Author Archives: Mitchell Saltzman

CyberConnect2 has established itself as one of the best in the business when it comes to anime-to-video-game adaptations, with the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm series standing tall as some of the most faithful and visually spectacular of that group, along with Dragon Ball Z Kakarot offering up an extremely respectable take on the storied legacy of DBZ.

The team’s next project is the truly excellent anime, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and based on my early experience with The Hinokami Chronicles, it’s exactly what you’d expect from CyberConnect2: absolutely jaw-dropping recreations of Demon’s Slayer’s most memorable story moments, approachable combat with some of the wildest super moves you’ll ever see, and more than a few rough edges, but none sharp enough to dampen the excitement of a big Demon Slayer fan.

If you’ve played any of the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, a lot about The Hinokami Chronicles’ story mode will be very familiar. This is an abridged retelling of the story of Demon Slayer, covering the events all the way up to the end of the first season, focusing primarily on the biggest moments of the 26-episode anime. Hinokami Chronicles actually takes a page out of the playbooks of the first two Ultimate Ninja Storm games by putting you directly in the shoes of its main characters, whether that’s Tanjiro, Zenitsu, or Inosuke, and lets you wander around its world, talking to NPCs, finding collectible memories that unlock scenes from the anime and sniffing out demon scents that lead you towards your eventual destination.

You’ll also do battle with plenty of non-canonical enemies in the form of basic demons, which tend to just leap out of thin air and attack you in certain areas, but the real stars of this mode are the big battles against the main villains of each arc. These are epic fights against foes that can power themselves up and become all but impervious to your attacks, forcing you to fight against them very differently than you would a normal enemy in versus mode. Deal enough damage to them and you’ll trigger one of CyberConnect2’s famous QTE-laden finales that are nearly shot-for-shot recreations of the same climatic scenes from the anime using in-engine visuals. These are truly a sight to behold and only serve to further prove that CyberConnect2 is the master of bringing anime spectacle to the world of video games.

Fighting mechanics-wise, The Hinokami Chronicles will also be pretty familiar to those who play arena fighters, especially those who played CyberConnect2’s previous games, even though there are some pretty substantial differences. But on a basic level, there’s one button for attacks, and that button can be mashed for a basic combo, or modified by holding up to launch them into an air combo, or held down for a combo that ends in a hard knockdown. Each character has three special moves that generally enable them to extend these combos, end them emphatically with a big chunk of damage, or provide some other form of utility. Urokodaki, for instance, can use his third special move to lay a trap on the ground, Inosuke can use his to bullrush through attacks, and Tanjiro’s can be used much like an invincible wake up attack.

Special moves are tied to a blue special meter that also governs your ability to use things like jump cancels and dodge cancels, so it becomes very important to be mindful about it as a limited resource tied to some of your most important techniques. It also doesn’t regenerate while dodging, but regenerates quickly if you’re able to pause for a second and not press any buttons.

One of the biggest differences in Hinokami Chronicles is the inclusion of a combo timer, which seems to be used primarily as a way to prevent infinites, but also smartly encourages and rewards some riskier play. When you perform a standard combo, an orange combo timer will countdown the remaining time you have before the opponent automatically jumps out and resets to a neutral position. The move that begins the combo is what determines the length of your combo meter. Certain characters, like Zenitsu for instance, have far reaching special moves that can begin a combo from nearly full screen, and in cases like these, the combo timer will be red and be fairly short. Inosuke on the other hand has a rekka style special move that gets a green combo timer, giving him a massive amount of time to deal big damage if he lands it.

Where things get interesting is when you’re able to use a risky parry to deflect an enemy attack with perfect timing. Landing one of these also gets you a green combo timer and really lets you add on some massive damage. It’s a great example of risk vs. reward and also limits that awful feeling of just being stuck in a combo for an eternity and not being able to do anything about it.

Hinokami Chronicles is also a 2-on-2 fighter, with your partner being tied to a two-bar meter with both offensive and defensive options. You can spend one bar to call your teammate in to do one of their two assist attacks, and you can hold the tag button down to swap them out, though it’s important to note that you both share the same life bar. Crucially, though, you can also spend both bars to have your partner come in and scoop you out of a combo, which can save your life and also put you in an advantageous position.

On top of all of that there are also push blocks, guard weakening strong attacks that can power through light attacks, a special powerup mode that increases the strength of your attacks, another power up called Surge mode that temporarily gives you unlimited meter, and of course, the aforementioned super moves that are among some of the most impressive you’ll ever see.

All this to say that despite the fact that Demon Slayer’s combat is simple on the surface level and may initially come across as being shallow, it’s easy to see that a lot of thought has been put into some of the deeper mechanics.

