Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact has recently been released, and the response has been… less than spectacular. From complaints with the gameplay to reports of the online barely being functional, this game may very well be Arc System’s worst game of the decade so far, critically speaking. That said… is it as bad as people say it is?
The good
Honestly, this game doesn’t have much going for it. One of the few things I can praise about this game is the controls. They’re fluent and responsive, so nothing too bad on that end. On top of that, there are several different control schemes, allowing players to have a lot of customization with their controls. There’s also a built-in smart combo system, which is a nice addition. Having access to both a simple and complex control scheme out of the box is a nice touch.
Beyond the controls, the gameplay itself isn’t bad. There’s quite an in-depth combat system with a variety of options for players to utilize in battle. From the Nen Stances to dash attacks, there’s a lot that the player can do both offensively and defensively. On top of that, each character has a very distinct play style, and with the game being a 3v3 tag team fighting game, this allows for a lot of diverse styles and strategies. All this said, the gameplay isn’t really anything to ride home about. It doesn’t stand out from any of Arc System’s other fighting games. Even still, it’s pretty good overall.
Nen Impact’s graphics also aren’t that bad. The models look clean and polished for the most part, the backgrounds, while not incredible, look fine enough, and all of the menus look up to par. The game’s performance also isn’t too bad, pretty up-to-snuff with the other games that Arc Sys has published. Again, while it’s nothing extraordinary, Nen Impact’s graphics and performance are sufficient.
The last positive point I really have about the game is the amount of content that it has. Besides the standard training and free battle that most fighting games have, the game also includes a Story Mode, a Gallery, online play, and a bunch of single-player modes, including an Arcade Mode, a Time Battle Mode, a Combo Trial, and two unique modes to this game, those being Heaven’s Arena and Battle Olympia. There’s quite a variety in modes, giving players a plethora of content to play through. While the modes aren’t that distinct from each other, it’s nice to have plenty of different modes that don’t feel completely the same to play through. It’s a good way to keep the gameplay fresh as players continue to play the game.
The bad
There are quite a few problems with Nen Impact. First of all, as many reviewers have constantly brought up, the game’s online sucks. The actual online experience itself isn’t too bad; for the most part, it’s responsive, and there’s little lag. This is likely due to the included rollback netcode, which was a contributing factor to the game’s delay. I’m glad that Arc Sys at least included the rollback netcode, but that’s about all they included. The actual online matchmaking system is atrocious. There are both casual and ranked matches, which is good, but casual matches can only be played in lobbies. There is no option for casual quick matches; that’s reserved for ranked matches only. This pretty much kills casual matches altogether, but the nail in the coffin is the lack of crossplay. This really limits everyone’s ability to play matches online, and pretty much killed the online scene right out of the gate. It’s disappointing to see games continue to exclude native crossplay, and I hope the developers can address these issues as soon as possible.
Another issue with the game is the roster.
It really sucks.
The base game only has 16 playable characters, which, for a 3v3 tag team fighting game, is just awful. This doesn’t provide players with many options to choose from, which can be limiting, especially in the 3v3 format. If the developers really wanted to use the 3v3 format, it needed to include more characters from the show. Twenty-four characters would have been a much better roster and would’ve given players more variety in team combos. Instead, we’re left with the lacking base roster that we got, hindering that variety.
On top of that, this game is wildly unbalanced. There are clearly some characters that are just better than others, and those top-tier characters absolutely smash the lower-tier characters to pieces. This makes playing pretty much any character outside the top tier completely unviable, which defeats the point of having variety in the roster. If you’re only going to make a certain group of characters worth playing, what’s the point in adding the rest of the roster?
Another big problem with the game is its Story Mode. Nen Impact might have one of the worst story modes in any fighting game I’ve ever seen. It’s so bad, it even puts several gacha games to shame. Now I don’t expect story modes in fighting games to be rich, narratively complex masterpieces. I do, however, expect them to be original, which Nen Impact’s is not. All the story mode is in this game is just a retelling of the Hunter x Hunter anime. There are no cutscenes, just stills from the anime with dialog boxes on top of them, that’s it. There are only 19 missions, several of which are just training stages, so it takes no time at all to clear the story. On top of that, you can play scenarios out of order, which kind of defeats the purpose of the mode altogether. To top it all off, there are hardly any rewards for playing through the story, which doesn’t give the player any incentive to actually complete the story mode. It really makes me question why they even added it in the first place.
All of these problems lead back to one major problem; the game is unfinished. It’s clear that the developers were given a paper-thin budget and not enough time to actually finish Nen Impact. The game lacks polish at every turn, has an undercooked story mode, a horribly unoptimized online mode, and a lacking roster that is completely unbalanced. It’s clear that this game was not ready to be released, even after its delay, and yet Arc Systems decided that it was good enough and decided to give this junk to the consumer. It really is disappointing to see some of the lows that Arc Sys has had this decade, and with how unfinished this game is, this is definitely their lowest low yet.
Nen Impact’s greatest sin, however, is its price. With all the faults this game has, a low price tag would have helped to lessen the blow and made it easier to forgive some of the game’s faults. At most, $20 or $30 for this game would have been enough to give it a pass in the quality department.
This game is $60.
That is borderline highway robbery. For that price, on a good sale, you can buy the ultimate edition for games like Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ. Hell, for much less than that price, you buy Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the game that heavily influenced Nen Impact. I don’t think there is a single justification for why this game is $60, not including the DLC that’s on the way. Arc System has forced this game to release prematurely, slapped a $60 price tag on it, and then left it to die. It’s honestly quite a shame to see.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact is not a terrible game. It has a fair bit of content, responsive controls, decent gameplay, and is, in general, a passable fighting game. That said, with its horrible online, terrible and unbalanced roster, the atrocious Story Mode, and its overinflated price tag, it’s not really a game I can recommend to anyone. If you’re a really big fan of fighting games and this game goes on a deep discount, it might be worth checking out. Otherwise, it’s best to steer clear of this game, move on, and never look back.
Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact is available now on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5.
The Review
Hunter X Hunter: Nen Impact
Fair
