Genre shifts often lead to utterly confusing releases. Franchises can take their well-known gameplay and throw it out for something different like “Final Fantasy”, confusingly replicating “Devil May Cry”-style combat and the “Sonic” franchise’s persistent identity crisis. However, sometimes a genre shift allows the mechanics and style of prior releases to flourish in new and exciting ways. “Duelists of Eden” accomplishes this, as it constructs an excellent fighting game off the mechanics and gameplay of its brilliantly crafted, rogue-like predecessor.
“Duelists of Eden” takes the numerous spells of “One Step From Eden” — the first game’s strongest aspect — and decides to give players full access to every single one. Whereas spells provide replayability and randomness in One Step’s rogue-like gameplay, Duelists gains variation and adaptability by letting players put together whatever combination of 8-to-10 spells their heart desires. Deck-building in Duelists feels akin to developing party members in RPGs like “Octopath Traveler”; the game provides all the tools needed to create absurdly powerful strategies.
Although Duelists builds heavily on One Step, it doesn’t quite play like its predecessor. Combat still features 4-by-4 grids and a pool of mana that restricts spell-casting frequency, but Duelists introduces several new actions to increase gameplay depth. Amassing shields and attempts to evade enemy fire are replaced with dedicated block-and-dodge buttons, and each character now features two unique attacks. These mechanics allow the combat to feel less like back-and-forth slap fights and more like the brutally fast-paced bouts seen in mainstream fighting games.
The unique attacks not only make every character distinctive, but also allow the crossover characters to feel livelier. The attacks that these guest stars bring to gameplay work just as someone familiar with their origins would expect them to, but none of them feel like they got haphazardly dropped into Duelists. At the risk of sounding vapid, Queen—from “Quantum Protocol”—plays like how I’d expect her original game to function if it was placed into One Step-style combat.
Additionally, none of the characters feel restricted by their unique attacks. Neera’s attacks encourage builds involving frost damage, but a frost deck with Selicy feels just as effective. Queen and Hazel revolve around building structures, but one can use a deck building off these attacks or a deck with spells that work in conjunction with these attacks. The only thing preventing a deck from being effective in combat is how effectively one can develop synergy between their play style, spells and character.
It’s important to note that Duelists is undergoing some refinement and polishing. While the main game seems free from critical issues, one will inevitably notice the occasional minor hiccup. It’s a game still in progress, albeit one that feels close to completion. However, “Duelists of Eden”- to the extent of my knowledge- was mostly programmed by a single person. The state the game launched in and the fervor and speed with which the developer fixes problems is nothing short of miraculous and impressive!
Speaking of the Gauntlet Mode… It’s just okay. A lackluster single-player mode in a game primarily concerned with online multiplayer does not make the overall experience terrible. However, Gauntlet Mode lacks the panache seen from other fighting game single-player modes like Classic Mode from “Super Smash Bros”, and the overall dryness of Gauntlet Mode feels odd. However, any awkwardness derived from Gauntlet Mode quickly washes away due to the quality of the gameplay.
All in all, I give “Duelists of Eden” a tentative 9 out of 10 —which may become a 10 out of 10 as the game progresses and my thoughts have more time to digest — and I highly recommend it for its cheap $5 price tag!
