Dusk Diver 2 Review

Dusk Diver 2 is an anime hack n’ slash videogame set in the virtually recreated neighbourhood of Taipei, Taiwan, developed by Wanin International. I played it on the Nintendo Switch, but it’s also available on the PlayStation 4 and 5. Voice acting is in Japanese and Mandarin only, and as someone who doesn’t speak those languages, I can at least say each voice fits what was assigned. Thankfully, there are English subtitles devoid of typos.

The battle music was good, but I didn’t remember anything that played while running around the city. The sound effects fare much better; when you hit your blade or fists against an enemy, the sound happens simultaneously with the attack, making you want to do it repeatedly. Neither of these feels out of place, but I would’ve liked some more memorable tunes to go along with the times I’m not engaged in action. At least they add to the immersion, though.

Due to this being a single-player hack n’ slash game, its main draw is the combat which will be the main focus of this review. I will still delve into the story and graphics but will steer clear of spoilers for the most part. With that out of the way, let’s get down to business.

As previously stated, Dusk Diver 2 is both in the anime and hack n’ slash genres. I am not a fan of either, so I was pleasantly surprised by how little it bothered me. Most of that came from how few anime tropes appear in this title; there is no over-sexualisation to be seen. I’m not saying those tropes are bad or anything — I’m just saying for my tastes, I’d prefer them not to be present. It’s just a very stylish game.

The leading hook of the title is also stellar. There are some great little details and quality of life features, in particular the ability to switch targets using the right stick. Many teams with higher budgets fail to implement this feature, so it was great to see it in Dusk Diver 2. Seriously, why don’t more action games do this?

Some other aspects were good, too, such as the four playable characters all playing and feeling different from each other, two of which the player unlocks in the first few chapters, and the finishing and normal moves feeling weighty and fun to pull off. The simple act of defeating enemies just feels right.

While it might not be anything novel, I never cared as I almost always had a grin on my face while beating up chaos beasts. A levelling up and XP system also adds to the replayability aspect. That’s without even mentioning New Game+, which adds even more to the fact that each member of your team’s playstyle changes based on your performance. There is a lot to combat and all that surrounds it, which is appreciated considering the smaller team. They probably didn’t have access to the same amount of money that AAA studios receive.

Dusk Diver 2 will eventually receive DLC, and this is where I have a couple of hopes for future updates. One of these is co-op. I can understand why Wanin might’ve steered clear from this as it makes enemy encounters tenser and forces you to experiment, but I also think if this game does well, then that’s the perfect opportunity to add it in. It would be yet another thing to enhance the feedback loop.

Another idea would be to have character-specific rooms restrict you to using someone like Bahet to fight a group of enemies but only with long-range attacks. These enemies could even have attributes such as not taking well to hand-to-hand combat or being invulnerable to guns. This addition would ensure the challenge ramps up appropriately. Those are two freebies; you can have them Wanin.

Outside of combat, the game fails in other areas. I noticed muddy textures and parts of the world popping in and out throughout my 10+ hour journey, and it even occurs during the title screen. This blunder negatively affects your ability to traverse the world as it forces you to rely on a waypoint marker instead of buildings which incentivise the player to open the map. One of my main problems with Dusk Diver 2 is having to open menus so much.

Still, I can’t say it doesn’t look good in some areas, with the various battle, in particular, standing out in my mind. For example, one in Chapter 3 has a bunch of oddly shaped platforms with red streaks moving all over the place; it’s abstract and perfectly fits the game’s vibe. The graphical style is a mix of cel-shaded character models and realistic textures. This choice enhances gameplay because it’s easy to see who you’re playing as while running through a dusty tower landscape — so there isn’t any difficulty in seeing what is happening inside and outside combat — that alone is worth commending.

Back to the menus, though, I know it’s a heated debate whether or not we want to increase XP automatically, but I feel it would be a perfect choice for a game like this when so much of it is combat. With something like Dusk Diver 2, you never want to be interrupted; you just want to keep going, so reducing menu use would significantly increase players’ enjoyment. I know it would for me. Thankfully, combat has a knock-on effect, which I’m not sure was intentional.

With so much gameplay spent in interdimensional areas fighting demons, ludonarrative dissonance never once crossed my mind. If you’re unfamiliar with that term, it means there is a conflict between a videogame's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay. When you enter a combat encounter, Yummo or Leo will yell out to the team and ask them to use a device that transports them all to another dimension.

Once you finish an encounter and you’re back in the overworld, the person you fought will not remember what transpired, so there is no sense of combat and story being at odds with each other. All this is to say, if there were a book on how to create a believable world with engaging combat and fun characters, Dusk Diver 2 would probably check some, if not all, the boxes.

Dusk Diver 2 is a great game in combat but an average game everywhere else. Thankfully, it has a believable world and engaging characters. Was this because of the team’s limitations? Most likely. Should you still pass on it? No. Its presentation and pacing also have a few significant flaws, but that shouldn’t take away from what it gets right. If it were all combat all the time then it would get tiring, so a few sacrifices were inevitable. All in all, it’s a commendable job from a team over 4,000 miles away that you should still check out.