Dusk Diver

Release Date: October 24, 2019

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

6.2

OpenCritic

Rate It!

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.

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

Cubed3: 5 / 10 by Justin Prinsloo

Dusk Diver struggles to make a memorable impact due to its story and gameplay failings. This is not helped by its technical issues. Nevertheless, despite its blandness, there is some charisma beneath the surface thanks to a memorable supporting cast and a clear sense of passion in its world's conception. It's difficult to recommend it, but for those who do give it a go, there is a noteworthy personality here that keeps things ticking.

Full Review

PlayStation Universe: 8 / 10 by Garri Bagdasarov

Dusk Diver rewards you for everything that you do. A visual treat that just keeps on giving. Dusk Diver's pace also keeps the fun going until the very end. It's just a shame that it suffers from some translation issues and a story that never really realizes its true potential.

Full Review

Digitally Downloaded: 3 / 5 by Matt Sainsbury

Throw in a functional, but hardly boundary-pushing combat system, and you're left with something that works, but at this particular time of year, a workmanlike experience is just going to drown under the weight of all the other really good stuff being released, sadly.

Full Review

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