Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is quite a mouthful, isn’t it?

Following on from the 2021 original which closely links to several stories from within the anime, the games allow players to relive key battles and moments that have defined the series. And with The Hinokami Chronicles 2, SEGA and CyberConnect 2 have upped the stakes even further.

This time you follow arcs in the Entertainment District, the Swordsmith Village and Hashira Training, playing through  stories illustrated by stunning anime sequences and epic battles which cast you as many familiar faces in explosive, hard-hitting, bone-crunching arena battles.

The variety and depth of the roster is definitely one of the game’s biggest strengths, as it was with its predecessor. There’s more than double the amount of fighters this time around – over 40 fighters – though some of these are variants on existing characters that are more befitting the anime. You can also change their cosmetic styles and select power moves to mix and match to your hearts content. It’s the ultimate fan dream, especially since it allows for dream match ups never seen before.

New this time out is also a gear system, which is broken up into three sections – Story Mode Gear, Demon Gear and Demon Slayer Corps Gear. Here you can essentially customise a loadout for your fighter across the different modes, with some sockets only being available for certain modes, like Story or Vs Battles.

Each Gear slot has three sockets in it, with some boosts taking as many as 2 or even all 3 sockets, so you’ll need to balance out how much you want that power up. It could be anything from slightly restoring HP if yours drops below a certain threshold, halving poison damage, increasing attack power and even improving throwing power.

Loadouts definitely helped me somewhat in Story Mode. At one point, I was fighting without them for a good while as I missed how to equip them – I don’t feel the game tutorialised this very well – but you’ll actually find this is more beneficial for the Endurance Matches anyway, and when you go online. Admittedly, I haven’t had much chance to test online battles yet and feel this will come more once the game goes live later today, but for the base content, it’s definitely nice to have there.

What’s more, you can earn credits from playing through story and other modes within the game and then use those to spend at the Kimetsu Points Shop in different categories. You can gather more Gear to use in your loadouts as well as new characters, costumes, stamps and music tracks. It just encourages you to keep playing and unlocking as you feel like there’s always something to spend your hard earned rewards on.

With the deep roster as well, you can achieve mastery with each character and as you progress through each level, you’ll earn accomplishments as well as some rewards. You can gain new Profile Photos and different outfits, but also you will gain mastery in disciplines and can even unlock quotes from the show. Usually motivational snippets that talk about endurance and giving your all. It’s pretty cool!

You can already feel the desire to achieve mastery on each character, learning their strengths and weaknesses and pulling off their Ultimate Powers. And this is where the game really sparkles.

The animated sequences blended into the gameplay are seamless and the action on screen is both smooth and eye-catching. It’s like watching the show, frankly, but you’re in charge of the action. While the story mode definitely blends more of the game’s narrative into the gameplay, you can just dive right into combat if you want to across several different modes. And this is where you see just how good the arena portion of this game actually is.

It’s a fully 3D arena where you rove freely around and have enough space to dodge, weave, throw projectiles and get in close with intense swipes and slashes. You can also choose between fighters that work as a team or even demons and champions that like to do things solo.

There’s a huge variety of backdrops too, familiar places from the anime but also wonderful arenas to fight in, like vast, open plains that are purely defined by trees, grass and rocks, but also bustling villages and districts set at night that are beautifully illuminated by light.

Within the battles, you can do strong and weaker attacks, turn these into power combos and eventually boost yourself if you get enough licks in to make yourself even stronger, all building up to the Ultimate Art which is easily used at the tap of a button providing an enemy is in range.

If you’re also teamed up together, ala Smash Bros or the Marvel vs Capcom games, you can also get your partner to occassionally jump into the fight for a quick strike or even switch places with them entirely if your current strategy isn’t working. Though you do share a health bar, so it’s not an easy way to get yourself out of a jam and almost get a clean reset.

Though new in The Hinokami Chronicles 2 are Dual Ultimates, where you essentially pick a combination of fighters that can then combine their skills to pull off extreme attacks that can brutalise an opponent in rapid fashion. It’s a lovely new addition that offers great fan service but equally allows you to experiment and trial new potentials with different fighters with varying results.

