CODE Bunny: Hazel Part 1: Lumna City
7My coverage of well-inspired indie games continues.
I learned about a furry platformer from 2024 that was made by Brazilian devs of Team Seventh Star. This game feels like a blend of Mega Man-like movement, spiced with Sonic-esque pacing.
You get to play as two different bunnies in this game: The more serious and straightforward Hazel, who has a focus on locking-on, and striking down her enemies with her sword, and the more relaxed Axel, who prefers more to dance over, against, and around his enemies.
For now, I'll use Hazel. She's more beginner-friendly.
----------
When you start out as Hazel, you get a tutorial of how to use her basic 4-hit sword combo. You can also aim the slash downward in midair to bounce off enemies.
Another thing about her is that she can Parry, which will then lead straight into a Riposte counter. As long as you can ready the Parry and come in contact with the enemy in time, the Ripsote will come out.
Hazel's main claim to fame is her Ghost Crescent attack, where she marks targets, and then dashes straight towards them in a Homing Attack matter. You can mark multiple targets and Hazel will strike each of them back-to-back.
One more significant thing about using Hazel is her Karma meter. The more Karma she has, the more damage she will take from enemy, which will then drain the Karma.
Karma gets built up if you allow you numbered combo to end, or when you hit a marked enemy.
If your if have more Karma than health, you'll go into Karma Mode where Hazel will deal quadruple damage, but getting hit once in this state will put her into Critial Health. One hit in this state, and you die!
The game actually encourages you to maintain your combo as high as you can. If the Combo Meter empties, then your number will be gone. You can, however, retain this number at Checkpoints, where it will keep the highest Combo number you had and default to that if you drop a further Combo. That is until you die.
----------
Now for the actual start of the game.
Hazel Jones starts her mission in Lumna City, where she is guided by another rabbit girl named Dr. Igusa Yatsuki. Hazel is hunting down a particular target, but there will be other enemies to stand in her way.
----------
The base speed of you going through a stage in this game will mainly be determined by how well you can use your character's special attacks. The levels are Sonic-esque in that they're multi-tiered in accordance to how well you can play through them. Play well, and you'll more often than not be able to keep your character in the higher, more open routes of the level. If you're not good, however, you'll likely toss yourself down to lower, slower routes.
Another thing with Hazel's Ghost Crescent is that you can Double Jump after it hits. Just make sure you're aim with these jumps is precise, because turning the opposite way afterwards will lead to much slower air control.
My goal of this Hazel run is to beat every stage with AT LEAST an S Rank, which will mainly require you to hit a certain Combo number without dying. However, there is also an S+ Rank, which will need you to do all of this without even getting hit.
Lumna City's Highest Combo quota is at least 60 hits, and then its following boss' quota is 15 hits.
----------
After each level, you'll run into a boss battle with its own Rank to get.
Hazel, of the Xanadu Army, has approached her main target, ready to defeat and apprehend them, not that the target will comply so easily!
----
Upon the defeat, the suspect lost their power suit, and Hazel realized that they were just a kid...
The kid, however, refused to be taken in by Hazel, as they didn't trust her alligenace with Lagos Hyperbolics.
Turned out that the child's name is Lune, and he was taken away by two other rabbits that he was alligned with. Together, they formed a team known as Mad Bunny.
Because of this, Hazel felt like she failed her mission...
----------
CODE Bunny takes place on the Planet Lumna. The most powerful energy source known there was called Aethr, with it originally being discovered from Comet Yliaster.
Together, Lagos Hyperbolics, and Lumna's Xanadu Army, have collaborated to start a project to harness as much Aethr as they could:
This project was called The UY Space Program.
----------
At this Lagos HQ space station, Hazel got to meet Igusa for the first time. She leads the UY Space Program. She's also joined by Raphi, their mechanic, and the "girly-looking guy" named Axel.
The three of them were impressed with Hazel's skills, but Hazel was entirely focused on her mission. No nonsense.
The mission being, is that Hazel needs to hunt down that Mad Bunny group in their pursuit against other Xanadu stations across the world.
----------
Before starting the next stage, you can have a few chats with other characters, mainly to learn more of their personalities, as well as that of your protagonist.