Anime visuals with clean and crisp metroidvania gameplay is certainly a recipe for success. While it is still in early access, Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune is a star, with excellent mechanics and tons of promise for the future.
Players take on the role of Erza, an anime lady who travels from dungeon to dungeon to take on monsters and other dangerous creatures. They will also get the opportunity to control Erza’s companions, offering players different builds and slightly different mechanics. There is plenty of customization of the builds too, with each character able to hold a couple of weapons and spells. This combined with quite a few attack actions and inputs make Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune a deep enough experience for most hardcore fans of the genre.
The gameplay feels solid, but it’s not without its faults. It’s steadily improving with each update, but most attacks don’t feel like they have much weight. There aren’t enough animations that show a reaction to being hit, making the game feel a touch too lifeless during combat. Still, the game is mechanically sound, with responsive attacks and dodges that make it feel good to play. It’s fast-paced, making it feel like a high-octane action game sometimes rather than the slow, methodical trek that some metroidvanias are.
The anime visuals will make or break the game for most players. If you are into it, you will think this game is gorgeous. Really, it is a pretty game. The character designs look original, and the world around them is full of color. The enemies look menacing, which is great since there is a decent variety of them throughout the current build of Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune.
If one feels nothing for anime visuals, one will likely want to turn away from this one. There are tons of anime ladies and themes that just won’t appeal broadly. Some may be able to stomach them however because this game is missing a lot of the visual nonsense that tends to be in anime. Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune lacks most of the ridiculous body physics and SA that the medium is unfortunately known for, which is certainly a win.
While there is plenty of fun to be had in Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune, the game is still short on content. It’s also still rather buggy, but there isn’t anything here that will break the experience. It’s well-balanced, so players should be able to get from the beginning to (What is currently) the end without much issue. There is still much to do to make this a must-play, but it will scratch the Metroidvania itch for any anime fan.
