Cleared on March 18th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 60/160)
I can't with this game. I just fucking can't. It is so awful, and no, I'm not just going to leave it at that. I'm going all the way with this review, hopefully to the point where I reach the character limit because if I'm going to be rating a game 1 or 0.5 stars, it needs to be said with confidence and clarity as to why the game is so bad.
At a glance, when you look at snippets of the gameplay, you see a first person shooter where you face off a gauntlet bosses. You think that the game doesn't seem all that bad although you may sometimes hear the opinion that the game is not very good although not bad enough to make the Top 10 or even Top 30. Maybe Top 50, so you'd assume that maybe it's just mediocre. Nothing special. So you pick up the game, start it up and prepare to shoot down the dragon.
The first thing you are greeted with is a large wall of text that gives you a rundown of the premise which I guess doesn't seem too bad. The premise is that disputes across the galaxy are settled with a duel to the death. Your interest in these death duels is that you're part of a federation seeking to regain control of the traffic lanes that ensure trade and food supply in an ongoing effort to win the war against the pirates ruled over by the "super 9", and you must take down all of them in the duel.
The game also tells you, in it's own words "Do not simply hold down the fire button and blast away! If you do, you will not be successful! Death Duel is not a "shooter"! Get to know how your targeting system works and learn to select the proper weapons from the weapons shop! No two weapons or opponents are the same. A good warrior studies the weaknesses of his opponent and plans the proper strategy to take advantage of them." This gives you an indicator of the mechanics that you are to expect.
With the exception of the first boss which comes from a preset of weapons, you are able to buy weapons per round. However, you can only have three weapons at a time, and all of the ammo you didn't use is lost, so you'll need to buy them again or buy a new set of weapons. Each boss has it's own set of weak points which make timing and aiming your attacks mean a lot in a game like this. But what are your weapons?
Machine Gun is the simple projectile weapon which is very cheap although very underpowered. For earlier battles, this can be a good weapon to have on hand and even for a few later battles it could be useful to pick off certain weak spots.
Missiles are a powerful weapon with scarce ammo that aims in an upward arc. If it lands, it can be very potent for taking out weaponry on the foe.
Laser Gun is supposed to be a stronger Machine Gun, but due to some enemies having an immunity, it's only really practical when it is on sale early game.
Skimmer is a strong weapon that is strong all throughout the game and accomplishes what the Machine Gun does being a bullet weapon.
Lob Grenade causes the foe to stop attacking for a couple of seconds which is good against foes that repeatedly attack you nonstop.
Grenade is a downward arc explosive that can pack a lot of heat when it connects, but is very hard to aim.
Energy Ring locks the foe in place to stop them from moving, making your aiming easier.
SloMo Cloud slows the enemy down which sounds inferior to the Energy Ring, but some foes have an immunity to that and not the cloud.
Lob Mine is a powerful weapon that acts as a trap that if the foe steps on, they will feel a lot of pain although this is only if they are grounded and their weak points are already dealt with.
Homing Missile is the ultimate weapon. It deals a lot of damage, it is sure to hit weak points, and if it doesn't finish it off, then it will pave way for your other weapons to finish it. The problem is that it is super expensive as all hell.
For now, though, you have a preset of weapons for your first boss, and right off, you are greeted with this ugly ass entity they call a human girl with a face that's reminiscent of the wojak npc meme. She just straight up looks like a mannequin with a face, a robot. I know this is the Sega Genesis, and sprites that try to look sexy aren't going to be worth a nut in this day and age, but having played Outrun recently, I thought they looked passable there, and the Genesis port was 1 year ago. The game in general is just unpleasant with its graphics. Some of the boss designs might look alright, but Krax Xarkton, Kuros Tizrak when his mask comes off, and especially Yorgik Somtix were so gross to look at, and I mean in a bad way. And you might not pay much attention in motion, but when you look at it the sprites for the dragons, you realize their heads look really stupid too. They're so ugly they had to hide them both behind a wall at the start of a match. But then there's the shopkeeper who looks like a fucked up fusion of Cyborg from Teen Titans and Long John Silver from Treasure Planet, and you have to see his face and exposed belly every round. Also his monkey has a wojak npc face too. Of course, let's not forget the ending screen if by some chance you actually get to the end where this "sexy lady" congratulates you for winning the game. They try to make it detailed, but the textures and colors are really off. You can also point towards the thick eyebrows, but I like girls with thick eyebrows. It's the dark shade of blonde in contrast with the golden shade of blonde hair that makes it unattractive. Also, if you pause at a certain frame while she talks, it looks like she is pogging.
