Nintendo Switch code provided by JFI Games.
When hopping into just about any action-adventure RPG, any given player can expect pretty standard features. A moody or underwhelming antagonist that finds inner power, quirky sidekicks/friends, leveling systems, side quests and lots of button-mashing/battling are most common in action RPGs. Dusk Diver doesn’t diverge from the path too much, it for sure hits all of these beats and RPG tropes. However, what JFI Games has done to make Dusk Diver such a good experience is that it gets all of those staple tropes very right, even if they are somewhat simplified.
Story
Yumo is a typical high school student who is enjoying life with her goofy friend. But then, phantoms appear and bring her into another dimension that mirrors the real world, but void of humans and filled with phantoms and bad things. She finds and inner power and works with a few special people to defeat these ghosts while working for a quirky, otherworldy boss. The story never becomes a massively interesting drama or have particularly deep growth in characters, but serves as a fun reason to beat the crap out of armies of ghostly bad guys.
Gameplay
Dusk Diver does look nice, sound good and has fairly entertaining characters, but the thing that shines way above the others is the gameplay, specifically the combat. There is some amount of caretaking for friends and relationships in the real world along with general leveling systems, but it is fairly simple and straightforward, basic “walk here and talks to this person” quests to advance relationships and simplified leveling systems.
Now, back to the real meat of the game, the combat. I have been playing action RPG since the original release Kingdom Hearts, so 15 years give or take. With all that under my belt, I have seen far too often the miss balancing of combat: too easy or difficult, enemies are too beefy or just cannon fodder or combat is too complicated or simple. It can be difficult to strike a balance, and it doesn’t matter platform, generation or developer. The reason I bring this all up is that Dusk Diver greatly surprised me how much fun, intuitive, complex, challenging and altogether extremely well balanced all the combat is in the game.
To break down combat, there are simply light attacks, heavy attacks, summons, and a dodge/dash with some extra super attacks and a super-powered D.ARMS form. A light attack can be strung together then finished with different heavy attacks and summon attacks dependent on the number of light attacks. This simple yet straightforward system allows players to continue into whatever attack or attacks they want at will, on purpose, and with great consistency. You can summon one of three friends that have different strengths and weaknesses, and you can choose who to summon as the attack by easily pressing up, left or right on the directional buttons in the middle of stringing attacks. The combat feels fluid, smart and totally controlled by the player. There is a lot of button mashing, but it is all in a certain order to best fit damaging opponents. There are a few other very smart enemy choices and progressions that make combat always challenging but fair and exciting but not overwhelming.
In addition to the combat, there is a very, very simple leveling system. As a player plays missions, kills enemies and complete objectives or quests, they will be awarded money and skill points. These skill points can be distributed to Yumo (the player) or the summons in any way the player sees fit. Again, the ideas and systems are simple in Dusk Diver, but they are done really well and it is very refreshing to hop into a game that has all the right mechanics, all the progression systems correct and achieves really great balance.
Visuals
It is easy to say the visuals here look pretty good. The colors, designs and general appearances of everything in the game are good. It does have a number of smart workarounds when dealing with simplifying the environments and worlds so the game stays smooth and the important pieces look good (at least on the Nintendo Switch version). For example, most people in the city are soft random colored silhouettes until the player approaches them. This is an elegant and easy way to make the game feel populated and alive while saving the Switch a lot of unnecessary work. My only gripe with the game is how much it resembles other similar titles or animes, I mean it looks almost identical to the anime RWBY. I would say that JFI Games have used those other sources as inspiration, not blatant or lazy copying. But, I would have enjoyed a little bit more style and individuality overall to make the game more unique and stand on its own.
Audio
There isn’t too much to praise here, but also nothing to complain about. The voice acting was solid and the sounds for all effects were a little better than average. The music was pretty entertaining and kept pacing and emotional beats well telegraphed to the audience.
Replayability
When wrapped up with the main story, there are a number of collectibles to get out of vending machines, a handful of costumes for each character and other things to find in the world. Players can keep leveling and max out characters and replay old missions to reach higher scores. But all this considered, there isn’t too much of a reason to play this again unless players really want to do another playthrough of essentially the same experience for no reason more than enjoying the same game again.
What It Could Have Done Better
We get a lot of things right from this game. But that is about all we get. I think a story or a few choices with lasting consequences could have made the game feel a more important and greater incentive to play. I also would have loved to see a little bit more variety in the missions, because they basically all consist of going here and kill lots of bad guys. Don’t get me wrong, I had lots of fun along the way, but something a little more complex or involved would have gone a long way.
Verdict
Story and interesting flashy gameplay pieces can make a game like this seem a lot better than it is. Dusk Diver does what I wanted it to do though, it has deep combat and tests my skills of combat as the story progressed. Yes, it may not have excelled or taken great risks, but it did what it knew how to do pretty well. JFI Games created a smooth experience for players who want meaty gameplay much more than flash and pizazz.
