Nen x Impact review – Jank-en

I am not an amazing fighting game player. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no scrub, and I fought my way into Street Fighter 6’s Master Rank with no tricks, but I’m not a savant. I can’t just pick up a game and start pulling off amazing combos — it takes me weeks of play to get to that point, but I can usually brute force my way through a few low-rank online battles through sheer force of will and some fundamentals. Playing with real players is what makes an amazing fighting game for me, and that’s why it’s so hard to recommend a game that nobody is playing, like Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact.

As I type this, my PS5 is threatening to power off due to inactivity. I’m not actually inactive, I’m waiting for an online ranked match, but I’ve given up hope. I lowered my standards for region, and connection level, and opponent strength, but it just seems that there aren’t enough players online to warrant sitting around in a lobby, wasting time waiting.

Hunter x Hunter is an acclaimed series with a dedicated following, but it is long past its popularity peak. It has had two anime adaptations – the last episode airing in 2014 – and due to health issues, the series’ creator hasn’t been able to consistently deliver new manga chapters. It does have that dedicated following though, and I’m sure the team at developer Eighting adore it. Eighting is no stranger to fighting game development, leading on the legendary Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and working on numerous anime titles – in addition to Pikmin – over the years. It might be a weird game at a weird time, but on paper, Nen x Impact could be incredible.

And it’s pretty good, actually, if a bit cheap. This game feels as if it was developed on a shoestring budget, and you get that impression from everything. The small character roster, the simple “clean” aesthetic, the anime screenshots being used for the (incredibly short) story mode — it’s low-effort, but that was likely necessary to get the game made at all.

This is a fighting game, and the action is where it redeems itself. It drops the motion inputs synonymous with 2D fighters, simplifying tag fighter action. What it doesn’t simplify is the sheer variety of combo routes, the amount of flexibility, and the potential complexity. You can play however you want, opting for fast-paced and technical strategies or slower attacks that result in massive damage.

Gameplay can initially feel a bit slow and floaty, but learning to grapple with the Nenpact system quickly teaches you how to pop enemies up into the air, to extend combos or push them back to make space. With just a few adjustments to how you might usually approach a 2D fighter, Hunter x Hunter goes from slow and restrictive to impossibly open-ended.

It doesn’t look amazing, mind. Character models look as if they could’ve been extracted from a PS3-era game, and the slower, floatier moments don’t make the game look amazing. Likewise, the backgrounds are pretty simple. Again, everything feels a bit “cheap,” with resources directed toward gamefeel above all else. And, again-again, that gamefeel is actually pretty good.

But without an audience, Hunter x Hunter can only ever be another EVO side tournament that Justin Wong wins for pocket money. The game is currently averaging a peak player count of around 80 per day on Steam, and that doesn’t bode well for the future. 

Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is more jank than janken. Maybe a definitive edition with DLC characters will become a fun distraction for Hunter x Hunter fans that also play fighting games, but in its current state it’s hard to recommend to anyone.