Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a wildly common anime and manga sequence that stars a fascinating forged of characters all searching for to guard innocents from insidious threats. My spouse and I are enormous 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 Change this previous April, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board has been launched on extra platforms. Sadly, nevertheless, it appears my look forward to Sweep the Board to return to PC was not price 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 “get together.”
Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board adapts a number of arcs of the manga and anime into Mario Social gathering-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 places. The Swordsmith Village, in the meantime, has scorching springs, mechanical coaching dolls, and Haganezuka chasing you round. These aware of the supply materials will little doubt get a kick out of the references, albeit a quick one.
Gamers traverse the board by rolling cube and transferring throughout areas, with branching paths that result in different areas. Likewise, maps have their very own modes of transportation in line with their respective themes, resembling 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 while 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 allows you to select from 12 heroes, together with the principle 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 assist character who helps the participant in final place, often by including an additional cube roll or handing a free merchandise to them. I really like this idea since, though Nezuko is completely 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 function, 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 talents, which might’ve been apt for a board sport the place you management highly effective fighters. As a substitute, everybody simply has the same old cube rolls and Slayer Cube that grant samey bonuses.
Your foremost aim in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is to amass Rank Factors on the finish of a match, which might be as brief as 5 turns or as time-consuming as 30 turns. At the beginning of every day, gamers take part in quite a lot of minigames. There have been a choose few that I actually loved, resembling Crew 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 by way of 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 have 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 aspect to aspect to go by way of velocity 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 might be unresponsive or janky at occasions, too. Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board affords solo play, on-line play, and native split-screen for as much as 4 folks (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. Enjoying on a gamepad was considerably extra comfy than utilizing a keyboard, because the latter led to cumbersome moments particularly in minigames that required the usage of the WASD keys to hint drawings or observe a diagonal route. Worse, I seen button prompts would change in the course of a game–rolling a die and ending a dialogue often meant urgent the “E” key, however there have been cases when the “Q” key needed to be pressed as an alternative. I couldn’t inform if this was a bug as a consequence 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 Higher Demons spawn. These highly effective enemies preserve 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 have been offered as particular boss encounters full with brief cutscenes from the anime. Even Muzan exhibits 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 Higher 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 largely 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 boring and uninspired actions.
Probably the most obvious shortcoming of Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board, nevertheless, is that it’s hardly one thing that may be thought-about a aggressive board sport or get together sport. While you consider different titles and franchises in these genres, resembling Mario Social gathering Superstars, The Jackbox Social gathering Pack, Talisman, Catan, and even Monopoly, you’re both searching 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 that you may snatch their hard-earned rewards or their lead from underneath their nostril, creates tense, exasperating, and oftentime amusing moments.
Sadly, these moments are few and much between in Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board. In the course of the course of my assessment, I stored checking for perks that will permit me to steal goodies from different gamers or declare their Hashira ally as my very own, but it surely appears like these mechanics don’t exist. Outdoors 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 eventualities that will flip the desk on one other particular person, to everybody else’s raucous laughter.
At finest, Demon Slayer: Sweep the Board is only a race to achieve vacation spot spots or Higher Demon spots to earn extra Rank Factors. No matter how effectively I did or how excessive my rating was, minigames themselves solely granted a smattering of cash to buy gadgets, and victories towards Higher Demons provided however a handful of Rank Factors. By the identical token, the randomized approach 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 stunned to see that post-game rewards handed out by Kagaya, the mentor of the Hashira, have been additionally random. In a single match, bonus Rank Factors got to the one who spent essentially the most gold. I then used up lots of gold throughout my subsequent run, just for the particular reward to be given to the participant who moved essentially the most variety of areas. Outdoors of the principle mode, it’s potential 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, but it surely’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. A number of hours in, the expertise grew to become repetitive and tedious to a level that it’s onerous to advocate to even essentially the most ardent of manga and anime fans. You’re higher off grabbing The Hinokami Chronicles, made by the identical studio, in case you’re into Demon Slayer, and people who desire get together video games or board video games have already got a plethora of different choices.