Well I like the cute art style and simlpe gameplay, but there should be more then just smash z and repeat, but still I like it <3
Reviews for "A Hunter's Day"
GREAT game. Loved the music, cute art style, and story. I just wish the game was longer and had more variety.
i was hoping there is more to a day in a hunter's life than just killing a few random mushrooms but i guess not
A cute little game, but not much more.
The gamplay is extremely basic. Run up to an enemy and spam attack. This even applies to the final boss, though the spawning enemies and shooting "fire balls" did mix it up a little.
The enemies themselves are generic, being the typical mushroom enemy found in many an RPG's forest. This is fine considering the context of the game, but it would have been nice to see some variety. Maybe a squirrel hiding under a bush as the player approaches or something.
The graphics are terrific. The bright, vibrant colors really make the world feel alive, and the art style somehow manages to create pixel art that feels almost like some sort of paint, such as watercolor.
The character designs are decent. They are fairly simplistic, but in this case it actually works in the game's favor, creating enough detail for the player to instantly know what it is, but not so much as to feel cluttered. The enemies themselves have a color scheme similar to the forest, feeling like a part of the environment. The player on the other hand does not, clearly a creature not native to the forest. This is a small detail, but a nice one.
As for the animations, they are fairly well-done, though there are a couple of small things that leave something to be desired. When attacking, the pixels all blur together at certain areas on the player character, really creating a sense of power and speed to the swings, as well as creating the illusion that the player is leaning into the swing. The jumping mushrooms though, feel more like they are sliding than jumping. This is because the speed of the enemy's patrol and when the enemy jumps are not the same. Also, the fact that both the player and enemies can be attacked while in the blinking state is a little odd, as the blinking traditionally means the character is invincible for a short time. Again, these two are more of a nitpick than anything, and the animations are still good.
The music and sound design are good. While the sound design leaves something to be desired, mainly as it hardly exists, the music is great. It is slow yet upbeat, giving a feeling of adventure and mystery, of a person questioning if they will ever come home, yet remaining optimistic.
A Hunter's Day is a game with more soul than substance. The art and music surrounding the game really bring it to life, but then the game does hardly anything with it, choosing to remain silent as they do most of the talking. At the end the game attempts to talk up a little, and while it is a nice and even unique idea, it also feels a little hollow.
All-in-all, this is more of an art piece than a game. That is not a bad thing, but it is mildly disappointing it could not be both.
taj-tajima responds:
Thank you very much for this, I've never expected such a depth in a review for my games. I must say I agree with you in every bit of your analysis.
I'm an artist actually, programming is still very hard to me, this means that I can't actually implement most of my own Game Design choices, and I understand that mechanics and 'game-feel' are as important as the graphics, but still I just need to learn a lot about code and engines so I won't need to sacrifice my ideas over technical barriers.
Anyway I must thank you again, for playing and taking your time to THINK and FEEL my game.
Solid base for a game. Expand it and create a full game.
One issue: the enemies blink when you hit them. Blinking usually means that sombody is invulnerable so it makes zero sense to have enemies blinking since they continue to take hits.