It’s a good thing that fighting these demons is so fun, because you’re going to be seeing them a lot. Toukiden only contains 12 types of Large Oni. They are all pretty different from each other, making each encounter a pretty unique experience. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the mission types. Despite the large number of missions you’ll be carrying out, they all pretty much boil down to two different objectives: kill x number of Oni or clear specific areas of the map of demons. Not only this, but all you’ll really be doing in each of the chapters’ missions is fighting the same demons in different environments. The only time they really try to mix it up is when you aren’t immediately given the location of the Oni you’re after, so you have to wander the map trying to track it down. This ends up being more frustrating than fun, though. The game tries to add a little variety by changing the colors of the Oni and giving them different attacks, but, at their core, they’re still basically the same enemies. While I wouldn’t normally care, when all you want to do is advance the story, it gets tiresome having to fight the same demons you’ve already beaten just to accomplish that.
As you defeat Oni and accumulate materials, you can take them to Tatara, the blacksmith, who will create new armor and weapons out of them. Based on the types of parts you bring, you can also make a variety of weapons with different elemental effects, as well. Once created, your skill with equipment will steadily get better as you use it. Weapons get better as you attack enemies with them, and armor gets stronger as you take damage. Once you’ve increased your proficiency enough, Tatara can further upgrade it to increase its stats slightly, free of charge. The game’s armor features a lot of traditional Japanese designs, which means some of the headgear can get a little… flashy. However, if silly hats aren’t really your style, you can choose to not have them display from your equipment screen.
Shikimi, who runs the village’s shrine, works much the same way as the smithy. When you kill Oni, you’ll sometimes free the spirits of fallen heroes known as Mitama. Some of them are acquired through the story, but the vast majority are found randomly as you kill Oni. These can then be applied to sockets in your weapons to change your special abilities, as well as give you different bonuses, such as making you immune to different status effects, and increasing your attack, defense and other stats. Interestingly, in lieu of healing items or tools, everything is done through Mitama. Aside from each of the eight Mitama types giving three distinct moves, they all have a healing ability that will restore a portion of health. Each move has a set number of uses, but these can be recharged either from special white prayer stones found around the map, or when you respawn after a death.
One of my favorite features in Toukiden is the fact that you really get to know the other Slayers of Utakata. Each of them uses one of the game’s weapons, so you can craft a team that compliments your play style. Ōka is, more or less, the leader of the group – responsible and highly protective of the village and her sister. Hatsuho is (technically) the youngest member of the team, but insists on being treated with the same respect as an elder, though this isn’t totally unwarranted. Ibuki, the resident pretty boy of the group, spends a lot of time joking around and womanizing. Fugaku is highly aggressive and competitive, and has a special love of completely wrecking Oni. Nagi is the obligatory “hot girl,” and, possibly due to her past experience as a doctor, also acts as the healer of the group. Finally, there’s Hayatori, a highly-skilled ninja who has a soft spot for cute animals. You can usually pick any three characters to accompany you on missions, though the story will sometimes dictate taking certain people. Aside from just getting to know them, much of the story revolves around the hardships that each character wrestles with. This helps keep you much more involved in the plot that would otherwise boil down to nothing but “kill demons because they’re bad.”
As I mentioned in my preview, I was excited to explore the social mechanic that the demo touched upon. You start off as an Acquaintance with most characters, which will then build up to Comrade, then Friend and, eventually, all the way up to Soulmate. It’s an interesting feature that rewards you with special weapons, new Mitama and other bonuses. Unfortunately, it turns out this aspect of the game is not very deep. Rather than getting closer to characters through conversation trees ala the Persona games, or building trust simply by taking them on missions with you Xenoblade-style, it’s actually much more impersonal. Aside from the standard missions that you can undertake during the game, there is also a large list of quests that Yū will keep track of for you. These are general collection jobs where you are tasked with finding materials, or killing a certain number of Oni. Once you have met the criteria to finish a quest, you turn it in to Yū, who will give you your reward. Your friendship level for the client will then raise one level. Sadly, this is not reflected in gameplay. They never thank you personally for helping them, nor do they react to you any differently as you become closer. The only real difference I noticed is that, when you’ve maxed out a relationship with someone, they’re more likely to show up at the Pool of Purity when you go there to bathe. So, I guess it’s not all bad.
