Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles, is an Action Game/ Fighting Game developed by CyberConnect2 (Developers of .hack, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, Asura's Wrath, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Little Tail Bronx series) and published by Aniplex, with Sega handling the international publishing rights.
In a manner similar to the aforementioned Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series and Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, Hinokami Chronicles is an adaptation of the manga of the same name, having a single player Action Game focus, but also a multiplayer Arena Fighter mode. The game adapts the first season of the anime and the Mugen Train movie.
The game was released on October 14th, 2021 on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC in Japan, and October 16th, 2021 worldwide on the same platforms. The Nintendo Switch version came out on June 9th, 2022 in Japan and the following day, June 10th, worldwide. It would continue to receive DLC characters based on the Entertainment District Arc.
Announcement Trailer
, Story Mode Trailer, Battle Mode Trailer
Tropes for the game
- Adaptational Badass: The game doubles down on the Breathing Styles having more grandiose effects than seen in the anime, which had already made them more bombastic when compared to its original manga depictions; Zenitsu in particular initiates his Six Fold version of the Thunderclap and Flash by dashing from rocks suspended in thin air.
- Adaptation Expansion: Cyber Connect 2 adds several original normal attacks to the playable Demon Slayers in-between their Breathing Style Forms in order to make their movesets more fluid, especially since this game in particular limits itself to only show moves the anime has covered at the time of its release; Zenitsu sticks out in particular since the only move he had at the time was his first Thunder Breathing form: Thunderclap and Flash.
- Cel Shading: In a manner similar to the Naruto Storm series, the game is cel shaded in a rich manga style to capture both the visuals of the anime and the original manga series.
- Counter-Attack: How Dead Calm was adapted for this game: If anyone hits Giyu during the animation he gets a ridiculously strong combo.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: Since Aniplex is the publisher of the game the original soundtrack from the anime is applied here, albeit mostly remixed. The Demon Slayer Corps theme is used a lot, remixed in several ways, throughout the adventure.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: CC2 completely discards the notion that all elements within the Breathing Styles are not actually real, as several Ultimates and specific attacks are clearly inflicting elemental damage on the scenery and the opponent, specific examples being Zenitsu's Thunderclap and Flash - Six-Fold gaining an additional thunder strike as a finisher, and Tanjiro's boss battle against Rengoku's spirit being able to greatly extend the reach of his sword with flames.
- Glass Cannon: Akaza has the lowest health modifier in the game, but is also incredibly fast and deals by far the highest damage of the demons.
- Immune to Flinching: The Spider Father's Super-Toughness takes this form in his story mode boss fight. Unlike other opponents, hitting him doesn't start a combo. He will stagger after enough hits, but even then this just makes him stand still for a few seconds.
- Lethal Joke Character: Murata is a character who deals almost no damage...and happens to have one of the game's best assists.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Every single demon not named Nezuko Kamado. They fight on their own, which means that they can't be assisted by other characters. Instead, they get a special "demon gauge" that acts similarly to the assist gauge of other characters, except all of its options are done by the demons themselves rather than another character, meaning they have larger individual movepools. all of them (except Yushiro who has Tamayo as an assist, Daki who has long range on her moves anyway and Awakened Nezuko who's meant to be a Mighty Glacier) also each possess some form of projectile (something that Nezuko and the Demon Slayers don't really have), with Rui in particular being the game's first full-blown zoner and Suzamuru and Yahaba having projectile normals.
- Yahaba takes this a step further: his basic attacks are projectiles that do no damage at all, making him very meter reliant. He can do some spectacular damage if he chooses to cash out, though.
- Moveset Clone: The game being limited by what the anime has covered at the time of its release forced CC2 to try everything they could to expand the roster, leading to them making almost every single Water Breathing user in the series be a playable character, all with the same moves with very few differences between their normal attacks, with the only striking difference being what Form is used as their ultimate attack. However, the differences are usually enough to give them unique playstyles.
- The Entertainment District characters are a straighter example of this trope, using the same normals as Hinokami Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke but having different special moves and assists.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: The game's original event in which Tanjiro fights against Rengoku's spirit after his death in the Mugen Train arc, a duel to instill growth in Tanjiro's determination ends with Tanjiro inheriting Rengoku's nichirin blade's hilt/tsuba; this is an alternative take on the canonical fact that Tanjiro inherited the same hilt but by Rengoku's younger brother, Senjuro, after he visited the Rengoku household post the Mugen Train arc.
- Press X to Not Die: CyberConnect2's brand of QTE's, often lauded as being well done compared to most other games, return for the game's boss fights, as shown here
- Sequential Boss: Many bosses have different phases.
- Stationary Boss: During his second phase, Enmu does not move except to launch his attacks.
- Trap Master: Urokodaki and Daki both use traps as a key part of their playstyles.
- The Unfought: Muzan Kibutsuji, the series's main villain. He is on the center back of the game's cover art and is introduced in the game story; but since the title follows the anime with extreme precision, and not the manga, Muzan is never faced in gameplay or cutscene combat; the game was released in the time frame where only Season 1 and the Movie were available worldwide, when Muzan was still far from being put to battle within the story.
