Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune – PS5 Review

The indie space is full of search action games that don’t always manage to set themselves apart. Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune comes from IceSeaTeam and, after a long spell in early access, the full product is available for Playstation 5. What arrives is a fully-baked effort that, whilst not feeling unique, offers a lot for your money.

The story of Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune is something I’ve not really paid attention to. The basic premise is our heroine’s ship being struck down on an alien planet. She is now a fully-fledged hunter with her demonic hairpin Diablo providing cheeky quips. The hairpin desperately wants a new body but, in the meantime, he’s stuck as a talking accessory. He can be a mild pest but he does seem firmly a background character.

Whilst the ship is being repaired, Erza takes the opportunity to gather supplies and explore the planet. She has Cara as a dopey sidekick but the duo quickly discover a local who bolsters their party into a trio. Nia offers some background into the local area and the monsters that inhabit it. Everything is hostile to our crew and this has an explanation within the narrative. Girls just seem to trigger them.

Outside of that, there are some cutscenes that flesh out the larger plot. Unfortunately, I’ve just not focused enough on it. It feels light and not delivering much in the way of depth. I don’t see it as a negative, as a property that’s already had a prior instalment. You can jump in at this point and not feel especially lost. That said, I’m not sure of a wider goal beyond repairing the ship and getting back home.

Whilst not quite a bait and switch, Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune does offer some early distractions away from the search action genre. These largely task you with manning canons to defeat an advancing horde or clear a path through some asteroids. Once the ship is crash landed, the game takes on a much more familiar shape. As you explore the caverns and rock terrain of the world, a two-dimensional map fills in. Save points and teleporters allow for respite and enable quick navigation to previously explored areas. Some doors are locked from elsewhere or require keys, giving you immediate goals beyond filling in the map. Each area has it’s own motif with plenty of secrets and loot to discover.

There is RPG elements to tinker with. Each member of your party has weaponry, armour and accessories that contain spaces to slot cores into. These cores are acquired by beating certain enemies and can be used to add certain buffs or stat bonuses to your crew. You can upgrade your gear to accommodate more slots but you can also craft new weapon, armour and accessories. It leads to a system that is very flexible. I would always favour some extra strength but there’s the potential for builds to be diverse. Vendors encourage this with plentiful stocks and the game is lenient enough that it never felt a struggle.

Combat is simple and fairly easy to mash combos out. There is depth to it with specific moves being triggered by button combinations. I would default to the same ones but there’s a spectacle and a fluidity to it that is really satisfying. You can pin enemies down and, even bosses can be occupied by attacks with heavy stun properties.

There’s a different feel to the characters in combat. Cara favours her feet so her high-flying kicks can launch foes off the screen. Nia’s swordplay hold enemies in place and spinning attacks from above are quite damaging. I picked up a whip for Erza that gives her a great deal of range. On top of this, each person can switch between two weapons. Cara’s guns can deal damage from afar whilst also solving a few of game’s puzzles. Despite doing a lot of it, combat felt varied enough to maintain a welcome. I’ve yet to feel tired of it, even if traversal can favour quick movement.

Double-jumps and dashes can make moving around the map swift. Whilst grinding for experience and cores can make fighting enemies rewarding, I did reach a point where I wanted to speed things up. It’s nice to see the map loop around to older areas and it’s good at informing you where the next objective is. It doesn’t tell you everything like where unopened chests could be. The option is there to mark that stuff as you find it. I rarely felt lost which is a benefit when you consider how large the map becomes.

It quickly became apparent when I was slowly chalking off map percentages. Despite putting plenty of hours in, the content in Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune feels substantial. It keeps pulling out further and it can be quite daunting. Each new area feels distinct with the latter locations feeling quite opulent.

Special attention has been paid to our heroines who animate smoothly and have detailed outfits. Their moves look meticulous and, in general, there’s a polished appearance to the levels. Even in the flow of combat, things are spectacular but easy to read to and understand. It’s presented very well with a soundtrack that keeps things light.

Whilst the story does little to hold my interest, the exploration, swift traversal and flashy combat adds plenty to admire. The RPG elements allow for some player expression whilst the game itself isn’t desperate to provide a stern challenge. It took be surprise just how lengthy this adventure is with a map that can quickly dwarf you. It’s not doing anything new but it is doesn’t it well.