I have such a soft spot for high-octane, anime-style action games, and it’s been a sore spot to see this genre fall by the wayside in recent year. Sure, there are plenty of free to play, but heavily monetised gacha games that serve up the same sort of action-focused combat and flashy visual design, but there’s only so many of these that I can endure before I crave my traditional gaming fix. Homura Hime, despite being a debut release from a small indie studio, scratches that itch and perfectly captures the essence and excitement of the character action genre.
In Homura Hime, the world has long been equally and peacefully inhabited by both humans and demons, but something has shifted that balance, and all-powerful archdemons are on the rise and threatening to destroy and corrupt that coexistence. Thankfully, the High Priestess has a secret weapon up her sleeve – she calls for the strongest exorcist around, also known as the “Flame Princess”, and also known as Homura Hime. Her goal is simple, and frames all the action of the game perfectly. Defeat five evil demon girls, each more powerful than the last, and the day is saved.
It’s an incredibly simple narrative setup, but I was endeared by just how much focus there is on the story, the characters and their place in the world. This isn’t a minimal boss-rush game where you get no dialogue and non-stop action, there are a lot of charming cutscenes, and really great back and forth banter between Homura Hime and the characters she encounters. There’s also a perfect pinch of wackiness to the tone of the game, where almost every character you encounter has a quirk or an oddity but still fits within the overall story. I had just as much fun talking to Ling Ling the Flower and Corpse Princess as I did battling her.
And, gods, are the battles in Homura Hime good. Some action games give you a variety of weapons or characters with limited movesets and allow that quantity of options to make up the bulk of the games combat depth. In Homura Hime, you play as one character, and you only ever have access to one primary weapon. It’s a striking approach that sounds limiting on paper, but the moves and tools at your disposal provide a truly quality-over-quantity approach that I was so impressed by. Combat in general flows very similarly to something like Nier: Automata. You have a breadth of melee combos, a projectile-focused supporting attack, and a wealth of movement, dodging, parrying, and counterattack options. When it’s all strung together properly, you’ll never stop moving in battle.
While the highlight of combat is tackling the demon girl bosses, the moments in-between those encounters never feel like a waste. Standard enemies are smartly designed to give you a taste of what’s to come from the upcoming boss battle, but never overstay their welcome. Simple side-activities spice up your adventure too, like platforming sections or the task to track down yapping head-shaped mascots for the merchant. You’ll constantly be collecting stuff along the way too, like lore entries or currency to use for unlocking new abilities. There’s a shorter, tighter version of this game that is purely a boss-rush battler, but I’m so happy that the game didn’t go down that route. All the little quieter moments in-between those battles not only help build up the anticipation for those encounters, but also help flesh out the world and the characters in really memorable ways.
It’s all tied together by a gorgeous aesthetic of cel-shaded anime-style characters and flashy particle effects in combat. Audio design is a delight, too, with a legit cast of professional Japanese voice actors and awesome music that ties every fight together. Homura Hime checks all the boxes of an action game classic, and it’s the kind of game that I wish we got so, so many more of. Hopefully, this is the start of an incredible run of releases by the team at Crimson Dusk.
