do without fighting, and of course interacting with most of the fast. The location of Ximending is filled with various things for players to collect ranging from items that can be used in battle to unlockable songs, concept art, and even costume pieces though most of these are found in dungeons. It is also filled with restaurants and food stands where players can choose to eat meals and order take-out to provide temporary stat boosts or other bonuses the next time they enter a dungeon.

Combat in Dusk Diver 2 is a fairly standard affair as players make use of light attacks to string together combos, harder hitting heavy attacks, and signature skills that requires SP to use. SP recovers over time though players can time their dodges at just the right time to not only instantly recover SP and temporarily slow time allowing for some powerful payback. Along with these players will also have a BP gauge that fills up as they deal damage as well as trigger break attacks on enemies. Once the gauge is filled up enough, characters can enter a Burst state that provides a massive damage boost and even unlocks an additional ultimate attack that players can obtain by laying into foes while transformed and building up yet another meter. Once the meter reaches 180% they can trigger an ultimate attack that decimates most standard foes and can instantly break the armor of bosses though an even more powerful version of an ultimate attack can be unleashed at max charge.

While fighting through dungeons players will almost always have at least some other characters in their party and it is possible to swap between them during combat to utilize each of their different fighting styles to take down foes. It is worth noting that there is a cooldown on character swapping and since some enemies take extra damage from certain allies, players will want to keep an eye on things themselves as the ally AI is incredibly awful. Even when set to be aggressive in a fight, allies will often fail to attack foes unless they are nearby making them feel a little useless at times.

This is a shame because despite how fluid the combo systems and special skills can chain together to make combat feel satisfying, it is held back by the aforementioned poor AI and the fact that nearly every enemy in the game is a health sponge. Even when properly leveled, and eventually quite overleveled, enemies in Dusk Diver 2 simply refuse to go down in a fight with combo strings easily reaching over 150 hits on foes before one is defeated, even with break strikes mixed in. This often makes enemy encounters that should have been completed in a minute take far longer than it should simply because the same enemy players fought in one of the first dungeons is back with a different color and way more health.

As players fight through dungeons they will earn EXP, obtain orbs and obtain various drops from enemies that can be used to craft orbs and refine equipment. Orbs can offer a wide variety of benefits when obtained and equipped to the player while equipment is standard fare for an RPG and mostly benefits from providing slots for orbs. It is worth noting that EXP is handled rather strangely in Dusk Diver 2 as all characters pull from the same pool meaning that to level up one character, another one will be missing out. As characters level up they will require extra EXP to grow stronger to encourage spreading it around however thanks to the fact that players will always have Yumo in their party and other characters will occasionally leave the party from time to time, it is best to focus on leveling Yumo and perhaps one party member to get the most out of their skills. That being said, those looking to boost every character and see what every character has to offer will find a readily available New Game+ option available after completing the game once.

Visuals & Audio

When it comes to design, Dusk Diver 2 often is a real treat as the character designs, especially Yumo and in her combat transformation, are bright and colorful to look at and there is some solid fan-service on offer from both female and male characters. The world itself is gorgeous looking with Ximending being rather meticulously detailed in some areas and most dungeons that players travel to are unique in a number of different ways. Unfortunately not everything is great here as the dungeons, while unique from one another, are often repetitive while traveling through them and the monster variations are absolutely dreadful. Often the game will act as if a new type of foe is approaching only for it to be a palette swap of a previously fought opponent with only boss battles really standing out and only occasionally.

This release of Dusk Diver 2 offers both the original Chinese voice track as well as a Japanese voice track accompanied by English subtitles. This works quite well as the Japanese cast handles their characters quite well and even exploration conversations are translated but it is worth noting that, even now, the game’s text does still have grammatical errors and misspellings from time to time. The soundtrack for the game features a shockingly amazing collection of tracks, including some with vocals, coming from a wide array of genres that vary from dungeon to dungeon and standard exploration through the city.

Overall

Dusk Diver 2 feels like a missed opportunity to really shine compared to its predecessor and if you happen to be a fan of the original then this will be an easy game to recommend. With character stories that are charming and engaging compared to its lackluster core storyline and enhanced combat that pits players against repetitive enemies with far too much health that drags fights out far longer than they should, there is a lot of untapped potential within Dusk Diver 2 but it never quite makes it to the point of being a great action RPG and instead settles into being only slightly better than the original.

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Summary

Average
6.5
There is plenty of untapped potential in Dusk Diver 2 but poor gameplay choices and badly paced overarching story limit what the improved combat and charming cast have to offer.
Travis Bruno
Travis Bruno
After playing games since a young age and getting into anime a bit later on its been time to write about a little bit of everything.
There is plenty of untapped potential in <i>Dusk Diver 2</i> but poor gameplay choices and badly paced overarching story limit what the improved combat and charming cast have to offer.Dusk Diver 2 Review