Another issue with the presentation is the soundtrack which is just... not good. It's not the worst Sega Genesis soundtrack or even the worst that I played through, but it is so forgettable. To be fair, I end up forgetting about soundtracks from the Sega Genesis games even the good ones, but at the very least I want it to make me feel something in the moment, and the game's soundtrack never does that for me. It's just really mediocre.
But what about the gameplay? Well, as a first person shooter duel, your objective is to aim at the enemy boss, take down their weak points, and you win. But each foe has their own complications.
Shanox Moisail is the first boss of the game and despite what the game tells you, you can in fact just senselessly shoot him and very likely win. The thing is, though, he is so agile that trying to shoot him down is really frustrating and this goes for almost all bosses in the game. Combine that with the scuffed aiming and sometimes even hitboxes, and it's just a recipe for disaster. And keep in mind, your ammo is limited and if you run out, you have to try again or until you get a game over. Now you can remedy this by pressing the start button which will allow you to move your cursor to better aim, but you are going to have to stand still and your foes will attack you, and if you lose all your health, you have to try again.
So you're thinking, ok. I'll just simply take my time... except time isn't what you got because you have a set time limit to take your foes down. And when you combine that with the cover they can take, it can drag fights on for longer than needed.
So once you manage to get the boss down, you can enter a qualifier round to gain some points which are converted into currency, or the Pheelae as the game calls it, and the aiming is so scuffed. You have 3 buttons for aiming. One that fires left, one that fires center, and one that fires right. This also applies to the duels themselves, but because of how small the targets are, aiming for them is actually really difficult. And you will notice that the cursor will initially be slow when you move it and then suddenly jank itself forward which makes it that much harder to aim. And these aren't just mere bonuses to rack up Pheelae, they are required in order to progress and if you don't meet the quota, you lose a life and have to try again.
And don't think the bare minimum is going to cut it because you need to perform well, take the enemies down fast, meet the qualifier quota fast, and hit enemies in as many of their weak points as possible in order to rack up more Pheelae and if you don't have enough Pheelae, you don't have enough ammunition to take down the bosses, and if you don't have enough ammunition, you can't defeat the boss, and it's practically a game over. But perhaps the most fucked up thing is that just the simple act of choosing the wrong layout is enough to ensure an automatic defeat and the worst part? You can't go back to the store, you are forced to commit to the battle until you lose all of your lives and you have to start the game from the very beginning. This isn't as much of an issue when you are playing with save states, but keep in mind that you can't conserve ammo in between rounds as you lose them all, so you have to rebuy the weapons. So even when using save states, I still ended up in a position where I didn't have enough ammo which meant I was forced in an unwinnable situation and had to start all the way from the beginning. To top it off, it's not just the ammo you are paying for, but also the repairs on your robot as failure to do so will mean taking more damage from the foe.
So what about the rest of the bosses? Forsal Jeraba is actually easy enough if you are able to bait him to the right. He will never move and you can just shoot off his limbs and his tail, then his face and you win. If you time your shots well, you can do it with only 80 machine gun ammo.
Krax Xarkton is aggravating as he can curl into a ball which will make him invincible and he'll just spam it, making it harder for you to actually get him down.
Darrius Morb's legs are so scuffed to aim at which makes this seemingly slow robot harder to aim. When you get his legs down, however, he will convert into a spring although by that point, as long as his weapons are down, you can just shoot his head to win.
Borb Eubistapcia is a dragon that regenerates his health, he flies around, and there is so much cover on the field that it makes it really hard to even hit him in the first place. Easily one of the worst bosses in the game.
Karl Borgas is one of the easier fights as long as you shoot his right arm (his right), so he doesn't regain his left arm. He's also one of the slower enemies if I recall correctly, but still not that easy to aim.
Kuros Tizrak, despite being a slug, is remarkably agile and hits hard too. Dispatching his weapons means he won't be an issue in that regard, but defensively, he will juke your weapons and take a bit of damage himself.
