Let’s set the stage for this preview right now: Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles feels like the arena fighter that I never knew I needed.

I was reintroduced to my love of the fighting genre as recently as 2019 when the Mortal Kombat franchise came uppercutting its way back into my life with MK 11, followed by a few other fighting game titles that included Granblue Fantasy: Versus and Guilty Gear Strive, which – besides games like Marvel vs. Capcom – were admittedly some of my first fighting game experiences set within the art style of anime and manga.

Now that we have my colleague Dave Aubrey on the team – TheGamer’s resident anime/fighting genre expert – I tend to focus my energy on other genres. However, when the opportunity to check out an early build of Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles presented itself, I had to jump at the chance. Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles offers up fast-paced, intense action in arena-style battles with each match feeling more like a beautiful dance than a fight… and that’s a good thing.

Demon Slayer Sliced Boulder

The Hinokami Chronicles is based on the popular anime series, and follows the story of Tanjiro, who makes it his life’s goal to become a demon slayer after his family is brutally murdered and his sister, Nezuko, gets turned into a demon herself. Driven by revenge against the demon who killed his family and the desire to turn his sister back into a human, Tanjiro joins up with other demon slayers as they attempt to… slay demons. (It’s right there in the title, after all.)

Related: Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles Will Add Playable Demons After LaunchYou’re thrown into the action right away with the prologue that teaches you the ropes of the game’s combat system, but I was surprised at just how much I was sucked into the narrative, which emotionally gut-punches you as soon as Tanjiro begins his demon slaying journey. I don’t typically care too much about the storylines in fighting games, but the prologue and first chapter of The Hinokami Chronicles were more than enough to spark my intrigue and make me want to keep playing for the story alone.

Playing through the campaign is also how you unlock more playable characters, cosmetics, and game modes, which includes offline and online Versus mode. Online play wasn’t available during the preview, but I was still able to battle against CPU opponents (in addition to the big boss battles in Story mode). As much as I like The Hinokami Chronicles’ story so far, I’m absolutely enthralled by the game’s combat.

Demon Slayer Combo

At its core, Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles is an arena-style fighting game. Unlike traditional 2D or 2.5D fighting games in which combat takes place from a side-scrolling perspective, The Hinokami Chronicles’ battles take place in open 3D areas with the camera following your character as they make their way around the arena a la Jump Force or My Hero One’s Justice 2. Given the special abilities and focus on combo-based combat, the arena-style subgenre fits it perfectly. I’ve dabbled in other arena-style games, but none of them really felt like I was doing anything other than button mashing against my opponent. The opposite can be said for The Hinokami Chronicles.

Button mashing is still certainly a viable tactic, with no real consequences being brought about for doing so (at least, on Normal difficulty). This makes it a great game for newcomers to get in on the action right away, without the typical barriers to entry that a lot of fighting games come with.

That said, The Hinokami Chronicles absolutely rewards strategy and proper utilization of your character’s movement and special abilities. Side dashing to avoid an oncoming attack opens up a window for you to make your move, whether it be a special move, a slew of combo attacks, a more powerful hit with the use of your Surge ability, calling upon your tag teammate to get a few licks in, or finishing your enemy with your Ultimate move. Whatever route you decide to take, the animations will look great. I’m a sucker when it comes to high-quality, over-the-top animations – at this point, a fighting game without it kind of feels a bit lackluster – and The Hinokami Chronicles doesn’t disappoint.

Demon Slayer Demon

A hand drawn-style art collides with the 3D backdrops to create awe-inspiring cinematics that you’d expect from an anime such as Demon Slayer. In story mode, these cinematics are sometimes combined with quick-time events, which I know plenty of people could do without, but I feel like they work well here if for nothing other than keeping you immersed. I found myself on the edge of my seat more than once during these quick-time events.

To be honest, I never felt like I was playing an early version of the game, which is slated for release on October 15 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. A Day One patch will be released then as well, but I’m already highly impressed with what CyberConnect2 has here. Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles has all the makings to become my go-to fighting game for the foreseeable future.

A PS5 code was provided to TheGamer for this preview.

Next: Chorus Preview - A Modern Day Galaga That's Still Out Of Tune