CyberConnect2 has a history with anime-based fighting games that are absolutely fun and flashy due to their surface level simplicity. Although .hack//Versus never made it out of Japan, the development team has seen some success with a variety of games based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It is the Naruto series of games, specifically the Ultimate Ninja Storm series that started on the PS3, that really gave them some big success on both the player and critic fronts. This is why it was so surprising to see that Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles was a disappointment. The fighting was good, and the story mode was serviceable, but the paltry amount of characters unlocked at the beginning for versus mode was enough to turn off players who weren't willing to spend the time to finish the campaign before engaging in some human fisticuffs. Roughly four years later, we're finally getting a sequel in Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2, and the team has certainly addressed the criticisms with the previous title.

Just like the first game, the fighting system is simple to learn but has a good amount of depth. You have a main attack and an attack tied to your breathing techniques, but that one is limited by a meter that slowly refills over time. You also have a dash, parry, and normal block for defensive moves. Your special meter lets you unleash a flashy attack that comes with a bonus cut scene if used as a finishing move. Alternatively, that same meter lets you enter a state where you move at an overall faster speed than your opponent, at least until that meter is fully drained. This is a 2v2 fighter, so you can call on your partner to deliver attacks of their own or tag them in to fight for you. However, this game employs a tag system similar to that of Tekken Tag Tournament, so getting knocked out counts as a loss no matter which of your team members gets hit.

The only knock is that there are no changes to the fighting mechanics. There are no new techniques to master, and no new moves have been added to each character's arsenal. It means that those who have played the first game will instantly pick up on all of the nuances of this fighting system, but it also means that there's no real challenge beyond learning how each new playable character works.

If you like to jump straight into a versus match, you'll be grateful to know that the starting roster has expanded greatly, especially when you compare it to the first game, which only had four characters unlocked at the start. You're looking at a little under 20 starting characters, which is a good variety for crafting character combos. You're looking at a total of roughly 40 fighters once you unlock everyone, but that includes some costume variants of existing fighters to pad the numbers a bit. One thing that will please fans is that you get to play as some of the demons right off the bat, so there's no need for DLC. There's also the bonus of extra unlockable characters if you pre-ordered the game or have save files for either the first fighting game or the spin-off, Sweep The Board.

Speaking of the story mode, it plays out similarly to the first game. You get a small section of an area to explore, and while there are a few side-quests, your main goal for exploration is to find points and unlockable items that you can check out later. The areas can be fairly linear, so don't expect many branches for wandering. Available paths either lead to an important story-based cut scene or a small fight with a lesser demon; only a few key paths lead to battles with major enemies. It's fine but pales in comparison to what the team previously accomplished on the older Naruto titles.

There are three major story arcs. After a prologue to get you familiar with the gameplay and reintroduce you to protagonist Tanjiro Kamado, you start with the Entertainment District Arc. This is followed up with the Swordsmith Village Arc and then the Hashira Training Arc. This title catches up with the anime and acts as a good refresher for the movie that was recently announced for a September release in North America.

Training mode is the final returning mode, but it's wildly different from before. You still get to choose which instructor to fight against, but there's no longer the need to fight the same person with slightly increasing difficulty levels per fight. Instead, you're given a branching map where your final fight is always against the instructor, but you can decide which branch to travel to. Most events are fights against other characters with bonus objectives, but some stops will give you more health or a usable gift, such as higher defense or a decrease in the amount of special meter consumed by a move. The number of pathways and instructors to challenge is plentiful enough that it makes for a great single-player mode if you want a break from the story for a bit.

The game introduces one more gameplay mode in the form of Path of a Demon Slayer. This is essentially a retelling of the different story arcs presented in the first game but in a more abridged form. Cut scenes are still present, but they're shorter, and the exploration segments are all gone. What remains are the fights themselves, which mostly remain unchanged from the previous game. This is still a welcome mode for those who skipped the first game and those who want to go straight to the fighting but want to catch up before playing the story mode.

With the exception of Training mode, everything is governed by Gear. The gear is separated into three different areas denoting whether they're meant for the story alone or for general fighting. Nothing will give you such a huge advantage that you can easily win a fight with no effort, but they prove to be helpful enough to sway things if fighter skills are evenly matched. Gear is optional and almost necessary in most offline modes, but you can turn it off in all versus modes, so you aren't forced into min/maxing the game like an RPG when all you want to do is fight.

Finally, just like in the first title, you have a whole host of unlockables and lots of different ways to get them. As mentioned earlier, you can get them directly through the story mode, and the points gained from almost every mode in the game lets you unlock everything else at your leisure. Playing with characters also gains experience and opens up a ton of unlockables, so that encourages players to try different characters. Those unlockables range from new playable fighters to audio quotes, still scenes from the anime, and more Gear, so completionists have some incentive to stay on the grind.

What's on offer makes the first game look like a trial run for how a Demon Slayer fighting game would be made. While there's still some emphasis on being able to retell the story of the anime and manga in video game form, there's a better understanding of players just wanting to fight versus explore, and it feels like the game is better balanced in this regard. The only complaint about this approach is that the game is still reliant on cut scenes to tell the story, specifically the still shots from the anime in flashback form. With the game being good at re-creating the fully animated scenes, it feels like a waste to see still pictures from key flashbacks instead of something flashier.

From an audio perspective, Demon Slayer 2 is excellent. The music is good but not overwhelming, and the sound effects deliver the right amount of punch for a fighting game. The original voices from both the Japanese and English cast are all present and bring their best. This isn't going to be a Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections situation, where the wrong voice takes are used for powerful moments.

Graphically, the game looks like a good translation of the anime. The character designs are practically flawless, and the colors match the anime well instead of trying to overshadow it. The animations are great, and while some of the environments look good, they're eclipsed a tad when you go into sections where more people are present and the frame rate doesn't drop. The only issue is that the more cinematic scenes during your special moves are locked to 30fps, which is a shame when you see how fluid it is at 60fps and above. It's still a good compromise when you remember that the first game was locked to 30fps until the most recent set of patches.

Just like the first game, this title is already marked as verified for the Steam Deck, and our brief time with the game on the device shows that the rating was correct. Despite what the graphical options say, you're playing at a resolution of 1280x720, but the game moves at 60fps during the fights while dropping to manageable levels during the exploration scenes. The game automatically chooses a mix of mostly high and a few medium graphical settings, and that results in a good-looking game but a battery life of under two hours on the LCD version of the Deck. About the only issue you may have is a pausing of the game during exploration, which doesn't happen too often. Some cut scenes pause, but they can be skipped.

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a better sequel in just about every way. While the actual fighting mechanics remain unchanged due to the absence of new additions, more characters from the start and expansions to a few modes give the game some real legs, whether you're playing solo or with friends and rivals. While this still doesn't reach the heights of the developer's previous Naruto titles, this is easily the best of the Demon Slayer titles so far, and it's an easy purchase for fans of the series and anime fighting games in general.

Score: 8.0/10