Yorgik Somtix requires you to take down his arms and then his legs in that order. Once you figure out what you need to do, he is really easy... and that's another problem. Once you figure out the best loadout, the fights go from frustrating to just being boring. You don't feel this great sense of accomplishment, you just feel nothing. If that sounds like the effect of looking up a walkthrough, maybe it is, but I was already losing my patience with this game to begin with, so it's not like I'm missing out on anything impactful. If anything, I may have saved myself from having to fight the final boss a second time after the bullshit he would've pulled on me.
The final boss, Simas Julius is a robot much like you, and you need to down his arms, his legs, his cannons, and his head in that order. He is competing with Borb as the worst boss in the game. He attacks way too fast, he can phase out and still attack you while you yourself can't hit him, and you have to be specific as to where to aim. He doesn't take a lot of damage otherwise, and hopefully by this point you'll have enough Pheelae on hand for some Homing Missile shenanigans, but once you defeat him, the game will proceed to trick you into thinking that you have defeated him. He will then pull out a white flag which might make you think he surrendered, but no, he's about to blow up in your face which will spell an instant game over for you. So you need to shoot him down before he blows up and that's it. The game is cleared.
You are then greeted with dialogue from the girl at the ending, and it's well... let me show you.
"The Council has promised me to the champion
The Duels have ended
There will be no more pain for you, today
The road was not easy, but you have shown yourself to be a worthy hero
Take some time off now, Barret Jade and prepare for the terror that awaits you in Death Duel II
I always leave with the champion!!"
Yes, this is real dialogue from the game, and it's so half-assed even for Sega Genesis standards. Oh yeah, and the credits are in her dialogue box as if she is talking about the people that made this game. Also, "prepare for the terror that awaits you in Death Duel II" lol. The dialogue in general is just really crass especially with that earlier mentioned wojak girl as though she's trying to be quirky with "hardcore" dialogue, but all I can think is a robot saying that to me. The good news is that you can press start before she shows her face and says anything, so you can get straight to the fight.
This is a game that might've been too ambitious for its own good. It has the idea of delivering a first person arcade style shooter battling against bosses on the Sega Genesis complete with a variety of weapons and budget management, but they really did not think these ideas through. Could it have been a lot better with extra time in development? Would Death Duel II even improve on the original? I'm not sure.
I can't with this game. I just fucking can't. It is so awful, and no, I'm not just going to leave it at that. I'm going all the way with this review, hopefully to the point where I reach the character limit because if I'm going to be rating a game 1 or 0.5 stars, it needs to be said with confidence and clarity as to why the game is so bad.
At a glance, when you look at snippets of the gameplay, you see a first person shooter where you face off a gauntlet bosses. You think that the game doesn't seem all that bad although you may sometimes hear the opinion that the game is not very good although not bad enough to make the Top 10 or even Top 30. Maybe Top 50, so you'd assume that maybe it's just mediocre. Nothing special. So you pick up the game, start it up and prepare to shoot down the dragon.
The first thing you are greeted with is a large wall of text that gives you a rundown of the premise which I guess doesn't seem too bad. The premise is that disputes across the galaxy are settled with a duel to the death. Your interest in these death duels is that you're part of a federation seeking to regain control of the traffic lanes that ensure trade and food supply in an ongoing effort to win the war against the pirates ruled over by the "super 9", and you must take down all of them in the duel.
The game also tells you, in it's own words "Do not simply hold down the fire button and blast away! If you do, you will not be successful! Death Duel is not a "shooter"! Get to know how your targeting system works and learn to select the proper weapons from the weapons shop! No two weapons or opponents are the same. A good warrior studies the weaknesses of his opponent and plans the proper strategy to take advantage of them." This gives you an indicator of the mechanics that you are to expect.
With the exception of the first boss which comes from a preset of weapons, you are able to buy weapons per round. However, you can only have three weapons at a time, and all of the ammo you didn't use is lost, so you'll need to buy them again or buy a new set of weapons. Each boss has it's own set of weak points which make timing and aiming your attacks mean a lot in a game like this. But what are your weapons?
Machine Gun is the simple projectile weapon which is very cheap although very underpowered. For earlier battles, this can be a good weapon to have on hand and even for a few later battles it could be useful to pick off certain weak spots.
Missiles are a powerful weapon with scarce ammo that aims in an upward arc. If it lands, it can be very potent for taking out weaponry on the foe.
