Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Hinokami Kepputan, all information known
Demon Slayer
The success of Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba is now known to all. The manga, the first season of the anime and the Mugen Train movie (which has yet to be distributed in Italy) have broken all box office records. So, as was easy to expect, even a videogame transposition was good and right.Cyberconnect2, authors of Naruto's famous Ninja Storm among others, are the development house behind the project and Aniplex and SEGA are involved in the publication.
What do we know about the game so far? Let's recap all the known information in our preview of Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Kepputan.
Demons and hunters
Demon Slayer: The Hikonami Kepputan: Rengoku in action At the narrative level we know, from the latest statements of the development team published in two short teaser trailers for just under a minute and on the English site that went online a few days ago, which the game will allow through a single player story mode to relive the adventures of Tanjiro. In other words, these are the stories shown in the anime.To date it has not been confirmed whether the events of Mugen Train (the film) and the still unreleased second season (due to debut in the fall) will join of the game's narrative arc. By making brief speculations, however, two details can be deduced: the first concerns the concrete possibility that the events of Mugen Train are contained within the game.
Rengoku has in fact been announced as a playable character and we know that the famous member of the Pillars is at the center of the events of the film (in the first season of the anime he appears only towards the end). The other hypothesis, on the other hand, concerns the possibility that the second season is also included within the game. As fans know, the Demon Slayer manga ended just over a year ago and therefore the planning of the seasons of the anime is easier now that the whole story is well defined.
With The Hikonami Kepputan's release date still shrouded in mystery, it could easily coincide (or be around) with the anime's second season release date and contain this arc as well.
The forms of breathing
Demon Slayer: The Hikonami Kepputan: Giyu against Inosuke If the narrative aspect has its importance, but it is a relative safety given the solidity of the reference shonen and the talent of Cyberconnect2, there are less certainties regarding the playful component. The gameplay that will be the background to the story mode in single player, but also to the Versus 1v1 offline and online mode, is indeed truly fascinating.During the months that have passed since the first official news, there have been several trailers dedicated to the announcements of the most iconic characters in the game. In these trailers it was possible to admire the quality and fidelity of the reproduction of most of the situations glimpsed in the reference work, but also some small gems that make the title extremely captivating. One of these pearls is the one-to-one reproduction of the animations of the techniques in full "drawing on board" style that has always distinguished even the anime and which is perfectly suited to what Cyberconnect2 has accustomed us to with the Ninja Storm series.
As far as we have been able to see so far the spectacularity of the combat and the speed of the action are a characterizing element of the clashes, the combat system seemed to us a variant of what was proposed with the games related to the Naruto franchise. In addition to the presentation trailers of the games, in fact, at the beginning of the year a gameplay session of the versus mode played by the developers was broadcast. On that occasion the UI and a screen with the game controls were shown, albeit in Japanese.
From a careful translation it can be deduced that the playful combat infrastructure is the same as that of the Ninja Storm, but with some small variations. The first concerns the combo system, which now focuses more on the ability to throw opponents into the air with the attack button (square on PS and X on Xbox) and tilting the left stick up, and the second concerns the replacement of instruments with Mystery Stocks. The latter can be accumulated in combat, up to 3, but the use is still unknown.
A final element to underline is the question of special techniques. As all Demon Slayer fans know, the peculiarity of combat in the work lies in the possibility for demon hunters to use different Kata (forms) for their breathing techniques. This aspect has been transposed into the game (from what can be seen from the translation of the combat system presentation images) with great freedom and the possibility of special attacks.
The use of these techniques will consume a classic bar of the specials and will be subordinated to the pressure of the triangle button in combination with some other command (single pressure, pressure with one of the directions of the stick and finally pressure with R1 / RB). To date, the announced roster includes 12 characters: Tanjiro (two versions), Nezuko, Inosuke, Zenitsu, Murata, Rengoku, Shinobu Kocho, Sabito, Makomo, Sakonji Urokodaki and Giyu Tomioka. So far, only heroes have been shown to whom we expect a fair number of antagonists to be added, thus creating a large array of playable characters as per Cyberconnect2 tradition.
Demon Slayer: The Hikonami Kepputan is an eagerly awaited game by many and not only for the success of the work to which it refers. The spotlight is also on Cyberconnct2 which, after concluding the Ninja Storm series, finally returns to propose a fighting game along those lines. From what little has been shown, Demon Slayer seems to have the right showmanship and frenzy, with a focus on the peculiar special techniques possessed by the protagonists of the work. So we just have to wait for a test or new insights to better understand the nature of a very intriguing title.
