The Mysterious Demon Slayer Game
It couldn’t be less surprising that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is getting not one, but two video game adaptations. The series topped a recent list featuring the best-selling Shonen Jump manga series in Japan, just surpassing the long-running One Piece. The anime TV series adaptation also did well, recently winning the Anime of the Year award from Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards, though there’s still more than half of the manga yet to be adapted. With those accolades, these announcements were questions of when and not if.
One game is a mobile title, but the big effort is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hinokami Keppuutan for PlayStation 4. The project is being developed by CyberConnect2, and will be one of the few video games published by Aniplex. It’s a switch for CC2 in how they tend to cooperate with Bandai Namco on Shonen Jump game adaptations. Aniplex, despite their lack of game publishing expertise, has been taking notes after the seeing the receptions to CC2’s seemingly endless sea of Naruto games and the recent Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. This game will inherit a key element form those titles in being a visual splendor, seen through the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it glance in the teaser and the screenshots. It almost looks indistinguishable from the anime in certain angles.
The key mystery surrounding the PS4 game at the moment is precisely what kind of game it will be. Neither the current details nor the developer interview confirm this. It could suggest that it won’t be yet another arena fighter adaptation, the kind far too many Shonen Jump franchises seem to receive. The Naruto games, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, and the recent My Hero One’s Justice 2 are among those, while others like action RPG Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot are few and far between.
(I would have listed open world action-adventure One Piece: World Seeker here if it turned out well. It did not.)
The big reason why I posted about the Fairy Tail game adaptation coming from Gust and Koei Tecmo was because of the surprise that came with it not being another arena fighter. It will instead be a turn-based RPG similar to Gust’s own Atelier titles. Japanese RPG adaptations of anime franchises used to be more common, a notable similarity to the prevalence of JRPGs themselves compared to the 90s and the early-to-mid 00s. It would be a nice surprise if this Demon Slayer game was among their small numbers. But the chances of it being an arena fighter are too good to ignore, since they’re the kind of adaptations CC2 has the most experience with. Still, I’d like to think there’s some reason why Aniplex is keeping the genre shrouded in mystery at the moment.
Aniplex should reveal what it is in time, though I’m not confident enough to say that will happen in the next few weeks. The game is due for a release sometime in 2021 as a PS4-exclusive title, which a number of vocal fans found peculiar. Remember that it takes at least a couple of years for new consoles to establish themselves, and the mere act of establishing a new home console at all won’t stop becoming more difficult in Japan. The console choice makes sense. This doesn’t eliminate the chance of it coming to PlayStation 5 too, but Aniplex could either be waiting to announce it after the PS4 version releases, or might plan on doing so after Sony formally reveals the system — whenever that happens. It’s likely the game will be localized given its popularity outside Japan, which will further justify a next-gen port.
In the meantime, fans should figuratively keep their fingers crossed (literally too, if you’re willing to sacrifice those fingers) that it won’t be an arena fighter. But you should totally expect it to be that kind of game, just so you won’t let yourselves down later.
The mobile game, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Keppuu Kengeki Royale, will be a free-to-play asymmetrical battle survival action game, which sure sounds like a pretty and verbose genre name for an arena fighter. If this one is indeed that, logic should follow that the console game won’t be, right? No, let’s not assume there’s too much logic here, and please emphasize the word “should.” No release date was given for this title, but expect it to release sooner than the console one thanks to how fast mobile games tend to arrive following their announcements.
Meanwhile, it would be a surprise if we didn’t hear about a second season of the anime coming soon, perhaps after the movie adapting the Mugen Train arc releases. The chances of this happening will be even higher if rumors and speculation about the manga being in its final arc pan out.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
