Hauntii is infinitely striking in its hand-drawn palette and mysterious world. Reminiscent of many indie hits and open-ended exploration games, enough uniqueness propels this debut title past any shortcomings that may hinder its wonder.
Hauntii is one of those wonderful games that isn’t overshadowed by its intoxicating aesthetic.
Undoubtedly, Moonloop Games’ debut title is one that could sell based on its trailer. Countless independent games over the years have battled for recognition through any number of quirks and often work to ensnare eyeballs through a sleek or–for a lack of a better word–haunting trailer. You see Hauntii in motion and you have to drink it up. That happened to me a few weeks ago when I saw the game for the first time through one of its trailers. “Yeah I need to play that.”
Stunning does little to encapsulate the monochrome, two-tone visual palette Hauntii employs throughout its runtime. The game, surprisingly, is rarely bright or sharp. In fact, an often razor-thin layer of mist or haze dulls the actual colors splashed on the screen meant to contrast with the all-encompassing black. Those blacks often have a wash of grey, not making them so dark and devoid of life.
This is not a fundamental flaw in the color theory Moonloop chose to work with. Rather, it evolves the game to be more than just bright, beautiful hand-drawn animations pushing through darkness.
In Hauntii, players take control of a ghost, the namesake of the game. They have been cast from the mortal coil and found themselves in Eternity, a landscape for spirits that have passed on. Eternity is home to fungal forests, theme parks, abandoned cities, and a gateway towards possible ascension. Hauntii opens with a wordless segment where the black ghost with glowing green eyes meets an ethereal white being that speaks using indecipherable symbols. They join hands, rising towards a mysterious fate as the music swells and the screen swirls with personality, only to find Hauntii being ripped back down to Eternity by ghastly chains.
Essentially, Hauntii opens with an arthouse-like cadence. Symbolism bubbles under the surface of every action the player takes. And over the course of the game, signposts imply there’s more to the picture than meets the eye.
These are trappings of many games you may have played before and I thought of a number of them during my time with Hauntii. Echoes of many favorites including Fez, Bastion, Hollow Knight, and Inside to name a few. Hauntii obfuscates a lot, both with its narrative and its progression. And when those previous games flash into my mind, it isn’t because Moonloop made something like those others, it’s because Hauntii also leaves a unique impression.
Putting together the pieces of Hauntii‘s story is not left to overturning hidden stones. Eternity is a world populated by ghosts of all shapes, sizes, and species. From the humanoid to the canine to the nut-spitting plant, Eternity’s denizens speak in words the player and, assuredly, Hauntii can understand. They offer vague hints about the world, expound upon the nature of death, and warn Hauntii that the companion he seeks to reunite with may be quite dangerous. The world itself is intimately cozy but there are whispers of grander purpose, providing players with appropriate depth in a world meant to be explored and examined at a leisurely pace.
Surprisingly, the game is not at all what I expected based on the sole trailer I fell in love with. Marketing suggests an element of twin-stick shooters to Hauntii and while I understand that suggestion, there is a lack of true nail-biting action.
Hauntii is a ghost capable of firing off essence, little blobs of energy that they use to attack and, more importantly, haunt things. Shooting is conducted with the right stick when playing on a controller while movement is dictated with the left. Yes, it’s a familiar layout but the shooting in Hauntii lacks an astute precision that can cause a few battles and puzzles to feel slightly clumsy. Frequently enough the player will encounter corrupted ghosts that usually glow with a tint of red and fire off similarly angry particles.
A decent number of enemy encounters offer variety in the playspace. You will have ghosts that damage Hauntii by rushing in for a melee attack and those that shoot projectiles from a distance. Pools of damaging goop will cover some areas and the players must use their own ammunition to mop up and eliminate the oppressive stuff before losing health. Combined with a number of visually striking and relatively clever boss fights, Hauntii infuses a proper amount of action into its adventure, enough that I occasionally scoffed and cursed at being hit and steeled my senses to avoid taking further damage.
More importantly, however, is that ability to haunt rather than harm.
The surprising wrinkle in Hauntii is that the ghost can literally haunt an object or an entity after blasting them with enough essence. A potentially hauntable thing will flash a yellow icon that increases when struck by Hauntii’s essence, fill up the icon and that thing is now haunted. Haunt a tree and players can shake currency loose from it. Haunt these weird jumping creatures and butt-slam poles into the ground. Haunt a ladybug and it can climb high up trees and float slowly through the air. Haunt a rollercoaster and boost it up steep slopes.
