The sequel to the first Hinokami Chronicles is now finally out and is reviewing surprisingly well.
While the first Hinokami Chronicles certainly looked lovely and very accurate to the anime, it didn’t review all that well.
CyberConnect2 is a solid developer when it comes to manga and anime game adaptations, with some of their cel-shading work being some of the best in the business; however, their gameplay can leave something to be desired on some of their games.
No doubt, as Demon Slayer is hugely popular across the world, there was a lot of pressure on the first Hinokami Chronicles game, and it didn’t quite land as it should have done, with critics responding in quite a mixed way.
However, for this new game, it seems that CyberConnect2 managed to make some decent progress this time around.
The main improvements seem to be improved combat and just a bigger and better game, although this tends to be the way with sequels.
In that, laying the groundwork for a big anime game like this, with complex combat, is a big ask for the first game in the series. That’s why sequels, with lots of asset reuse, can actually focus on fixing and polishing the core game further.
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This was equally true for FromSoftware’s original Another Century’s Episode games on the PlayStation 2. The first game was okay, but it was the following sequel and “final” releases that really shone (obvious hint, it wasn’t the “final” game in the series).
In the same way, it seems that CyberConnect2 has seemingly built upon the first game’s merits and expanded on them further, and the critics seem much happier as a result.
Demon Slayer The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is now available on Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, via Steam.
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