Hunter's Legacy Review

By Megan Walton,
Protagonists comes in all shapes and sizes. Whether it's human, animal or inanimate object, each one of them has a story to tell. When it comes to animal protagonists, we've had nearly everything, from goats to squirrels. This time around we're letting cats take the lead in Hunter's Legacy, a 2D sidescroller adventure game that is, unfortunately, far from purrrrrfect.

HLI knew it was the Universe of Something!

There's a typical story on offer here. You play as Ikki, a hunter from the town of Iripur. The Fang of Alliance has been stolen by Morodir, causing the kingdom to decay and become overrun by monsters — you've been given the task of finding and retrieving the artefact. Finding Morodir comes very early in the story, but he warps away and hides himself behind a magic wall that needs three orbs to unlock it. Guess what? You have to trawl the various environments in order to find these orbs to get to Morodir. The story is very cliched and reminiscent of older adventure games, even to the point of having a bountiful of recovery items before the boss. It's nothing that will stick with you after you've finished the game. Similarly, the characters do very little to draw you in or make you have any connection with them.

The environments you traverse to look for these orbs vary greatly, from swamps and windy grasslands to volcanoes, meaning you'll never be staying in the same place for too long. There always seems to be a lot of different paths to take in each of these places and you aren't really given much indication as to which way is right. This is partly due to the lack of mini map, which would have been very beneficial to the game. The only way you can find out which is the right direction is by trial and error, ultimately looping back on yourself if you can manage to do so. The game is very confusing at times and you will potentially get lost and end up going in circles.

To make your journeying a little bit easier, you will unlock teleporters early into the game. These are scattered about the world, with 2-4 to be found in each of the areas depending on their size. You can travel to any teleporter, making getting back to the town or backtracking for collectibles very easy. The collectibles will automatically activate as you walk over them but may sometimes require a little scouting as they may be off the beaten path. Aside from these, there are a fair amount of checkpoints scattered across all of the places, so the deaths are never too brutal when there's a checkpoint not too far away.

HLGet the Fang of Alliance back....but first get those three orbs so you can get to the boss so you can get the Fang

Speaking of death, expect to die quite a lot in this game, either at the hands of enemies or your own misplaced jump or dash. The enemies may seem easy first of all — little caterpillars and flying bugs that offer up very little fight — but the further through the game you get, the more annoying the enemies become. From flying pixie type things with bubble shields, to warping knights and flying heads, anything and everything seems to be thrown at you. While you do get a little helper towards the end, chances are you'll be overrun on more than one occasion. The bosses in the game offer a nice change of pace and a similarly hard challenge, but can be overcome with a lot of practice and a bit of luck.

You begin with swords and will quickly incorporate bow and arrows as well. It is a simple case of button mashing for the sword, but you need to aim and shoot for the bow and arrow. Both of these are easy enough to get to grips with. There is the opportunity to upgrade both of these in the town to hit a little bit harder, but you'll need a fair amount of gold and also some ore to do this (both of which you'll find in chests hidden across the world). On top of upgrading these weapons, you can also upgrade your health, wallet and quiver, as well as unlocking special abilities like dash and a ground pound kind of movement, all of which serve to make your experience that little bit easier.

Despite its faults, the game is actually very pretty. The cartoony graphics look very detailed and there's a variety of bright and eye catching colours for you to enjoy. The foreground and background blend together quite seamlessly, so much so you might find yourself trying to jump onto something that isn't actually there. You'll be dashing through snowstorms, riding giant leaves on the wind and jumping across spinning brick towers — the game continues to make all of them look equally good. An appropriately upbeat soundtrack is what you'll find yourself listening to for most of your journey, with a dramatic change for those all important boss fights.

HLWatch out for the spikes, meow!

There's 15 achievements to earn and most of them aren't too difficult. Killing 200 enemies and firing 300 arrows should come with natural progression through the game. There are achievements for upgrading all of your abilities to the max; doing all of these will require you to find all of the ore in the game, which coincidentally will also earn you another achievement. Completing all of the above and finishing the game will earn you 100% completion, but then you'll need a second playthrough in order to complete the game without a single upgrade, something that will no doubt pose quite a challenge.

Summary

Hunter's Legacy is an action-adventure game that offers a story that has been told over and over in many forms without offering much that is different. With different locations to explore and teleporters to help you get around, the game feels quite large. Ultimately, though, you'll end up annoyed, potentially lost and feeling defeated on a number of different occasions whilst playing it; this lets the game down. The appearance of the game is one of its strongest points, but while it is fun in parts and generally an enjoyable experience, Hunter's Legacy just isn't quite the cat's pyjamas.
6 / 10
Hunter's Legacy
Positives
  • Cartoon based graphics look very detailed
  • Teleporters mean easy back tracking for collectibles
Negatives
  • No mini map so easy to get lost
  • Throwaway story and characters
  • Late enemies get very annoying
Ethics
The reviewer spent approximately 5 hours crossing volcanos, blustery grasslands and muddy swamps to retrieve the Fang of Alliance from Morodir. She managed to unlock 13 of the game's 15 achievements. An Xbox One review code was provided by ID@Xbox for the purpose of this review.
Megan Walton
Written by Megan Walton
Megan is a TA newshound and reviewer who has been writing for the site since early 2014. Currently working in catering, she enjoys cooking extravagant dishes, baking birthday cakes for friends and family in peculiar shapes, writing depressing poetry about life and death, and unlocking every achievement possible.
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