While the world is not exactly the oyster of the player, there’s a surprising amount of freedom one has in haunting what’s inside of it. Initially, Hauntii can only fire a bit of essence before it needs to be recharged and some objects require more time to build up a haunt than others. Though not everything has a special action, a lot of unique actions consume a resource that is easily found throughout the world, so much so that I never felt like I would run out. It does seem a bit silly to shave off this energy multiple times to make a tree shake or initiate a ground pound but it must exist so players don’t absolutely exploit any abilities.
Which brings me to one of my favorite aspects of Hauntii but one that introduces a major gripe with the core of the game.
Super Mario 64 and, as a closer reference point, Mario Odyssey came to mind when playing Hauntii. In Hauntii, players progress through discovering stars, much like the mustachioed plumber. Similar to Mario Odyssey, these stars are often in plain sight but just as often obscured by some puzzle or nebulous goal. Kill a group of enemies and you might get a star. Haunt that sparkling tree, shake it a bunch of times, a star will drop. Race through a series of disappearing goals, get a star.
This simple, gamey aspect of Hauntii has loose ties to its narrative goals but is engaging in its own right because it allows players to interact with and soak up the world more. Eternity is a kind of playground that isn’t meant to be a deathtrap. While dying kind of sucks–or maybe in a ghost’s case it’s a super death–players lose a chunk of currency that is primarily used to outright purchase stars or cosmetic hats to let Hauntii wear.
But there are frustrating restrictions placed around Hauntii‘s exploration. Most of the game’s maps and levels have a set number of stars. Only a few of them are easily found along the created paths laid forth. Often enough, a star might be tucked away off the beaten path, past a literal black expanse. If players spend too much time in this darkness, the screen will eventually fade and a piece of heart is lost. What makes this an annoyance–especially for completionists like myself–is that any inclination to explore everything comes with a caveat you might be walking towards nothing.
The game provides very little hint as to what stars a player might be missing or even how to obtain them. Usually its fairly obvious what object should be haunted to trigger an event, or what area something might be in. But there are times I found myself wandering around aimlessly in hopes of fully finding every available star. And because Hauntii invites exploration, players can never be too certain if they are simply missing out.
A primary example of this is that when a player haunts a tree and shakes it, small points of light drift down to the ground. Occasionally these will light up the darkness around the tree, allowing an extra bit of safety to navigate, other times they just remain the collectible currency.
Collecting stars has a narrative justification, being that they comprise constellations the player can interact with. Completing these constellations is meant to unlock a core piece of Hauntii’s memory because they do not remember anything about their life before death. Once completing a constellation, players are treated to an absolutely gorgeous scene that is often emotionally resonant, due in part to the stirring music accompanying the vignette. It’s one of the most riveting tracks in Hauntii among a collection of fantastic tunes.
Mechanically, each acquired memory means that Hauntii is more “complete” and earns the player a chance to select a piece that will grant them a new heart container, another dash charge, or another spool of essence to fire off. While these upgrades are valuable and undoubtedly lessen the tension of getting swallowed up in the darkness, I think a few passive upgrades to base speed or some kind of star radar early on would have been welcome.
Hauntii rides a fine line between wanting to reward curiosity and discouraging it based on the limited tools a player has. And despite my gripes about losing health here and there or thinking that I had wasted time going down a path only to find nothing, there were frequent moments where Hauntii‘s sense of discovery thrilled me. But just as essential were the handful of moments where Moonloop incorporated a kind of “setpiece” moment among the open-ended levels. Outside of the opening moments, the first major thing of note is the first time players haunt a rollercoaster. Like many moments throughout Hauntii, the player is still in control but the camera pans out or the action shifts, exposing the massive size of the world and its sheer creativity. It’s truly breathtaking and manage to evaporate any latent gripes that may lie in wait.
Hauntii is absolutely one of a kind, despite the familiarity players may latch on to. Moonloop Games creates a title focused on exploration that is visually riveting and packed with attention to detail. Incorporating puzzles both obtuse and clever, frustration and satisfaction may go hand in hand. But enough narrative heft and creative depth mean Hauntii is no mere specter that will fade into memory.
