The comeback was not going to happen. I was blowing it. I lost my first character in my first match of The Hidden Ones because I didn’t cash out with my ultimate skill, but I got back with my mid before losing him to my opponent’s anchor. I didn’t have a great answer for what he was doing, and I was sure I was going to ruin what started out as a great comeback. Then my anchor came out. It was my first game; I have never used him before. And at first, it was the same, and then I realized what I was doing. I canceled my default combo into another combo and cashed out with my ultimate. And on the last hit, I got killed. God, I love fighting games, and if my time with it is any indication, The Hidden Ones makes that genre so great.
If you’re not into The Lore ™ , The Hidden Ones anime is based on Hitori no Shita: The Outcasts, which is based on Under One Person, a Chinese webcomic. Shit OK, so the history is a bit complicated, but you don’t really need to know what’s going on with the rest of the series to get the vibe with The Hidden Ones. I have no experience with anime, but I was able to follow what I saw very easily. I started with the story mode, which put me in Wang Ye’s shoes. You are one of the Outcasts, blessed with one of the eight secret arts, generally believed to have been lost to time. When people realize what Wang Ye has, they go after him to get it.
Wang Ye tries to squash it by talking to Li Gaofeng, the head of Li’s troop, and trying to convince him to leave Wang and his family alone. Impressed by Wang’s tenacity and fighting skills, Li agrees to let him go and leave his family alone. Of course, things don’t go as planned and Wang sets himself up to kill Lee and fight Lee’s troops as they try to escape.
Satan’s details
Oh, okay, set up. What’s nice, though, is the game Morefun Games made it. Hidden Ones would probably be best described as an arena fighter, but you won’t just be going from fight to fight. Fighting among themselves, you’ve got the ability to run around and check out the Hidden Ones world, whether that means enjoying the environmental details on display or checking out a notebook or diary you find in the world. This attention to detail is important: during an interview that took place between my two play sessions, lead game designer Fox Lin and senior game designer Stan Fan told me that the team at Morphun spent a long time capturing the details of these environments, many of which are real, individual Chinese. Based on the road. They wanted the world of The Hidden Ones to feel real, and it showed in the relatively small space I was playing in.
The same goes for The Hidden Ones’ visual style. This game is stunning, and the attention to detail is evident in everything from the characters to the way they fight. This is also intentional. The story and world of The Hidden Ones is based (though not exclusively) on Chinese martial arts and myths, and that means getting little details right for the motion capture done by actual martial artists.
Morfan is also quick to note that while the Outcasts are incredibly powerful, they are also having their day. Maybe they’re going to buy groceries or just use their powers to achieve their goals in subtle ways. The point is these are regular people, and that’s a major part of the story here, even if they throw punches and cast magic.
Like a flowing stream
Speaking of combat, The Hidden Ones feels great when you’re throwing punches. This is an arena fighter, so movement is crucial, but the rock-paper-scissors interaction is also what makes a fighting game a fighting game work. You’ve got your basic attack, which loses to special attacks; Those who lose to your defensive position; And your defensive position loses to the attack, which becomes a throw if they are in that position. There’s also a dodge, which costs a limited amount of stamina and you can time it perfectly for a witch time-style slowdown that will allow you to retaliate when you otherwise wouldn’t, and a parry that lets you get out of your defensive position with a special attack. time, so you can swap from defense to offense with a well-timed button press.
Stamina also comes into play in crime. You can spend it to cancel actions – be they physical or special attacks – allowing you to create custom combos and combos on your ultimate skills, thus winning the match I told you about at the beginning. If you rearrange your face, you can spend stamina to get out of combos and reset to neutral. Taken together, this means that, despite The Hidden Ones’ fairly simple control scheme and combo structure, you’re constantly making interesting choices where you’re switching between playing neutral, reacting and pre-empting your opponent, all while managing the character’s unique character. Skills (for example, Wang Ye has a special attack that can go into three different variations). The right play at the right time, like say, throwing a special attack when you think they’re going to swing you, can swing a match.
Nah, he just looks big
The real meat and potatoes, and my favorite part of my time with The Hidden Ones, will be the mano-on-mano battles between your three-person teams against other players, but I really enjoyed the three boss fights that I got to play. The first, which I ran into in story mode, started as a one-on-one brawl before the boss in question brought out his skyscraper-sized snake, forcing me to play around with its giant fangs before its owner came down and I could get back to the fine art of knocking him out.
If that’s not enough for you, there’s also a trial mode, where you can face off against a boss with any character. My play demo had two available, and both were challenging, especially at the highest available difficulties. Both eventually went down, but they forced me to use the characters I knew, pick my spots, and learn their patterns. It’s a fun change of pace for a game like this, and I’m curious to see what other fights will be like in the future.
When my time with The Hidden Ones was over, I left excited, and I could have played more, especially more multiplayer. But I came away with a good idea of what Morfan was trying to achieve and I loved how cool there was and how unique and interesting the characters they created here were. Arena fighters are a tricky business, but so far Morfan has maintained the simplicity, depth, and game balance that a good fighter needs when you don’t want to throw around online but have more to do. I’m excited to see where The Hidden Ones goes, and in the meantime, I’m thinking about landing that Ultimate Skill at the right moment and how great it was that The Hidden Ones gave me the option to play the way I wanted at that moment just like its characters, The Hidden Ones knows. Even when the chips are down and the outcome uncertain, there’s always a play to be made, hidden in plain sight.
