Outside of your Capcoms, SNKs, and Namcos, you also have the unsung heroes of the fighting game world, such as the subject of my topic today, Eighting. Let’s see if their checkered history of traditional and anime fighting games strikes up another win or loss for them with Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact.
Double Impact
Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact (the x is silent), based on the popular anime/manga Hunter x Hunter, follows the tale of Gon, a young boy who wants to become a Hunter. In this world, “Hunter” is an esteemed profession with the license to hunt down treasures and rare creatures. What follows is a shonen anime style story of friendship, betrayal, and plenty of backstory when it comes to fights.
I’ll just be upfront when I say this: While I’ve played tons of fighting games, including many anime fighting games, I have zero experience with the Hunter x Hunter anime/manga. The story mode presented gives a very brief overview of what I believe is the run of the 2011 anime. It doesn’t, in my opinion, really do much to truly bring Hunter x Hunter newcomers such as myself into the series, though it did pique my interest a little at least. This is a pretty standard affair for an anime game, where it’s aimed at fans of the license first and everyone else after the fact.
Ready for a Bloody Time?
Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is a 3 vs 3 tag fighter along the lines of Marvel Vs Capcom. Developer Eighting has their share of experience with many anime fighting games over the years (notably many Naruto-based games) as well as titles such as Bloody Roar, Tatsunoku vs Capcom, and even Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. So in theory, they know what they are doing.
I use the words “in theory” because, despite having quite a robust past with the genre, they are also known for producing “kusoge” fighting games. “Kusoge” is a term that more literally translates to “crap game”, but in many cases refers to games which are janky messes. They are often unbalanced, but this can still be in a way that is fun or endearing. I can confidently say this is very much a kusoge Eighting title all right, even if developed alongside Bushiroad Games.
Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact has just about everything you can come to expect from the fighting game genre. It’s got light, medium, and heavy attacks, along with special attacks called ARTS that are performed with the press of a button rather than the more complicated sequences of inputs found in other games (e.g. Street Fighter’s Hadouken). There are also the over-the-top special moves that deplete life bars and pull off flashy visuals.
Unsurprisingly, since the game is based on an anime license, it does tend to fall into “anime fighting” game tropes, making it closer in pace and design to something like Persona 4 Arena or Under Night In-Birth than that of Street Fighter 6. Like many other anime fighters, this has a massive focus on air dashes, fast-paced movement, and somewhat convoluted mechanics such as various “states” you can put your characters in to increase damage or change move sets.
Going On Hiatus
On paper, the game sounds like a fun, if slightly uninspired foray into the fighting game genre. This one is 2D, separating it from the volley of 3D arena fighters for anime like the My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, or the legion of Naruto games. The problem is that while the game has some good bones, it unfortunately isn’t fun enough to play for too long, and feels like it was made on the budget of a cheap lunch meal deal. Despite sharing the jank of many kusoge fighters, it doesn’t have the same endearing and fun qualities of the more beloved kusoge titles.
Nearly every move can combo into another move, and the speed your special meter bars build often means even just blindly mashing your pad can result in you taking an opponent out if you just happen to land that first hit. On top of that, it just doesn’t feel fluid or intuitive to play. Also, as someone more used to input sequences for specials, putting the special moves onto a single button I never felt quite at home with, even if I got used to it.
Game Modes
In terms of the story mode, it’s told via visual novel style scenes that follow the events of the anime. It’s broken up with battles that have special conditions to unlock bonus gallery content and tutorials on how to play the game. It takes a while before it even introduces the Tag mechanics.
You, of course, have the standard Arcade Mode, alongside modes Heavens Arena and Battle Olympia. The latter two are the traditional Survival modes for the game, only with the ability to pay to heal between “floors”. There are also combo trials and a practice mode to give you the edge if you choose to take the fight to friends or foes locally or online.
Talking of the online mode, it’s the standard Ranked and Casual affair here and is running on rollback netcode. Or at least they claim; I can’t verify the legitimacy of it having proper rollback as every single match I have had was riddled with lag, and that’s if I didn’t disconnect or sit around waiting for any other players to accept. To say the online aspect of this game is dead on arrival would be an understatement.
The whole game has a distinct low-budget feel to it, which would be fine if it came in at a budget price point, but Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is a full-priced product while feeling like an early access title. This makes it quite hard to want to invest yourself in when you have plenty of other options, including the recently released, much lower-priced collection title Capcom Fighting Collection 2.
You Don’t Look Like A Hunter
Visually the character models look great in Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact with a cel-shaded look to the models, allowing them to match the style of the anime. They animate fine for the most part, but do tend to look a little goofy when you’re pulling off big combo strings, almost like animation frames have been cut linking them together.
Stages are a bland visual experience. It features locations from the anime, but none of them stand out to me. There’s a forest and school gym with absolutely nothing happening for example. Coming from this developer who helped litter the stages of Marvel vs Capcom 3 with easter eggs and other visual treats, I can only imagine the budget wouldn’t stretch far enough for them to have some real fun with the stages.
As for the audio side of things, the game is voiced by the same voice actors as the anime, but it’s only in available in Japanese, despite the anime having an official dub. You’ll hear characters shouting out their attacks often and some voice acting within the Story Mode. I didn’t find anything particularly bad or good with the sound effects or voice acting. The music sadly is a forgettable affair, and I quickly just turned on my own external music to try and keep myself engaged.
Verdict
Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact felt like an experiment in a few ways. For me personally, it was a chance to just play a fighting game based on an anime I had no history with, going in just on the basis that it was in-part an Eighting jam. Unfortunately, I had a miserable time with this game. It’s an awkward to play, bland offering with poor netcode and a bare bones single-player experience.
On the other side, it seems like the developers experimented to see if a low-budget fighting game could succeed using a popular IP and the growing popularity of tag fighters. In the end though, I feel like this game is liable to be almost instantly forgotten by both the fighting game community and Hunter x Hunter fans. Bushiroad Games have sadly added another stinker to Eighting’s inconsistent past, and certainly made this brawler think twice before I give the benefit of the doubt.
WAIT FOR SALE ON HUNTER X HUNTER: NEN X IMPACT
If you enjoy Fighting games, then perhaps you’d like our review of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero.
Many thanks go to Arc System Works for a PlayStation 5 review code for Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
