Lucky Hunter Review

In November 2024, GameGrin checked out Lucky Hunter on PC and loved it. Will this move to home consoles feel natural? Or does the game feel more suited to a keyboard-and-mouse control scheme?

In the game, the Demon Lord’s awakening has brought disaster and darkness to the land, causing extreme drought that has dried up the once-flowing rivers and parched the soil, leaving crops to wither. The Demon Lord’s evil power has driven the creatures living here to go berserk, destroying everything in their path. The villagers have fallen into despair, and it’s up to you to hunt and protect the village from the aggressive creatures.

Before you leave the village, the chief hands you a special book to read; this teaches you how battles work. At the start, the board will be filled with random pieces. When three of the same pieces are adjacent, they combine, increasing in level and strength. You can tell which pieces have merged as the background changes from blue to green. The controls work well here, as you’re not doing much, just moving the pointer around to select new tiles to strengthen your lineup and add to your draw pile.

 Equipped with your sword and shield, our hero can follow multiple paths from the starting point to reach the boss. There are a variety of nodes that you will stop at, including Minions, which are easy battles to gather resources from; Elite Enemies that are slightly more challenging but give you more items and a temporary artefact; Bonfires, which heal some of your wounds; and the Blacksmith Shop, to upgrade your pieces. There are nine spots before you reach that area's boss, so make sure you are prepared for that big battle!

Once you defeat the minions, you’ll earn rewards such as gold, extra HP added to your maximum, and talent points. You’ll also see the battle stats showing how much damage each of your soldier units inflicted during the fight.

Elite enemies include Wild Chickens that are so cute it’s hard to believe they’re a threat! Soldiers attack the enemy and return to the board, but some are one-time use only, such as the Broken Sword. One of the most entertaining pieces is the Airdrop Soldier. This summons five soldiers of the same strength level after three turns and has them all attack the enemy at once for big damage. Once an Elite Enemy is defeated, you get to pick a reward, such as Elite Killer, which makes your units deal an extra 5% damage to bosses and elites, or Bloodthirst Strike, which restores one hit point on a critical strike, though it only lasts for two battles.

There are a variety of pieces to collect and use in battle, ranging from Soldiers that deal one damage, Archers with an attack of two, Shapeshifters that replicate the form of the piece to their right, and Summoning Orders that gather three of the same kind of soldier to attack your opponent. All your pieces can be upgraded at the Blacksmith, so even your base soldiers’ attack can rise from one to three.

If you successfully defeat the area boss, you’ll receive gold, TP, honey, and an increase to your hero’s maximum health. You’ll also get to pick one of three rewards; some increase your health capacity, others reduce damage taken, or boost how much damage you deal. The Village Chief will also give you a gift for your journey when starting on the next area’s map, which is especially useful since your health doesn’t automatically refill after a boss battle.

The Talent Points you earn by defeating enemies can be exchanged in the Talent area of the main menu to unlock upgrades, such as starting with 55 health instead of 50, campfires restoring more health, dealing extra damage to elite monsters, or unlocking a larger grid. Here, you can also unlock additional packs of fighters like ninjas, pirates, food, robots, and zombies. There’s so much to do in this game if you want to collect everything!

At the shop right before the Final Boss, you can buy new pieces to add to your stock. Once you spend 600 gold here, you’ll receive a Honey Jar as a bonus. The first boss is a Nine-Tailed Fox with 1000 HP. If you’re defeated, it shows your run duration, the pieces and artefacts you used, and the TP you collected. On the main menu, the Hunter Record shows your high score for the most enemy nodes defeated in a run.

The game has a super cute, whimsical look to it. All the “creatures” you fight look so sweet that I felt bad attacking them! They’re all animated, breathing and blinking, making them look alive, especially the three black “Wild Cats”. Sure, they each have 75 HP and keep hitting me, but I still feel a little guilty taking them down! The background, enemy theme, and game board change with each run. One time, my board was surrounded by leaves, and the next, was cracked with lava showing through. And don’t forget the pounding, bass-heavy music that plays. It’s super catchy, and even after multiple attempts, I didn’t get tired of it.

Lucky Hunter is such a whimsical and addictive game to play. The story isn’t particularly deep, but all the kawaii enemies more than make up for it. I couldn’t wait to jump into each battle to see what kind of creature I’d be facing. The game keeps you on your toes as it gets more challenging the closer you get to the boss. The minions that started with 50 HP now have 175, making for trickier battles to win. Fans of survival games with deck-building and auto-battling elements need to pick up this game — it’s a must-play!