Near the end of the first chapter, you are introduced to a small fox called a Tenko whose name also happens to be Tenko. What an odd development that we’ve never seen before. Tenko becomes your personal pet, and hangs out in your house. While she doesn’t normally do much more than be cute, you can send her out to different quest areas that you have played through. While there, Tenko will collect a small number of materials for you. Once you come back from a mission, you can then check back in with her at your house, and she will give you the materials she found. If you send Tenko to the same place multiple times, she will change color, which will allow her to find more items than usual if you send her out again. While this is somewhat helpful, I wish Tenko had been implemented a little better. It’s nice to have that little fox hang out in my house, but that’s about all she does if you aren’t sending her off all the time. She doesn’t follow you around, you can’t pet her, and she never really serves any purpose aside from getting you those random items.
In a couple locations around the village, you’ll see large stones with a glowing blue symbol on them. These stones are your gateway to Toukiden’s multiplayer mode. Once activated, you can create or join a room, either locally or online. You can then go on missions with other Slayers you meet, though some of these can be incredibly tough. You might want to wait until you’ve played a good portion of single player before you tackle the more difficult missions, or else you’ll likely find yourself dying a lot. The best part is that, if you don’t like taking the game’s CPU-controlled Slayers along with you in these missions, the game will save the information on the Slayers you meet in multiplayer, whom you can then take instead. There’s a lot of challenging missions in here, and they’ll probably be taking up a lot of your time long after the single player story is over.
Maybe it’s just because I haven’t played that many Vita games, but I am always impressed by what this device can do in terms of graphics. Everything in Toukiden is incredibly detailed, from the character and monster models to the weapons to the environments that you’ll be exploring. Due to the Otherworld’s tendency to warp time and space, each of the areas you explore is representative of a different time period in Japanese history, so there’s a lot of variety in the different hunting areas, as well. The hand-drawn character portraits, as well as Mitama artwork, is also beautifully done. Gameplay itself is, for the most part, wonderfully smooth. The only time I really noticed a slowdown was during one particular mission where we were getting pretty well overrun with Oni, but, even then, the drop in frame rate was minimal. The music, too, is great. From the relaxing theme of Utakata Village to the different stage themes to the boss music, the mood is always set perfectly for the situation. And, for you purists out there, all of the game’s voice acting is in its original Japanese with English subtitles. All the pre-rendered cutscenes are fully voiced, as well as many in-game scenes. Personally, I don’t really know a good Japanese voice actor from a bad one, but I thought just about everyone did a good job. Hatsuho could get a little annoying at times, though.
After finishing Toukiden, I realized that the game just felt… easy. Maybe it’s just because I’ve gotten more versed in the monster-hunting genre, but there was never a point when I felt particularly challenged. Of course, that might have been because I had a team to hide behind; it was only during one particular mission where I was forced to go it alone that I really had to exert myself. The missions’ arbitrary 60-minute time limit felt pretty unnecessary. Even the final battle didn’t take me much more than 15 minutes. All that said, I still found the game quite entertaining, at least during its high points. While I loved fighting the Large Oni, being forced to go up against the same handful of demons over and over to move the story along got tiresome after a while. Granted, repetition is an established feature of this genre, so longtime fans probably won’t mind it much. If you can get past that though, the game is a lot of fun. Collecting materials to make cool new weapons and armor, and applying different Mitama for different abilities and bonuses gives a nice level of customization to suit your play style. The story took me just over 30 hours to complete, though I goofed off a fair bit, too. However, these games don’t end when the credits roll. I already have a new string of missions available to me, not to mention the more challenging and rewarding quests online. If I had a mind to, I’m sure I could sink hundreds of hours into Toukiden. At $40, the game is sure to please old hands, but is also simple enough to entertain newcomers who want to ease into the monster-hunting genre.
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Review copy supplied by the publisher.
Toukiden: The Age of Demons is available on Amazon:
