Review: Toukiden: Kiwami

Another day, another re-release.

This time around, it’s Toukiden: Kiwami, a re-release of the PSP/PS Vita title Toukiden: The Age of Demons… which itself is pretty much a Monster Hunter clone, as Greg explained in our initial review.

“Take one part Onimusha, two parts Dynasty Warriors, and an extra healthy serving of Monster Hunter (with Monster Hunter sides, and perhaps a second helping of Monster Hunter), and you’ve got Toukiden: The Age of Demons, a new… umm… monster hunting title by Omega Force, exclusively for the PlayStation Vita,” he said, aware that the game wears its influences on its sleeve. And with those influences, it’s shouldn’t be a surprise that Kiwami is a pretty enjoyable game.

You assume the role of a newly appointed Slayer — a member of a demon hunting movement — that defends the innocent against demons. Eight years before your work begins, the demons, known as Oni, infiltrated the world en masse, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Humanity isn’t faring so well against the Oni threat, but hope is found with your character. Your mission — and you guessed it — is to save the world.

You achieve that mission by undertaking a ton of… missions. Together with three NPCs — which can be traded out for live people in multiplayer — you’re tasked to roam the land and achieve a specific goal. On the battlefield, you may be asked to eliminate a number of small Oni, find a certain amount of goods… or, hopefully, take out a big ol’ huge monster.

In case you didn’t get that, the real fun of Toukiden: Kiwami is fighting big-ass, wolf-faced baddies.

After customising your character, you can then choose from one of six weapon types, each listed with their own pros and cons. Some are all-around weapons, some best in close-quarters and others still at ranged distances. Selecting a weapon thankfully doesn’t mean you’re locked into it; by heading to your room, you can not only change your weaponry, but your armour and hairstyle.

Yeah. Priorities on hairstyle.

Each weapon has a light and heavy attack, differing with each weapon type. Weapons also have slots, which can be filled with Mitama, otherwise known as the souls of historical warriors that can be recovered from vanquished enemies. These provide additional skills — essentially, magic — that can help turn the tide of battle. They’re quite varied, from defense to offense, to somewhere in between — essentially support. Actually, support is almost an understatement; there were times with minor missions that I literally put my DualShock 4 down and let the NPCs accomplish all the required goals of my mission.

Your player also has a dodge button which is very important in big battles. Altogether, combat’s fairly simplistic, which means you can just into into big battles and have fun. Though simplistic, you have to be prepared to do a bit of finger gymnastics to activate Mitama or pick-up power-ups from fallen enemies.

On defeating enemies, players can ‘cleanse’ their bodies or body parts (in the case of the larger boss-type Oni), acquiring items that can be used to create new weapons or armour, which is done in the hub world where you can unwind, progress the story, and choose missions. Cleaning and Mitama activation are both done with the same shoulder button, though the Mitamas also need a face button to be triggered.

Kiwami‘s item upgrade system is interesting and there are numerous items to collect — with clear ‘recipes’ to create weapons and armour — but no real way to know where to find them. With the addition of side-quests — each of which is essentially a fetch quest — this aspect of the game tends to feel very grindy the deeper one gets.

Graphically, Toukiden is beautiful. Like, easily prettier than Bloodborne, yet with the same last-gen stupidity like completely rigid clothing. While pretty same-y in the face, the large, boss Oni are highly detailed. As players progress through the game, they will create new armour and weapons, and there is quite a lot on offer — these kinds of games tend to rely on grind to unlock the more powerful weapons (and considering the game continues after completing the main storyline, fans of monster hunting titles have a lot to be excited about). The weapons and armour pieces themselves are highly detailed, and characters become more and more bad-ass over the course of the game.

Toukiden is one of those games that’s hard to put into a box; in terms of gameplay, it can be frustrating as a result of the controls, but conversely, given the amount of a beating that the larger Oni require, it can also be quite satisfying to take one down. The grind that is required to improve weaponry and armour is overwhelming, but the weapons and armour themselves are varied enough to be desirable. The story is a bit lame overall, but it’s quirky and charming enough to stick with if nothing else than to get to the next big baddie.

The game is clearly meant for handheld devices, offering up bite-sized chunks of gameplay with each mission. While that worked well for the PSP and the PS Vita… and now, the PS Vita and PSP again, the game feels like a grind more than ever on the PS4. It’s best played in spurts… or, like as you’d normally play it on the go.

Overall, Greg enjoyed his time with The Age of Demons as much as I enjoyed my time with Kiwami — even with its numerous issues. Gameplay is deep and requires careful, practised attacks (I would recommend playing on a more challenging difficulty, as normal wasn’t terribly satisfying — although it does get MUCH harder over time). The scope is enormous; those with time up their sleeves can pour in days of their life and there’ll still be room for more. It has it’s foibles, but for fans of the genre, there is much here to like. If you passed on it the first time, that is.

Toukiden: Kiwami was reviewed using a promotional code on PS4, as provided by the distrubtor.

With content by Greg Newbegin.

Review: Toukiden: Kiwami

The good Wears its influences on its sleeve — Monster Hunter, Onimusha and Dynasty Warriors. Fun in spurts; very much designed as a portable game.	The bad A tad grindy. A PSP and PS Vita release, RE-RELEASED on PSP and PS Vita. Sigh.

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