Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth – Hololive Alternative review

PEPOSOFT’s Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth – Hololive Alternative caters to two types of enthusiasts. Those enamored by Shirakami Fubuki, will likely appreciate the PC title’s depiction of the persistently cheerful virtual tuber. Rendered as an adorable, pixel-art sprite, Fubuki leaps around the screen with the agility of an actual artic fox. Across six stages that contain several other notable Hololive cameos, you’ll be treated to a torrent of Fubuki sound bites, making the game sound like an impassioned streaming session.

But if you’re just interested in Mega Man X-style action, familiarity with the Hololive Alternative universe isn’t mandatory. Instead, you’ll be more in need of resilient fingertips, as you repeatedly tap a button to swing her katana, named Murasamemaru. Capable of issuing a three-strike combo, Fubuki can also charge her attack, spin dash, use a ranged weapon, as well as slash upward and below.

Can’t Catch This Fox

When combined with the ability to double-jump and wall run, the VTuber is always on the move, which is essential since Zero in on Holoearth likes to fill the screen with enemies and their projectiles. Fortunately, when things grow unbearably hectic, you can mobilize one of your familiars to catch a brief break.

Zero in on Holoearth’s difficulty settings are precisely named. Normal has a few hurdles to overcome, like when Fubuki forfeits one of her lives after she accidentally falls through a stage gap. Bosses tend to have a lot of health and are largely unaffected by your ranged attacks. These showdowns are suitably stressful, but I did wish there was more variability. Most bosses periodically leap through the air, summoning storms of projectiles and trying to dash-ram you. If Hard isn’t enough of a challenge for you, beating the game unlocks an additional difficulty as well as a boss rush mode.

Some Middling Mid-bosses

And while slashing your way through stages like Cyber Akihabara, Frozen Theme Park, Oeyama Temple Ruins, and Underworld Casino is entertaining, there aren’t quite enough stage gimmicks across a playthrough. Yes, Fubuki gets to ride a pumpkin and there’s all kinds of cute sprites culled from folklore. But most of the time, you’ve evading heavyweights positioned on platforms and waves of floating subordinates, which can grow a bit dull before long. And it’s a minor complaint, but why can’t Zero in on Holoearth incessantly scroll? Shifting from one playfield to another might have been the norm during the NES era but now it’s unnecessarily jarring.

Interestingly, you can spend two different kinds of currencies to purchase perks like extra health, mana, and additional lives, if you want to tweak the game’s difficulty any further. Peculiarly, one resource is constrained to the Casio stage, making grinding a bit grating. Zero in on Holoearth makes several of these oddball design decisions. Fortunately, none of them are bad enough to ruin Fubuki’s playful platformer, but they don’t do the fox girl any favors.

Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth – Hololive Alternative was
played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.