Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles tested on PS5
Demon Slayer
American manga and comics stand out in various respects, but one in particular catches the eye: where the stories of superheroes have been carried forward continuously since the 1960s, albeit through more or less successful renewal operations, Japanese comics have a beginning and an end that often and willingly ignores their popularity.With very few exceptions (see One Piece, a real phenomenon of costume, or the unfinished Berserk), manga are linked to their authors, who they carry on as long as they deem it appropriate from a creative and narrative point of view. In the case of Kimetsu no Yaiba we are talking about just twenty-three volumes, made over four years by Koyoharu Gotouge.
The work has been a huge success, with over 150 million copies sold and an impressive tenth place in the ranking of the most popular Japanese comics ever and it seems that the author was forced to finish it so soon due to family problems. In any case, this has not prevented the publisher from drawing an animated series from it, entrusted to the experts of Ufotable and also available in Italy on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The anime currently boasts only one season from 26 episodes (but the second is in the pipeline, along with the inevitable feature films), and it is on it that the new tie-in developed by CyberConnect2, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, which we tested on PS5 at a few days from the launch on PC and consoles, set for 15 October.
History
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, Tanjiro performs one of his techniques Japan, Taisho period. The protagonist of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is Tanjiro Kamado, a great good boy who lives in the mountains with his mother, younger sister Nezuko and four other siblings. Strong, shrewd and gifted with a particularly developed sense of smell, Tanjiro goes down to the valley to sell coal to the inhabitants of the villages at the foot of the mountain, who respect him and often resort to his help for various commissions.One day the sale it lasts until late and Tanjiro is forced to stop for the night before returning home. In fact, no one would dare to walk the snowy path after sunset: it is said that the Demons move when it gets dark, attacking people and devouring them. The next day at dawn the boy therefore sets out to return to his family, but upon arrival he finds a horrible sight waiting for him.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, Nezuko on his attack mother, her three little brothers and her little sister were in fact slaughtered by a demon, and the only person still alive is Nezuko. Desperate, Tanjiro loads her on his shoulder and runs into the snow to return to the village in search of help, but something has changed: at one point the girl wakes up and tries to attack him with unprecedented ferocity. She has become a demon herself! Will there be a way to make her human again?
The narrative opening of the anime is also picked up in the game, although the campaign for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles actually begins later, when Tanjiro he decides that he will become a demon slayer and for this he is sent to train by the old master Sakonji Urokodaki, who subjects him to very severe physical tests that culminate in the unexpected clash with the mysterious Sabito.
Structure
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, Kyojuro prepares to strike From the main screen it is possible to access the Story mode and the Clash mode, check the Rewards (possibly spending the Kimetsu points earned to get them all) and the Archive, try your hand at with the Training or review the tutorial. Therefore, the first two contents represent the fulcrum of the experience, with a campaign that takes up the events of the debut season of the animated series and a versus for two participants, both locally and online.Quest ' the latter is strictly linked to the progress made with History, which means that without having completed it it will not be possible to access all its features if not partially. Specifically, the roster available is made up of eighteen characters in all, which, however, must be unlocked after meeting them and eventually defeating them during the campaign. There are three versions of Tanjiro and two versions of Nezuko, Zenitsu Agatsuma, Shinobu Kocho, Inosuke, Hashibara and Giyu Tomioka, in addition to Kyojuro Rengoku, Murata, Sakonji Urokodaki, Sabito and Makomo.
Gameplay
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, the spectacular sequence relating to a special technique Our Demon Slayer test: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles has been limited to the prologue and the initial three chapters of the mode Story, covering the events up to the tenth episode of the anime's first season. We then faced Sabito and participated in the final exam to become a demon slayer, then went to an anonymous city in the northwest and to Asakusa to complete our first two official missions.The mechanics are extremely similar to the story mode of the Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, although less distracting. At the command of Tanjiro we will be asked to explore scenarios with an extremely simple design, without any interaction beyond the possibility of exchanging a few words with certain characters or jumping on specific surfaces and platforms to avoid any obstacles along the way.
The style of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles is very reminiscent of the anime. to face anonymous demons thrown into the fray in a casual way. When one of these encounters occurs, the scenario changes and we move to the brawler-style view that characterizes the fighting in the game.
Even in this situation the similarities with Naruto's tie-ins are wasted, a clear sign how SEGA asked CyberConnect2 to create a product perfectly in line with that genre of games, without introducing any particular innovation and indeed aiming at the same type of audience. Of course, in this case, the protagonists of Demon Slayer are the main characters: Kimetsu no Yaiba; It's a pity that the interlude sequences, however spectacular, can't compare with those of the last episodes of Ultimate Ninja Storm.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, two characters fight in the Clash mode The clashes in short, they fall within the tradition of three-dimensional brawlers, but the opponents have a clear attitude to attack and therefore frustrating situations rarely occur in which it is necessary to chase them and try to shorten the distances to score our shots. Of course, the counterpart is a level of difficulty that at the moment seemed rather low and that acquires a minimum of consistency only at the end of the third chapter, when you face the couple formed by Susamaru and Yahaba.
The repertoire available, whether you control Tanjiro or Nezuko, consists of combinations of standard shots and special techniques regulated by a special bar, dodges and parries, throws and spectacular Ultimate able to change the fate of the fight. The artificial intelligence of the opponents, however, is quite predictable, in the sense that the attack patterns repeat themselves and it is enough to observe them to understand when to sink your shots or when instead to back off and dodge.
Technical achievement
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, the powerful and mysterious Giyu Tomioka The version of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles that we tried was not yet final and in the next few weeks different contents will be added and fixed things, also and above all as regards the graphics, any pop-up episodes and the frame rate on the new generation platforms, while we have already found the uploads rather fast.Exactly as for the various Naruto Shippuden : Ultimate Ninja Storm, the best aspect of the production is represented by the intermission sequences, which reproduce the scenes of the anime in a rather faithful way, although with This simplification and a substantially muted visual violence, probably in order to fit into a less restrictive classification: there is practically no blood and in a story of warriors who behead man-eating demons it seems a bit strange.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles, Nezuko in one of the cutscenes The general aspect of the game is not that of a next-gen production, however some scenarios are certainly very suggestive and it is a pity that you can "live" them if not through a very superficial and arid exploration of interactions. The reference is undoubtedly to the Asakusa district, which we will be able to visit in the evening, surrounded by lights and people walking, and to the forest where the final exam is held.
On the sound front we have a good set of music combined with dubbing in two languages, English and Japanese, with Italian subtitles. The quality of the interpretation is as usual excellent as far as the original performers are concerned, while it becomes a bit set when it comes to western reduction.
Our Demon Slayer test: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles highlighted a game extremely similar to the various Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm. We are faced with a three-dimensional brawler with a campaign that traces the events of the first season of the anime and who tries to invent something to add substance. It is a rather linear experience, designed mainly for fans of the work created by Koyoharu Gotouge. We'll see if the full version confirms these impressions or not.
