Duelists of Eden Review (PC)

Much of why I, among many other players, enjoyed the Mega Man Battle Network Series is because of how it flipped the script of the entire Mega Man series. Instead of tight platforming, the player was taken along an RPG-path involving teenage protagonist Lan and his digital pal, Mega Man. The player could then take Mega Man onto the “net” (not literally) and battle viruses and other NPCs.

The battles were strategic, taking place on a 3×3 grid. I could utilize Mega Man’s “powers” by creating and customizing a deck of abilities. I could summon obstacles to hide behind or attack in my stead. I could turn into my enemies and utilize their attacks just like Mega Man would in the original games. The strategic possibilities were endless yet refreshing thanks to the deckbuilding element. I always wanted to play against other humans in PvP battles, but my opportunities have been slim until the MMBN collection released a short while ago. My appetite for deckbuilt grid battles was insatiable.

There hasn’t been anything quite like the Mega Man Battle Network series. At least until recently.

In early 2023, I came across a teaser for Duelists of Eden. It looked just like MMBN’s battle formats, but with different characters. Its flashy abilities and unique characters were intriguing. Most importantly – it was said to be a PvP-focused title through and through. Fast forward to earlier this month when my Steam client notified me that Duelists of Eden was coming soon, and the opportunity arose to cover Duelists of Eden. I jumped at the chance.

Truth be told, I’m immensely impressed. It has all of the PvP elements of MMBN I had been craving but with more chaos and significantly more support.

Duelists of Eden is the spiritual successor to One Step from Eden, Thomas Moon Kang’s card-battler roguelite released in 2020. While One Step from Eden had some PvP support, it wasn’t balanced for the tournament scene. Duelists of Eden has taken One Step from Eden’s universe and backbone, repackaging it with additional PvP love so that those who want a taste of the frenetic battles from MMBN/One Step from Eden can get it. If you’re unfamiliar with One Step from Eden – don’t worry. Duelists of Eden got me up to speed right quick.

Jumping into the game blind was a great way for me to experience what an unfamiliar player might experience. Right from the start I was presented with a tutorial that gave me the ground rules of how battles work. Ability cards are randomized, each costing mana. My character had two unique attacks that could be executed at any time so long as I had mana. I could dodge. I could shield. I could shield break. Some abilities applied status effects, here’s how to keep myself alive despite being plagued with the likes of poison, frost, and more.

The tutorial taught me the basics, but it’s clear that practice makes perfect. Like other fighting games, the player learns more from losing and surviving battles rather than getting trapped in an endless loop of tutorials. However, I couldn’t jump straight into ranked online PvP, I played unranked matches and the single player “Gauntlet” against bots.

Most of this review was conducted in the Gauntlet mode because of how online ranked play was level-gated. By completing Gauntlet or Local matches, I increased my player level within a few hours. Some folks might want to get to the good stuff immediately, but locking that away is a great way to get folks into testing the gameplay and characters before heading into ranked and getting discouraged by opponents’ skill levels.

Regardless of character, Duelists of Eden played similar to MMBN’s battles, albeit more chaotic. Instead of selecting ability cards every 30seconds, ability cards were assigned to one of two slots. Once I had used all of the abilities in my deck or discarded my hand, a loading bar would appear above my head while my deck “shuffled” and was assigned to my open ability slots. During that loading time, I could use my character’s innate abilities or I could wait patiently while dodging enemies’ attacks.

While the tutorial alluded to spell combos and chains, it took a few more hours (and unsuccessful gauntlet trials) to figure those combos out. Once things clicked, though, it felt like I had properly unlocked character synergy with my current deck. Upon reaching level 10, I had unlocked a wealth of additional spell cards to consider when building my deck. There seems to be over 200 spell cards total, which is appealing to me as a theorycrafter and deckbuilder. The amount of potential combinations I could create in a simple 8-to-10-spell deck seemed limitless yet intriguing.

The number of spell combinations and characters in Duelists of Eden give it a level of strategy that was missed in the original MMBN series. As of writing, there are 15 characters to select from, each having a set of unique abilities and a basic starter deck that synergizes at a basic level with their kits. After some testing, I found myself gravitating toward Maypul and a poison/zoning deck that prevented enemies from healing themselves of the poison affliction. It yielded a good amount of success in unranked PvP, but I did feel like I was playing “cheap” by relying on poison attacks rather than skillshots.

