Hexaluga - Witch Hunter's Travelling Castle

Introduction

Hexaluga - Witch Hunter's Travelling Castle imagines a world overrun by monsters where humanity's last hope isn't a fortified kingdom but a colossal mobile castle that must never stop moving to survive. Developed by Hede and Hexaluga mines and published by Hede, its original release patch dates to 12 March 2018. Its 11 English-language reviews sit at 10 negative to 1 positive — this review read every one of them, and independently checked the claims they make against Steam's own public records.

What the reviewers say, in their own words

The negative-review sample is blunt and specific. "❂ Hexaluga ❂ Witch Hunter's Travelling Castle ♉ is an abandoned Early Access Unity asset flip from the scammers at HEDE games," reads one detailed review, describing the playable content as "a few basic Unity assets that you can wander around as part of a tutorial" with nothing resembling a finished game beyond it. Another, from a reviewer who identifies themselves as an attorney: "This is NOT early access to a game. This is access to an idea of a game that may be... I went through the process of requesting a refund, because selling this game is fraud." A third, more simply: "Do not even consider buying it. It's stillborn." Several reviewers reference the developer's other releases in the same breath — "as all Hede products, not worth even at 99.9981% discount" — suggesting this isn't viewed as an isolated incident.

What this review could verify independently

Rather than simply repeating those claims, this review checked what could actually be confirmed through Steam's own public data. Three things stood out. First, the game's own news feed shows a "Leave Early Access" post dated 21 February 2024 — meaning Hexaluga remained formally in Early Access for roughly six years after its original 2018 patch notes, with no further update posts recorded in that entire span. Second, Steam's own achievement list for the game contains exactly one entry, named simply "Run," sitting at 70.3% completion — a strikingly minimal scope for a full-priced release, and consistent with reviewers' description of the playable content as essentially a tutorial. Third, searching the developer's other Steam listings turned up a second, completely unrelated product — a "HEDE Game Engine" tool — priced at the exact same NZ$289.99, and itself sitting at majority-negative (6 of 8 reviews). A live concurrent-player check for Hexaluga itself returned zero.

None of these facts alone proves the specific accusation of fraud some reviewers make — this review did not play the game and cannot speak to intent. But three independently verifiable data points — a multi-year Early Access period that ended without visible development, a single achievement consistent with barely-started content, and an identical, extraordinarily high price applied to an unrelated product from the same developer — line up closely enough with what reviewers describe that this review has no basis to soften its verdict.

Verdict

Hexaluga has a genuinely interesting premise buried somewhere in its concept — a family's last remaining shelter, forced to keep moving or die — that the one detailed positive-leaning review engages with seriously. But everything this review could independently verify about the game's actual history and content scope corroborates what ten of its eleven reviewers say plainly: this is being sold as a finished product for NZ$289.99 without the content to justify it. Do not buy this without reading the reviews yourself first.