Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles review

Mid-knife crisis

There are three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and a hit anime series getting a video game adaptation with Cyber Connect2 in the driver’s seat. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles checks all of those boxes and then some with its wordy title, bringing the world of the beloved manga and anime series to life in lush and vibrant fashion. It doesn’t offer anything new to the formula of anime brawlers that have formed the bulk of Japan’s licensed video game exports for at least a decade now, but it’s a competent stab at the genre that packs a graphical wallop thanks to Cyber Connect2’s talent in the cinematic quick-time event department.

If you’re unfamiliar with Demon Slayer, then you’ve missed out on what is possibly one of the best anime of recent times. Set in Taisho-era Japan, Demon Slayer follows Tanjiro Kamado on his journey to avenge the murder of his family at the hands of a demon, while also searching for a cure for his sister Nezuko who has been transformed into a demonic force. Hinokami Chronicles recaps the award-winning first season and the Mugen Train arc from the film, delivering the action-packed tale through a series of in-game cutscenes that’s bolstered by a strong cast of English and Japanese voice-acting.

If you’re familiar with the story arcs from the first season, then you’ll know where the game is headed, while newcomers can bite down on the meaty narrative’s mixture of intense combat sequences, heartbreaking moments of loss, and wonderfully silly moments of levity. The anime is still essential viewing, but for a video game adaptation, Hinokami Chronicles gets the job done overall.

At its core, Demon Slayer is a game that’s divided into two distinct parts: There’s the good ol’ fashioned fisticuffs that you’ve seen in everything from Naruto to My Hero Academia over the year, and a trek across various locales that leads you to each showdown. That latter part is easily the weak link in Demon Slayer’s chain of interactive events, an absolute slog of wandering around that pads out the game’s story mode unnecessarily as you hunt for Kimetsu Points to unlock rewards and Memory Fragments that provide a steady stream of screenshots from the anime.

It’s slow, monotonous, repetitive, and every single time Tanjiro interacts with someone he uses the exact same “Excuse me!” voice line, so much so that I was wondering if Vickie Guerrero was voicing him.

On the other side of the gameplay equation, Demon Slayer’s arena-styled combat is where the game shines. Cleverly incorporating the breathing-powered swordsmanship of the source material into the gameplay, Demon Slayer’s action relies on positioning, reflexes, and timing during its one-on-one encounters in small 3D arenas. If you’ve played any anime game over the last couple of years, it’ll feel instantly familiar, as fights with cannon fodder demon grunts eventually give way to big brouhahas against the more deadly demonic adversaries who all bring a unique sense of lethality to these encounters.

Combat is simple and intuitive, but it has enough depth to it that allows for more complex moves to be pulled off. From a simple combination of light attacks and instant special moves, you’ll be able to chain these combos together to push opponents back, set them up for air-juggles, and knock them right back down to earth. It’s simple stuff, but once you start combining it with tag-team assists, dash moves, and perfectly-timed parries that can help you unleash an ultimate attack, Demon Slayer hits its stride.

While some more fine-tuning would be welcome–especially with how heavy attacks are launched–Demon Slayer’s meat ‘n potatoes gameplay hits a satisfying balance of style and substance, never feeling overwhelming when executed properly. When combined with Cyber Connect2’s ungodly talent for cinematic quick-time events, Demon Slayer’s boss fights feel like the main event that they were hyped up to be in the anime, each showdown being a blistering showcase of unrestrained anime action and retina-searing visuals that’ll have your eyes locked into an unblinking state of wonder, lest you miss a single frame of the glorious energy unfolding from your screen.

Outside of the roughly ten-hour campaign and its selection of special missions, Demon Slayer has a range of extras to dive into. Regular fighting modes, a dojo to practice your moves in, and a training mode to teach you the finer arts of swordsmanship are here, or you can sit back and flick through an archive of anime scenes, cutscenes, and music that you’ve collected along the way. Online play is also a standard feature, and while the mode boasts an appealing section of stages and netcode to play around with as you digitally clobber people from across the globe, it’s only fun for a short while.

This is what you’d call the curse of the first game in an anime series, as Demon Slayer’s roster is tiny in comparison to other anime brawlers.  At best, there are only a dozen unique characters to choose from, and another six that are “Academy” versions of the cast that play exactly the same and have a different ultimate attack. Of those twelve unique warriors, three of them have a Water Breathing fighting style that barely feel different from one another, further diluting the pool of characters in the online space and leading to online balance issues.

It’s worth noting that more characters are on the horizon as free DLC which will add more variety to the mix…hopefully.