The Hidden Ones, an Upcoming Fighting Game, Blends Chinese Kung Fu and the Supernatural | Global News Avenue

While there are plenty of fighting games in big franchises like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, there aren’t many games that replicate real-life martial arts these days. That’s where Nameless comes in, an upcoming game from Tencent studio Mofeng Studio that blends motion-capture kung fu with supernatural powers to create a compelling 3D fighting game. With amazing depth. Morefun plans to release “The Hidden Ones” in the third quarter of 2025, with pre-testing in January and closed beta in March.

I previewed the game for a few hours in Los Angeles. It has an ebb and flow 3D combat feel Dragon Ball: Spark Zero Combined with an extensive fighter catalog. It’s a fun fighting game so far, and it’s easy to pick up and use special skills, but there are deeper complexities that I still haven’t gotten the hang of. While 2D fighting games have dominated in terms of technical precision, Hidden Ones blends free 3D movement with timing and counters to create a promising and fun fighting system.

“The Invisible” is adapted from Under One: The OutcastA popular online comic in China was adapted into a five-season animated series and, more recently, a live-action TV show. The story follows the emergence of the Eight Secret Arts, recently rediscovered, powerful martial arts mastered by boxers who naturally fight each other on a regular basis. The series combines Chinese Kung Fu, Taoism, spirituality, Yin Yang Bagua and Qi energy, blending martial arts and supernatural mythology.

“The overall perspective of Outcast is very interesting and unique, with a Chinese mythology and martial arts feel,” lead game designer Fox Lin said through a translator. “Exile” tells a deeply human story set in a Chinese setting and imbued with Taoism—a philosophical and religious tradition that embraces the human virtues of compassion and monastic simplicity through the practice of self-cultivation. Martial arts such as Tai Chi, as well as the various traditions under the Kung Fu and Wushu umbrellas, are based on Taoist philosophy.

While other fighting games like Street Fighter have flashy effects, Morefun wanted to incorporate the combat of Hidden Ones into martial arts. While Outcast’s warriors have supernatural abilities, they’re integrated into more traditional combat. Morefun uses motion capture technology for every character’s movements in the game, and according to senior game designer Stan Fan: “In the game, even people with magical powers[use it]in a martial way, using them to Combined so you see the details of how they move and the martial arts themselves.”

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I could easily see this mix in The Hidden Ones. Each fighter has their own special abilities that can be woven into basic attacks or used to catch opponents off guard. But the game is unique in another way: It’s been built from the ground up to be played on PC and mobile devices – no console plans have been announced yet – so the combat system has been streamlined for simple commands and special abilities have been Maps to simple button presses. This places a particular emphasis on positioning and combat flow. Many times, I would rush in and execute a basic attack combo, only to have my opponent catch me with a special ability first.

This is where The Hidden Ones stands out. In my duels with other players, we would start by circling carefully, waiting for the other person to make a move, and try to punish with our own combinations. Given the range of abilities in the character roster—some have narrow abilities, some have close-range area attacks, and so on—it’s interesting to see how certain fighters stack up against each other. Even if I get defeated, it’s great to understand the combat better and go into the next one.

Come for the story of the Hidden Ones, stay for the duel

There were three modes to choose from in the preview – single-player story, one-on-one duels, and bossrush trial mode – but I only picked two because I was drawn to both.

I played the mid-game chapter of the single-player story, which follows a warrior named Wang Ye as he discovers who sent a gang of thugs after his family. Of course, he must fight for the truth through the city’s back alleys and beautiful courtyards. The game loosely follows the original story of the webcomic and anime series, but certain things have been changed and added to the game – such as the embittered gang lieutenant I fought at the end of the chapter, whose second phase involves summoning a temple the size of The snake spirit.

With plenty of anime-style cutscenes and a handful of warriors sprinkled throughout, the story mode is shaping up to be a fun excursion. It was interesting enough to distract me from the Trials mode, where players can fight other bosses and selectively increase the difficulty – which is too bad because I missed the confrontation A nasty boss with a fire spear. Wheels of fire at her feet circle the stage (based on Nezha(The Third Lotus Prince in Taoism). But like all fighting games, the heart of Hidden Ones lies in its versus mode.