All of Duelists of Eden’s characters were unlocked for me from the start, which was great. I could very easily try characters out without needing to purchase them or jump through hoops to unlock them. Having some unlockables is fine, but gating content behind arbitrary progression mechanisms is annoying. I find unlocking characters with in-game currency to be frustrating in PvP games because of how I would be gambling on whether or not that character would gel with my playstyle. Thankfully, Duelists of Eden respects players’ time and doesn’t set up roadblocks hindering players from getting to the “good stuff” that is PvP grid-battling.

Duelists of Eden’s skillcurve is moderately steep thanks to how much information is to be gleaned from the number of abilities, what they do, how to best use them, and how to avoid them when opponents use them. I would be lying if I said that everything was smooth sailing when I first picked up the game, as well as learning new characters. Despite having a training mode, there wasn’t a lot of visual clarity to properly illustrate the intricacies of the spell cards. Some of this could be resolved by a training-specific UI that clearly shows where my character will go and where my opponent needs to be in order for the spell to properly land. Optional character-specific tutorials may help, too; I appreciated it when games added character tutorials (think Injustice 2) that give guidance on how to best capitalize on their strengths. In Duelists of Eden, this could also help with getting players familiarized with character-specific abilities.

On the topic of character uniqueness, I loved the breadth of playstyles that are present within the roster. I also loved that there were characters from other indie games, like Maypul from Rivals of Aether and Neera from Freedom Planet 2. Including guest characters from indie games is a great way to share the love of indies while also reviving interest in other game universes. More games should highlight characters from other indie titles.

That said, my only critique of the gameplay is that I was waiting for a unique oomph from each character. Since this is technically a grid-battler, much of the focus is on deck building and navigating the field rather than highlighting cinematic moments. I see an opportunity to overcharge characters’ unique abilities, or at least make them slightly more flashy, to clearly give them a sense of uniqueness and power that isn’t coming exclusively from the spell cards. It’s great to have an even playing field in terms of power sources from spell cards, but it’s also great for the player to feel like their character has visible and innate powers that can properly synergize with spell decks.

Perhaps I need more time to familiarize myself with the game, but I’ll definitely admit that I love what I see after nearly a week of playing.

My only other critique of Duelists of Eden is of its character-specific progression. It follows other games in the sense that maining a character rewards the player with unique cosmetics to customize their main or their player card/emblem. Character-specific progression exists, but it’s less visible than I would prefer. For instance, on the character-select screen, I can see the next reward, but I want to see the full list so I can see what I can look forward to so I can gauge how to best invest my time. I appreciate that character-specific unlocks that currently exist, but I want some additional visibility.

Before I forget, I want to drive home the fact that I truly appreciate that the only other unlockable content in this game’s shop is cosmetic and can be obtained with in-game currency that is earned from playing the game. No microtransactions. No ridiculous levels of grinding. It’s becoming increasingly rare for fighting games to respect players time and wallets, so seeing Duelists of Eden respect players as it does is fantastic.

Duelists of Eden is not a fighting game in the truest of senses, nor does it claim to be one. It’s more of a mashup of grid-battler, deck-builder, with fighting-game elements. I appreciate it when games experiment and refine subgenres; Duelists of Eden executes the genre mashup well. I don’t expect most fighting game fans to truly appreciate Duelists of Eden, but it’s worth trying out. Fans of the MMBN series will absolutely appreciate how Duelists of Eden executes the strategy and creativity of deckbuilding and grid battling. As someone who spent a good amount of time playing MMBN (and replaying the legacy collection), Duelists of Eden connects with me in ways other fighters have been unable to accomplish.

Duelists of Eden is an absolute steal at $4.99. The amount of support it has received in its two weeks of release as well as additional balance fixes, community growth, and more tells me that Thomas Moon Kang wants folks to enjoy deck-battler gameplay in a balanced state. During the review period, the developer released several balance patches and hotfixes to make the game as stable as possible. Playing against others online was seamless, but the additional features of custom lobby browsers, ELO/matchmaking adjustments, and rollback settings tells me that the developer wants players to truly enjoy this game.

It’s clear that Thomas Moon Kang appreciates the battles of the MMBN series as well as cultivating an audience of grid-fighting superfans. Duelists of Eden is an excellent bite-sized grid-battler and deckbuilder fighting game that is properly fit for competitive play. Despite the chaos and learning curve, it’s worth the time investment to experience the chaotic, frenetic, yet strategic battles. I cannot wait to see this game grow!

A copy of Duelists of Eden was provided for the purposes of this review.