Essence Hunt

Stories are very important in video games, especially if the gameplay is not all that great. In fact, there are genres where the story is the most important element, such as is the case with kinetic visual novels or RPGs, to some degree. Hence, even if you do not get to play all that much, at least you get to experience a wonderful tale and familiarize yourself with interesting characters.

Essence Hunt is an interactive visual novel in which you play the role of a young man as he gets in trouble after killing a deer on sacred ground. The game is mostly focused on the interaction between the main character and another man, so you need to be prepared for a bit of BxB action. Even if there are no explicit sexual acts, there’s a bit of censored nudity at one point, so it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.   As mentioned before, the story revolves around a dead deer and a deity that gets angry at the main character - named Shugo - after committing murder on sacred ground. Thus, Shugo must return the deer’s soul in order to break the curse, and he has only three days to do so, otherwise he will die. Thankfully, a kind fox spirit offers to help with the task, which sparks a lovely friendship between the two.

The story is not set in stone, given the fact that you have the freedom to choose one route or the other multiple times throughout the plot. Hence, you can reach multiple conclusions depending on what you decide along the way. Unfortunately, this freedom to do what you want is mostly a mirage, because the endings are not that different from each other most of the time.   Lastly, the artwork is important in a visual novel, because there’s no gameplay to distract you from the backgrounds or the characters. Thankfully, all is well in this regard, although the environments get a tad repetitive after a while. The characters are nicely designed and pretty original, although the strong anime style might not be for everyone.

Even if Essence Hunt is not very original or exciting in terms of story, it certainly has a cozy atmosphere and some nice artwork pieces. Thus, it’s worth at least one or two playthroughs, especially if you like multiple endings.