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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles
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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles (PS5) Review

If you’re familiar with ongoing anime and manga franchises, chances are you’ve come across the name Demon Slayer by now. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on one of the biggest names in Japanese media worldwide. Demon Slayer is on fire and it’s honestly no surprise that we’re finally getting a video game.

So does Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles deserve your time and is it worth playing through? The answer to this lies entirely on if you’re a fan of the story or if you’re a newcomer.

Tanjiro Kamado

Kicking off with a battle, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles starts off with series protagonist Tanjiro Kamado fighting against the fox-masked Sabito.

Those who watched the anime will know that this happens a little while into the show, but the game uses this battle to teach you the major combat mechanics. As far as onboarding processes go, this was extremely well done. Newcomers will see this battle as something exciting and it’ll hook you immediately.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles Screenshot 1

Players will be able to perform a light combo attack, a heavy attack, side-step, use multiple attack skills and guard against incoming attacks. The face buttons on the controller handle all of this (except guarding) and overall, if you’ve played one of CyberConnect2’s previous Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, the combat is almost a carbon copy of the system employed there.

Thankfully, that’s not a bad thing at all because those games were excellent in their own right and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles follows in their footsteps with one major caveat.

Players will be able to pull off extremely flashy ultimate attacks which trigger a mini-cutscene as they play out. These are a visual feast for the eyes and always feel satisfying to use in the game.

Each playable character has their own unique ultimate attack and players will want to see all of them because they are animated so well.

Unfortunately though, where Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles drops the ball lies with the fact that CyberConnect2 changed the battle system to incorporate a stamina ring of sorts which limits your combo-ing.

This feels annoying in battles and honestly they should have just copied their previous game’s fighting mechanics in full.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles Screenshot 2

Memory Fragments

The story of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles covers the entire first season of the anime as well as the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie which was released last year.

The game is rather short though coming in at around eight hours and if you’ve seen the anime and watched the movie, you’re not really getting anything new here. Newcomers will be a bit lost when it comes to the story until they start unlocking various memory fragments throughout the game.

These memory fragments can be viewed from the Chapter select screens and explain the backstory of Demon Slayer. Context such as Tanjiro’s family being murdered by a specific demon or Nezuko’s aversion to sunlight are explained through these memory fragments.

Outside of the combat, players will explore rather confined map segments where Tanjiro will run around looking for clues leading him to his latest objective. Unlike CyberConnect2’s Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, these segments are far less open-world and significantly more linear.

There are some branching pathways on the map but ultimately you’ll still end up using Tanjiro’s enhanced sense of smell and be guided towards your main objective.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles Screenshot 3

While exploring the various areas in a Chapter, you will come across lower level demons to fight against. These battles break up the monotony of the exploration a bit and keep you engaged.

However, the real stars of the show are the iconic demons from the anime (and manga) series which serve as Chapter bosses. These battles play out differently to the lower level demon fights. Tanjiro will fight against these bosses while they mention story details and eventually once you’ve done enough damage to them, you will trigger a cutscene. During this cutscene you will need to input button presses at the right time to do massive damage to your foe.

Again, this is something that CyberConnect2 have previously done with the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is incredibly fun to play through. If you’re a newcomer, learning the game’s backstory through memory fragments and the actual main story itself through the Chapters you play through is great.

If you’re a seasoned veteran of the franchise, the game serves as pure enjoyment as you’ll be able to relive the iconic battles from the franchise in extremely high graphics fidelity even though you might expect more from it.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles Screenshot 4

The game looks flat out gorgeous and it’s almost as if you’re playing the anime itself. The soundtrack is also just as excellent throughout. The developers have also included both English and Japanese voice acting so those who prefer the original Japanese voice acting can opt out of using the default English voice over.

With that said, the English voice acting is well done with Tanjiro’s voice actor sounding extremely convincing in the game.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles Screenshot 5

Where the game struggles lies in the fact that the exploration segments are just so lacklustre. When speaking to NPCs, you don’t get fully voiced lines. Instead you’ll just hear your character’s voice actor say the same phrase repeatedly to different characters while their text displays.

This should have been fully voiced but alas this isn’t the case. You also move quite slow and there isn’t as much freedom as there should be while exploring. The world is gorgeously recreated, but you can’t really do much in it and that’s such a shame.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -The Hinokami Chronicles Screenshot 6

Final Verdict

Overall, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles does exactly what it set out to do.

It recaps the entire first season of the anime and the movie and lets players enjoy battling it out themselves. The game’s multiplayer roster is slightly lacklustre and follows the standard trend in the fighting game industry where additional characters are added as DLC later.

The current roster is lacking in characters with only 18 playable characters and six of them being different versions of themselves. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is a fun game but one that you should only consider if you’re fine with getting a game that you’ll most likely finish in two sittings.

You probably won’t return to it very often unless you’re hardcore into playing fighting games online or offline against friends or family.

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