HunterX

Another gem, hidden on steam.
Check this fantastic game and more on Hardcore Reviews! ⚡
Hunter X is a fantastic anime-style 2.5D metroidvania hidden in the Steam store, super fun with tons of exploration and combat. Great pick for newcomers to the genre. Explore beautiful environments and face a wide variety of enemies with unique patterns and challenging attacks.
The distance between save statues is short, so don’t be afraid to explore every corner of the map!
Some boss fights are tough and require real skill, making character progression and gear upgrades essential. Improve your weapons, special moves, passive abilities, and platforming skills to keep advancing. Use the shop wisely, and don’t forget to recover your lost souls when you die, you can always press -TAB- to keep track of your moves!.
While the game shines through its solid gameplay, it also stands out thanks to its charming anime aesthetics and visuals. It may not have peak graphics, but the lovely female characters, the world building and level design, the cool monster and boss artwork combined with a great soundtrack and smooth gameplay mechanics make it a joy to play.
In conclusion, Hunter X is a highly recommended metroidvania: challenging, entertaining, visually appealing, and light on system requirements. With its affordable price and a sequel already available on Steam, it's a hidden gem and a must buy during Steam sales!

Great 2D action game. A lot of things done right which is suprising for indie.
Devs really polished combat and squeezed everything out of 2D level design. I wouldn't say its very difficult but gameplay is not mind-numbling like in most of games like this.
jiggling anime tids are present.

In the beggining the controls felt a bit clunky, but after a while I got used to them. The progression feels nice and since the map fills up while you explore you never get completely lost.

When you have a choice between going to an area where everything two shots you or an area that you are the right level for what do you do? The hard path of course. I got to an area that I shouldn’t be in yet but did it anyways. The boss took over an hour but I got a really good weapon. When I went back to the weaker area, everything and the boss just went down. That was fun.

The controls feel good. Is it the best? No, but it’s not bad.

You level up like a souls-like game but are only 4 stats, HP, attack, stamina, and magic attack.

There’s a weird thing about the skill tree. It’s a bunch of small trees and when you use enough points in one you can do the next one if you have the powerup unlocked. A few of the upgrades are in randomish spots. If you don’t explore everywhere you might have a hard time. The second or third one was down a random path that I just happened to go in. One time I found one that was two skill trees over so I couldn’t access those skills for a while.

Some areas of the game look pretty good. Most of the areas are unique. The enemies have great designs, especially the bosses. The final boss was pretty fun once I got the patterns down.

I found the magic to be a bit useless in combat. You have a number of uses till the next save point. The sword is just better than magic most of the time. There is one really good use for magic and that is to just have it equipped. It adds an elemental damage stat. If your sword has elemental damage like fire and you have fire magic equipped the fire sword will do more damage.

One of my biggest problems is that you can’t use the D-pad to move. It only works for items and you can’t change it. I kept ducking instead of going left. It was mainly a problem in bosses where I was trying to keep moving but was angled down a bit too much. It’s not that bad. I’ve played other games that was a lot more sensitive but it still got annoying at times.

12-13 hours is good for this game. If it was 20 hours I think I would be tired of it and want it to end. If you like Metroidvanias and think it looks good, it’s a decent 6.5/10 if you get it on sale.

I love the control of this game. It is solid and satisfying when hitting an enemy, especially when you are familiar with the controls and your ability. The graphic doesn't match Bloodstain, Hollow Knight, Ender Lilies, or Ori the Blind Forest. But the fun is there to keep grinding with addictiveness.
For me, I think this game is less floated than Ender Lilies.

It's alright, nothing to write home about. It blatantly copies souls game mechanics but at least they were intelligent enough to make the gameplay snappy, so it's not one of those horrible metroidvanias with heavy controls.

Simply a straighforward, good looking and fun to explore metroidvania with gameplay absolutely nailed by the developer.