- Real life feasibility
Think about Japan in (late) WW2: they are being pushed on all fronts, they are being bombed, they don’t have any resources and the ones they have are sent towards the navy and planes.
Look at (real) Japanese tanks, their engines, armor, armament: the best Japan could do were Chi-Ha Kai and Ha-Go.
Do you really believe Japan was able to magically switch to a whole Ferdinand lookalike with impenetrable armor and a huge gun?
- War Thunder forgery
Both vehicles were added to War Thunder out of necessity to add something at all (WT is only about vehicles) and based on the suggestion of their paid consultant under the username MaiWaffentrager on Reddit.
That same consultant later confirmed that one version of the vehicle (“Production”) was a “planned prototype” and the other (“Prototype”) was a complete “what if”.
Besides, other Reddit users accused said consultant of forging documents and photo shipping evidence.
MaiWaffentrager commented that they are "not in support of the Ho-Ri as shown ingame "and “after leaving I took down everything and started aiding in changing the tanks to historical sides”.
If interested, you can read the original conversation here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/s/LGpmGThwdI
- Real life manufacturing
The Ho-Ri project was planned to use the Chi-Ri chassis.
Yet only one incomplete prototype of the Chi-Ri itself was built until the end of the war.
This Japanese war thunder wiki aggregates all available information and debunks all alleged evidence that any Ho-Ri “production” or “prototype” ever existed as real vehicles.
https://wikiwiki.jp/warthunder/Ho-Ri%20Production
“Ho-Ri Prototype” was a wooden mockup, it was never actually built.
“Ho-Ri Production” is a straight up fabrication.
- Reputable sources
Zaloga, Steven J. (2007). Japanese Tanks 1939–45.
“Zaloga only gave a handful of sentences on tank destroyer projects such as the Ho-Ri 1 and Ho-Ri 2 (which did not get built) and the Ho-To and Ho-Ro tank destroyers which at least got to prototype stages”
- The “But faction X in Enlisted needs something to counter faction Y” argument
Adding things that did not even exist in real life is definitely not the solution.
Otherwise where is the line between “Ho-Ri” and “Nazi UFO” since neither existed?