Dusk Diver 酉閃町 Review (Switch)

Review code used thanks to PQube

She Didn’t Mean To

Yumo Yang is hanging out in Ximending with her best friend, when they’re suddenly transported somewhere where there’s monsters. She accidentally absorbs the power of a would be savior. Meanwhile, reducing him to a minor form and changing her own appearance in the process. Due to that she is roped into working at a convenience store so she can also make trips to Youshanding, the other dimension, to take care of the Chaos Beasts.

A Guardian Of The City

In each chapter you’ll enter a dimensional fissure to get to Youshanding. In there you’ll fight waves and waves of enemies to progress to the designated point. Yumo has a light and heavy attack that can do combo strings. With the power of a guardian she can use their attack with Summon Power. Bigger enemies have a guard up that you have to break before you can deal damage. Using summon attack will deal some regardless. When enough SP is stored Yumo can use her chosen guardian’s weapon which will screen clear weaker enemies in front of her, and deal a chunk of damage to bigger foes. Later on you will get more guardians so you can swap between them, like using Bahet to deal damage over time. There is also a bonus one when you finish the game.

If she dodges just in time she’ll activate Just Dodge which will slow down enemies temporarily and give you an extra three SP. This runs on a cool down, so you cannot use it immediately after.

The third meter you will see fill up is TP. When this is full you can activate D.ARMs which increases how much SP drops from enemies and your overall combat effectiveness. You can also use it for a finishing move which lands plenty of damage but ends the mode. I often found I didn’t activate D.Arms mode as I wasn’t sure how many more monsters I might have to fight.

String Them Along

Enemies can drop health, SP and TP energy. The better you do in combat the more of these will drop. In levels there are also SP restoring spots. Summon attacks have their own combos to make them more effective. Later ones you unlock have shortcuts to do them. Yumo has a skill chart to increase Health, SP and other stats, while each Guardian also has one to increase their attack and TP gain rates.

You can also sell items you pick up from objects you break and get from defeating Chaos Beasts. With that you can buy items that restore health, SP or TP but I rarely used them as the game is not that difficult. At the end of each level you are graded and get certain rewards which might be more cash or skill points.

Gated Progress

In order to get to the next level of a game you must enter the fissures, but they have an entry requirement: a certain number of dragon shards. Three of these can be found in each level, and additional ones are awarded for reaching S rank on Normal and Hard. Around town you may also find them under chairs, in rubbish bins or just sort of sitting there. Early on I found the gated progress to be very frustrating but after the early missions you can more freely explore Ximending and I was able to find them quite easily.

Once you’ve finished a mission you can replay it again on Hard to get different rewards. The difference mostly just being that the beasts you have to fight may be the upgraded versions. It might annoy some that you cannot play the game on Hard by default.

Sidelines

Asides from scouring for dragon vein shards you may also enjoy the delicacies of various street vendors and cafes. Doing so will increase your friendship with other guardians. Food will also give you a buff for the next battle such as increasing shard drop rates or a particula r guardian’s attack power.

Friendship is also necessary to level up, as at the end of each you get to hang out with them such as my favourite Le Viada. Doing so will unlock a side mission and a new place to eat. The side mission only lets you use that particular guardian but after beating it you get a new attack of which they all have an additional three. While you can easily rush through the story once you have enough shards, getting a couple of extra moves will also help you clear through the game.

There are quite a few side quests to do, the main reason to go through with them is that enough of them adds to your D.Arts level, and a couple of them give you extra costumes and artwork. These quests are usually just moving from point to point with some dialogue between and you can check the Link screen in the menu to see where to go. Costumes can be completely different outfits or palette swaps, not only for Yumo but also your three guardian friends. Later on Gacha machines can also be emptied to unlock more artwork, items and costumes. I love the costumes and artwork you get, a section of which is Yumo’s daily life and shows the characters in scenarios you won’t see in the game.

Dimensional Crossing

People in the city appear as coloured shapes but when you get closer to them they show up. Yet they still have no faces even for the side quest NPCs. When it comes to the rest of the game everyone looks a bit jaggy. The game looks only a bit worse in handheld. Wandering around the city can feel a bit sluggish when it’s trying to load some of the people in. Textures throughout the game will show up after models have already appeared, mostly on clothes or the guardian’s small forms.

The game re-uses the city map for the combat area with a visual change. The neon look is a nice aesthetic but it and the monsters you fight are generic looking. The prettiest part was when Youshanding was raining.

I’ve had the game crash a few times, most of it was triggered by entering the wardrobe so simply save before you get changed in case it happens. Another time it happened during the final boss fight and just before that I had to reset because an enemy fell off screen and I couldn’t continue. In the later chapters of the game I had some serious slow down, which with such a crowded screen can be a problem.

Sounds of The City

There is no English dub but there is Chinese and Japanese voice, as the game is set in Taiwan I went for the former. The translation is generally alright but there are frequent spelling errors and missing words. The music was pretty good but I didn’t hear it much over the vocal prompts.

When it comes to smaller issues there are some other nitpicks. Like how dialogue has to be pushed through each time you repeat a level. Yet the game also has some small conveniences others don’t such as falling off an edge will not deal damage to you.

Overall

The early game really felt like a drag in comparison to the rest of it. Mostly because of the level gating but as I progressed I also had a lot more combat options even if the enemies and bosses weren’t difficult. It took me just over ten hours to beat as I did almost all the side quests and a few side missions.

The story isn’t very special, mostly about guardians preventing monsters from attacking the city. I enjoyed some of the character interactions but I didn’t really get to know them well before it ended. The game didn’t feel fully fleshed out. There were some issues with the game, but I enjoyed the action and running around Ximending to get collectables.

Final Verdict: I like it

I like it