Demon Slayer has quickly become one of the biggest franchises in the world with a record-breaking movie adaptation alongside a massively popular anime season. With its explosive popularity, its no surprise that the franchise will be receiving a video game adaptation this October titled Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles. Developed by CyberConnect2, Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles will be a 3D fighting game with both a story and versus mode.
Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles has received a few gameplay trailers and roster reveals throughout the past few months that showcase the game's different modes. Unfortunately, it seems that the roster is a limited as players won't be able to play as demons or many of the Hashira from the original anime. As a result, this means that a lot of exciting fights from the original Demon Slayer anime might only appear in the story mode and the game's success could depend on its campaign.
The Revealed Roster of Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles
Over the past few months, Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles' roster has 18 different characters, some of which will be unlockable early by purchasing the special editions. For the most part, the playable characters are ones who have appeared during the first season of the Demon Slayer anime and the character reveal trailers have showcased their movesets. However, it also seems that characters from the Kimetsu Academy spin-off will appear and this means that a few characters like Tanjiro and Nezuko will appear twice with minor differences in design and animations.
Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles appears to adapt the first season of the anime and it's likely that some of the Hashira don't appear due to spoilers. Nonetheless, it's a little strange to see the lack of demons as playable characters given their unique abilities on the show and the tense battles they had with the protagonists. This means that Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles will depend more on its story mode to showcase some of the show's best fight sequences.
Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles' Story Mode
Based on the story mode trailer, it seems that CyberConnect2 has done a great job of translating the animation sequences from Ufotable and the unique art style of Demon Slayer. The trailer shows Tanjiro throughout his journey in the first season from the forest training to the Final Selection. Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles makes use of in-game cinematics to re-tell the anime's narrative and it seems that there will be a non-combat component as well. However, it's unclear whether this entails exploration and whether it will have an open-world design similar to CyberConnect2's previous games.
During the trailer, fans caught a glimpse at some of the adapted fights from the original Demon Slayer anime like the monstrous Hand Demon. Much like versus mode, the fights appear to be in arenas and employ unique mechanics for players to discover and figure out. A few other demons from the anime also made an appearance in the trailer but as they don't appear on the roster, it's likely their role will be limited to the story mode.
There's a lot of potential in the story mode especially if it centers around discovering more about the Demon Slayer universe. The original story from the anime skipped two years of Tanjiro's training and it would be interesting to see it fleshed out. At the very least, having some extra plotlines that didn't appear in the anime would help the story mode feel less like a summary. Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles' success will depend on how well the story mode is executed and how the anime's best fight sequences are translated to video game format.
Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on October 15, 2021.