As Arc System Works, Neople, and 8ing are gearing up to unleash their over-the-top 2.5D fighting game, DNF Duel, in an open beta test on April 1st, 2022, they are taking a serious approach to the game's appeal as a competitive title, by releasing a quick set of patch notes, detailing a handful of changes to every character.

In a post made over at the official DNF Duel Twitter page, the patch notes that have been released were made available in English, Japanese, and Korean. The notes are only three pages long, but they list off new changes, which surprisingly are almost exclusively buffing each character, such as:

  • Berserker: Blood Riven can now hit opponents that are on the ground
  • Striker: One-Inch Punch has increased damaged and guard break values.
  • Grappler: Seismic Crash has decreased animation frames on startup.
  • Inquisitor: Summary Justice has increased knockback on the second hit.
  • Ranger: Deadly Approach now knocks down opponents on the last hit.
  • Dragon Knight: Dragon Wing has increased recovery speed.
  • Hitman: Caracole: White damage is now increased on guarded opponents.
  • Kunoichi: Heavenly Fire Blast can now hit down opponents on the first hit.
  • Vanguard: Earthshatter has increased guard stun for the first hit
  • Crusader: Sacred Upper has increased MP recovery on the second hit.

As you can see, nearly every change given to each character has been a notable buff to their gameplay. This is completely surprising, as most fighting game developers would approach balance by increasing power in one move for a character while decreasing the power in another move to compensate.

Interestingly enough, their approach to character balance is very similar to the way Neople approaches class balance when it comes to the PvP arena for Dungeon Fighter Online, so this is very on par for the DNF brand. Other details within the patch notes also include the addition of the recently received Ghost Blade character, as well as players from Germany now having access to the game.

For more information on the 2nd open beta test patch notes, visit their google docs page.
DNF Duel is releasing on June 28th, 2022 for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and PC via Steam.