I arrived somewhat late to the Metroid and Castlevania party. My youthful allegiance to Sega’s line of consoles would prevent me from really doing much with either series until the Game Boy Advance. But boy was I envious, sure the Genesis had games like Shadow Of The Beast and Flashback but nobody could quite capture the sense of exploration and adventure quite like Konami and Nintendo. Which is why today it’s such a shame that neither company wants anything to do with the genre they perfected. And so we turn to the indies, if Nintendo can’t be bothered to make a true Metroid game surely they can help.
Enter Hunter’s Legacy from Mexico based developer Lienzo. The game is a 2D action platformer that draws heavy inspirations from titles like the ones I mentioned above. You’ll find yourself traversing an interconnected world, occasionally backtracking to see how newly earned items and skills will let you explore further.
The game’s plot is brief and of little consequence. Our quest centers around the Fang of Alliance, a mysterious artifact said to be given to the Un’Amak people from the gods. When the evil wizard Morodir steals the artifact balance is removed from the world and evil monsters begin to fill the once peaceful lands. Enter the Un’Amak’s greatest warrior, Ikki, a anthropomorphic cat tasked with restoring order to the world.
Exploration is a big component of Hunter’s Legacy and initially I found myself less than impressed with the game’s offerings. After getting through the first few zones my attitude softened as I discovered some pretty clever level components like floating through the sky inside a bubble or using a large leaf to control my descent through a spiky maze. There are some really clever ideas here, many of which we’ve seen before, but they’re welcome nevertheless.
The map is an important component to a Metroidvania title and while Hunter’s Legacy does feature one it’s not quite as granular as I would like, instead choosing to show a high level view of the how the different zones are laid out. I think some of that is intentional on the part of the developers, wishing players to explore their world to uncover secrets rather than just finding them on a map, but it’s not uncommon for the game’s heavily vertical levels to suffer from a lack of information. I would often find myself standing on a cliff ledge wondering if when I jumped off I’d find more to explore or a bottomless pit. There’s some visual cues, but that didn’t stop me from leaping to my death a few times. Maybe it kills the vibe, maybe it goes against what the developers wanted but I feel like I would have enjoyed this game a lot more with a proper map.
Of course the game can’t be all about exploration, there are a plethora of monsters for Ikki to fight along her journey, and luckily she’s well equipped with her two swords as well as her bow and arrow. Beyond the standard weapons Ikki will acquire several additional skills on her journey, typically by defeating the game’s bosses. These abilities will of course allow you to uncover areas of the map that were previously unavailable as well as lay more severe beat downs on your opponents. I was particularly delighted after obtaining my ground pound-esque ability to discover that it would knock loose the shield of a mob I found particularly annoying. That’s exactly the kind of feeling I want a game like this to illicit.
Controls are good enough for the most part. Combat is stiff but solid although I never found much use for the incredibly awkward looking dodge ability. There are some segments where the game asks you to be somewhat precise with your movement and in those moments I often found myself lamenting the lack of d-pad support on either of the controllers I played with. Hopefully that’s something that can be patched in later on.
Visually the game looks great, the graphics are bright and vibrant, although I will mention that there are some environmental hazards that blend in a little too much with the backdrop. These include the irritating tall grass that you’ll often find yourself trapped within. It’s not so bad to encounter it in the barren volcano map but in the game’s greener areas I found myself running into it on accident more than once.
I think my biggest gripes with the game center around its sound design which is a pervasive source of annoyance throughout play. Music tracks are limited to short repetitive loops. Ikki’s voice acting sounds like it was recorded on cassette and then re-recorded while playing through blown speakers. And then there’s the non-stop chirping when your health is reduced to its last few segments. It was incredibly annoying when Zelda started doing it thirty years ago, and it’s still incredibly annoying when other game’s crib it today. Ultimately I spent most of my playthrough of the game with the volume turned way down.
I think one or two patches will do this game a world of good but as of this moment I feel like Hunter’s Legacy is a little too rough around the edges to justify a glowing recommendation. The passion is obviously there, you really do get the feeling during play that Lienzo has a lot of respect for the genre. Of course there’s a lot of content here for a very modest price ($6.99) so if this is your style don’t let me stop you from taking a dip.
This review is based on retail PC code provided to us by the game’s publisher.
