This Pixelated Souls-Inspired ARPG Receives New Exciting Updates

Duel Corp., a Souls-inspired retro-style action RPG, has received some exciting new features and amazing updates since the last time we covered it in June. If you missed our first article about it, it's a game developed by a two-person team, Dreameffect Entertainment, that features challenging directional combat, cozy pixel art visual style, and the ability to play either alone or in co-op with friends.

The most recently added feature is a spell to hide from NPCs. Using this magic spell would make you disappear with a cloud of black smoke and become invisible as a transparent black shadow, like putting on Harry's invisibility cloak. Boom, with another black smoke, you show up again after shaking off enemies. 

When replying to a query from a fan, the developer unveils that there is no cooldown time to use this spell, as long as you have enough mana to trigger it. When being hidden, you can easily approach people and surprise them with backstabs. 

Also, the trick has endless durations, but it ends with any action. Imagine you'd like to get close to a chest to take things out from it, just make sure the NPCs are far away enough not to hear the noise you make. Then you'll be safe to steal their belongings. 

Besides this new spell, the team also introduces a series of new graphical improvements, like new visual effects, blink/talk animation and voices, villagers will watch and comment on fights, the ability to display and hide the helmet/cape of your armor, and the option to inspect villagers before hiring them and build friendships:

It seems the team has taken a bit more time than planned to polish the game, causing the release window to delay a bit from the end of this year to Q1 of 2025. But with so many exciting new features and improvements implemented to the game, it's worth the wait. The team has been focusing on a PC Early Access release on Steam, but they might work on console ports sometime in the future.