It’s been 4 years since Genshin Impact launched, and mobile open world games have not been the same since. There’s been an arms race in gaming in the years since- from Tower of Fantasy to even HoYoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero, it feels like everyone is jumping on with their own ideas of how to make a hot anime themed open world game.
Duet Night Abyss is one interesting attempt because aside from the general art style that seems to be endemic of the genre, it shares almost nothing with its peers. I’d managed to try the game for myself at Tokyo Game Show in a boss challenge, and it’s confident enough in its mechanics that it’s hitting a completely different path.
The first thing I’d noticed is the game doesn’t have a party system. While every game seems to try to emulate Genshin Impact’s fast-switching for statuses, you’re flying totally solo in Duel Night Abyss. Instead, combat is way more intense- the fight I played was more like a mobile souls game than anything else, as I had to jump, dodge and seek out openings if I had any dreams of getting a hit in edge-wise.
Now, you might think, a lot of Genshin-likes have some form of pattern bosses. Heck, Genshin itself has them. But Duet Night Abyss also has a weightiness to it, one that’s slightly less Nier: Automata and slightly more Sekiro in nature.
Duet Night Abyss Wants Skill Not Skills
What’s also interesting is that as a result of having no party mechanics, the game has an added dimension of depth- your character can equip a melee and a ranged weapon, being able to pull out a gun and pepper enemies with shots. Different weapons have different enough movesets- I’d stuck with the seemingly basic straight sword and assault rifle. But characters themselves aren’t locked to any one weapon, and can seemingly swap them out outside of battle to better suit their playstlye.
What makes it especially interesting is how it plays into individual character kits. I’d gotten to try out two of the Duet Night Abyss characters in the boss challenge, the first being a maid named Hilda hiding an additional pair of guns under her dress while the other was basically Mesa from Warframe, named Lean.
It’s great because while every character was free to use any weapon some were clearly meant for certain builds- Lin featured her own unique pistol independent from her equipped gun that loaded up with every hit- so naturally you’d want a faster weapon to fill up her shots and activate her ability faster.
What is that ability you ask? A Mesa-style stance where she empties her clip into the enemy. Considering bosses can be stunned into having big openings it’s a cool way to build up on it.
While I haven’t gone menu diving I hope it takes more than just visual cues from Warframe- having a gun that scales off of the upgrades to your equipped gun would be fascinating.
That being said, maybe a deathmatch against a single boss wasn’t the best place to show off every character- Hilda herself seemed more adept to the game’s overworld, with her auxiliary guns being great for clearing out waves of enemies rather than a single flying enemy.
Still, having a lot of the combat tied to skill rather than skills felt like a good identity for the game. While many gacha games tend to be about showing off as many of your characters as possible, Duet Night Abyss makes its mark with an incredible amount of faith in its own single-combat experience.
There’s plenty more features I didn’t get to check out in the boss challenge- apparently you can still summon other characters, and the mystery of how other weapons work still eludes me until we get some kind of playable beta build. Still, it’s quickly shooting up my list of anticipated titles with just its more involved gameplay. That, and its balistically-inclined maids, of course.
