The encounter design also has a habit of feeling unnecessarily drawn out. This is coupled with the game reusing locations like the highways or the underground passages, the latter of which shows up in four separate chapters. However, a lot of the dungeons devolve into long corridors in which you fight a group of enemies, walk to the next room, fight another group, and repeat. Some offer up unique gimmicks like the opening gatcha machine dungeon or the Ice-based one later in the game.

That being said, we ended up spending 90% of our time as Leo, as his ability to deal the most damage made those long spongy fights more bearable.ĭungeon design is also a mixed bag this time around. Leo, La Viada, and Bahet, the Kunlunian guardians who were used as assists in the previous game, are now fully playable with their own unique movesets. It’s a shame because in other ways the game does significantly improve on its predecessor in the combat department. This is multiplied by some of the boss fights, with the worst offender being a robot who has a health bar for each of its legs and spends the entire fight running away while performing an AOE spin attack. There were countless times when we would spend minutes just juggling the same enemy to take down their gargantuan health bar while not taking a single hit. Not only is your moveset limited, but the enemies themselves offer up next to no challenge this is paired with each foe being an absolute damage sponge. Musou relative combat’s simplicity works when paired with a large amount of mindless grunts as a sort of power fantasy Dusk Diver 2’s decision to focus on fewer, larger enemies leaves combat feeling like a chore.Ĭaptured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) The sequel’s fights are more in line with the likes of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, typically with four or five enemies that put up more of a fight - which is a completely valid option if you have the moveset complexity of a Devil May Cry or a Bayonetta. A lot of the fights in the original game fit that hack 'n' slash style, with loads of small enemies that you absolutely rip through and some larger ones peppered in there.

However, some changes have been made to the encounter design, and that's where the game’s biggest flaw comes to light. It’s also a story that you can get engaged in without playing the original game while some elements may be a bit confusing, a short recap in the gallery gets you up to speed.ĭusk Diver's musou-style gameplay returns for the sequel. While Dusk Diver 2’s story takes a while to get going, it picks up towards the end to tell a good story, well-written with a strong supporting cast of characters. While this is going on it’s revealed that a rival group known only as Elysium is trying to wrestle jurisdiction of Youshanding and the Dragon Vein control system from the current holders, the Kunlunians. Eventually, Yumo and the gang run into a mysterious boy in Youshanding and are assailed by a figure known only as the Dark Diver, who seeks the boy for unknown reasons.

Dusk diver 2