Back in 1999, the PlayStation was a powerhouse in the home console industry. In these formative years of the Sony home console series, we saw a vast array of titles launched with a wide spread of success and failure. Among those titles that surfaced during this era was a simple budget tactical RPG named Battle Hunter. The sad truth of this sweet gem is that it was overlooked, mostly for reasons that we now know put it ahead of its time by over a decade.
Made by A1 Games and localized by Midas and Agetech, Battle Hunter is a relatively simple game. Players are thrown into a post-apocalyptic world that has been ravaged by world wars. Tasked with retrieving key relics that surviving scientists believe will help them find a formula to save mankind from extinction. They accomplish this by creating their own Hunters and pitting them head to head in the underground ruins of the old world's cities.
Character creation is quick and concise, but not without some nuance. Players are given the choice of several different anime-style models to choose from. Each option has several color palettes and governs the animations of your character, from weapon choice to idle animations. Some are rather unique, evoking a style of their own that suits the themes of the game. Others are more generic, such as the trench coat-wearing street samurai and the also trench coat-clad mysterious stranger. Each of them brings a certain flavor of their own to the game.
After choosing a model, players are granted 11 points to spend on stat points. You can spread them out as evenly (or otherwise) as you'd like. Once you've chosen your character model and stat spread, your final step is to name your hunter. Once named and saved, they can be loaded into or removed from a game as you like. Then the real fun begins.
Battle Hunter is best experienced with friends, but you may choose to play it alone to follow the game's single player story. If you have a good group, a single controller will accommodate up to four players in classic pass and play fashion. You can use a multitap and up to four controllers, but forward-thinking design makes this unnecessary.
The single shadiest fellow in gaming history hands you missions that send you and your intrepid friends into the abysmal depths of the past world. You'll find everything from floppy discs containing mild fan service, to weapons and gear aimed at making your job easier. These items are obtained by walking over boxes located on a randomly generated tile map. Though you are seeking a particular item to succeed, you can locate and collect several different items for later appraisal. Selling items will be your number one source of income outside of winning, which can only be accomplished by a single player.
The game itself plays out in turns, with each player starting with five cards in their hand drawn from a deck of . These cards come in four types: blue (movement), yellow (defense), red (attack), and green (trap). Each of these types of card have their own specific uses. Some can be used in combat, others only out of combat. Some can be used in both situations. This system, coupled with the 2d6 combat system, makes for an ingeniously easy to learn but difficult to master experience.
Admittedly, it might not have enough content to hold up in today's market. However, the concepts that it put forward were overlooked at the time, but we see them all the time in modern gaming. Systems like procedural generation of maps, the use of a central die mechanic, and the idea of hand/deck building in a dynamic setting, were all well ahead of their time by almost a decade.
Would the world today embrace Battle Hunter the way it was released in 1999? Probably not, if we're being honest. It would need a lot more content to stand out in today's market. I personally think that if we saw an updated version of the game, with much more content and a more robust character creation and loot system, it would rock the industry to its core. Hopefully, we get to see a Battle Hunter revival in the future. I think that's something we could all enjoy.
-Ben
Comments