The anime genre has inspired so many fighting games, such as the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series. Unfortunately, fans of Hunter × Hunter are yet to get a game that truly captures the essence of the anime. Will all that change now that a new game is in the works?
Bushiroad Games and Eighting, who you might know from DNF Duel, have just pulled the curtain back on a fighting game set in the world of Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter × Hunter. Titled Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact, the upcoming game has been revealed with a teaser trailer that can only be described as ambiguous.
The only thing of note in the 30-second trailer is a few lines of dialogue from Killua and Gon, the story’s protagonists, and a reveal of some other major Hunter x Hunter characters, including Kurapika, Hisoka, Leorio, and Chairman Isaac Netero. There’s no battle or gameplay, so it’s hard to discern whether this will be an arena fighter or a traditional fighting game.
So far, there have been ten Hunter x Hunter games, ranging from RPG and strategy to action and adventure. Despite being developed or published by Konami and Bandai, none of these games have managed to reach the heights of a title such as Dragon Ball FighterZ. Sadly, from the looks of it, Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact will not be the one to break this mold.
Hunter x Hunter is a massively popular manga among Japanese audiences, but its mainstream appeal cannot match the likes of One Piece, Naruto, or Dragon Ball. As a result, a game adaptation is unlikely to get a significant budget. By this logic, we shouldn’t expect much from Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact. That’s not to say that we should just take whatever we get, no questions asked.
From the trailer, Nen x Impact seems to incorporate a 3v3 tag team system, which is a lot like Dragon Ball FighterZ in this aspect. The latter, however, is a 2.5D game, which means although the environment portrayed is in 3D, gameplay is in 2D, or rather, uses 2D sprites. By keeping the gameplay 2D, the game prioritizes melee combat over long-range combat, which is more apparent in arena fighters due to the area of gameplay a fighter can use.
Not all arena fighters are completely terrible (Pokkén Tournament was fairly decent), but it’s fair to say that they all lack a competitive edge. Traditional fighting games offer players a better challenge because of their defensive mechanics. Something as simple as an empty jump low can make the defense mechanics of a game far more complex than a single block button that covers all moves.
If Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact can incorporate just a few complex blocking moves, then maybe, just maybe, we may get a fun and engaging fighting game featuring some of the best manga characters ever written. Either way, I’m not holding my breath.
The release date and platforms for Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact are yet to be revealed.
