Homura Hime

Homura Hime is a blast, and it's the perfect love letter to the character action genre. In a world where these kinds of experiences are few and far between from big developers, it's so good to see an indie studio have a debut as strong as this.

Homura Hime is a thrilling action title that pairs weighty, expressive combat with a surprisingly heartfelt narrative about exorcists battling corrupted archdemons. Its combo-driven melee system, flexible Blessed Shots, and high-pressure enemy mechanics create some of the most engaging fights in the genre, while strong level design and meaningful progression keep the momentum steady.

Homura Hime’s parry feels fantastic when you’re dueling a boss, making every successful deflect look and feel cool. The downside is that the parry window is so forgiving (and so spammable) that regular fights can remove the enjoyment of reading enemy patterns.

Strangely inviting due to one of the most forgiving parry systems imaginable, Homura Hime is a really cute game, managing to offer fun through competent and fluid gameplay, although it would benefit from more challenge aimed at the more experienced players in the genre.

Though the pacing can feel like it is padding for time, and its smaller fights can be a little repetitive, Homura Hime really picks up in its exciting boss fights, serving as a parry-heavy hack-and-slash game with cinematic moments and bullet-hell elements that challenge your mastery of the mechanics. Though a bit short, Homura Hime is well worth its asking price and should especially appeal to fans of its anime aesthetic and score-chasing design.

For an indie game, the boss fights are really, really good. It's fun having the boss go "movie mode" on the player when they catch them in an attack, and the parrying feels really enjoyable. The fighting to get there, though, is average at best, and the platforming borders on horrendous for how often buttons don't prompt on a teleport-jump, or the dash falls slightly short, leading to unnecessary frustration. At the current price point, Homura Hime is a bit tough to recommend, but will be worth it on a sale.

I enjoyed my time with Homura Hime, but there were too many stumbles along the way for me to fully recommend it to everyone. The story is not very good, and no characters stand out as particularly interesting or memorable, but the combat saves it by offering a large array of fun combos and skills to slice through demons with. It also overstays its welcome by having you play through old levels without making it worthwhile at all. I really wanted to like this game more than I did, because you can tell there was a lot of heart and thought put into Homura Hime. Sadly, the fantastic combat and great art are let down by some questionable design choices and a lackluster story. I can only recommend Homura Hime to the diehard character action game fans out there who are looking for a decent game to blast through on a weekend.