History YMMV / DNFDuel

* UncertainAudience: The likely reason why ''DNF Duel's'' competitive life didn't last too long. ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'' is a popular game, but it's core fans weren't willing to spend money on a fighting game, a fighting game without much single-player content at that. In terms of gameplay, ''DNF Duel'' has lots of crazy moves, but doesn't have the mobility that other "anime" style fighters like ''VideoGame/GuiltyGearStrive'' or the ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' series have. Fighting game fans who prefer grounded fighting akin to ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' were turned off by the huge moves and lack of balance. Adding to this trope was Nexon's poor communication with the fandom, leading to ''Duel's'' competitive scene dying off not too long after release, to the point where it wasn't included in Evo Japan 2023's or Evo 2023's main lineup.

** "Korean [[LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior Maximilian]]" and "Dante [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Badguy]]" for the Troubleshooter, the first due to bearing a resemblance to UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity streamer Maximilian Dood, and the latter due to his fighting style resembling a mix of Dante's shotgun moves and Sol Badguy's sword techniques.

** In the weeks after the beta's conclusion, some players were worried about the rather lacking mixup game, a common expectation of other anime fighting games. Jump-in moves were somewhat slow and extremely risky due to the lack of midair blocking, making crossups relatively useless, and high/low mixups weren't particularly rewarding, relegating the metagame to guessing if/when the opponent will use a command grab. The few people that defended the game design pointed out that all of these factors make it fairly close to ''DFO''[='=]s PVP meta (whether or not that was intentional by the developers), since there's no blocking of ''any'' kind (save for a select few classes, and even then there are still no traditional mixups) and the sole defensive options are Quick Rebound (''DFO''[='=]s version of a [[UsefulNotes/FightingGame delayed wakeup]]) and [[ImmuneToFlinching super armor]].

* ItsShortSoItSucks: A few months after the game's release, well after the hype died down, the people who stuck with the game lamented the fact that after clearing Story Mode, there's basically nothing to do other than climb the online ranked ladder. People who point out this game's anemic single player content also often point out how it somehow didn't get ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasyVersus''[='=]s side-scrolling BeatEmUp RPG Mode, something that would've fit ''DNF Duel'' like a glove as it's already based on a side-scrolling beat-'em-up {{MMORPG}}. The total radio silence regarding the possibility of future [[DownloadableContent DLC]] characters since the game's release only made these sentiments worse. This was somewhat alleviated with the announcement of a fairly large balance patch, as well as the reveal of Spectre as the game's first DLC character.

* UncertainAudience: The likely reason why ''DNF Duel's'' competitive life didn't last too long. ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'' is a popular game, but it's core fans weren't willing to spend money on a fighting game, a fighting game that didn't have much in the way of single player content at that. In terms of gameplay, ''DNF Duel'' has lots of crazy moves, but doesn't have the mobility that other "anime" style fighters have like ''VideoGame/GuiltyGearStrive'' or the ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' series. Fighting game fans who prefer grounded fighting akin to ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' were turned off by the huge moves and lack of balance. Adding to this was Nexon's poor communication with the fandom, leading to ''Duel's'' competitive scene dying off not too long after release, to the point where it wasn't included in Evo Japan 2023's or Evo 2023's main lineup.

** Lore-savvy players were surprised to see Carloso's Fragment on the box art, given that he was mostly a pre-Metastasis character that had virtually no plot relevance at the time and was later removed from the game after the Metastasis update, meaning most players of the current version have not seen or interacted with him at all.

