Details: Written by: Brian Moats; Category: Video Games; Published: 05 August 2022

I will hunt down every devil!

HunterX (2022)
Developer(s)	Orange Popcorn	Publisher	Orange Popcorn
Platform Availability	Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4/5, Xbox One/Series, Steam, Steam Deck Compatible	Genre	Action, Adventure, Metroidvania
	1	Teen		10-12 Hours

I am a big fan of any game that follows the Metroidvania formula; when I was asked to review HunterX, I watched the trailer and looked over the screenshots and immediately knew this one had potential to be a really good game.

I am currently playing through the game; enjoy my playlist providing my progress (and many deaths) I have experienced. I have 4 hours in as of the time of publishing the first draft of this review; I will update it as I progress with my updated thoughts.

Story

This is probably the part of the game I am much less clear on. There are "Hunters" that fight devils are night. The game follows one such hunter named Tsuki and her companion, Marka (a good devil?). They head into another world that is split up into different zones with different yet similar types of enemies. The goal is to find the boss in each area and Hunt them. You meet other hunters during your adventure that have their own reasons for being there, but you find a way to befriend them and gain access to their shops to aid you in your quest. I believe I recall Marka saying these characters may be Tsuki's hunter ancestors.

Beyond a few little cut scenes/conversations, I haven't really pieced together much of a story. That isn't entirely unusual for games of this genre, but I would have liked a little more build up in the beginning of the game. This really didn't turn me off on the game though; this is just on my wish list for their future games.

Game Mechanics

The gameplay follows your traditional action platformer with a level up system included. You will gain access to move moves throughout the game that will grant access to areas you once were unable to access. Double jumps will allow access to high chests and new areas as one example. You also gain access to new attacks such as the Mortal Blow, which is a type of powerful attack that you have to essentially charge up and deal a massive amount of damage to the enemies with.

You will collect Karma that is used both as your experience points to level up with and as currency to bought goods from the other hunters. Initially, the Karma cost for level up is pretty small, but it quickly raises into the thousands. Instead of automatically leveling up, you will visit level up statues to spend karma to increase one of four stats that impact your characters growth in different ways:

Vitality: Increase HP allowing you to live longer.
Strength: Increase attack damage.
Mind: Increase MP which is used for the Mortal Blow skill and the Occult skills (magic).
Activity: Increase stamina used for various physical maneuvers such as dashing, guarding, and parrying.

Beyond these stats, you will be able to temporarily increase your stats via equipment (Weapon and Accessories); these could improve the stats above as well as other stats such as elemental attack/resistance, discovery, and critical. Overall, these stats are pretty self-explanatory.

You also receive Keystones every time you level up. These keystones are used on a skill grid that will expand throughout the course of the game. It provides access to modifications to your maneuvers, increases to your stats, and interesting tweaks to your mortal blow skill.

The one mechanic I never seemed to get a hang of during my playthrough was parrying. I am usually pretty good at this in other games, but I for some reason never got the timing just right...or it isn't obvious when I succeed at least.

Graphics

The graphics are overall pretty good. I would say for an indie publisher, they are pretty smooth and have no glaring issues. I do like the character sprites and the fact that different weapons actually change as you swap equipment. While this seems fairly standard, I have seen some Metroidvania that just stick with swords as the main weapon and have no need to change the sprites.

Images below were taken from my Youtube gameplay so it is pixelated; the game looks much better.

Audio

The music is good, but I will admit that I left each session sort of forgetting what it was. It almost felt more ambient than I am used to. That said, re-watching my playthrough, it is enjoyable, but it doesn't necessarily pump me up like music in other Metroidvania. To be fair though, I often compare music in these game to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which has some of the best music especially in the clocktower (just wait for the Tragic Prince's rock rift to kick in) or even the first area of the main castle. Again, it is not a fair comparison, but this is what my brain looks for when playing these games. Sound effects and the bits of dialog sounds good though.

Final Thoughts

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing HunterX. It is tough at times with some very hard hitting bosses, but they are fair if you just learn the enemy AI. I could always go and level up a little more (like in an RPG) for encounters I am really struggling with, but most of all, if I would have been using the parrying mechanic from the beginning of the game, I would have probably had much less issues fighting the bosses. Will I play this over and over like I have Castlevania SotN or Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth? Probably not, I could see myself playing this 2-3 times and calling it good, but for $15, it is a fun game that is well worth the price and the time I invested in the game. Check out the gameplay from our Youtube channel (shared above) to see if this game is right for you.