Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a wildly well-liked anime and manga sequence that stars a charming forged of characters all in search of to guard innocents from insidious threats. My spouse and I are large followers of the present to the purpose that we’ve obtained dozens of Banpresto, Figurizm, and Masterlise figures for our humble assortment. It’s additionally why I used to be intrigued by Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board!, a digital board sport adaptation of the sequence from CyberConnect 2 and Sega.
Following its launch on Nintendo Swap this previous April, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board has been launched on further platforms. Sadly, nonetheless, it appears my watch for Sweep the Board to return to PC was not value it. After almost 10 hours of enjoying, I nonetheless have a tough time discerning simply who precisely this sport was made for. From clunky controls to boring minigames, Sweep the Board looks like a celebration sport that lacks any sense of „social gathering.“
Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board adapts a number of arcs of the manga and anime into Mario Get together-esque layouts. From Asakusa and Mount Fujikasane in Board 1 to the Swordsmith Village in Board 5, every map is chock-full of references and nods to moments from the present, which was a deal with for me as a fan. For example, there are a number of paths in Mt. Natagumo that take you to Tsuzumi Mansion, which has a mysterious drum that causes characters contained in the constructing to maneuver to random areas. The Swordsmith Village, in the meantime, has sizzling springs, mechanical coaching dolls, and Haganezuka chasing you round. These acquainted with the supply materials will little doubt get a kick out of the references, albeit a short one.
Gamers traverse the board by rolling cube and shifting throughout areas, with branching paths that result in different areas. Likewise, maps have their very own modes of transportation in step with their respective themes, similar to boats that take you from Asakusa to Northwest City, rickshaws in Yoshiwara Leisure District, and the Mugen Prepare going across the tracks. There are many NPCs to come across whenever you land on sure areas, too, together with Tamayo’s cat, Goto (one of many Kakushi), Tengen Uzui’s honeys, and extra, resulting in a good quantity of replayability.
So far as characters go, Sweep the Board enables you to select from 12 heroes, together with the primary trio of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. They’re joined by Hashira like Mitsuri, Gyomei, Rengoku, Sanemi, and extra. Curiously sufficient, Nezuko isn’t playable, however she does seem as a help character who helps the participant in final place, normally by including an additional cube roll or handing a free merchandise to them. I truly like this idea since, though Nezuko is totally vicious in her Woke up demon type, she’s nonetheless a baby that everybody is protecting of. It makes extra sense to have her help than play an energetic position, very like within the sequence.
Characters within the sport are superbly rendered and animated; the unique forged additionally did the Japanese and English voiceovers, that means I discovered myself immersed proper right down to essentially the most minute particulars. Zenitsu’s giddy reactions, Inosuke’s brashness, Shinobu’s cheerful disposition, and Giyu’s nonchalant remarks all successfully evoke the supply materials. My solely gripe right here is that characters don’t have distinctive perks or skills, which might’ve been apt for a board sport the place you management highly effective fighters. As an alternative, everybody simply has the same old cube rolls and Slayer Cube that grant samey bonuses.
Your foremost objective in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is to amass Rank Factors on the finish of a match, which could be as quick as 5 turns or as time-consuming as 30 turns. At first of every day, gamers take part in quite a lot of minigames. There have been a choose few that I actually loved, similar to Staff Reminiscence Matching which, because the time period implies, is all about flipping portraits till you discover a match, and Zenko’s Zealous Efficiency, which is akin to a musical rhythm sport. My favourite, by far, is Don’t Miss a Beat! the place I needed to run via Tsuzumi Mansion’s twisting hallways, all whereas leaping over pits and razor-sharp projectiles thrown by Kyogai the Drum Demon.
Nevertheless, a number of minigames had been overly easy, hilariously straightforward, or downright boring. For instance, Final One Leaping is a skipping rope minigame the place I simply needed to press a button on the proper time, whereas Demon Sleigh-er had me transfer facet to facet to cross via pace bursts whereas avoiding obstacles. Some actions even occurred twice throughout the identical match, which made the entire endeavor repetitive to a fault.
