As a fan of the Metroidvania genre, I like that it continues to thrive and that different developers keep the genre alive. Each time, whenever a new game in the genre is released, it adds more cool mechanics or puzzles. They can feel overwhelming for newcomers to the genre, but this isn’t the case with Hunter’s Legacy. HL feels more like an entry game than a full-fledged metroidvania, and that’s not a bad thing.
In Hunter’s Legacy, you play the role of Ikki, the huntress of Un’Amak. After seeing a town in dreams, she feels drawn to the forest of Oma. Here is where the adventure begins and that our heroine’s fate is resolved. As you get through the forest (that serves as a small tutorial) and fight your first boss ,you get to the town of Iripur. Here you meet with the local folk, and you are asked to check the altar of the “Fang of Alliance” only to find it stolen by globlin king Morodir. You are tasked to get all three sacred artifacts to dispel the locked gate and follow Morodir to his keep, getting it back or there or there will be no hope for the people of Iripur. That’s essentially the story in a nutshell.
The game play mechanics are simple. You have double swords that are your main melee attack. Pressing the Y button several times does a combo attack (but you can just button mash it, and it will come the same). There is also a close combats combo if you press the Y button while holding down (on stick or dpad) in which Ikki doesn’t use the swords but her claws. It would seem that is not that useful as swords. However, it’s a great attack to fend off the small bugs that might attack and attach to you. The last hit in the combo does a small shock wave, knocking enemies back, so it’s a great technique to give you some room to breathe.
Ikki’s second way to attack is the bow and arrows. The bow and arrows deal more damage to air bone enemies, so a fully charged arrow is more effective than jumping and slashing your way through. Later in the game, you can upgrade the arrows to magic( when fully charged can break special blocks) and explosives. There is also a roll move that gives some invincibility frames at the start useful to evade enemies.
As you explore each of the areas, you can find some areas that are inaccessible with current skills, but like any other metroidvania game, you can backtrack and access them once you have the required skills. Another interesting thing is how the story is told. Since you can find some monuments scattered through out the world, you can learn the story of both clans and how everything came to be. It’s a good thing since it gives you a better idea of your quest. I also like that the controls are responsive. This is were a game lives or dies for me. It could have the greatest graphics in the world or the best story ever, but if the controls suck, eventually the game will too. Each input and jump worked as expected, and the times that I died were only for my miscalculations in a jump or lack of upgrades.
Speaking of upgrades, it wouldn’t be a metroidvania without them. You can upgrade your health and weapons as well as find a peculiar character hidden that sells you wallet and quiver upgrades. However, the most important are for weapons and health. In order to upgrade, you need money (of course) and a special type of pink ore. This ore can be found in white treasure chests hidden all over the different areas you travel, so looking for them is a must, especially for heath upgrades (bosses later in the game become tough nuts to crack). Even if there is back tracking, the portals scattered and activated through your adventure makes it easier.
I like how the game looks. The cartoon-style used suits it very well. I also like that when enemies die, they leave a puff of colorful smoke a la Wind Waker (one of my favorite Zelda games).
The music is okay. In each of the areas, the boss fights have really upbeat tunes even if some are not that hard.
However, not everything is perfect. One thing that I honestly hate about Hunter’s Legacy is the map. Yep. I hate it because in every metroidvania, the map fills out automatically for each area you visit, and you can see the hidden rooms found and things like that. But in HL, if you pause and select map, it only shows the overworld map with were you need to go next (noted by a red dot on it), and the portals activated. You have no way to see the layout of the area you are currently at. This can really feel frustrating when backtracking for upgrades, and while there is the mini map, the layout of the mini map makes things more confusing. There is no way to see areas explored on the mini map, but at least it helps to show where treasure chests are located if we are close to them.
Another issue is that the enemies feel boring. They are just the same type of enemy over and over again. I wish there was more enemy variation–at least to keep me engaged in killing them. Most of the time, I just avoided them. Bosses on the other part are really fun. I wish there was a boss rush, but at least there is the new game plus, so that is something to look forward.
Bottom Line – Hunter’s Legacy: Purrfect Edition is not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. I feel that is a good entry game to the metroidvania genre and has enough challenge to keep you hooked playing, but not that much to overwhelm you. The map could use to overhaul as well as enemy variations, but besides these shortcomings, I can recommend it if you want to get a taste of the wonderful metroidvania world.
A Review code was provided for this review.