Homura Hime Preview - Parry This

I love a game with a good parry system, and no game does that better than Sekiro. It's fast and effective, and though you can spam it, it takes timing to actually master. Homura Hime might be a close contender for a godly parry close to Sekiro in greatness, so what I have to say about it should pique the interest of action fans.

Developed by Crimson Dusk and published by Playism, we got to check out Homura Hime, which was on the floor of PAX West 2024. Read on for our thoughts!

Homura Hime's Sick Style and Well-executed Combat

It's fine if you haven't heard about Homura Hime until now. Hopefully, more can learn about what could possibly be a super tight, smooth as butter action title. What drew me in was its clean anime visuals, which really pop on the screen. Its style infuses Japanese notes with a supernatural style, creating a spooky but cartoonish look.

But combat is where Homura Hime really impressed. My demo was more of a tutorial than anything else, which walked me through the basics of the game's combat. In terms of feel, Homura Hime is like a much lighter Sekiro combined with faster-paced character action combat like Nier Automata.

Homura Hime is not as robust as either of the games I'm comparing it to, but it feels inspired by such titles and strikes a simple yet captivating balance between the two. There's your basic attacks that slash away at enemies, as well as a parry. The parry is super responsive and quick to pull off, and it has a generous window. I took to it very fast.

Even amateurs should have an easy time grasping the parrying mechanics and succeed in combat. You feel like a badass, pulling off these moves with such ease. Combine parrying with four different skills mapped to certain buttons (and, presumably, you can pick and choose these), and everything clicks.

There's also this little floating thing next to you that shoots projectiles just like Nier Automata's pod. I say "thing" because I didn't quite grasp what it was, but nonetheless, it functions the same as the pod its function is to deal damage and break the shield of a boss in battle.

Speaking of bosses, the second part of my PAX West demo featured a short boss fight. Parrying any attacks it flung at me was easy, but things pivoted a bit when the boss surrounded itself with a shield and started creating bullet hell-like patterns. This is one aspect that I'd love to learn more about with Homura Hime, though the concept itself is promising.

Indeed, certain enemies such as bosses will spray patterns of orbs, so using your pod to shoot away at the enemy's shield while avoiding bullets is key. I made quick work of this boss, but a second phase came and that's where the demo ended. Man, I was just getting started. Nothing else to do but wait for Homura Hime's release!

Looking at some footage from Homura Hime's Steam page, there's plenty more in store. More bosses with even more complex patterns, different environments, flashier attacks... yeah, Homura Hime hits all the right notes. It's out next year, and it's shot up to the top of my most anticipated games.

Homura Hime was previewed during PAX West 2024.