For those who remember, DNF Duel was a fighting game developed by 8ing with assistance from the famous Arc System Works known for their prowess with prior anime fighters such as Dragonball FighterZ and Guilty Gear. Based on the popular Korean MMO Dungeon Fighter Online, the game had an immediate fanbase and did pretty well upon release considering the genre it’s in. However, things took a turn for the worse as updates slowed down around the holiday season. For a fighting game patches can make or break the experience as balancing issues are constantly addressed and re-addressed. Or in the case of DNF Duel, barely fucking addressed at all despite glaring problems with several characters. Still, myself and many of the community were willing to wait around once they announced that Spectre would be coming in February. It was to be assumed that a sizable update balance path would release with her so it still had some momentum to it. And then a few days ago during the recent Arc Revo tournament, they once again re-announced Spectre… for fucking “Summer 2023”.
Listen she's certainly a mommy, but summer?
To give an idea on just how bad this is, the fans were already told that Spectre would debut at the beginning of the year. She has now been delayed two extra seasons, and on top of that no new character was teased during the presentation either. By comparison Guilty Gear: Strive also announced it’s latest character, Bedman?, and already fucking gave a date for them to release on April 6th AND teased the next character on the season pass afterwards. Meanwhile Spectre has no specific date. If that fiasco alone wasn’t enough, need I remind anyone that Street Fighter 6, a release that looks so crispy even non-FGC players are interested in it, will be up for sale in the summer on June 2nd? What the fuck are the team behind DNF Duel doing? They’ve managed to delay a single damn character for months on end, and then put the cherry on top by refusing to hint at the next character at a period where fighting game market competition will soon be incredibly fierce. Perhaps if the game was already in a very enjoyable state then it could survive until then, somehow, but the core gameplay right now is still pretty unbalanced and “kusoge”. At this point all my friends have stopped caring about the game and I see that same disappointment reflected by many in the community online.
Why did they style on their own fellow developers like this?
While Spectre absolutely looks like a fun character who could have been my main in this game if she came out during a better time frame, at this point I’m more interested in preparing to cum my ass off to Cammy in SF6. Uh I mean beat ass with Cammy in SF6, sorry. Adding an update is cool but when notable revitalizations to a game are this far apart, the hype is quick to fade away. Have you played DNF Duel? Have you lost interest in a game due to a lack of support/updates from the devs? Does anyone give a fuck about other fighting games getting updates this summer besides Street Fighter? Grab some popcorn, hold your breath, and wait over six months for one release in the comments below!