The substance of Hidden Ones 3D combat

In Duel, I selected three of the nine warriors available for us to play and jumped into battle with the other previewers and developers in the room. I quickly found fighters I liked, including an old demonic man in a suit with wild hair whose claw attacks ended in electro-shreds. But the real favorite in the room was Ruhua, a slender, hunched, pale woman who wielded a chain-linked kunai dagger and delivered vicious ranged strikes—I knocked her down, and got beaten up by her several times.

While fans of Outcast will no doubt recognize these characters, I certainly didn’t. It’s refreshing to discover a new lineup of fighters with strong visual and combat identities that haven’t yet appeared in Capcom, SNK, or Namco’s famous series.

I’m also pleased with the game’s combat, which feels like a more realistic version of Dragon Ball: Spark Zero’s slower-paced 3D arena combat. The developers showed off three combat flows in the preview, in which basic attacks can be blocked by defense, defense can counter special combat skills, and attacks can interrupt said skills – unless, as I discovered, the enemy will use a Ability to engage in combat or shoot from a distance.

More powerful “Sinister Skills” can only be avoided by ducking, which consumes a bit of stamina, represented by five yellow diamonds displayed on the screen. If you’re hit by an ability or basic attack combo, you can use three stamina points to disengage – but if you use up all your stamina, you’ll flash red in a more vulnerable state and take more damage. And the ultimate skill builds up and removes a lot of health over time and can only be dodged – which is possible if you see it coming, giving the enemy a chance to fight back.

There are more complex strategies in the combat system: if someone defends for too long, a normal attack will turn into a grab. You can also counterattack during a basic attack combo if you time it right, but I can’t confirm that.

On top of that are the support skills, which you equip before battle with a budget of up to four summon points, for a maximum of three skills. Simple summons like throwing soul daggers cost one point, more meaty summons cost two points, and the most powerful summons, which does things like place a healing aura on the ground, costs three points. I barely grasped the depth of this system, but it offers a lot of potential for customizing the flow of combat beyond your character’s abilities.

At the end of the day, this is still a one-on-one battle, with you leading three fighters of your choice against your opponent’s trio. Knock one down and the round ends, and your character recovers a bit of health. Interestingly, the amount recovered is not fixed but depends on an internal algorithm. While I didn’t get specific details when I spoke with the developers, I noticed that I only regained about a quarter of my health when taking out an opponent’s character. However, if you wait for the turn timer to expire, you won’t be able to regain any health at all.

Anyway, how to make a fighting game for PC and mobile devices?

What surprised me most was how easily we were able to follow the ebb and flow of the Hidden Ones’ battles. I know I overextended myself for a millisecond before my opponent punished me with a counterattack, and I only have myself to blame. It didn’t matter whether I used a controller or a mouse and keyboard during combat – and I’ve never used the latter in a fighting game.

It’s a testament to the game’s combat design that you’re constantly locking onto enemies and focusing on when and how to approach to attack or use abilities. This makes it easier to imagine how the game will be played on mobile devices (we didn’t preview the feature) – and surprisingly, Morefun anticipates cross-platform play between mobile and PC players.

While the developers aren’t too concerned about delays given the local servers in the markets they plan to enter (North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, China, and the rest of Asia), the developers do admit that PC players struggle with touch input on mobile phones. Than, it might be easier to enter precise commands.

“The team conducted a lot of exclusive testing among the players we recruited (PC and mobile players) just to ensure that the majority of players get the best experience,” Lin said. “We also give them personalization options to suit their own customization. The team did a lot of research on that.”

There are other tweaks to the game depending on the platform they’re played on. If you’re using a mobile device, the cutscenes will scale up the character to best fit on the smaller but wider screen of your smartphone, while when playing on PC, the cutscenes will scale down to fit the larger display.

Although the game is only around 90 minutes long, The Hidden Ones appears to be an interesting mix of polished martial arts action with some compelling supernatural powers, all wrapped around a tight combat system that will appeal to both button-mashing players and those with more skill levels. High-level players feel particularly happy.

We’ll have to see if the story mode itself appeals to new players and Outcast fans, but fighting game veterans who prefer the more free-form 3D arena sub-genre will want to keep an eye on January’s prealpha and March’s closed beta to try the Hidden Ones for themselves.

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