Yet another anime-based game from the CyberConnect2 development team that hits the mark! From the moment I first heard that they were creating a Demon Slayer title, I knew that it was going to be a game worth playing through and now that SEGA has released it on multiple platforms, I got to experience first-hand that I was right. Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is a wonderfully crafted video game that provides the story and fighting style of the many characters in the Demon Slayer anime.

Story

After tragedy befalls the Kamado family, Tanjiro finds himself to be the only living member of his family. Finding warmth in his sister Nezuko's body, he hopes to bring her to find help, but he quickly learns that she has been turned into a demon. Setting out for a new life where his goal is to find a way to turn Nezuko human again, Tanjiro trains his way up to becoming a Demon Slayer. His journey is going to be a long and difficult one, but he is sure to make a name for himself and meet new friends along the way.

Gameplay

The core of this game falls on the 3D arena fighting element. Set up in teams of two, each player will have their main fighter and an assist fighter. While these fighters can be swapped out at any time, they share the same health, skill, and energy bars. This means that swapping fighters would be strictly for fighting-style purposes. Otherwise, your secondary character would be able to assist with a short attack or with a rescue save.

Each character on the roster has their own fighting style and will, of course, have their own attack combinations to work with. Every character has their light attack, heavy attack, grab attacks, ability to block, a dash or dodge button, and the ability to parry an attack. Light attacks can be continued through to make a combo, while a heavy attack uses a chunk of the skill bar and will be in the form of a water breathing style. Grab attacks are hard to land out-of-combo in this game but are easy to throw in toward the end of an attack line. The blocking and parry abilities are the same button, but the difference is that when blocking a shield appears that can break leaving you open to be attacked while parrying is when you block while pressing the direction to block at the same time as being attacked leaving the opponent open to be attacked. Dashing and dodging is the same button as well, but when you dash at a player you run full speed at them, which can be stopped any time during the charge, and dodging is a quick jump to whatever direction you move to. Note that basic movement speed can cover more ground quicker than constant dodging, so don't let other fighting game habits roll over into this one.

If you find yourself in the middle of your opponent’s combo attack, you can use a large chunk of your assist character’s energy to rescue you from this combo. The save is very brief so be ready to get back into the action the moment you touch back down on the ground again. If you are having trouble finding an opening, having your assist character do a small attack with a small amount of energy can help provide you a moment to set up for one. A successful assist attack will put your opponent on the ground momentarily. You can not attack an opponent while they are on the ground! Also, combo attacks can only last for a short period of time before they are forced to break. This opens the fight to a better back-and-forth between the two fighters, plus the amount of damage each hit does lessen as the combo goes on, so it is better to break the combo and reset after so long.

As you land attacks, block attacks, and take damage, you will be filling up your own energy bar. This energy bar can be used to give you a temporary power boost so you do more damage with every hit or it can be used to trigger your ultimate art attack. An ultimate art attack is the best attack a character can do from the show and does the largest amount of damage to your opponent. If you have more bars of energy available when you trigger it, it will be even more powerful. Once you trigger these, you have to land the next hit for it to activate, but if you are successful, the damage is done in a short cutscene-style event. If you manage to make the ultimate art attack your battle-winning blow, there is an extra bit added to the cutscene as well.

Now, when it comes to the story mode, the fighting rules are slightly different. While all of what I mentioned above is the same, demons can sometimes go into a rage mode style. When this happens, their body will be glowing yellow and attacks won't stop them from attacking. During these moments, it is best to focus on dodging their attacks as they will be more volatile and damaging if they land. You can usually throw in an assist attack at moments, but don't get too close unless you know the attacks they are going to be using.

The story mode plays out just as the show does, except they locked some of the extra scenes behind little memory videos that you have to find in the map and then play in the menu. This gives players a meaningful collectible to find as they go through the game and the main story is shown through the events. The only things these extra scenes show are the more touching or emotionally meaningful scenes, like demon's backstories that are shown when they die. While these are very important for the show, as a viewer, this game is already pretty hefty when it comes to cutscene versus gameplay – not counting the added battle mode.

When you are in a map area and get to wander around, there will be a few aspects to look for. There are blue exclamation points with side objectives to find, yellow markers for points that can be used in the rewards page on the menu, and memory crystals for the extra scenes. Finding all of these and getting top ranks in your fights is how you get a better overall chapter ranking. The better your ranking, the more rewards you unlock for that chapter, which even more are unlocked when you watch the extra scenes that you found the crystals for. If you get an S rank for the chapter, find all blue exclamation points, and watch all of the extra scenes, you should unlock most, if not all, of the panels for that chapter in the reward section. All remaining panels can be purchased with the points you have collected and earned in the training section.

As the story mode throws little extra game modes or moments at you, they are properly explained before starting. These are all also able to be replayed, so don't worry about getting it perfect the first time. Definitely have fun with the story mode because you can always go back to any specific moment, including small fights and a couple of mini-games.

Visual and Audio

This game’s art style is a pretty close match to the style used in the anime. Of course, on-screen everything is in a 2D space to the conversion to a 3D space makes it look a bit different, but everything from the clothing styles to the environments all had a beautifully matching aesthetic that was pleasing to see match so well.

As for the audio, it all sounded so close to the anime as well. The voice actors were mostly the same, at least for the English version, and the music used was the licensed music from the show. They even suggest content creators turn the music off in-game so that their videos don't end up muted.

Replayability

Thanks to the battle mode being both online and offline, there is going to be tons of replayability! There is a fairly good-sized character roster, despite it being mostly the same character reskinned and a slightly altered fighting style, which means there are plenty of characters to get good at fighting with. And this roster, along with possible chapters in the story mode, is sure to grow in the future.

What Could Be Better

It's hard to describe it, but some of the fighting aspects feel like it needs a bit more fine-tuning to it. Guard canceling is a concept for fighting games that should be included but there doesn't seem to be any of this. They put in a timer to stop a combo from lasting too long, but it is easy for players to juggle combos with a properly timed pause in between attacks, which is sure to be mastered and abused if not fixed. Also, with how many different breathing technique attacks are shown in the show, I would like to have a larger variety of these to use in my fights as well. All of these issues and concepts can be added through patches, which every fighting game goes through before coming out as a solidified and balanced title.

Conclusion

Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is a successful adaptation of the anime! I enjoyed playing through the story and have already put in a few rounds against other players online. While I am still figuring out which characters I like playing as most, the story mode going all the way through Mugen Train and letting me play as multiple characters throughout definitely helped out. As a fan of the Demon Slayer anime, this game is pretty much what I expected when I was looking forward to it coming out. Definitely a game I will be getting on again and an anime game I recommend to all fans of the show!