Dusk Diver

Release Date: October 24, 2019

Action, TPP, RPG elements, beat 'em up, urban fantasy, singleplayer

6.2

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A three-dimensional beat 'em up with RPG elements set in the crowded streets of modern Taipei. In Dusk Diver, players take on the role of a high school girl with magical powers and protect the city from phantoms inhabiting another dimension.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

Dusk Diver is a beat 'em up action game enriched with RPG elements. The developer of the title is WANIN Games from Taiwan. The team, existing since 2016, previously created the multiplayer shooter CODE2040 released on a PC and the mobile RPG Bound Strike. Although Dusk Diver is the team's debut on stationary consoles, the game was born in March 2019, in the early access program on Steam. It left at the end of October of the same year, when it debuted on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

Plot

The story of Dusk Driver takes place in today's Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and more specifically in one of the most attractive tourist districts of the city, Ximending. Players take on the role a high school graduate named Yang Yumo, who discovers her magical powers when she is attacked by sinister phantom beings. She is soon contacted by deities from a parallel world, from which the phantoms also come, asking her to become a guardian of people against an imminent invasion of the creatures.

Mechanics

The action in Dusk Driver is presented from third-person perspective. Yang is described by a set of RPG-like statistics and with defeated opponents she gains new levels of experience. During combat, the heroine uses various types of light and powerful attacks to build long combos. If we successfully perform individual moves, we also charge a special and extremely powerful attack bar, which, if used well, will wreak havoc in the enemy's ranks. Dusk Diver also enables us to summon gods from another world during combat, which in different ways help Yang in her battles against the phantoms. We unlock new helpers as the game progresses.

While playing, gamers travel through authentic Ximending streets, recreated in a realistic way in collaboration with local business owners such as shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood. The game is divided into two segments. In the first one, we freely explore the streets of the city, talk to passers-by, take on tasks and shop around for items useful in combat or extras, such as optional costumes and concept arts. In the second, we are taken to the parallel world inhabited by phantoms, where we try to eliminate the threat.

Technical aspects

The game's three-dimensional graphics adopt anime esthetics and are powered by Unreal Engine. Character and world designs were inspired by the Persona series and the Wii U's Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE released in 2015. The dialogues are dubbed by professional actors and are available in Chinese and Japanese.

Last updated on May 30, 2020

Videos and Screens

[1:16] Dusk Diver launch trailer

6.2

OpenCritic Rating

Game is Recomended by 20% of Critics. There are 20 Critic Reviews.

OpenCritic

Chalgyr's Game Room: 8.5 / 10 by Richard York

Dusk Diver was a lot of fun to play. While it does feel incomplete from a story perspective (heck, there’s even an extra inventory tab that looks like it’s for crafting materials, not that I ever picked anything up that went in there), it doesn’t feel “unfinished” as a game. There’s glitches and some wonky translations, but the characters were funny and the gameplay certainly had a solid foundation. Ultimately I finished the game thinking “I want more” rather than “it’s finally over”, and that’s pretty telling right there. I really hope to see a sequel in the future, where I can take Yumo and her flaming hair out into the world once more.

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ThisGenGaming: 7 / 10 by Justin Oneil

I enjoyed it for what it was but I do wish the world had more to do in it and that it wasn’t over quite so soon.

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Gamer Escape: 7 / 10 by Eliot Lefebvre

Sometimes, there’s a secret alchemy or a real trick to a game. Other times, there really isn’t. But it’s not a failing by any means for the game to aim resolutely at being something and then hit that mark well. There are lots of things that could make Dusk Diver better, like a better translation or a more consequential story, but it clearly wants to be exactly what it is, and it doesn’t pretend at being anything more than that.

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