Online game "Dungeon Fighter Online"

Dungeon Fighter Online is a unique game. Released in 2005 in South Korea, it looks like an old-school 2D beat 'em up, but after the release of the global version in 2015, it became simply rabidly popular. And as a result, as of June 2023, Dungeon Fighter Online has seen incredible numbers - over 850 million players worldwide and over $22 billion in revenue, more than the box office receipts of movie series like Star Wars and Harry Potter. As a result, Dungeon Fighter Online is considered one of the most profitable entertainment media products in history. You probably already have a question - what is it, what is the secret of success? Will try to answer it in this review.

First of all, the first thing that catches the eye is how gorgeous the game looks. The authors from Neople studio, who had a great experience in creating 2D entertainment, stayed true to themselves in Dungeon & Fighter (that's how DFO was originally called in South Korea) - as a result, we got a hand-drawn picture in the spirit of such old-school classics as Golden Axe, Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time. The game's voice acting is just as good - lush, atmospheric and again old-school.

Excellent audio-visual performance of Dungeon Fighter Online is especially noticeable in cut-scenes and clips, which are used to present the story among other things. In general, the main story is quite traditional. It includes such recognizable things as a global epidemic and teleportation of demons from another dimension (in fact, it is the Earth from the distant future).

But there are so many events and they are dynamically developing that there is no time to pay attention and complain about clichés and stamps. In the first half an hour of the game you will meet several allies, rescue a princess, talk to representatives of several factions and races who think that people want to harm them again - and try to dissuade them from it.

And in principle, it immediately catches your eye that there are a lot of locations, regions and cities, interesting characters, dialogs and tasks. And besides story quests there are a lot of other quests - side quests, to improve the class, to get a profession, daily and weekly, temporary, tied to some event and so on. There are also a couple of unusual mechanics that significantly expand the content. One of them is the "Explorers Club", which gives various bonuses to those who have several characters created on their account.

There is a separate tab of adventures in different regions, which you can pass not only in a party of your own characters, but also together with called mercenaries. For this we get bonus experience, more trophies, increased chance of getting something rare and other rewards.

Besides, in Dungeon Fighter Online you can raise... your own children. They offer to do it at the very beginning of the game. And this is a completely separate layer of gameplay - there we pass the way from a baby with a pacifier in its mouth to an experienced traveler, perform separate tasks, go to your merchant, take pictures for memory, participate in numerous mini-games. It looks very fresh, funny and unusual.

But, as in most such MMOs, we spend the lion's share of time in numerous dungeons, which make up the main content of the local PvE mode. Here players alone or together with friends in a group clean up various catacombs. Dungeons come in several types - mainly regular and scenario dungeons. Developing dungeons become available after completing all quests in the story act at levels 100 through 109 - they are specially generated to match the degree of development of the player's character.

In Season 7 advanced dungeons appeared, where for the sake of knocking out epic equipment you have to face various restrictions - for example, on the use of consumable items. In Legion dungeons (they also appeared recently), you have to fight four or more bosses in a row alone or in a group of four players.

Dungeons can be played on different difficulty levels. Somewhere there are 4 of them, somewhere there are 6 or 8. In any case, at first only the basic, normal difficulty is available, and then, as the conditions are met, others are opened, including heroic and the most dangerous, which, of course, is called Hell. In the dungeons we fight, destroy monsters, kill bosses, sometimes we have to do it in several stages, additionally overcome traps, perform some tasks to get awards, ranks and bonuses at the end depending on the results shown.

Everything is like everywhere else. What is unusual is how Dungeon Fighter Online has a lot of all kinds of dungeons and trials for every taste, including raids. Raids contain various interesting mechanics, often take place in several stages and are mostly designed to be completed by a group of 12-16 players. One of the raids allows you to slow down time in battles with bosses, and another raid takes place on the back of ...a giant bird.

Besides PvE in Dungeon Fighter Online there is also PvP - that is battles between players, which take place in the arena in 1 on 1 or 3 on 3 mode. Arenas can be ranked and training, and you will not be allowed to go there until you reach level 50. In general, it is better not to go to the rating arenas until you become really strong. The game itself tries to balance the characters - in particular, we improve all equipment before PvP-fights and limit the use of skills. But this is not enough - it is better to reach at least level 85 of the character, as well as to have legendary weapons and armor of the same level.

Realized in Dungeon Fighter Online and guild system. Everything there is generally familiar - to create a guild is expensive, participation in it also requires effort, but then you get different bonuses - from pleasant communication to the ability to access special dungeons and get rare items.

However, we haven't told you about the main characters, about those who actually fulfill quests, clear dungeons and fight in arenas. In Dungeon Fighter Online there are 16 classes of heroes. Among them are Slayer, Fighter, Gunner, Mage, Priest, Thief, Knight, Demonic Lancer, Dark Knight, Creator. In addition, everyone at level 15 can choose an additional subclass by completing certain tasks. This will give not only external improvements, but also unlock new mechanics that directly affect gameplay.

In general, all classes in Dungeon Fighter Online have their own unique mechanics, skills and fighting styles. But what they all have in common is the way the battles are fought. They take place in a fighting game and beat-em-up format with side-scrolling - at first it may seem unpleasant, because we slowly move left-right and up-down, and you have to adjust to be exactly on the enemy's line and hit him.

But once you get used to it, you'll discover the depth of the local combat mechanics. There are a lot of skills, which we open and pump as we gain levels, and the player needs to skillfully juggle them, put them into combos to fight effectively and efficiently. And you can activate skills and blows not only by "hotkeys", but also by the method of "direct input" - it reduces the cost of skills and shortens the time of its recovery. Also, already ready skills can be canceled to use them in the middle of normal attacks. All of this makes Dungeon Fighter Online a fairly competent and serious fighting game.

And if in the initial battles and in story quests, all this is not so noticeable, and not so important, then in more complex dungeons and rating fights in the arena ability to combine and competently use the skills of the character, his combos, pros and cons comes to the fore.

However, it is also very important to properly pump and develop your character (periodically you need to "Awaken" him), create, enchant and improve equipment. For this purpose Dungeon Fighter Online has a lot of opportunities, including obtaining various professions that allow you to mine resources for crafting and upgrading equipment. These include an alchemist, an animator (specializing in summoning creatures), a master at disassembling equipment, and an enchanter, who, conversely, enchants equipment.

We also spend the whole game saving up adventurer's glory points (they are especially important in dungeons), getting pets, new titles, talismans, runes and insignia. All of these, in one way or another, improve the characteristics of the character or his equipment. The avatar mechanics look particularly interesting. In addition to the basic appearance for each class you can use avatars - they not only change the appearance, but also give useful bonuses. Moreover, it is possible to share several avatars - this also provides useful effects.

Of course, Dungeon Fighter Online was especially popular on the Asian market, primarily in China, which largely explains the crazy numbers of active players and total sales. But in any case, it is obvious that this is a really colorful game with its own visual style (especially fans of anime will like it), with a lot of content, interesting combat system and unique mechanics like the ability to raise your virtual children. If we talk about donation in this conditionally free-to-play game, the very fact of how long it exists and how many fans it has already proves that the microtransaction system is well thought out and works well.
And the fact that Dungeon Fighter Online is still actively updated and supported proves that it will probably live for a long time - and it's never too late for you to join it.

Zarium. July 2024