CyberConnect2 is famous for its good-looking, well-adapted licensed anime games. It spent many years as the main developer of the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, a series of arena fighters with extremely slick presentations and exciting story modes. It made a couple of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fighting games, both of which were very pleasing to fans who wanted to hear their favorite characters voiced and animated. CC2 also recently stepped into the Dragon Ball ring with a Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, an action-RPG adventure game that sort of served as a more series-faithful counterpart to Dragon Ball Xenoverse.
Now, CyberConnect2 is now returning to its heyday with another arena fighter, this time for the wildly popular Demon Slayer franchise. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Hinokami Keppuutan is the developer’s latest effort, and while a samurai-focused game naturally cannot be as high-flying as a ninja one, Demon Slayer comes pretty close in the Versus mode footage available. Still, it’s in the game’s best interest to differentiate itself from the Naruto Ninja Storm games, as there are already worries that it will simply be a reskinned game of that franchise.
A Very Different Story Mode
The Ninja Storm games are no stranger to Musou-like combat, featuring it in their third and fourth numbered outings. UNS3 even had entire levels devoted to fighting mooks, and even some unique bosses. To truly stand apart in the eyes of players, Demon Slayer should lean into this resemblance to a typical action game even more so than its predecessors, and primarily feature linear levels instead of 1v1 fights. Those can be worked in as the plot demands it, but most of what Demon Slayer is involves being sent from place to place to investigate and slay demons causing trouble. There are a lot of demons in some areas, so it would be perfectly acceptable for this adaptation to throw in some additional mooks for players to fight.
One thing that Demon Slayer should keep, however, is Ultimate Ninja Storm’s fairly large world map. Before it was replaced with a menu in UNS4, the Ninja Storm games let players explore Naruto’s village and the surrounding areas. Demon Slayer ought to do the same, and give players the chance to walk around Japan’s Taisho-era countryside. Rendered in CyberConnect2’s cell-shaded art style and presented with fixed cameras, these transitory areas will serve as great downtime between the high-pitched climaxes of missions. If CC2 plays its cards right, it could have a very solid licensed action game (or action-RPG if it goes that route) on top of its usual fighting game fare.
Can’t Feel Like The Same Game
It may be too late for this, but whatever Demon Slayer can do to make its gameplay look and feel different from the Naruto Ninja Storm games would help its reception. Arena fighters, especially licensed anime ones, have a stigma labelling them as cheap button mashers with all style and no substance. This can be true in some instances, but the Naruto games have received it especially bad due to CC2's intent on making every combo to be mapped to a single "combo button." Combined with the problem of poor teaching tools endemic to fighting games as a genre, and even professional fighting game players have trouble seeing the true depth of an arena fighter. The Ninja Storm games, especially UNS3 and 4, are more than they seem.
The best way for Demon Slayer to escape this confusion is to alter the control scheme and make it clear to players that they should be pressing more buttons for longer combos and flashier moves. The core of moving around strategically and managing several resources that defined the Ninja Storm games is still present, but Demon Slayer offers the chance to give fighters more offensive options to respond to foes and keep pressure on their opponents. It would be ideal to have enemies in the story mode that are particularly vulnerable to certain special moves, like forward-travelling ones or anti-airs, as that would help players learn how to think about tactics while fighting other humans. Finally, it would be much appreciated if publisher Namco authorized some sort of rollback netcode for this game, but as that’s a pipe dream, it will suffice if CyberConnect2 can make Demon Slayer stand out among the Naruto Ninja Storm games.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Hinokami Keppuutan is due out in 2021 in Japan via PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.