Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact Review

Well, the day has come – Hunter x Hunter has finally gotten its first, official fighting game, and in a world that loves to slap the 3D-arena fighter formula on any popular anime and go, it was initially reassuring to see Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact take the 2D route. There have been good anime arena-fighters – take the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm games for example. However, the medium has been so saturated with poor releases recently that 2D definitely seemed like the better option for Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact.

That was, at least, until the game released, and anime fans got their hands on the beautiful mess that is this game. In the interest of keeping the storyline of the anime sacred, this review won’t include any spoilers, but to be honest, there’s nothing to spoil here from the perspective of the game. We have, once again, received another mediocre anime fighting game, and considering my love of Hunter x Hunter, I am very disappointed. Well, let’s get straight to it – let’s get into the review of Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact.

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Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact Review

Image by Bushiroad

Anime fighting games can go one of two ways – they can either be incredibly well-received and earn a spot of consideration amongst fans and conventions such as EVO, or they can release to a negative reception and quickly become lost to the annals of time. While Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact hasn’t had its official, standard edition launch yet, and so the general reception from fans is yet to develop, from my experience with this game, it’s destined to be the latter. At its core, quality-wise, Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is far from the worst anime fighting game we’ve ever gotten, but there are so many drawbacks preventing it from thriving like it could be.

Hunter x Hunter is my favourite anime of all time, and tag-fighters are easily my least favourite type of fighting game, so Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact was a real mismatch for me from the jump. However, my own personal opinions on tag-fighters aside, they can work if done well, so this gameplay feature didn’t immediately write-off Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact‘s potential. The Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series managed to make tag-fighters feel fun, albeit in an arena setting. On the other hand, Dragon Ball FighterZ, easily one of the most popular anime fighting games of all time, was also a tag-fighter, but in a 2D setting, so if anything, that game proves that this formula can work. So, where did it all go wrong for Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact?

Well, from the start, Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact ruins itself by committing one of the fighting genre’s cardinal sins – weak tutorials. Fighting games have infamously one of the most difficult learning curves in the entire gaming industry, so solid guidance from the game itself is key. When a fighting game throws you in the deep end, and asks you to figure everything out for yourself, it’s so easy to just give up on it and turn to something else. This is exactly what Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact does, with its lack of comprehensible tutorials and ridiculously vague combo trials. The only solace from this flaw is that the controls are fairly simple, and the game is comparatively easy to pick up and play when compared with some its industry counterparts.

Image by Bushiroad

To sing the game’s praises a little, I will commend Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact for its character roster, which features nearly every character an anime fan would want (and some that they wouldn’t necessarily want, but I guess it’s no harm to include them). When you compare this roster to a game like Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles, this game has a dream roster, and each character’s portrayal is faithful to their appearance in the anime. There are also some nice stage options to choose from, though I do think the game is lacking a little in the audio department. Hunter x Hunter is known to have an iconic soundtrack, so I wish that strength was highlighted a little more here.

With its strengths in the character and visuals department, and its rampant weaknesses in just about everything else, Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact feels a little like playing some sort of fan-made browser game, rather than an officially-licensed, first-time fighting game for one of the most popular anime series of all time. The game’s cheap feel isn’t helped by how much money Bushiroad is asking you to spend on it either – this game is not nearly good enough, in quality or in content, to ask for players to spend AAA prices on it. This price also comes without even considering the DLC, which includes Neferpitou, who is probably one of the most wanted characters by fans. Look, choosing a very popular character to advertise your DLC is not a new strategy for the gaming industry, but when your game is as weak as Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact, it makes the decision all the more egregious.

Now, let’s take this review to a new level of negativity, by starting to talk a little about the online features. To be blunt, they’re awful. Truckloads of players have reported having issues with online matchmaking, to the point that I cannot believe this game is sitting as a ‘Mostly Positive’ score on Steam as I write this, considering the online features are practically unusable. This is a problem that needs to be fixed before Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact can even be considered a working game, but unfortunately, as we remember the issue that Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections had with online matchmaking for like a year, I’m unsure that this issue will be addressed by Bushiroad any time soon. Poor online matchmaking is becoming a trend for the anime-fighter industry, which is disappointing as a fan of anime and fighting games as two separate entities.

Image by Bushiroad

To be blunt, if these online issues aren’t fixed soon, this game is going to die an incredibly quick death. There have been anime-fighters that have been completely forgotten to time for the same issue, and I don’t want to see Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact fall down that same hole – just look at the state of Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash today! The game released on Steam in February 2024, and as of writing this article, has 18 players active right now. No fighting game should die that quick of a death. Please, don’t let Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact suffer the same fate.

Unfortunately, the online services of Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact are so important because, like with many anime-fighters, the single-player options in this game are absolutely abysmal. You can play through an incredibly chopped-down version of the Hunter x Hunter anime, though if you’ve watched the series I’m not sure why you would want to, and that’s about it. Compare these practically non-existent single-player features with an online system that doesn’t work, and you have Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact, a game that asks you to pay a AAA price, whilst offering practically nothing in return aside from fanservice for fans of the anime.

Ultimately, Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact makes me ask myself ‘how many more of these anime-fighters are we going to get before studios take the hint?’. Anime series are the perfect source material for fighting games, but if there’s no effort being put in, all it does is make fans lament the lost potential on display. If you absolutely love Hunter x Hunter, and just want to spend some time playing as your favourite characters, then pick up a copy of this game. Otherwise, I cannot recommend Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact to you at all. But what do you think? Do you love Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact? Be sure to let us know in the comments, and thanks for reading.

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