Ultimates present a beautiful, artistic display of power that is frankly stunning and is among the best visuals I’ve seen in a fighting game, period. The screen just lights up and is only emphasised further in the story mode as it blends into actual interactive cutscenes for the game.

Your performance also gets graded, based on the time of your victory, your combos, health remaining, as well as skills, dashes, boosts, breaking of guard. It’s a really deep, elaborate breakdown that is quite impressive to behold and really shows that you need to have understood and mastered the game’s core concepts to really get the most from it.

But with combat being the game’s main hook, I genuinely had a great time with it, pulling off combos, boosting, experimenting with the different fighters and it was actually genuinely refreshing to have that freedom of movement. Fighting games are often reserved to being played in a side on fashion with some limited side hops and movements, but to literally just be able to sprint around my arena ala Power Stone is such a refreshing touch for the genre again. We don’t see enough games like this!

And sure, the Story Mode is a great way to get a good grasp of everything but if you just want to focus on the battles themselves, you can also take on two brand new modes added into The Hinokami Chronicles 2. The first is Training Paths where you choose a Hashira to train under and essentially play a tower/tournament mode. But the twist here is that you are faced with a grid and can choose who you want to fight and what you want to go for.

Each battle has a bonus condition that can merit you an additional reward, like winning with more than 50% of your health remaining, and then you earn enhancements you can use through the rest of the grid. Equally when choosing between Beginner, Intermediate or Hard, each grid has a series of rewards you can gather from it and they are all connected to the Hashira you train under, helping improve your mastery of that character. It’s a really great mode that gives you quick-fire battles but also tests your abilities and really gives you an opportunity to experiment with other characters.

The other new mode is The Path of the Demon Slayer, which could even be viewed as a prequel to the story mode of the game and allows you to take part in the story covered in the previous game, letting you take part in some of the biggest battles in Demon Slayer from the Tanjiro Kamado, Unwavering Resolve Arc and right up to the Mugen Train Arc.

This is a nice way for series newcomers to just come into this game without having too much knowledge before and really ingratiate yourself within the lore and world easily.

But the story mode is where people will automatically go and across the chapters you’ll get ranked on individual battles but you can also pick up collectibles which unlock memory fragments, adding additional context to the storytelling beyond what you see in the cutscenes and this is a nice way to sort of get more familiar with the perils and threats.

There’s also intermissions to break things up between battles, enabling you to chat to other folks, help them with side quest, and also allow you to explore and get a little bit of down time between the lightning bolts, expressive bursts of fire, exclamations of rage and blood.

To be honest, I wanted a few more of these, as this is where I actually really connected to the story telling and the world building. Sure, the fights are fantastic and certainly carry the game on their own, but I guess I just wanted to take on a few more silly quests and get to know the other characters a bit more. The opening stage of the game really sets the scene well of what’s possible, giving you a semi open section to explore ahead of the first battle and I definitely would have appreciated having more of that.

Similarly, midway through the story, there’s a slight twist on the combat that I massively appreciated and wanted more from. So while it’s good to see the game experiment and adjust from the formula, I guess I just wanted that little bit extra.

But on the whole, this is such a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, energising package with combat that works brilliantly, a deep roster with lots to unlock and experiment with, and some great ways to keep you invested and playing, on top of an online mode. This is a perfect entry point for the franchise if you’ve never seen the anime or played the games, and is a very worthy addition to the fighting genre that anyone can fall in love with!

Verdict

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a thrilling, adrenaline-inducing fighter with lots of modes, options and depth, with plenty to unlock and a whole plethora of fan service. Equally, it’s a fantastic jumping on point for series’ newcomers with the Path of the Demon Slayer Mode as well as the Memory Fragments in story illustrating many of the key points. The free-roaming battles are a welcome change from what we’re used to in the genre and the stylish art is just mesmerising to watch in action. Slight limitations with story and some frustration with tutorialisation aside, this is a fantastic fighter you shouldn’t overlook.

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is out in advanced access today and launches fully on August 5th on PC, PS, Switch and Xbox

Played on PlayStation 5

Code kindly provided by SEGA for review purposes