Hanako: Honor & Blade, the action-packed multiplayer samurai game from +MPACT Games, is going Free-to-Play on December 10, 2021.
Hanako has been in Early Access on Steam for several years, finally launching into full release in September of 2021. After encountering what +MPACT describes as "a slow start", the decision was made to pivot to a free-to-play model in an attempt to bolster player numbers. It is clear from the tone of recent press releases that Hanako has been a passion project for the team at +MPACT, and more than anything they simply want people to try the game out and see what it has to offer.
I hopped into Hanako: Honor & Blade this morning in its pre-free-to-play form, just to get a feel for the combat and flow of the game. I found that - while I had some difficulty at first - the game is very smooth and intuitive once the controls click. This is definitely a game in need of players though, as the bots I was playing against don't offer very much in the way of challenge. I am rather terrible at online battle games, and I was able to have a fair amount of success, meaning that those players that are good at this stuff must absolutely stomp these bots into the dust. Hanako cries out for real humans to offer a greater degree of challenge.
In addition to going free-to-play, Hanako is also scheduled to receive a number of community-feedback driven improvements, including better hit detection, new melee animations, a new combo counter, and a bunch of bug and crash fixes. If all goes well the team at +MPACT hopes to soon start beta testing on its Samurai Royale mode, with a new map being created specifically for that purpose.
