Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is a solid first attempt at bringing this anime to a game format for current generation consoles. What SEGA and CyberConnect2 need to figure out is how to balance bringing the story into the next one while opening the world and trusting the player a bit more. I want to play and explore the anime, I don’t want to just watch it through my PlayStation 5. I have VUDU and HBO Max for the latter.
I’m so behind on one of the hottest anime out there. Demon Slayer was a hot commodity as it was one of the more successful summer 2021 films, and a crown jewel for Funimation. My students, interns, and editors have been raving about the series and film, as it gives off a Ninja Scroll vibe, so I thought I would dive into the game version of it and see what all the hubbub was about. Welcome to Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles. It’s an arena fighter that is wrapped up in a familiar storyline that fans of the series will appreciate. For gamers? It might be a harder sell.
Let’s slice this demon open and see what’s inside.
Story is solid
When you have a good story, you have at the very least a decent game that is memorable, regardless of how the gameplay design pans out and how much fun it might be. Well, the story is good in Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles. The game is wrapped up in the Tanjiro storyline, where he is determined to do what he can to reverse his sister’s ‘being a demon’ situation. She is all Tanjiro has left for family, as a demon killed everyone else in his household, another motivating factor for Tanjiro to become a demon slayer. The story is incredibly tragic and probably the biggest reason to get involved with this game. You get to see the emotional rollercoaster that Tanjiro rides, where he must break himself to become a demon slayer so that he can get his only remaining family back. It’s a gritty narrative that is vengeful as it is bloody.
The good folks at CyberConnect2 have done a masterful job of bringing in that story and applying it to the game. The game builds on the drama, balances out those moments with laughter, and faithfully represents what fans love about Demon Slayer. If you enjoy the story, then you’re going to be thrilled with how it’s treated in the game.
And there, ladies and gents lies the issue with the game.
Anime or game? You can’t be both
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles suffers from an identity crisis. It doesn’t know whether it should be an anime or a game, at least on the story side of the tracks. Doing both does the experience no favors. CyberConnect 2 tries its best to balance out both gameplay and narrative and honestly, doesn’t do it all that well. The good news is that you get a strong story that is well-played out. The problem is that it is more of an anime than it is an interactive experience, which doesn’t bode well for a game when you want to play it. I found myself staring at a screen more than controlling it. If this had been labeled as a visual interactive novel, then I would have been more understanding. It seems to have more dialogue and cutscenes that impede the player-controlled parts. That’s never a good thing unless you’ve been told this is a visual interactive novel.
This is a glaring issue with the game.
That doesn’t mean that the anime side isn’t gorgeous or that the presentation of the dialogue isn’t done well. In fact, that probably exceeded my expectations. CyberConnect2 took great care in visually and audibly respecting the series. It is cel-shaded animation straight from the series. It’s stunning how much they bridged the actual anime with this game.
You didn’t pay for an anime, though. You paid for an actual game (or a balanced mix of both). Anytime you sit back and watch things play out repeatedly without participating in them, then you don’t have a balanced experience.
It was like I was playing Shenmue on the Dreamcast again, where dialogue ruled the roost. At least I got to play Hang On in the arcade in Shenmue. A game inside of a game. Inception…
Rigid in controls and progression
Taking a page out of Ninja Storm 4, Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is so concerned that the player will get off track from the story or go exploring that it does its best to restrict how the player can move around. For example, in chapter two you are tracking down a trio of demons that have begun to devastate and terrorize a town. People have been killed or kidnapped, and the only way to track them down is with Tanjiro’s help. The town is huge in this chapter, but you don’t get to enjoy its girth much, as the story keeps you from randomly jumping over fences and climbing up roofs to find these. It allows you to explore some areas, but it dictates which ones, even though clearly your character to leap over fences at any given time. There are invisible walls everywhere in the game and you can only travel in areas where you’re invited to travel in with glowing markers that give you permission. In addition, the game force you to stay on the tracked scent during the story to progress it. This doesn’t mean you can’t go down an alley or anywhere else, but it does mean you can’t do anything out of the ordinary to go beyond what the game asks you to do. It’s essentially a game on rails, which is sad because walking around and exploring is a natural thing for gamers these days and this world is just begging to be explored. It’s as if CyberConnect2 has no trust that gamers would continue the story if they were given that much freedom. Because of this lack of trust, the game feels rigid and almost linear in a way.
