There was to be no return. I blew. I lost my first character in my first match of The Hidden Ones because I failed to cash in on my Ultimate skill, but I got back in the middle before losing it to my opponent’s anchor. I didn’t have a good answer to what he was doing, and I was convinced I would waste what had started as a great comeback. Then my anchor came up. It was my first game; I’ve never used it before. At first it was more or less the same, but then I realized what I was doing. I canceled my default combination by changing it to another one, then another one, and cashed out using my ultimate. And with the last hit I managed to kill him. God, I love fighting games, and if my time spent playing them is any indication, The Hidden Ones fully lives up to what makes the genre so great.
If you don’t like The Lore™, The Hidden Ones is based on the anime Hitori No Shita: The Outcasts, which in turn is based on the Chinese webcomic Under One Person. Phew. Okay, so the story is a bit complicated, but you don’t really need to know what happens with the rest of the series to get the feel of The Hidden Ones. I have no experience with anime, but I was able to follow what I was seeing quite easily. I started with the story mode, which introduced me to Wang Ye’s shoes. Ye is one of the Exiles, gifted with one of the Eight Secret Arts, which were generally believed to have been lost to time. But once people found out what Wang Ye had, they would start chasing him to get it.
Wang Ye tries to nip this situation in the bud by talking to Li Gaofeng, the head of the Li Troupe, and trying to convince him to leave Wang and his family alone. Impressed by Wang’s agility and fighting skills, Li agrees to release him and leave the family alone. Of course, not everything goes according to plan and Wang is framed for Li’s murder and fighting the Li Troupe while trying to escape.
The devil is in the details
Phew, OK, configure. However, the game created by Morefun Games is nippy. Hidden would probably be best described as an arena fighter, but you don’t just go from fight to fight. In between the fights themselves, you can run around and explore the world of The Hidden Ones, whether that means admiring the details of the environments on display or checking out a book or diary you find in the world. This attention to detail is crucial: during an interview that took place between my two play sessions, lead game designer Fox Lin and senior game designer Stan Fan told me that the team at Morefun spent a lot of time capturing the details of these environments, many of them based they are on actual, individual Chinese streets. They wanted the world of The Hidden Ones to feel real, and that was evident even in the relatively tiny area I played in.
The same goes for The Hidden Ones’ visual style. This game is stunning and the attention to detail is evident in everything from the characters to the way they fight. This is also intentional. The plot and world of The Hidden Ones are largely (though not exclusively) based on Chinese martial arts and myths, which meant true reproduction of the smallest details, right down to movement shots by real martial artists.
Morefun is also quick to point out that while the Exiles are incredibly powerful, they are also humans minding their own business. Maybe they go out grocery shopping or just apply their skills to achieve their goals in subtle ways. The thing is, these are regular people and that’s the main part of the story, even if they throw punches and cast magic.
Like a flowing stream
Speaking of combat, The Hidden Ones feels great when you’re throwing punches. It’s an arena fighter, so movement is key, but the rock, paper, scissors interactions that make a fighting game a fighting game are also present here. You have your basic attacks that lose out to your special attacks; those who are defeated by your defensive attitude; and your defensive stance loses to attacks, which become throws if you are in that stance. There’s also dodge, which costs a confined amount of stamina and is perfectly timed with a Time of the Witches-style ponderous, which allows you to counterattack when you otherwise wouldn’t, and parry, which you can perform while coming out of a defensive stance during special attacks, so you can switch from defense to attack by pressing a button at the right moment.
Stamina is also crucial in attacking. You can spend them to cancel actions – whether they are physical attacks or special attacks – which allows you to build custom combos and combos into your ultimate skills, which is how I won that match I talked about at the beginning. If you’re the one changing the appearance of your face, you can also spend stamina to break out of a combo and reset to a neutral state. Taken together, all this means that despite The Hidden Ones’ fairly elementary control scheme and combo structure, you’re constantly making fascinating choices where you alternate between playing neutral, reacting, and outpacing your opponent, all while managing your character’s unique abilities (for example Wang Ye has a special attack that can come in three different varieties). The right play at the right time, such as performing a special attack when you think they’re about to come at you, can change the match.
No, he just looks large
The real meat and potatoes and my favorite part of my time with The Hidden Ones would be the mano-mano fights between your teams of three against other players, but I also really enjoyed the three boss fights I got to play. The first one I came across in story mode started with a one-on-one brawl before said boss unleashed a skyscraper-sized snake on her, forcing me to play around his massive fangs before his master descended and I could return to the fine art of knocking her out.
However, if that’s not enough for you, there’s also a trial mode where you can take on the boss with any character you have. In the demo I played, there were two games available, and both were challenging, especially on the highest difficulty levels available. Both ultimately failed, but they forced me to apply characters I knew, choose appropriate locations, and learn their patterns. It’s a nice change of pace for a game like this, and I’m excited to see what other fights will look like in the future.
When my time in The Hidden Ones came to an end, I left excited and wishing I could play more, especially in multiplayer. But I came away with a good idea of what Morefun was trying to accomplish, and I liked how many nippy things there were and how unique and fascinating the characters they created here are. Arena combat is a tricky business, but so far Morefun has struck the balance between the simplicity, depth, and gameplay feel that every good fighter needs, while also giving you more to do if you don’t want to throw yourself online. I can’t wait to see where The Hidden Ones goes, and in the meantime I’ll be thinking about getting that ultimate at the right moment and how nice it was that The Hidden Ones gave me the opportunity to play the way I wanted to at that moment. Like its characters, the Hidden Ones know that even when the draws are drawn and the outcome is uncertain, there is always something at stake, hidden in plain sight.
