Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact is already struggling to find an audience, largely because of issues with the game’s online battles and the general reception around the game being less than stellar.
Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact was quietly announced by Bushiroad and legendary fighting game developers Eighting and Arc System Works in January 2024, with more details slowly being shared throughout the year. Many fans got the chance to try the game for the first time at Evo 2024 and most early buzz around Eighting’s next project was positive, though, at release, that sentiment has flipped.
Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact officially launched on July 17, though many players got to go hands on earlier either through paid early access or the free Steam demo. As of July 19, the game is sitting at a 53 percent on OpenCritic, a 51 percent on Metacritic, and a mixed review score on Steam as players refund the game enmasse due to ongoing issues.
Players who were excited for the game and even grinding the demo have already stopped playing it and, in some cases, outright refunded it on Steam because of things like the current state of its netcode or a lack of other polished content.
A day before the full launch of Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact, Bushiroad published a notice on the game’s website informing players of major issues impacting online battle performance.
The biggest issue is “excessive rollback frames” causing desyncs during matches, input delays, and other inconsistencies that can make the game unplayable at times. If you have seen the dozens of clips from players watching their character or their opponent teleport around the screen or take random damage, it is due to this issue.
Considering Bushiroad delayed Nen x Impact from a 2024 release into 2025 to properly implement rollback netcode into the game, the feature’s failure to work at launch has created one of its biggest hurdles to success.
Nen impact has some 2011 netcode lol what is this
— dekillsage (@dekillsage) July 15, 2025
Without consistent and solid online performance, players won’t waste their time loading up the game to practice or grind online battles because they are just going to be flipping a coin on if they will deal with frustrating netcode conditions. With so many other good fighting games out there on the market, why would anyone spend $60 on a game with less content and worse online compared to older titles?
That doesn’t even touch the fact that Nen x Impact does not offer crossplay, which means players are locked to competing against other users on their platform of choice—PC, Nintendo Switch, or PlayStation. Considering the game has peaked at 277 users at launch, the pool of players is already smaller than the likes of Blazblue Centralfiction, Street Fighter IV, and at least a dozen other older fighting games.
It is also worth noting that the Nen x Impact is frequently hovering around the same active users as Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, highlighting the issue of player retention for another recent FGC release.
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It goes beyond issues impacting battles, too, as many players have also reported that the room feature doesn’t work as intended, and the combo trials are glorified cutscenes that don’t even show you the information you need for a single input. This game just feels like it is lacking in too many key areas.
In short, Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact can be saved, but it is already fighting a losing battle.
The $60 price, the busted netcode at launch, public sentiment toward the game being mixed, and the sheer variety of quality fighting game options on the market are all weighing down upon Eighting, Bushiroad, and ArcSys’ shoulders. Not to mention that the lack of marketing and early preview opportunities outside of fighting game events basically resulted in the game shadowdropping for many potential players.
I played the game early, am actively involved in the fighting game community, and watch fighting game content. The only ad I saw for the game outside of events was in a sponsored email from MyAnimeList.
A game with no real apparent marketing that costs $60, $75 if you want the DLC, and launches with its online in the state it is in was bound to face backlash.
The good news is that the game is fun and hype to watch when things are at their best. Sure, it is an Eighting game, which means some wild, long combos appear near-infinite, and there will obviously be some balancing problems. But the game is based on a popular anime IP, brings those characters into a fighting game with high-quality representation of their abilities, and, as a result, has a solid roster with varied styles of play.
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Other issues aside, if a game doesn’t have a good gameplay base, you won’t be able to redeem it because it won’t be fun to play. Nen x Impact does have good gameplay at its core and even if the production value of the rest of the game doesn’t match bigger games, it still looks good enough to appeal to fans of the anime/manga and the general FGC.
Depending on how the developers and publishers address the netcode problems and other community complaints, there is a chance we can see Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact bounce back to become a niche success. But we have seen part of this song and dance before with Eighting and DnF Duel, but even that game had a hotter start than what we are seeing with Nen x Impact.