First Thoughts - Duet Night Abyss

Duet Night Abyss is the most recent release in the extremely-flooded marketplace of gacha and gambling-disguised-as-gaming products, and for those that wish something different from what Mihoyo offers, it might surprise you that their claim that "every gameplay feature is unlockable" is, as far as a three hours long experience tells, pretty much true.

Unfortunately, that doesn't discount the feeling that this really wanted to be Genshin Impact, but the roughness around the edges is really telling.

Copying the Homework

Just like a lazy student's paper, most of the initial presentation of DNA (their acronym being one of the most interesting wordplays in the entire first-player experience) is unfortunately riddled with the feeling of "you can copy my homework, but change the words so the teacher doesn't get us".

See if you're familiar with this:

One of a pair of siblings is suddenly thrown into an unknown world filled up to the brim with monsters and beasts from the void, is rescued and helped by small, helpful otherworldly companion, where a wealthy tavern keeper help them settle down into the closest city that is also the biggest metropolis of the current continent, giving you a starting point for searching your sibling.

That describes both the first three hours of Genshin Impact and Duet Night Abyss. Here, it's an adopted sister that is also a government experiment, the tavern keeper is a fiery woman instead of a fiery man, and there's more fantasy racism, I guess because they needed some spice.

Even your first unlockable character is a spunky, no-nonsense girl that has an animal-theme, wears red and uses fire as her element, with bright dreams of being a big adventurer and help people.

Only difference is one is a raccoon, the other is a bunny.

It might feel different later, but if a work feels so derivative you have to start every sentence discussing the characters and plot with "it's like Genshin, but-", it definitely weakens the premisse for anyone that isn't looking at another Genshin Impact in everything but the name.

The problem is that Genshin is still there for those people, so who is this game really for?

Their personalities are a bit different, but their purpose is the same.

All Flash, no Substance

The one true sin a third person hack-n-slash is the lack of impact. That can be understood by upgrades that doesn't feel any different for the player, systems that are there only to complicate the feedback onto different options such as a dozen slightly different attributes that modify features in the small percentage scale, or the lack of feedback in what you're doing.

This game is heavily lacking in all three points.

Characters each have eleven attributes and modifiers, plus a preferred weapon type and an element, three powers that each have three levels, and passive effects for multiple copies. Melee weapons have five attributes and a passive or triggered effect. Ranged weapons have nine attributes and a passive or triggered effect.

Every character and weapon have eight slots for Demon Wedges (droppable equipment you farm in challenges) that each modify some of those attributes, characters also have a ninth slot for a stronger effect. Every demon wedge can be leveled up to give you better stats, just like everything else.

Mechanically, this is all a mess.

The animations and visual effects, in isolation, are beautiful and well rendered, but they lose themselves in the pure chaos of effects during any type of combat, and there is basically no feedback when hitting enemies: mooks either die immediately, and they get ragdolled hard through the scenario, or your attacks go through them like nothing happened until their health bars are drained and they're punted to the stratosphere.

Boss battles are meant to reminisce MMO combat, with danger zones highlighted by their attack pattern in the ground so you can avoid taking damage, but the lack of feedback is real even for your playable character: It's honestly difficult to even track where your current health is without looking at the green bar lost in the bottom left corner of the now very famous Genshin-like mobile-inspired HUD.

Playing through the three available character trials to tease the "newest releases" - even though this game just released so everything is new stuff - The only difference felt between them is which color shall fill up the screen when you smash the left click or E, your one skill button.

Oh yeah, I didn't specify that: The three powers you have? Basic attack, one skill button on E, one ultimate on Q that is usually a triggered stance. That's it. Sometimes you get a different power if you hold E instead of a single press.

It's almost like the game was made to clip nice moments from streamers, and they didn't actually bother making the game play nicely instead.

No, really, even "the retired adventurer tavern keeper helps you start your career" is the same, I'm still stupified by that one.

Its Main Premisse, Its Greatest Sin

Now comes the one part that I really got disappointed with the game, and the reason I wanted to write this in the first place.

Duet Night Abyss promises to be a game without any gameplay mechanics locked behind a randomized chance. You can farm for everything that's included, be it characters or weapons, and you can do it all for free.

In a way, yes, that is not only remarkable, it needs to be supported and I do hope they have some moderate success with the game just to show that you don't really need gacha to make a crossover mobile game rentable.

Their answer to their income is based on making customization entirely relied onto randomization. You can accessorize your characters with hats, masks, weapon pendants, scarves, many different options ranging from adorable, to cool, to cute. They're even making a gacha track for Christmas themed outfits for all the playable characters, it seems.

You can put an egg with a tiny ghost-like cape and bunny ears on your head. This is a great feature.

Now, if customization is your main attraction to the pay-to-play crowd, answer me this:

Why does your character revert to their default appearance during any story cutscene and dialogue?

Like. Really. That is the silliest decision I've ever seen in a game that is mainly focused on their cosmetics. It underwhelmed the entire purpose of their customization so heavily that I just couldn't grasp what is the point, then.

There are some expensive costumes in this game already, the chances for a full banner costume drop is 0.3% per roll, the pity is 90 rolls and there's no banner pity, with each option per legendary having equal chances per banner. This is one of the lowest ratios in modern gacha games, and you can't see your very expensive costume ingame during important story-focused moments?

That's just... silly.

Why give me the option to wear a cool mask and change my cape if you're moving me back to the default look in dialogue?

Anyways, I'm just baffled by so many weird decisions in the game, and the fact that it keeps spamming you with so many popups and achievements and rewards from every single menu whenever you hit two or three minions during gameplay makes it extremely overwhelming and even more incomprehensible.

I don't even know what I have on my inventory right now.

So yeah, I don't know if I'll continue playing this beyond this initial experience, unfortunately, but now I've put these thoughts to paper and, y'know? That's progress!

Creating is good, sharing your thoughts about silly things is also good. Hopefully this helps you get your own thoughts about Duet Night Abyss and, if anything, I hope your experience with it is better than mine!