Review of World of Darkness: Demon Hunter X

Demon Hunter X is the third in White Wolf's "Year of the Lotus" series of suppliments for the World of Darkness. It contains two distinct groups of monster hunters that are indigenous to the Far East: the Shih, and Strike Force Zero. The former group is a loose brotherhood of traditional hunters that closely emulate characters from Vampire Hunter D and Demon City Shinjuku, amongst other anime and live-action films. The latter is a cross between Men In Black and Japanese sentai shows. Both are home to a compelling cadre of characters that populate the Middle Kingdom of the World of Darkness.

This book maintains the level of quality established with Kindred of the East and sustained by World of Darkness: Hong Kong. It's got a short comic up front that spells out how both groups operate without any fuss or mess, breezes through an introduction that informs the reader about the book's contents without insult his intelligence, gives one chapter to each group, takes care of character creation in the next one and wraps up the rest in the last chapter- which is all about running a Far East hunter campaign. It does all of this with style, grace and clarity- the last of which is not usually associated with White Wolf's products.

What I liked best about this book was that I got all of this top-notch stuff at a great price. Two complete organizations, plus all needed support material, for $15? That's a bargain! The worst, by comparison, was the overzealous need to tie both groups into the larger wars in the World of Darkness. Tying Strike Force Zero to the Technocracy and the Shih to either the Akashics or the Dragon Wizards seemed like overkill to me, but I can cope with that. The rest of the book is excellant, and I recommend it to everyone who wants to see how White Wolf's experientment with anime-like cinematic gaming goes- as well as anyone who wants more stuff for their Feng Shui or Hong Kong Action Theater games

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)