Dungeon Fighter Online is a multiplayer PC beat 'em up video game developed and published by Neople, previously published by Nexon and originally published by Hangame. The game was originally released in Korea as Dungeon & Fighter (??????) and in Japan as Arad Senki (?????, Arado Senki, lit. War Records of Arad). Closed Beta for an English version of the game ran from July 28, 2009 to August 3, 2009. Early access has begun on September 15, 2009. Open beta started September 22, 2009. It was featured in WCG 2009, and is still a popular televised program in South Korea, where a league is active. Dungeon Fighter had a 300 million registered users celebration on May 25, 2011. It was announced on April 2, 2013, that the North American version of Dungeon Fighter Online would be shutting down on June 13, 2013. On May 15, 2014, Neople began an alpha test of a global version of Dungeon Fighter Online using the last English version hosted by Nexon, which has since ended. On October 10, 2014, Open Beta Testing was announced, set for March 24, 2015. It became one of the highest-grossing video games, grossing $8.7 billion after 10 years.
Video Dungeon Fighter Online
Gameplay
Dungeon Fighter Online is similar to classic 2D side-scrolling arcade hack and slash/beat 'em up games, such as Golden Axe or Double Dragon. Players will traverse 2D screens while fighting hordes of monsters. Characters have two meters, the HP meter and the MP meter; the HP meter decreases when the player gets struck by enemies and the MP meter decreases upon using a skill, while items can restore either or both at once. The player can move in eight possible directions, and attacks/jumps/uses skills. Skills can be designated upon an upper row of hotkeys, that can be further expanded by the decision of the player. However, a player can choose to manually input the command to perform a certain skill; for example, a Blade Master can choose to press the assigned hotkey for the skill Draw Sword, but can also choose to perform its direct input. Directly inputting the skill (done by pressing the arrow keys in a certain sequence and then pressing the basic skill key) makes the skill cost less MP and lowers the cooldown of the skill (the time needed to wait to use the skill again) by a small amount. Skills are usually performed separately from normal combos; however, some skills are "cancellable," meaning that those skills can be used in the middle of normal attacks. There are a number of social aspects to Dungeon Fighter Online, including Guilds, PvP Arenas, Party Play, and Mentorship.
Maps Dungeon Fighter Online
Development
Dungeon Fighter Online was developed by a South Korean company called Neople who previously only published a number of casual online games through their own game portal site. It was originally planned as a small game as the entire game was developed in five months based on the forecasted life expectancy. However, the response was better than they expected so the budget was increased and the game was expanded.
Extensive testing took place before the premiere launch in Korea. Three closed beta periods were held between December 17-31, 2004, February 1-13, 2005, and June 28 - July 11, 2005. Neople accepted only 999 players per test and allowed only one hundred minutes of gameplay per day. Content was fine-tuned and updated daily throughout the test period based on testers feedback. After a short hiatus, open beta commenced on August 10, 2005 at 3 pm. By 11 pm, there were over 15,000 concurrent users
Even though many games being released at the time were 3D, Neople decided to create Dungeon Fighter Online in 2D because they didn't believe it affected gameplay, they didn't feel a 3D game could capture the look and feel of the original illustrations of the characters, the ease of casual players getting into the game, and they had more experience with 2D games. Hi-res is not a likely path the game will take because director Yun Jong Kim's main focus is "efficiency".
North American release
Five years after the original release in Korea, Nexon America revealed plans for an English version of Dungeon Fighter Online at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in late March. The title was renamed from Dungeon & Fighter to Dungeon Fighter Online because of the awkwardness to say "Dungeon and Fighter".
Thousands of applicants were accepted into closed beta, which held for seven days between July 28 - August 3, 2009. Open beta plans were announced at Penny Arcade Expo 2009. Early access to open beta, available for players who received a beta key, proceeded on September 15, 2009. Open beta began a week later on September 22, 2009. Dungeon Fighter Online officially launched on June 9, 2010. The game servers in North America were shut down on June 13, 2013.
On May 15, 2014, Neople held an alpha test for a global version of the game.
As of October 10, 2014 Neople announced a closed beta test for Dungeon Fighter Online, scheduled for release around March 2015, due to them moving their office to the island of Jeju, located off the south-west coast of South Korea. However, it became an open beta test because the Facebook page for the game had reached a specific number of "Likes", something that had been previously promised by Neople when it was still planned for a closed beta test.
On January 19, 2016, Dungeon Fighter Online Season 2 was released. On August 9, 2016, the game was released on Steam as free-to-play, offering achievements and paid DLC. On January 17, 2017, Dungeon Fighter Online Season 3 was released. On February 27, 2018, Dungeon Fighter Online Season 4 was released.
Performance
Dungeon Fighter had a 300 million registered users celebration on May 25, 2011. On August 24, 2012, Nexon reported that Dungeon Fighter Online recorded a peak activity of 3 million concurrent users in China alone. Dungeon Fighter Online had 25 million monthly active users as of November 2012.
The game grossed over $2 billion in revenue as of March 31, 2012. As of 2015, it had an annual gross of $1.052 billion. On March 2017, Nexon revealed that Dungeon Fighter Online grossed a revenue of $8.7 billion after 10 years, more than the combined box office gross of Star Wars, the biggest movie franchise.
Media
Anime
An anime adaption of the game was announced by Gonzo at the Hangame 2008 Summer Festival event on August 24, 2008. Titled as Slap-up Party: Arad Senki (??????????? -?????-, Surappuappu P?ti -Arado Senki-, lit and titled in original Korean as Dungeon and Fighter: Slap-up Party (?? ? ??? ??? ??). Slap-up Party: Record of the Arad War), it is produced by Gonzo and GK Entertainment and directed by Takahiro Ikezoe. The anime premiered on TV Tokyo on April 3, 2009 and ran for twenty-six episodes. It is loosely based on material from the official webcomic, The Vagrants in Arad (Korean: ???? ????, Japanese: ???????????, lit. The Wandering Party of Arad), and features several of the same characters.
Main Voice Cast
- Takashi Kond? as Baron Abel
- Sakura Nogawa as Ryunmei Ranka
- Kenichi Suzumura as Capensis
- Ayumi Tsuji as Ixia Jun
- Takaya Kuroda as Jeda Raxpa
- Ry?tar? Okiayu as Irbek
- Rie Tanaka as Hiria
- Mitsuo Iwata as Harsen
- Akeno Watanabe as Roxy
- Shiro Tsubuyaki as Willy
Manga
A manga based on the game titled Arad Senki: Slap-up Party (????? -???????????-), written and illustrated by Kiku Ueda was announced on April 30, 2009. It premiered on May 30, 2009 in the June issue of Gentosha's Monthly Comic Birz magazine.
Music
The first opening theme of the anime, "Party Play" by Sakura Nogawa, and the ending theme "Hateshinai Sekai" (???????, lit. "Endless World") by YMCK were used from episodes 1 to 13. From episodes 14 to 26, "Sokujin no Pandora" (???????, lit. "The Pandora of Dust ") by Sakura Nogawa was the opening theme while "LEVEL?" by Akiko Hasegawa became the ending theme from episodes 14 to 25.
References
External links
- Official Dungeon Fighter Online Facebook page
- Official Dungeon Fighter Online Website
- (in Korean) Official Korean Dungeon & Fighter homepage
- (in Japanese) Official anime website
- Dungeon Fighter Online Inven(Community)
- Dungeon Fighter Online (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Source of article : Wikipedia
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