The big positives in all this demonic darkness is that the fighting part of the game is fun and a button-masher’s dream. When the game shifts from story to fighting, it’s quite entertaining and welcoming after reading so much dialogue and being trapped in an anime. That isn’t a knock, rather it’s the most fun part of the game outside of the story itself. The controls feel right, the ability to build up to a powerful move mid-fight is motivating. There is nothing cooler than pulling off an intense final move on a demon to finish a match. This has a lot of Bandai Namco Entertainment Naruto Shippuden in its personality, which is welcomed.
Equally as fun are the bosses. The bosses are so much more interesting than the regular demon enemies. They’re exaggerated, stylish, and horrifying, and they can be quite the challenge depending on your comfort level with the fighting mechanics. They do push along the story, but their uniqueness makes them stand out in the entire gameplay experience. I thoroughly enjoyed boss fights and welcomed the change of pace, as they did a great job balancing out the story and gamer-controlled payoff.
Beyond bosses and back to the basics, one of the more frustrating aspects of the game is how it will trap you in fighting animation and won’t allow you to break out of it. For example, going back to the trio of demons in chapter two, during that boss fight I was stuck in attack animation while another demon focused on hitting me. Because I was stuck in that animation, I couldn’t roll out of the way to avoid the new demon attack. Rather, I had to play that animation out (and it was me attacking another demon) before I could move. What’s worse is that I was fully punished for initiating an attack, even though I could see the second attack coming. God of War and God of War 2 had this issue, where Kratos would initiate fighting animation without being able to break away mid-attack to avoid getting hit. They corrected it starting with God of War 3 and haven’t looked back since. Games should never trap you in animation, especially if you’ve done your due diligence to spot an attack coming. The only way this should ever occur is if you’re in mid-jump, then logically you’re screwed. I know this is a minor complaint and it feels like I’m nitpicking, but this is old school design that doesn’t belong in today’s game development. Breaking animated sequences to avoid an attack should be a no-brainer when it comes to gameplay mechanics and design.
For the most part, the gameplay design is a balancing act that works in some areas but is definitely shortchanged in others. As I’ve stated many times in this review, the story is on point. It works, engages the player, pulls them in the Demon Slayer world, and does its best to keep them there. The actual fighting part is sparse in comparison to the story, which means you’ll be watching a lot more than you’ll be controlling. The downer of the entire bunch is the lack of trust between developer and gamer. CyberConnect 2 really makes the gameplay rigid and linear with regard to what the player can do and explore. The latter of this list is a vital piece of enjoyment that is sorely underdeveloped. When I purchase a game based on my favorite anime, I don’t want mostly my anime in my game – I want to control the world that I have been entertained by. This game needs more control of Demon Slayer. Think about it this way, how much fun would it be for this game to be completely open world (think Dragon Warrior XI) and explorable? Talk about the most epic Demon Slayer gamer. It would be entertaining as hell. Mix that idea with the story structure that is already in play here and you have a masterpiece on your hands.
As it stands now, Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is decent because of the story, but incredibly restrictive on actual gameplay design.
Other mode
There is a versus mode that you can play online/offline with other players. It’s traditional arena fighting and gives you a reason to keep going in the game. There are unlockable characters in the title, though some gamers complain not enough. Regardless, this is the secondary option to keep the game alive and kicking once the story is fully wrapped. Does it work? It’s a fighting game at this point and that is just a bit more icing on the cake. It works.
It’s neat to control these characters you are entertained by in the anime. Back in the 90s, this would have been the sole selling point of the game.
Conclusion
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles is a solid first attempt at bringing this anime to a game format for current generation consoles. What SEGA and CyberConnect2 need to figure out is how to balance bringing the story into the next one while opening the world and trusting the player a bit more. I want to play and explore the anime, I don’t want to just watch it through my PlayStation 5. I have VUDU and HBO Max for the latter.
