REVIEW: ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2’ Is A Solid Sequel For Fans

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer is one of the most well-known and successful anime and manga titles in the world. As such, it’s no surprise the franchise has spawned a bevy of media adaptations and spinoffs, including video games. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is the sequel to the 2021 game of the same name and offers many of the same features as the first title.

As far as anime arena fighting games go, Hinokami Chronicles is among the upper echelon of anime fighting games. This is because gameplay is not only consistent, but it also performs well and features stellar production quality in a variety of ways.

Alongside many modes, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 features a story mode that adapts three arcs, namely The Entertainment District Arc, The Swordsmith Village Arc, and the Hashira Training Arc. Like many of Cyberconnect’s previous anime arena fighting games, it’s obvious from the start that a lot of effort was put into the story mode in all the right ways.

The events from the anime are adapted in a chronological and easy-to-understand way, especially for players who haven’t caught up to the arcs in the anime. Additionally, each arc mainly features the most important parts from the anime and manga and forgoes many of the filler moments, making for an enjoyable narrative experience.

The Hinokami Chronicles 2 continues the high bar set by the first for story and combat.

However, despite this, there are still gameplay moments that hinder the narrative experience. Between serious cinematic and flashy moments with fights against demons in the story, players will relive moments of downtime with Tanjiro and his friends.

This also means exploring several villages and locations, such as the Entertainment District and the Swordsmith Village. The problem with this is that these locations, while sporting great art directions and being one-to-one replications, are shallow, empty, and offer nothing. They only serve as locations where players can find item pickups that give them bonus items.

Additionally, sidequests in each chapter only boil down to extra battles and fetch quests that don’t offer much to the overarching narrative experience. Most of these moments just end up being a bad distraction from the rest of the story mode.

In terms of gameplay, not much has changed since the first game. While the story mode has players locked into using several characters featured in each arc alongside the main cast, other modes allow players to use any character unlocked on their roster. Combat is done through a 3D arena where each fighter has their basic, special, combo, and ultimate attacks.

Gameplay may not have chnaged much since the first but The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is still fresh.

The more special attacks you use, the more you need to charge up your skill gauge. Deal enough or take enough damage, and you fill your special attack gauge, which allows you to Boost, basically enhancing your attacks, or fills up completely to allow you execute your Ultimate Attack.

While Hinokami Chronicles has a solid combat system, it also has always had a limited move list, especially compared to other games from the developer like the Ninja Storm series. As such, players master these move lists quite quickly, but the challenge lies in finding the best combination of attacks and moves that work against each opponent with each fighter. However, Hinokami Chronicles 2 still manages to enhance the combat experience by introducing the new Gear System.

With the Gear System, players can now equip up to three passive items on each character. These effects include health restoration, resistance to poison, enhanced attacks for a brief period, and health regeneration over time. Gears can be used in both Story Mode and VS Mode, and notably add variety to the game.

However, while a refreshing new addition, it doesn’t do much to drastically change the gameplay experience, save for a few, like Poison Resistance against a specific boss in story mode. Due to this, their inclusion is only effective, useful, and clever to use in specific scenarios, especially if you find them at the right time.

Overall, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2‘s combat is simple, fun, and effective. While the combat system isn’t as advanced, it does enough to be engaging, and the game’s several characters offer variety and additional skills to learn.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is for fans of the anime, and that’s what matters.

Outside Story Mode and Vs Mode, players can partake in the Training Paths Mode, which includes a variety of challenges that unlock Gear, rewards, and mastery levels for characters. This, in turn, unlocks more items for the character. Other than that, players can test their skills against others in the casual and ranked online modes. However, at the time of writing, the game is in advanced access and not many players were online to test the online modes.

The game also offers excellent visuals and an amazing aesthetic that are especially noticeable during the many high-octane and picturesque cinematic moments in the story mode. Animations are fluid, visual effects are awe-inspiring, and character designs are indistinguishable from their anime portrayals. The game also runs flawlessly with a stable framerate, though it unfortunately doesn’t offer many PC visual and performance settings.

All in all, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2, despite not being perfect, offers an excellent narrative and gameplay experience. It features several story and gameplay elements that Demon Slayer fans will especially appreciate.Te 

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 will launch fully on August 5, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.