Laser Gun is supposed to be a stronger Machine Gun, but due to some enemies having an immunity, it's only really practical when it is on sale early game.
Skimmer is a strong weapon that is strong all throughout the game and accomplishes what the Machine Gun does being a bullet weapon.
Lob Grenade causes the foe to stop attacking for a couple of seconds which is good against foes that repeatedly attack you nonstop.
Grenade is a downward arc explosive that can pack a lot of heat when it connects, but is very hard to aim.
Energy Ring locks the foe in place to stop them from moving, making your aiming easier.
SloMo Cloud slows the enemy down which sounds inferior to the Energy Ring, but some foes have an immunity to that and not the cloud.
Lob Mine is a powerful weapon that acts as a trap that if the foe steps on, they will feel a lot of pain although this is only if they are grounded and their weak points are already dealt with.
Homing Missile is the ultimate weapon. It deals a lot of damage, it is sure to hit weak points, and if it doesn't finish it off, then it will pave way for your other weapons to finish it. The problem is that it is super expensive as all hell.
For now, though, you have a preset of weapons for your first boss, and right off, you are greeted with this ugly ass entity they call a human girl with a face that's reminiscent of the wojak npc meme. She just straight up looks like a mannequin with a face, a robot. I know this is the Sega Genesis, and sprites that try to look sexy aren't going to be worth a nut in this day and age, but having played Outrun recently, I thought they looked passable there, and the Genesis port was 1 year ago. The game in general is just unpleasant with its graphics. Some of the boss designs might look alright, but Krax Xarkton, Kuros Tizrak when his mask comes off, and especially Yorgik Somtix were so gross to look at, and I mean in a bad way. And you might not pay much attention in motion, but when you look at it the sprites for the dragons, you realize their heads look really stupid too. They're so ugly they had to hide them both behind a wall at the start of a match. But then there's the shopkeeper who looks like a fucked up fusion of Cyborg from Teen Titans and Long John Silver from Treasure Planet, and you have to see his face and exposed belly every round. Also his monkey has a wojak npc face too. Of course, let's not forget the ending screen if by some chance you actually get to the end where this "sexy lady" congratulates you for winning the game. They try to make it detailed, but the textures and colors are really off. You can also point towards the thick eyebrows, but I like girls with thick eyebrows. It's the dark shade of blonde in contrast with the golden shade of blonde hair that makes it unattractive. Also, if you pause at a certain frame while she talks, it looks like she is pogging.
Another issue with the presentation is the soundtrack which is just... not good. It's not the worst Sega Genesis soundtrack or even the worst that I played through, but it is so forgettable. To be fair, I end up forgetting about soundtracks from the Sega Genesis games even the good ones, but at the very least I want it to make me feel something in the moment, and the game's soundtrack never does that for me. It's just really mediocre.
But what about the gameplay? Well, as a first person shooter duel, your objective is to aim at the enemy boss, take down their weak points, and you win. But each foe has their own complications.
Shanox Moisail is the first boss of the game and despite what the game tells you, you can in fact just senselessly shoot him and very likely win. The thing is, though, he is so agile that trying to shoot him down is really frustrating and this goes for almost all bosses in the game. Combine that with the scuffed aiming and sometimes even hitboxes, and it's just a recipe for disaster. And keep in mind, your ammo is limited and if you run out, you have to try again or until you get a game over. Now you can remedy this by pressing the start button which will allow you to move your cursor to better aim, but you are going to have to stand still and your foes will attack you, and if you lose all your health, you have to try again.
So you're thinking, ok. I'll just simply take my time... except time isn't what you got because you have a set time limit to take your foes down. And when you combine that with the cover they can take, it can drag fights on for longer than needed.
So once you manage to get the boss down, you can enter a qualifier round to gain some points which are converted into currency, or the Pheelae as the game calls it, and the aiming is so scuffed. You have 3 buttons for aiming. One that fires left, one that fires center, and one that fires right. This also applies to the duels themselves, but because of how small the targets are, aiming for them is actually really difficult. And you will notice that the cursor will initially be slow when you move it and then suddenly jank itself forward which makes it that much harder to aim. And these aren't just mere bonuses to rack up Pheelae, they are required in order to progress and if you don't meet the quota, you lose a life and have to try again.
