Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune early access preview - A fun, unique Metroidvania

Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune is presently in early access, and is being created by a four-person development team - Icesitruuna Studio. When I heard this was a Metroidvania, I was immediately interested in it. Even if it had only allowed players to control Erza, I would have probably enjoyed this, but then I learned you could have multiple characters and swap them at will.

It was such a cool concept to me, but how does it actually play? Does each character feel worth controlling? The story is pretty interesting, and very much feels like an anime or manga turned into an action-packed video game.

This is the second game to feature Erza, but you don't have to play Tower Hunter: Erza's Trial first.

How is the game though so far? It’s receiving “Mostly Positive” on Steam, but what do I think of it?

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Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune brings something fresh to the Metroidvania genre

While it might have a clunky name, Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune is a genuine blast to play. Full disclosure - when I first began playing, even pressing buttons was crashing the game, so it took a day or two to resolve. Thankfully, this was fixed, and I was able to get started.

At first, I was worried it would be a Metroidvania that just took place on a spaceship, which could have been interesting but would be very restrictive. Thankfully, the team crashes on a strange, hostile planet instead. Erza’s an interesting character, too. She’s dutiful and strong and would fit in as an anime protagonist. For mysterious reasons, her skull hairclip is also alive and known as Diablo.

She’s not alone, either. As you progress through Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune, you can swap between two other characters: Ciara and Niel. Each plays differently, with their own style of weapons to wield. Instead of a katana and spears, Ciara uses a railgun and rocket launchers. She also has dazzling, swift kicks.

While the character interactions eventually mellow out, the relationship between Erza and Ciara comes across as typical anime cringe. It was one of the few things that didn’t click for me, but got less awkward as time passed. For me, at least. I appreciate that the character interactions felt genuine, and as time goes on, the world is built, and you get to understand the people you’re teaming with.

The ability to play as unique characters was an exceptional change to the Metroidvania formula. You can easily swap between them, with a minor cooldown, so you always have a different way to fight enemies. Sometimes, enemies are too far out of range, so you can swap to Ciara and safely unload some clips into the enemy.

Instead of one character doing everything, you have a few specializing in something. It’s a pleasant change of pace and something I often see in this genre. Many Metroidvanias give you other characters, but unlike those, Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune doesn’t require separate playthroughs to use them.

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What’s the exploration and combat like in Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune

Like any good Metroidvania, exploration and upgrading your gear is incredibly important in Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune. I’ll admit, there was a brief point when I was stuck, unsure of how to progress. This was because I skipped one room, so that’s not on the game, that’s on me not exploring thoroughly enough.

For example, you’ll see vine walls that won’t let you pass no matter what attack you hit them with. You can unlock a fireball spell though, and it burns these down. Suddenly, you can go through tons of secret rooms, which give you skill books and patterns for new gear.

It also led me to Green Keystone, allowing me to progress further. All I needed to do was get that one spell, and I had far more options. As you move forward in Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune, you’ll unlock more movement abilities, and like any good Metroidvania, you’ll backtrack to complete things you couldn’t do in the past.

But what about the combat? Each weapon type has different speeds, combos, and special attacks, which felt fun. You will unlock various weapons and special attacks as you progress. Erza’s katana, for example, can dash at foes and knock them back.

However, the actual strikes don’t feel meaty. When I deliver attacks on enemies, it doesn’t look like they hurt - except for the bullets. The game’s combat engine is good, though. Moving around and setting up combos of normal and special attacks is easy.

Ranged combat also feels far more powerful compared to melee combat. For that reason, Ciara is much stronger than Erza. Being able to stand at range and unload tons of damage safely is amazing. Even though she has to refill ammo, most things perish in the first volley.

That said, I still really enjoy the combat and exploration of Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune. The movement mostly feels good, too. There are plenty of weapons you can return to base and craft.

This game feels like it rewards you for having a wide variety of arms and loadouts. There will be moments when you want specific weapons or spells equipped, and there’s no shortage of cool attacks.

However, one minor quibble I have is that all the crafting materials use a purple and orange font. This is mostly because I have covered MMOs for years - I assume those are epic and legendary rarities, respectively. When I see “plant stem” or something with a purple font, that throws me for a loop.

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The visual and sound presentations are sharp

The backgrounds are gorgeous, and I like most character designs. The monsters felt unique, and the color palette is deep. I loved the lighting effects and the sounds of Erza’s boots clacking and clinking across the spaceship.

Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune has charming music that fits the area's ambiance and is pretty soothing. The composer did a great job of matching the tone of the area to the soundtrack.

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In Conclusion

Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune is far from a perfect game, but it’s genuinely a lot of fun. It’s presently in Early Access, and I highly recommend it. There are little things that can be improved in things like balance.

Some enemies do wildly higher damage than others, but it’s nothing that cannot be solved. I just noticed that some foes nearly killed my characters in just a few hits, and it felt out of place in some areas.

As a long-time fan of the Metroidvania genre, Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune reminded me of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. That’s far from an insult though - Bloodstained was a masterpiece. Erza even sits on a divan to save, like in Bloodstained.

There’s still a long way to go with Frontier Hunter: Erza's Wheel of Fortune, but it’s on the right track. Though a small developer, they’ve put together something genuinely fun to play.