Demon Slayer Hinokami Chronicles 2 Review - Fableverse

Demon Slayer Hinokami Chronicles 2 is the second Hinokami Chronicles fighting game for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, covering the story of the anime from the Entertainment District Arc to the Hashira Training Arc, making the game a great way to catch up on the story before watching the new Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 of 3 movie.

Speaking of the story, those who would like to get a refresher of the earlier parts of the story can also do so with “The Path of a Demon Slayer” mode, which features six boss battles from Hinokami Chronicles 1 that serves as quick rundown of what happened from the start of the series up to the Mugen Train Arc. Thus, players don’t necessarily need to own Hinokami Chronicles if they want to learn about the story, as the entire plot of the anime series is already in this game, albeit having only a more condensed version of the first half of the series available.

That being said, Cyber Connect 2 still did a great job in making the game, with flashy animations that are very reminiscent of the anime, an important aspect specifically for anything Demon Slayer related as fans are already expecting the flashiness of Demon Slayer in any of its accompanying material. The battles look amazing and the cutscenes are decent enough that they could be mistaken for actual anime scenes. The conclusion to the story mode’s boss fights still feature cinematic sequences that are mesmerizing despite featuring quick time events.

Cyber Connect 2 also listened to fans’ complaints about the game’s bloatedness in the previous game. Exploring the open areas is now easier as locations are denser and you can also now run, making it easy to get from point A to point B. There are also mini-games that you’ll encounter in the story mode. They’re a bit of a hit or miss, but they do help tidy up the pacing of the entire story as it prevents the game from just being a series of matches against the CPU.

In terms of match quality, the same system from the original Hinokami Chronicles still exists in this game. Players control either a Demon Slayer or a Demon, with either side having different mechanics going for them. Demon Slayers can go to battle with an ally who can do combos with them or break an enemy combo. Demon Slayers can also swap between characters, and have special tag team Ultimate Moves available for certain combinations. Demons, on the other hand, regenerate their health over time and can strengthen their Demon Arts. There are a couple of minor changes Cyber Connect 2 has made to the fighting that makes it a lot more fluid, making minor mistakes occur less frequently.

After clearing the story mode, players have more to chew on in terms of post-game content. There is, of course, online matches, which unfortunately still suffer from the usual Cyber Connect 2 issues like bad netcode or random disconnections. New to Hinokami Chronicles 2 is the roguelike game mode Hashira Training, which adds a whole lot of replayability for players who want to test their skills in a series of matches with different conditions or constraints. Gears are also new to Hinokami Chronicles 2, allowing players to equip several items to boost stats.

Overall, Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a great way for fans of the series to refresh their knowledge of the series without having to go through hours of episodes again and again while playing a very well-made anime arena fighting game. It’s also the perfect way for players to get into the story before watching the aforementioned Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 of 3 movie, which may be exactly why this game was released a month before its release.

Meanwhile, other anime games are more about exploring alternate storylines than just rethreading the same plot as the anime source materials, like what we see in games like Dragonball Xenoverse. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any Demon Slayer games do that yet. Thankfully, we have Fables that do this, like the Demon Slayer Fable that explores alternate scenarios, such as, What If Tanjiro Kamado joined the Demon Slayer Corps as a half-demon? Explore alternate universes of your favorite anime series like this one in FableVerse.

Hinokami Chronicles 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch. Playing the game on a console that already has save data for the first Hinokami Chronicles will reward players with keys that unlock certain players early in the game.