Ever since I first laid eyes on Hauntii, I was in love. The artistic style of the game really caught my eye from the first moment, and it’s a game that I’ve been looking forward to ever since.
Hauntii seems to be the first game from Moonloop Studios, with developer Leo Dasso as the person behind the concept. As stated on their website, Hauntii started life as a way for Leo to learn what was new at the time in Unity, and it all kind of snowballed from there. The game is related to his personal journey of moving to South Korea to teach English and the adjustment to a different way of living, just like our little ghost we meet in the game.
What is Hauntii, though? Well, it’s a hand-drawn, twin-stick shooter exploration game where you take on the role of a ghost who lands in Eternity, where he meets an eternal who is there to guide him to ascend, only for it to go completely wrong and for you to land in the underworld, with your soul chained to stop you from trying again. Your mission is to find your eternal friend, who was separated in the fall, and find a way to free your soul so you can ascend and be at peace.
To do this, you must collect stars, which you can use to complete constellations in the sky. Every constellation represents a memory from your life, and you need to complete a set number of these constellations to create a crystal. Once you have four crystals, you break the chains, and it will be time to ascend once more. To collect the stars you need, you have to complete tasks and minigames that are scattered across the land, and it’s here that the main mechanic comes into play. As you are a ghost, you can haunt objects and creatures and make them do certain things to aid you in obtaining the stars. Think of Super Mario Odyssey with its Cappy system, and you will have an idea of how it works.
I ended up trying to haunt everything I could see, and although not everything is possible to haunt, there is a lot that can be. Near the beginning of the game, I saw a bug scuttling up a tree, and I found to my delight that I could haunt it. I scuttled up and down the tree collecting these little light orbs, and then I found I could fly off the tree and land on a different one. I ended up finding a star, and it was a great, rewarding experience, filling my curiosity and having fun while doing it. The game is scattered with these kinds of moments, and you’ll take control of many interesting objects, with a gun-welding creature and a whale being among my favourites.
To help you move about, you have a boost at your disposal, giving you a handy tool to get out of the way of danger if need be, and as you move quite slowly, this becomes very handy to speed things up outside of combat. With this being a twin-stick shooter, you fire with the right stick while moving with the left, using essence as you shoot. Once your essence has run out, it needs to recharge before you can carry on with your carnage. You also use your essence to take control of what you want to haunt; just aim and fire, and if it’s possible to haunt, a bar will appear that needs to be filled to complete the process. I found this to work incredibly well, keeping it simple and clear on how to use the haunt mechanic.
The boost, essence, and your hearts can be upgraded by completing a constellation. Every time you complete one, you can choose which one gains a piece of an upgrade, and once completed, you’ll have access to that upgrade. Your essence and boost need three pieces, whereas hearts only need two.
The collectibles are also worth mentioning, as there are two main ones you’ll find scattered all over the land. The first are the little light orbs I mentioned earlier that are used as your currency and that act as your ‘lives’ with some being deducted from your total every time you die. So try not to get carried away buying the many, many hats that are available to purchase at merchant shops! The other collectible in the game are little purple flames. These are what power your haunting skills, with a certain amount used to complete an action with whatever it is you are haunting at the time. Making a tree sway left to right will use one for each motion, or making a car move will cost you three purple flames for every movement. Both the orbs and flames can be used to mark your path and veer you away from areas off camera, and it’s important to note here that to get the most out of the game, you need to explore the world, as if you do, you’ll find you’ll not struggle for stars when it comes to filling in those constellations. It’s these “off camera” secrets that are mostly used within the game, so just go and stick your nose everywhere you can.
Through all this exploration and haunting, you are treated to some of the most gorgeous visuals I’ve seen in quite some time. The hand-drawn animation here is top-notch, with each character you meet unique and well-crafted. The world around you is also on the same level, so full of character, it’s a joy to explore. I must commend the team for their work here, especially on their particle effects. I was wowed right at the beginning of the game, as it looked stunning on my Nintendo Switch OLED. With the accompanying orchestral soundtrack, it really is a feast for the eyes and ears. I just wish I could say the same about the games performance, as I found it was not 100 percent in places.
When I received my review copy, I was made aware of some issues with the game that were being addressed for a day one patch, with the main issue for the Switch version being frame rate issues. I was also told by the lead developer (Leo) that the Switch version had undergone some major optimisation during development, including its visual effects, texture memory, and refactoring every shader in the game to replace generative noise, which they managed with some clever use of texture blending. With all this said, I did unfortunately experience other problems with the game, including some random crashes and a few times losing the sound altogether after I had respawned from a death, with a restart necessary to bring the sound back. I also experienced some unhelpful glitches in a boss fight that caused me to die on a few occasions, which did lead to some frustration.
There were issues with the camera too, causing me to die unnecessarily or just getting in the way of my vision, making certain sections harder than they needed to be, and this was the biggest culprit of my irritation with the game. These issues were few and far between, and hopefully the forthcoming patches will solve these issues, but I’d advise just checking the patch notes before playing.
There’s plenty here to recommend a playthrough of Hauntii, with it bringing some emotional weight through its storyline and the memories that you will encounter. You’ll fall in love with the incredible visuals and have plenty of fun with the well-implemented haunting mechanic, and it’s rewarding exploration. Let’s all just cross our fingers that the patches will iron out the creases, as if they do, we will have a very special game on our hands.
Release Date: May 23rd, 2024
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Xbox Gamepass
Price: £16.99
Many thanks to the publisher for supplying us with a review copy of the game.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
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