Demon Slayer-Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 Review – Redefine Breathing

Slayers, the time to set your heart ablaze is upon us again. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Hinokami Chronicles 2 has finally launched with much much-requested feature and a complete overhaul of the Arena fighter genre. If you’re just an anime fan or a dedicated fighter enthusiast, all of the fans are in for a good time with this sequel. Launched on August 5, 2025, and developed by Cyberconnect2, this sequel is promising enough to have you hooked into the arcs all over again.

Here’s our official review of Demon Slayer Hinokami Chronicles 2 at Gameffine.

The Breath of Life and Death

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu No Yaiba – Hinokami Chronicles 2 picks up the story right after the Mugen Train arc ended. Instead of focusing just on the main events, the game now also focuses on arcs leading to the buildup, with occasional side stories that are a fun addition to the story mode flow of the game. There’s almost barely any difference in the anime and the video game in terms of cutscenes and voiceovers, but the game allows you to actually live through the events by fighting and QTEs of essential moments in the story.

This allows the game to be one of the best ways to relive the story before the Infinity Castle Movie releases. But fans who buy the game also get the option to unlock the Infinity Castle Character Pass, which will allow you to play the never-before-seen demons from the upcoming movie. And, as a free update, Kibutsuji Muzan is now available in the VS mode.

Right after Tanjiro recovers from the Mugen Train injuries, he heads out to visit the family of Rengoku, who, as a hero, lost his life during an intense follow-up battle with another Upper Moon called Akaza. Tanjiro carried Rengoku’s sword guard, only to be harshly rejected by Shinjuro, Rengoku’s father. Senjuro then gifts Tanjiro the sword guard as he seems him fit to carry Rengoku’s legacy forward because of his honesty and powers of Hinokami Kagura.

And right afterwards, you travel to the entertainment district with the Sound Hashira, in an elaborate undercover op to rescue the wives of Uzui. The story mode of the game follows all the acts in chronological order until the end of Hashira Training.

The Nichirin Prowess

At its core, Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba Hinokami Chronicles 2 is an arena fighter game, polished with visuals that accurately imitate the world-renowned animations of the Demon Slayer Anime. With original voiceovers from the anime as well, the game feels very authentic and provides an even deeper level of immersion with the story.

The combat itself is now tighter than the first one, which felt mostly like a simple step combo with breathing techniques. But now, the combat requires you to blend dodging, parrying, breaking, and using skills to find the opening. The combat is tight enough for it to feel like a soulslike game when playing on higher difficulties, but the combo chaining is very fascinating, given how well the move sets look in the enhanced engine. The full 60 FPS support on all modes compared to the first game on the console is a very welcome feature. For PC users, 60 FPS was already fully supported.

Each character carries their own combat skillset that can be used even more effectively when building a team of three. You can use the extra party members for – Rescue, support attack, or just simply tag out with your teammate, bringing a new twist to the battlefield.

The exploration of the story mode is, unfortunately, just pretty boring itself. It was just present in the first game and is now back, making you pick 10 items from all over the map to unlock more stuff. While I want to collect everything, even if it’s a dialogue, the way the game is making me do it has me checking the name of the developer and making sure it’s not Ubisoft.

But credit where due, the attempt at least to make a well-flowing story experience is still there if we remove the item fetching part. Since some games of the same genre are making slide show presentations in the name of storytelling. Yes, we are talking about you, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero.

The sticks very tightly to the storyline and does not try to fill it with any extra content that forces you to grind. But at the same time has a few optional side quests that are just an amazing opportunity to play as other characters as well in the game. Otherwise, these quests are also a good way to utilise the exploration maps, but are very skippable. Jumping off a rooftop to pick up some child’s paper aeroplane just to unlock a profile picture for my online slayer ID just seems very lazy.

The other modes are also a great part of the game experience. There are direct fights present in the game with notable characters from the 1st part of the game franchise. There is also a Hashira training mode, which is simply a tournament-style progression system, challenging you to survive a series of fights. The most fun, however, only comes in local 1v1s and multiplayer battles, because of how moment-to-moment fights can be. With a 40-player roster of demons and slayers, the fights will never seem repetitive or boring.

Set your Heart Ablaze

The visuals of the game are impeccable, and have almost no difference to the actual animation as it goes all in. The story mode QTE cutscenes are just pure adrenaline that will give you the same experience as if you watched the anime for the first time ever.

But the real joy comes from the well-designed and animated ultimate moves. The colors of breathing make it a full-blown experience to really feel what it is to be a demon slayer. There are many anime games present today in the market, but what this game does with the graphics is true justice to what the franchise deserves. The fluid and error-free performance is nothing but icing on the cake. I experienced 0 lag, bugs, or even crashes throughout my 16 hours of playthrough.

The maps are also decently designed as they try to only show the real locations of the fight, and being an arena format, it requires to respect a wide space for the moves and dodges. The OSTs are just fine, nothing over the top, just true to the franchise’s genre and often using the OSTs from the actual anime.

The Final Fight

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hinokami Chronicles 2 is an excellent arena fighter game with unparalleled visuals and stays very true to the anime. A 40-player roster makes it interesting to dive into the multiplayer modes, but it does nothing more than that. The story mode exploration is still bland until the actual fights begin, which are perfectly executed. Same game, new characters & story, better fighting, and visuals.