3000th Duel | Switch Review

A New Face in The Crowd

Even though I am a relative newcomer to the metroidvania genre, I feel as though I’ve been playing these games my whole life. Something about the mixture of a 2D environment and platforming really makes my heart happy. With each one I play, I find something new that I like, and I’m genuinely enjoying playing through them. I was super excited to get my hands on 3000th Duel, and was pleasantly surprised by this hidden gem.

Where Did I Come From?

3000th Duel is both published and developed by the startup company Neopopcorn Corp. 3000th Duel appears to be the company’s first venture into the gaming industry, and I’m excited to see what other unique titles they have in store for players. I absolutely love hearing about new developers popping up, especially when you can tell how much effort they place in their product.

3000th Duel drops you right into a world full of monsters to hack and slash your way through. You have lost your memory, and must progress through the game as a nameless hero in order to uncover your true story. All you have is your hooded cloak, and the weapons you find along your way. A voice beckons to you, encouraging you to find fragments of your memory scattered throughout the world’s greasy underbelly. I appreciate the minimalistic approach; it adds a bit of mystery and gives the player incentive to progress.

Watch Your Step…

As usual with games of this nature, you will be traversing through a maze-like map and unlocking different paths and rooms. You will need to backtrack to find hidden items and to revisit areas you weren’t able to previously access. Combat is very precise, and requires the player to not only hack their way through, but to carefully plan and execute their movements. Blocking and dodging are just as important as combat. The controls are very crisp and responsive. The blame falls solely on the player for any mistakes or missteps. Bosses can be difficult, and may require several attempts to defeat them. Difficulty was steady until about mid-game where I felt it ramped up.

You will find items such as weapons, consumables, and spells in chests scattered throughout the map. There are several physical weapon types, and you have a skill-tree that can be tuned to reflect your particular playstyle. There are tons of abilities to unlock! If you prefer to use spells, you can take advantage of all the particular upgrades to those abilities.

The skill tree abilities can be unlocked using karma, which the player gains by defeating enemies. If an enemy takes you out, you’ll have to travel all the way back to recover your lost karma, and failing to do so will result in losing everything you once had. You also have character stats that can be upgraded to your liking, whether that be increased damage output or increasing health and defense.

Not The Usual Fare

3000th Duel has a very unique artstyle. Your character is a chibi-like 3D model, but the levels are designed in a 2D fashion. The background is fairly dynamic, and will move according to the player’s position. The foreground utilizes a sort of negative space in the effect that they are often dark and without much detail. I liked this as it allowed me to focus more on the movements of my character, rather than being overly distracted by the environment. Environments were unique, and ranged from dingy and washed out to bright and vibrant. The camera seems closer to the character, and the animations are beautifully done. 

The soundtrack is lively and quirky. It was almost a bit weird to hear such energetic ambiance in a world so grimy. I was definitely expecting something a bit more dramatic and soft, but was pleasantly surprised by the variety of tunes that were woven into the different areas.

Final Thoughts

I really like that 3000th Duel didn’t follow many of the usual paths that metroidvania type games take. I can tell that the developers wanted to provide a unique experience that differentiates itself from the standard fare in this over-abundant genre. The map design and music were different, and the story wasn’t long and drawn out. It added a bit of mystery and put the player right to work in discovering what exactly 3000th Duel is. The map design was well planned, and felt casual as much as it felt purposeful and constructed. This is definitely one of those hidden gems, and I look forward to seeing more from this start-up.

To hear me talk more about 3000th Duel, don’t miss Episode 283 of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 1:48:18 mark.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of 3000th Duel provided by Neopopcorn Corp for coverage purposes. It is also available on Windows and Mac.