** "Korean Dante" for the Ranger, due to his moveset heavily resembling the moves of Dante from the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series, along with his demeanor. It helps that Dante's most iconic fighting game, ''Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' was developed by Eighting.
** "Old Man Dante" and "Daddy[=/=]Uncle Dante" for the Hitman due to having similar moves to Dante as he appeared in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3''.
** "Korean [[LetsPlay/TheOnlineWarrior Maximilian]]" and "Dante [[VideoGame/GuiltyGear Badguy]]" for the Troubleshooter, due to bearing a resemblance to UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity streamer Maximilian Dood, and the latter due to his fighting style resembles Dante's shotgun moves combined with Sol Badguy's sword techniques.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Launcher so far has been the hardest hit victim of this. Despite her massive quantity of guns, her zoning options are subpar, forcing her to stay in a range that is less than ideal to function, and many of her moves struggle to break through guarding opponents and have glaring blind spots. Some characters can even punish her outright regardless of what buttons she's pushing by exploiting said blind spots, giving her many unfavorable matchups.
** On the high end, you have Swift Master, a character with disgustingly long combos that can chop off massive amounts of health off any interaction and keep their opponent in the air to make their combos true and prevent teching out. Especially hated for their ThatOneAttack, Storm Strike, a ChargeAttack that reaches fullscreen, is plus on block, easily punishes whiffs and zoners, and functions as both a combo starter and combo extender. It got to the point where ''DNF Duel's'' first major patch was almost nothing ''but'' Swift Master nerfs in order to bring him down to manageable levels.
** Hitman is another high tier powerhouse. He's armed to the teeth with a variety of strong, long-ranged attacks and can convert virtually any hit he gets into pressure of some sort, blocked or otherwise. Many of his moves push the opponent ''just'' out of reach so they have difficulty punishing him, allowing him to either continue pressure in a number of ways or simply wait for the opponent to open themselves up trying to retaliate, in the process resetting things back into his favor. All of this on top of having one of the best Awakenings in the game. It grants him a rather simple bonus: a new follow-up attack for all of his Mana Skills. The problem? This move is plus on block, leads to either a guaranteed juggle or ''stagger'' depending on what move it came after on hit, and due to both of these properties is a win-win situation for Hitman any time he uses it, meaning he can use and abuse it freely whenever he feels like spending the Mana and his opponent has no choice but to deal with it.

* ItsShortSoItSucks: A few months after the game's release, well after the hype died down, the people who stuck with the game lamented the fact that after clearing Story Mode, there's basically nothing to do other than climb the online ranked ladder. People who point out this game's anemic single player content also often point out how it somehow didn't get ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasyVersus''[='=]s side-scrolling BeatEmUp RPG Mode, something that would've fit ''DNF Duel'' like a glove as it's already based on a side-scrolling beat-'em-up {{MMORPG}}. The total radio silence regarding the possibility of future [[DownloadableContent DLC]] characters since the game's release only made these sentiments worse.

* GameBreaker: ''DNF Duel'' is a textbook example of the [=8ing=] philosophy of "if everyone is broken, nobody is" when it comes to fighting games. Virtually every character in the game has at least one hilariously busted move that, in almost any other game, would have been nerfed to oblivion; to wit, when players complained about some characters being broken in the first beta, the second beta responded by ''buffing everyone else.''

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The "Online Modes" trailer revealed that the game's Ranked Match system uses a quick matching system as opposed to [=ArcSys=]'s infamous online interactive lobbies, alleviating concerns about the lobbies being forced like they are in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGearStrive''.
** Complaints about the game's universal defensive moves were addressed in the second beta and further improved upon with the official release. Rolls were given improved recovery time, speed, and distance, making them actually viable as an approach or getaway move. Guard Cancels also were given the ability to destroy projectiles, making them more useful against moves that lock down opponents like the Inquisitor's Burning Wheel.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The visuals for the game are ''gorgeous'', from the smooth and flowy animations, to the character designs, and [[SceneryPorn the amazing backgrounds]] that well adapts from the source material. Longtime fans of ''Videogame/DungeonFighterOnline'' and newcomers alike were stunned at how the game looks.

** On the high end, you have Swift Master, a character with disgustingly long combos that can chop off massive amounts of health off any interaction and keep their opponent in the air to make their combos true and prevent teching out. Especially hated for their ThatOneAttack, Storm Strike, a ChargeAttack that reaches fullscreen, is plus on block, easily punishes whiffs and zoners, and functions as both a combo starter and combo extender.