Overview – developed by Axyos Games and published by Eastasiasoft, Hentai VS Evil is a light hearted third-person shooter about anime girls battling monsters and saving their friends from evil. This is a budget title that is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 digitally. Links to each version of the game will be at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank Eastasiasoft for providing the copy of Hentai VS Evil that was used for this piece. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.
Mature Content Warning: this title is for mature audiences, with violence, nudity, sexual content and blood. There is Nudity in the Nintendo Switch version which consists of exposed breasts, so if you are under the recommended age or dislike this type of content, please proceed at your own discretion.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review. There is no real plot to the game so I will be skipping the story segment and going straight into the gameplay.
Gameplay – Hentai VS Evil is a third-person shooter where the player takes the role of an anime girl, wanting to save others from monsters and zombies. The game has two game play modes that can be played in three different stages, which each have their own unique layout and design. The game modes that can be played are;
- Rescue – in this mode, the player has two goals to achieve in each of the stages, eliminate a set number of Grim Reapers and rescue the trapped girl. The Reaper enemies must be defeated before the girl can be rescued. When a stage is cleared, the girl is unlocked to be used in game.
- Survivor – fight off hordes of enemies for as long as possible, with the challenge increasing over time as the player fights wave after wave of monsters, only stopping when killed by the monsters.
Scattered throughout the stages are weapons and power-ups to pick up. Make sure to pick up a weapon as soon as possible as you start each level with no weapons at all and you can only carry one at a time, but ammunition is infinite to compensate for this. The power-ups are contained in boxes that are scattered throughout the stages, becoming available when shot down and giving different effects. There is also a health pick-up in the stages that refresh the health of the player to 100%.
The weapons are pretty balanced with a good variety of arms to use, including a shotgun, automatic rifles and sniper rifles. Each of the different weapons have varying degrees of efficiency, but are balanced as each of them deals damage equal to the number of shots per reload. The guns that can be picked up at the beginning are just a shotgun and two rifles, however different weapons can be found scattered in different locations.
The enemies that appear can be broken down into three types. They are the zombies which are the most common, then the Orc that chases the player attacking with a melee weapon and the Reaper that appears randomly throughout. When fighting any enemies, great care must be taken as the collision detection and damage taken from enemies is quite wonky, with almost non-existent invincibility when hurt and damage can be taken without clear contact being made.
Unfortunately the collision issues are made worse by the camera, as it can be difficult to control, especially when trying to aim and turn around to hit enemies behind the player. These flaws can hamper the experience, causing frustration when getting surrounded and attacked from behind, which leads to death fairly quickly due to the amount of damage they do. Death is the greatest frustration, since there is only one life per run and a game over boots the player to the main menu.
Outside of the actual gameplay there is a dress-up/customization feature where the girls can be altered, including the ability to expose the girls’ breasts. The options for customization include changing the height, costume, head gear and even the size of the girls’ thighs/breasts. The options available in this little mode are quite nice, letting the player change up the characters freely as they are made available.
There isn’t much in terms of depth when it comes to content as there are a limited number of stages, but there is an amount of replay value to this title. There is an online leaderboard that lets players challenge themselves to beat others in a competitive manner, when combined with the time attack element of Survival there is enough substance to this budget title.
Now with the gameplay covered, I want to move to other aspects of the game, starting with the controls.
Controls – the controls are functional for the most part, but there are some flaws to it. The movement and shooting works well, but sadly the camera is a little difficult to consistently control at times. This is most frustrating when trying to aim accurately, so turning the camera sensitivity down in the options menu is the best course of action. Aside from the flaws mentioned above, the overall experience is fairly solid when playing in handheld and docked mode, especially with the pro-controller on a big screen.
Difficulty – there are two options for difficulty in Hentai VS Evil, Easy and Normal. There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the two options, aside from the starting point of the character and a minor increase in damage taken. The same unfortunate issues do carry over between both difficulty settings, being swarmed means certain death unless you can escape and enemies can be bullet sponges, which can just become frustrating.
Presentation – visually this release is a mixed bag, with environments that look like they have been taken from asset store and enemies that are inconsistent in their designs. The resolution and frame rate are stable, which is a plus but the lighting for the only night time stage is very poor which is unfortunate. The best thing about the game from a graphical perspective is the girls are cute, but that’s about it really.
The sound design is also very generic, which is another bad omen for Hentai VS Evil. The weapon sound effects lack any real impact, the enemy grunts are weak and the sound bites for the girls don’t really add anything. This inconsistency in the sound design is persistent throughout, with music that doesn’t really fit the tone that the game portrays. There is overly tense music and it just doesn’t work as well as they had likely hoped.
Final Thoughts – to be completely honest, I was really hoping for more substance than what is presented here. The game can be fun to play, but that enjoyment becomes frustration very quickly when the camera starts to fight against the player, leading to repeated failure due to the collision issues. I do believe that with some improvements to the camera, collision detection and variety of levels/modes, this could be so much better. However, right now I can only recommend this game if it is on sale as I feel it is lacking in substance, even though it is a digital only budget title.
In the end, I give Hentai VS Evil a final score of 2.5/5. While this title is fun in bursts, it is unfortunately hampered by a combative camera, inconsistencies with the combat mechanics and limited options in when it comes to game modes/stages. If you do want to check this title out for yourself, links to the game will be below.
Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)
Link to PlayStation version (HERE)
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