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CMGE has launched the Hitman Reborn mobile game. As a fan of anime, I was quite intrigued to check this game out. Hitman Reborn is a sidescrolling action beat-em-up game, featuring the characters and story from it’s namesake, the manga and anime. So without further ado, here’s my Hitman Reborn first impression.
Graphics and UI
First off, the graphics! The stages are very linear, where you progress deeper into the stage from left to right. The game features 3D models on a 2.5D plane, with some slick models and beautifully drawn (sometimes animated) backgrounds. I also loved the theme of the menus.
For the game UI, your attacks are on the bottom right corner, the joystick on the bottom left and your team’s roster and health is on the top left. However, I found that the joystick was too large. It easily covers the whole bottom left quadrant of my phone while playing.
The attacks on the bottom right are just like any other MOBA game. Attacking felt smooth, and I was able to chain my skills and basic attacks into each other seamlessly. However, to tag-in and out to the other characters on my roster, I had to slide my thumb all the way to the top left. It was quite frustrating at times to tap the tiny little portraits.
Gameplay
In terms of the gameplay, there’s a lot of flavor in the themes of the progression but not much depth to the actual gameplay. There are some fun disctrations, however, like collecting photographs of nostalgic and fun scenes from the anime which sometimes drop after completing a stage. Collecting each photograph of a set would also give you bountiful rewards.
The game is very thematically strong. “Character Bonds” with other notable NPCs replace personal character upgrades. Cards, which each show a memorable scene from the anime replace equipment and gear.
Another thing that I found very unique was the cutscenes before certain stages, taking scenes straight out of the anime. It even has live chat messages scrolling across the screen, but they can be turned off if you’re not a fan.
Vongolia Frustrations
The actual stages and fights were a little lackluster. After getting over the initial satisfaction of using your abilities the first few times (to be fair, they were VERY satisfying to use) I found myself staring at the screen while I repeated my same few abilities over and over until I had enough gauge to use my finishers.
The hitboxes are also more often frustrating than not. Attacks tend to send your character forwards and you miss enemies behind you. It’s even worse when certain stage bosses gain super armor and do not flinch.
And lastly the drop rates are pretty bad. You have a 90% chance to draw a shard and you need about 25 of them for a single character. Of the 10% chance to pull a full character, about 0.8% of that is for an SSR, which is the highest rank in the game.
Overall, this game doesn’t innovate much in terms of gameplay, but is very thematically strong. I’d recommend you to play it only if you’re a fan of Hitman Reborn or the anime aesthetic. Eitherway, we hope you enjoyed reading our Hitman Reborn first impression!