And don't think the bare minimum is going to cut it because you need to perform well, take the enemies down fast, meet the qualifier quota fast, and hit enemies in as many of their weak points as possible in order to rack up more Pheelae and if you don't have enough Pheelae, you don't have enough ammunition to take down the bosses, and if you don't have enough ammunition, you can't defeat the boss, and it's practically a game over. But perhaps the most fucked up thing is that just the simple act of choosing the wrong layout is enough to ensure an automatic defeat and the worst part? You can't go back to the store, you are forced to commit to the battle until you lose all of your lives and you have to start the game from the very beginning. This isn't as much of an issue when you are playing with save states, but keep in mind that you can't conserve ammo in between rounds as you lose them all, so you have to rebuy the weapons. So even when using save states, I still ended up in a position where I didn't have enough ammo which meant I was forced in an unwinnable situation and had to start all the way from the beginning. To top it off, it's not just the ammo you are paying for, but also the repairs on your robot as failure to do so will mean taking more damage from the foe.
So what about the rest of the bosses? Forsal Jeraba is actually easy enough if you are able to bait him to the right. He will never move and you can just shoot off his limbs and his tail, then his face and you win. If you time your shots well, you can do it with only 80 machine gun ammo.
Krax Xarkton is aggravating as he can curl into a ball which will make him invincible and he'll just spam it, making it harder for you to actually get him down.
Darrius Morb's legs are so scuffed to aim at which makes this seemingly slow robot harder to aim. When you get his legs down, however, he will convert into a spring although by that point, as long as his weapons are down, you can just shoot his head to win.
Borb Eubistapcia is a dragon that regenerates his health, he flies around, and there is so much cover on the field that it makes it really hard to even hit him in the first place. Easily one of the worst bosses in the game.
Karl Borgas is one of the easier fights as long as you shoot his right arm (his right), so he doesn't regain his left arm. He's also one of the slower enemies if I recall correctly, but still not that easy to aim.
Kuros Tizrak, despite being a slug, is remarkably agile and hits hard too. Dispatching his weapons means he won't be an issue in that regard, but defensively, he will juke your weapons and take a bit of damage himself.
Yorgik Somtix requires you to take down his arms and then his legs in that order. Once you figure out what you need to do, he is really easy... and that's another problem. Once you figure out the best loadout, the fights go from frustrating to just being boring. You don't feel this great sense of accomplishment, you just feel nothing. If that sounds like the effect of looking up a walkthrough, maybe it is, but I was already losing my patience with this game to begin with, so it's not like I'm missing out on anything impactful. If anything, I may have saved myself from having to fight the final boss a second time after the bullshit he would've pulled on me.
The final boss, Simas Julius is a robot much like you, and you need to down his arms, his legs, his cannons, and his head in that order. He is competing with Borb as the worst boss in the game. He attacks way too fast, he can phase out and still attack you while you yourself can't hit him, and you have to be specific as to where to aim. He doesn't take a lot of damage otherwise, and hopefully by this point you'll have enough Pheelae on hand for some Homing Missile shenanigans, but once you defeat him, the game will proceed to trick you into thinking that you have defeated him. He will then pull out a white flag which might make you think he surrendered, but no, he's about to blow up in your face which will spell an instant game over for you. So you need to shoot him down before he blows up and that's it. The game is cleared.
You are then greeted with dialogue from the girl at the ending, and it's well... let me show you.
"The Council has promised me to the champion
The Duels have ended
There will be no more pain for you, today
The road was not easy, but you have shown yourself to be a worthy hero
Take some time off now, Barret Jade and prepare for the terror that awaits you in Death Duel II
I always leave with the champion!!"
Yes, this is real dialogue from the game, and it's so half-assed even for Sega Genesis standards. Oh yeah, and the credits are in her dialogue box as if she is talking about the people that made this game. Also, "prepare for the terror that awaits you in Death Duel II" lol. The dialogue in general is just really crass especially with that earlier mentioned wojak girl as though she's trying to be quirky with "hardcore" dialogue, but all I can think is a robot saying that to me. The good news is that you can press start before she shows her face and says anything, so you can get straight to the fight.
This is a game that might've been too ambitious for its own good. It has the idea of delivering a first person arcade style shooter battling against bosses on the Sega Genesis complete with a variety of weapons and budget management, but they really did not think these ideas through. Could it have been a lot better with extra time in development? Would Death Duel II even improve on the original? I'm not sure.