Game provided by: Evolve PR
Homura Hime arrived on Steam on the 4th of March 2026 – it is an anime-styled 3D action game that was developed by Crimson Dusk and published by PLAYISM. You can purchase it until the 24th of May at a discounted price of 19,60€, and after that it will be available at its regular 24,50€ price tag. It is a rare action game and a conglomerate of various influences, yet it holds its own identity in the genre of bullet hell games. It is not a mindless hack and slash title as it brings a fusion of just mentioned bullet hell spectacle combined with rhythm-based melee combat. Nothing really stands out by itself with Homura Hime, but its combination of interesting gameplay and beautiful anime aesthetics makes it a title that is definitely worth playing.
The centre of the game is Homura herself – an exorcist who needs to purify a handful of arch-demons. A simple premise, but the execution of it is more thoughtful than just simply mashing the buttons on your preferred controller. You will need to dodge hails of bullet projectiles and combine your moves in plenty of combos, which will include both melee and range attacks. Your defense, which utilises dodges and parries, will be of utmost importance as well in your endeavour to overcome the fierce demonic entities. Homura Hime’s narrative is interesting, but it never overwhelms the action on your screen as it provides just some weight to your different confrontations.
Homura Hime mostly shines and differentiates itself from other action games in its combat. All of your attacks will land with great responsiveness, the dodging will feel intuitive, and the game’s signature parry system will reward you when you are confident against your foes. Speaking of parrying, the time to execute one is very much generous and not punishing at all. I personally liked the more accessible way of playing the game, but the more experienced action gamers might find it a bit too generous and kind of too easy. Its accessibility encouraged me to keep playing as Homura Hime’s gameplay does not feel like an exercise of any sort, as it is pretty easy to learn and pretty damn satisfying once you get the hang of it.
The aforementioned arch-demons will present themselves in boss battles in which they will unleash various bullet hell patterns towards you. Those will fill your screen with danger and basically a transforming maze of projectiles that you will need to learn to avoid and overcome. The boss battle sequences will force the players to read and learn the patterns and eventually turn careful defense into majestic offense. These encounters also present Homura Hime’s highlights, both mechanically and artistically, and they are really so good that you can experience them multiple times, should you wish to. Visually, the game features a stylised anime aesthetic with expressive character models and very fluid attack animations, while its soundtrack greatly complements the action with bombastic themes.
Unfortunately, Homura Hime is not flawless – the environments can feel pretty repetitive, and also the enemy variety is heavily limited, which results in a poor sense of progression. As mentioned in the parrying section of the rating, some players will tend to seek a more challenging experience and might drop the game for not being hard enough. Last but not least, there are occasional bugs present and a few difficulties with some of the animations – nothing that would make the game unplayable, but it needs to be mentioned nevertheless. These things aside, I recommend playing it for its fast, stylish combat and uniqueness when it comes to indie releases.
