Toukiden Review: The Age of Demons

Oni Hunter

PS Vita tested version.

THEHunting Game, born as a sub-genre of action RPGs, has found such fertile ground in the Japanese public first, and then in the Western one, to become a real genre, with its "sacred monsters" and the inevitable imitators. Toukiden: The Age of Demons he thus inserts himself in no uncertain terms into the ranks of the latter and does so without hiding: Tecmo Koei e Omega Force in fact, they took advantage with ease of the experience accumulated in recent years by the genre, exploiting consolidated dynamics and also introducing some interesting news. 

Bringer of hope

The plot of Toukiden is clearly a mere pretext to exterminate as many demons as possible: as usual, our protagonist is a new recruit with incredible potential, enlisted in the ranks of the Slayer to fight the looming danger brought by the Oni, the demonic monsters who have begun to emerge from the Otherworld with increasing insistence, threatening to overwhelm humanity. In defense of the border village in which the Slayers in question are active, theUtakata VillageHowever, our hero will meet many comrades in arms and allies, with whom he will entertain relationships that can also give a certain depth to the narrative. Through the various Ages, game areas inspired by medieval Japan, each with peculiar characteristics due to the continuous interpenetration of the demonic Otherworld in the human world, our hero will thus have to face increasingly powerful demons, carefully choosing the allies to bring with him in the various missions. Overall, the narrative level is therefore more than sufficient for a title of this type and does not create major distractions from what will be our obsession for about 50 hours of play: to tear apart all the Oni that will stand in front of us!

I can't beat the most

Tecmo Koei's habit of baking musou also makes itself felt in this new series: in the various areas, in fact, our hunters will often be engaged in the thankless task of eliminating several minor Oni without paying too much attention to strategy. Button mashing becomes practically inevitable in these sections and, associated with a convenient system for attaching enemies with L and the support of allies, will see us repeatedly consume the X key. Fortunately, however, the title created by the Omega Force manages to offer much more and everything will be damn useful and fun especially during the boss fight. It is precisely during these challenging battles against gigantic demons that Toukiden is able to exploit the multiple potentialities of a gameplay not revolutionary, but definitely well structured. Our hero has in fact available the choice between 6 basic weapons with different characteristics: the long sword, an easy to use katana with balanced characteristics; a pair of knives that allow you to launch quick but less powerful attacks; a spear capable of ranged attacks; heavy gloves capable of delivering slow but lethal blows; the scythe with chain that allows attacks at short and medium distances; finally, the bow, which will be the favorite weapon of those who love to avoid getting their hands dirty in too close encounters. The choice of the type of weapon to use will therefore never be trivial, especially when we are going to modify our arsenal, using the objects collected during our missions to attribute useful upgrades to the objects, or when we are going to explore the possibilities offered by the association of the weapon to a particular Mitama.

But what are these Mitama? One of the most original elements of the production, the Mitama are an inventory of about 200 souls of heroes of the past able to offer peculiar abilities to the weapon they are associated with. To get them all it will be necessary to face and defeat many Oni, so as to be able to free them from the captivity to which they were forced after the defeat by the demons. The abilities given away by these "tools" are however limited during the fight, forcing us not only to carefully choose the type of Mitama most useful to face a specific enemy, but also to be careful not to waste these skills too soon so as not to compromise the clash. The time limits imposed for the realization of the most demanding quests are another element to keep in mind when choosing our equipment.

In this regard, it is useful to underline the importance of the purification of enemies and, above all, of the parts of defeated enemies: in addition to being useful for accumulating objects (but we can often rely on the very good AI of the allies for this work), the exorcism that it is carried out by pressing the R key and is indispensable against the giant Oni, the parts of which would regenerate without the execution of the adequate ritual. Another interesting element is the Eye of Truth (a sort of eagle eye that can be activated with the Select key or via the touchscreen): it is not something never seen in the gaming world (just think of Assassin's Creed or Soul Sacrifice, only to cite two similar examples), but it is really useful for revealing healing altars and for being able to hit our opponents in critical points. Finally, we want to reassure those who fear having to spend hours eliminating silly monsters to accumulate objects: the growth of the weapons is quite balanced even without having to exceed in crafting. 

What majestic monsters!

Like Soul Sacrifice, the Tecmo Koei title also offers fans of the genre the possibility of tackling missions with 3 other human players around the world (or even our friends through local multiplayer) through a quick matchmaking system able to offer games fun without lag and slowdowns. As mentioned, the AI ​​of allies is not bad, but in some circumstances the experience of more "unpredictable" companions can prove to be really useful, especially if you manage to organize a good strategy via chat. Toukiden can also rely on a truly excellent technical sector thanks to the great potential of PS Vita. While sharing the development with PSP (the old-gen version, however, will hardly arrive in the West), the developers have managed to create varied and evocative settings, stylish characters (even if not very original) and spectacular cut-scenes. The demons to face can give epicness to the battle scenes, while the in-game textual dialogues can rely on really beautiful artwork. The game experience is finally enriched by a good level soundtrack and the dubbing will make the joy of the purists of Japanese dubbing, given that the title offers numerous dialogue parts while strictly maintaining the original language (with text and
English subtitles). Unfortunately, the Spanish language localization is completely missing.

Final comment

Toukiden: The Age of Demons is a title capable of bringing a valid alternative for all those who do not own or do not appreciate the Nintendo 3DS: orphan of Monster Hunter, PS Vita can thus count on an excellent imitator, able to effectively and slavishly compensate for the void left from the Capcom game, without however renouncing to introduce some appreciable novelties. By creating a technically very good title, with a level of difficulty slightly lower than the competition and contents necessarily lower since it is the first chapter of the series, Tecmo Koei thus also stands as a reference for those approaching for the first time to a genre, that of the Hunting Game, able to involve and truly offer many hours of fun.