Homora Hime is a 3D anime action game that focuses on platforming and flashy boss battles. Players take the role of the eponymous Homura, a new shrine maiden sent into alternate worlds to kill archdemons. Although the platforming sections are rough, boss fights are highly entertaining. How does it all come together, though?
Homura Hime is self-described as a “spectacle fighter” and a “bullet hell”. The first is a new term, loosely meaning fighting games with lots of flashy action happening. Bullet hell is nothing new, as it is an entire 2D genre, but 3D action games rarely have this tag. In practice, what this means is that boss battles are over-the-top affairs full of crazy dodging, explosions, huge attack ranges, projectiles flying everywhere, and trying to beat a boss down.
For better or worse – and in this case, it feels much worse – Homura Hime has two very different styles of gameplay: the platforming portion, and then the battles and boss section. To be blunt, the strength of the game is the boss battles, while the rest leaves much to be desired. Even the normal fights are just okay; nothing more than a warmup for the real deal.
Regular fights oftentimes feel like nothing more than punching bags to get through. The game has very, very light upgrade mechanics, and it’s unfortunate because even with later moves, the fights don’t feel too interesting.
There is a story, but it never really gets kicking or goes anywhere. The core of Homura Hime feels a little lacking; despite a lot of talking, there isn’t much of a plot. Homura is an attractive protagonist in her shrine maiden yoga pants, but her personality rarely peaks above a “Hmm” or “Yeah” to the events unfolding.
Platforming is egregious with how off it feels. It is sad because on the face of it, the levels are pretty cool. For example, the first is through a forest and canyon. Homura has a teleport move that is used in certain areas to progress by bouncing to the next zone when the button prompt comes up. The problem is twofold; the platforms are at the very edge of her jump and dash range, which feels shorter than it should be.
Therefore, what ends up happening is that a long string of platforming is inevitably ended by falling slightly short of the target. On top of this, the teleport sections feel like the button activates purely by luck with about 25% success rate. It leads to an unnecessary frustration of “failing” at the platforming not because of skills, timing, or anything player-based, but more due to running into the shortcomings of the game.
Boss fights are by far the strength of Homura Hime, and when they are going right, they are really fun. Two of the key elements of combat are the parry and the dodge. The parry requires standing still, and when timed right (the timing is generous) it blocks an attack. In contrast, a dodge causes Homura to move out of the way. These two are used in concert as bosses send two types of attacks that one or the other is needed. It might be an undodgeable rapid-fire or huge swing that has to be parried, or a slow charge attack that can only be dodged by running away.
It is a very fun highlight when the boss sends a huge wave of jabs or shots that can be rapid-fire parried successfully. Often this leads to a slight cinematic mode of Homura countering with an attack of her own. Between the dodging and the waves of bullets the boss fights are enjoyable. Perhaps the only complaint is there are no items, heals, or upgrades that are meaningful, meaning it purely comes down to learning patterns to move on, and it can be frustrating fighting the same boss over and over.
Homura Hime comes in at around 15 hours. While short on paper, it ends up feeling padded. There are some significant optimisation issues, with frame rates often going so low as to freeze the game outright for a few seconds at a time. Some of the level exploration, like level 2’s climbing of the Japanese-style castle is really cool, barring the frequent platforming issues. Overall, though, these and the battles start to really drag. It becomes a slog getting to the boss fights that are the best part of the experience.