Regrettably, the controls could be unresponsive or janky at instances, too. Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board affords solo play, on-line play, and native split-screen for as much as 4 individuals (with any remaining slots managed by the CPU). For native split-screen, I made a decision to make use of a keyboard whereas my spouse used a Logitech F310 gamepad. Taking part in on a gamepad was considerably extra snug than utilizing a keyboard, for the reason that latter led to cumbersome moments particularly in minigames that required using the WASD keys to hint drawings or observe a diagonal course. Worse, I observed button prompts would change in the course of a game–rolling a die and ending a dialogue normally meant urgent the “E” key, however there have been situations when the “Q” key needed to be pressed as an alternative. I couldn’t inform if this was a bug as a result of a keyboard and gamepad setup for native play.
The board switches to its evening part as soon as a participant has reached the vacation spot spot, which can be when Larger Demons spawn. These highly effective enemies hold with the theme of every board, with Yahaba, Susamaru, and the Hand Demon rising in Asakusa/Mt. Fujikasane, Enmu and Akaza within the Mugen Prepare, Gyutaro and Daki within the Leisure District, and so forth. I used to be impressed by the inclusion of those opponents, which had been offered as particular boss encounters full with quick cutscenes from the anime. Even Muzan reveals up a number of turns in, extending the evening part, so to talk, and rising the variety of threats.
My solely criticism right here is that boss battles towards Larger Demons are nonetheless your run-of-the-mill button mash or quick-time occasion affairs with little selection or problem. There are a few notable exceptions, such because the Daki encounter, although that is principally as a result of button prompts appeared in several positions onscreen, making the battle extra complicated than thrilling. It was disappointing to see boss battles themselves flip into uninteresting and uninspired actions.
Essentially the most evident shortcoming of Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board, nonetheless, is that it’s hardly one thing that may be thought of a aggressive board sport or social gathering sport. If you consider different titles and franchises in these genres, similar to Mario Get together Superstars, The Jackbox Get together Pack, Talisman, Catan, and even Monopoly, you’re both on the lookout for chaotic romps, memorable and enjoyable minigames, or methods to sabotage and stymie your opponent’s progress. The mere notion of somebody main the pack, and the information you could snatch their hard-earned rewards or their lead from beneath their nostril, creates tense, exasperating, and oftentime amusing moments.
Sadly, these moments are few and much between in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board. Through the course of my evaluate, I saved checking for perks that might enable me to steal goodies from different gamers or declare their Hashira ally as my very own, however it seems to be like these mechanics don’t exist. Exterior of a few consumable items–one that forces all gamers to maneuver to my present location and one other that makes me swap locations with a target–I couldn’t create situations that might flip the desk on one other particular person, to everybody else’s raucous laughter.
At greatest, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is only a race to succeed in vacation spot spots or Larger Demon spots to earn extra Rank Factors. No matter how properly I did or how excessive my rating was, minigames themselves solely granted a smattering of cash to buy objects, and victories towards Larger Demons provided however a handful of Rank Factors. By the identical token, the randomized means during which these spots confirmed up generally gave benefits to the closest participant, and I had no management over these occurrences.
Likewise, I used to be shocked to see that post-game rewards handed out by Kagaya, the mentor of the Hashira, had been additionally random. In a single match, bonus Rank Factors got to the one who spent essentially the most gold. I then used up numerous gold throughout my subsequent run, just for the particular reward to be given to the participant who moved essentially the most variety of areas. Exterior of the primary mode, it’s doable to retry every minigame and boss encounter in fast runs, in addition to spend cash to unlock beauty rewards like stickers, anime avatars, alternate attires, and wallpapers, however it’s not very thrilling to do.
Regardless of being an enormous fan of the sequence Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board provided little or no to maintain me entertained. Just a few hours in, the expertise turned repetitive and tedious to a level that it’s arduous to advocate to even essentially the most ardent of manga and anime fanatics. You’re higher off grabbing The Hinokami Chronicles, made by the identical studio, should you’re into Demon Slayer, and those that desire social gathering video games or board video games have already got a plethora of different choices.