REVIEW: ‘HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT’ Is An Unbalanced Mess

HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT is a 2D tag-based fighting game developed by Bushiroad Games and published by Arc System Works and Bushiroad Inc.. Bringing 16 iconic characters from the fan-favorite anime, this offering aims to engage players in frantic 3v3 tag battles that test their skills and prowess across various modes. Sadly, it frequently delivers little more than frustration. 

At first glance, HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT holds a fair amount of promise. Based on a long-running IP that lends itself to a fighting game setup, it arrives with a modest number of modes and a fairly intuitive control scheme that doesn’t demand complex button combinations to implement powerful moves. Once you dive past the surface, however, everything quickly begins to fall apart. 

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of combat, let’s look at the grand scheme of what’s being offered. Along with the standard training, versus mode, arcade mode, and story mode, there are a couple of unexpected offerings, such as combo trail, time attack, and, most interestingly, Heaven’s Arena.

The rewards throughout HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT are hardly worthwhile.

Heaven’s Arena tasks players with fighting their way through a series of consecutive battles. Every victory earns the player money, and their total wealth when they claim victory determines their rewards. However, if the player wants to heal their characters between fights, they must spend their hard-earned prize money. And if they lose a match, it’s back to the beginning for them. 

This surprising rogue-like mode is an interesting change of pace from most fighting game offerings. The desire to let the pot grow encourages chance-taking, which adds an extra level of tension to the mode. Feeling the difficulty slowly ratchet up builds pressure and creates a unique experience. All these elements make the mode stand out, without even considering the rewards that await at the end. Which is good, because they aren’t worth considering. 

The three rewards HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT offers players through its various single-player modes are profile pics, titles, and G.I. Cards used for challenging players in standard versus. These simple offerings don’t encourage much interest. The profile pics are simple “mug shot” style images. Straightforward and expressionless. They bring no flair or incentive to collect them, making them instantly forgettable. 

HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT lacks flair.

This lack of flair carries over into other elements of the game as well. This is especially true for the story mode. This mode explores the narrative through still frames lifted directly from the show. Accompanied by text narration and the occasional grunts and groans for voice work, this depiction of a shonen battle anime is stale and uninteresting.

It’s so bar bones that anyone new to the franchise isn’t likely to find it engaging, and it brings so little charm and personality that even the most powerful nostalgia from fans won’t find much to latch onto. The only reason to engage with it at all is for the tutorial levels. Marked in the mission select screen, players will want to hit these particular chapters to learn the ins and outs of combat, but feel free to skip the cutscenes. 

While game modes and rewards are nice, fighting games live or die on the merits of their gameplay. The core concepts that HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT builds its experience on are solid. Three basic attacks, along with a special move button, keep the fundamentals easy to manage. 

Every move tells you exactly how it can be used effectively.

Another factor that helps players grasp the gameplay smoothly is an unprecedented level of transparency regarding the properties of the various moves. All manner of elements, like a move being cancellable, can hit an opponent on the ground, contain invincible frames, and more, are spelled out clearly in each move’s description. This saves tons of experimentation and guesswork, as it eliminates the need to puzzle out these elements.

Continuing to push the ease of interactivity is the rush button. While holding down the button, a player can string together a light, medium, or heavy combo simply by repeatedly pressing the corresponding attack button. This allows huge chains of damage to be within the reach of even the most uncoordinated players. Standard attacks weave into specials and finish with an Aura Art, as long as they can land that first hit and have enough gas in their power gauge to pay for the finishing art attack.

The ability to engage with the moment-to-moment fighting straightforwardly is a good thing, as HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT layers on some additional elements to keep complexities in its matches. Most noticeable upon entering a match are the two additional gauges at the bottom of the screen alongside the customary power gauge. 

Quick Gear and Over Gear are cohesive additions to the gameplay.

Named Quick Gear and Over Gear, respectively, these gauges offer combat opportunities that differ from each other, while also overlapping, making them cohesive additions to the game’s mechanics. While both provide damage buffs, the added perks separate them, as well as how much the pair of gauges can be used.

As you may guess, Quick Gear can be used fairly fast. In fact, you can engage the gear within seconds of a match starting. Rather than spend entire bars of energy to empower a character, the Quick Gear slowly drains over time and stops functioning when the character takes damage or depletes. And it can be used whenever there is any amount of energy in the gauge, though the more you allow to build up, the more powerful the effect. 

You may be wondering if there is actually any reason to trigger Quick Gear with so little energy. And there is. Along with buffing attacks and removing chip damage from blocking, triggering the gauge acts as a cancel. This means that clever use of the activation can be implemented to mix up approaches, canceling an attack to throw off an opponent. 

HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT’s tag system makes for 3v3 fights.

While the Quick Gear can be used fairly freely, the Over Gear is much more particular. Once activated, the over will continue to run until it is drained, and then it’s gone for the match. When triggered, Over Gear initiates a power-up-style animation that knocks foes away from the user.

The gear grants a movement buff, as well as an attack buff that scales with how much total damage the team has taken. Making it a potential comeback enabler if you fall behind early in a match. Both Over Gear and Quick Gear can be enabled simultaneously for a substantial combined buff. 

Applying the thickest layer of complexity to HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT‘s gameplay is the tag system. With teams of three participating in fights, the active character can summon their two compatriots to jump into the fight and lend a hand.

However, rather than just having a single assist move, characters have three different assists at their disposal, each offering a noticeably different element. Whether it’s range, angle of attack, or other nuances, utilizing the right assist can be critical, especially since poor assists are harshly punished. 

If a character called in for an assist gets hit, they take 50 percent more damage than normal. This punishment disincentivizes spamming assists. Though if you do get caught, HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT does employ a healing mechanic that lets some health loss restore over time while on the bench. So you need to be careful, but not too careful. 

Characters can also be tagged in at any time during their assist animation. If an assist lands, players can quickly take control and string into a combo or other powerful moves. This requires sharp reflexes and good timing, as taking control of a character before they execute their assist attack cancels the attack, pulling the character short as they wait for your commands.

Players can also perform a switch art. This maneuver requires one level of power gauge to perform. When executed, an ally comes onto the stage, performs their level one Aura Art, and becomes the active character. This allows characters to be swapped in with a bang, potentially turning the tide of a fight if they catch their foe flat-footed. 

The characters and combos are poorly balanced in HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT.

All of the above elements sound like they would combine for a deep and potentially satisfying game experience. The only problem is that characters and combos are not well-balanced. Some of the tricks that can be implemented are far too overbearing to make for an enjoyable experience.

Range attacks that can be comboed with assists to render approach all but impossible, and combo strings that can go on for long periods, leaving the receiving player with nothing to do but watch their character get juggled around endlessly, are just some of the frustrating states common in matches. And then there is Uvogin.

Remember how you can combine the two gears for a huge boost of power? Well, Uvogin also has a damage buff in his kit, which can further layer on top of those effects. When implemented, he can knock out a full health bar character in just two hits. And it’s not hard to set up.

During my time online, every opponent I faced with a win rate higher than 50 percent had a team completely dedicated to exploiting some trick or element of the match, reducing the game to a frustrating massacre if I didn’t instantly know how to counter their strategy. If a counter even exists. 

And since the CPU also knows how to perform these kinds of tricks, playing harder modes in single player quickly devolves into needing to lean on such min/maxed strategies, or you can find yourself getting run over by brutal combo chains and powerful, poorly balanced maneuvers. 

All of the off-kilter action is brought to life through a solid graphical presentation. While it doesn’t wow, it does adhere to the show’s look, providing a strong recreation of characters and effects.  During Aura Arts, the camera gets a little cinematic, making these super moves highlights of a match, but still underwhelming compared to similar effects from the competition.

It also manages to keep the action as clear as possible throughout the chaos. While moments can get a bit cluttered when there are four+ characters on screen and energy blasts are going off, these moments are rare and pass quickly, generally not hampering a player’s experience too much. 

HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT struggles to find the fun. While its core gameplay concepts feel like a great framework for intense battles, the lack of balancing sucks the joy out of its 3v3 fights. Combined with a visual presentation that is just fine, you have a fighting game that struggles to justify a purchase. 

HUNTER x HUNTER NEN x IMPACT is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.