Overall, The Hinokami Chronicles is shaping up to be a promising start for what is almost sure to be a series of Demon Slayer games. The story mode looks to meet the same standard of quality set by Ultimate Ninja Storm and Kakarot, and the fighting mechanics are familiar, but feel thoughtfully tweaked both to more match Demon Slayer’s fighting style and to improve upon some of the weaker parts of Cyberconnect2’s prior games. We’ll find out how the rest of the game fares when Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles releases on October 13, 2021 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

If there’s one thing that developer Sloclap has shown that they have a unique mastery over in the world of video games, it’s martial arts. If 2017’s hand-to-hand-combat-focused open-world RPG, Absolver wasn’t a convincing enough case, their upcoming beat-em-up, Sifu, certainly aims to prove that few do kung-fu better than the Paris based studio. After getting a 30-minute developer-driven demo, I’d find it hard to argue against the point.

Sifu is a game that’s obviously inspired by classic Asian martial arts movies, with its laser focus on being a single outnumbered martial artist facing off against a group of thugs and goons and scraping by not only with your skill, but also your environmental awareness and ingenuity. I know what you’re thinking: “But Mitchell, that’s like… every beat-em-up or action game.” But it’s different here, and it comes down to a couple of key things.

For one, Sifu’s martial arts combat is smooth as butter. Not only are the animations super fluid, but the way strikes flow naturally into parries, which can then transition seamlessly into grabs and throws, perfectly mimics the style of a classic kung-fu movie. Even more importantly, though, is the role that the environment plays in combat, which we’ll get to in a bit.

On a fundamental level, Sifu’s combat very quickly brings to mind the Batman Arkham games and most specifically, Sleeping Dogs, but there are some key differences. For one, at its core is a structure meter that governs both your own and your opponents’ ability to block. By continuously landing attacks, you’ll deplete their structure meter, eventually opening them up to a takedown or execution. The same is true for you as well. Block too often, and your meter will decrease until eventually your guard is opened up. You can parry by timing a block just as an opponent strikes, which will stun and open them up for strikes or a directional throw. You can throw enemies into walls, down stairs, through guardrails, over railings, and so on and so forth, making it a vital technique. There’s also a focus gauge that allows you to slow down time and target specific body parts that each cause a different effect when hit.

There’s a ton of destructibility in play as well. In one part, the player was picked up and slammed through a partition, which then allowed him to pick up a wooden piece of it and use it as a weapon. Bottles can also be picked up and thrown, and even objects on the floor like ottomans can be kicked towards enemies to knock them off their feet. Despite it being a developer-led hands-off demonstration, the combat still managed to have a very improvised look to it, with the player having multiple options to deal with enemies at any time.

What really struck me the most about the combat, though, was how contextual and reactive everything was. By positioning himself next to a counter and luring the enemy in, the player was able to dodge a strike, and then slam the enemy’s head into the counter for a quick knockout; pieces of furniture will get destroyed as combatants get knocked through them; bad guys will either surrender as you take out their friends, or become enraged and become even more dangerous when they’re the last one left. I saw a lot of fighting over the course of the demonstration, and yet every scrap had a unique feel to it thanks to the unique placements of objects, hazards, and how the player was able to turn a bad situation around by using the environment to their advantage.

The demonstration also touched briefly upon unlockable skills and upgrades, which can be purchased from shrines, but what’s interesting is that your upgrades and skills are lost upon death, which almost moves Sifu into a roguelite territory. But I wouldn’t go that far, as the randomization elements that are key to that genre don’t seem to be present in Sifu. There is, however, that element of single-run progression versus permanent progression. Instead of spreading your points out and buying a bunch of skills to help you in your current run, you could instead opt to pool the points into one skill and work towards unlocking it as a permanent upgrade that persists on all future runs. It’s an interesting choice and I’m curious to see how else the roguelike elements manifest and develop over the course of the game.

I was impressed by virtually everything I saw of Sifu. The combat looks exquisite, the roguelite elements are intriguing, and the ways in which it brings to mind classic asian martial arts movies should be exciting to any fan of the genre. Sifu releases on February 22, 2022 for PS4/PS5 and PC.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit

Originally released back in 2010 for the Wii, Sonic Colors marked a return to form for the Blue Blur. It righted the ship of Sonic’s 3D missteps by focusing entirely on what makes the series fun: feeling like you are the fastest thing alive. Sonic Colors: Ultimate is that same game, remastered for modern platforms with improved lighting, 4K/60 FPS support (except on Switch, of course), a remixed soundtrack, and a couple of other minor gameplay additions. None of these upgrades make Sonic Colors: Ultimate a must-buy for returning fans, but for anyone who missed it due to being put off by the likes of Sonic 06 and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, it’s still good enough that this trip to Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park is already an easy recommendation.

Regardless of whether you’ve played before, the story of Sonic Colors won’t be a surprise to anyone: Eggman is up to no good, seeking to harness the power of alien energy to fuel a mind-control weapon, and it’s up to Sonic and Tails to stop him. The plot obviously isn’t what anyone’s here for, but it’s at least well acted and sprinkled with a few chuckles here and there – especially thanks to Cubot and Orbot, Eggman’s two robot henchmen, who have their own little running gag of Cubot’s voice chip constantly getting damaged and replaced, much to the chagrin of Eggman.

What is important about the story, however, is that it introduces the Wisps, the small multicolored aliens that Eggman is hunting down. These Wisps are the main thing that separate Sonic Colors from every other mainline console Sonic game, both past and present. Think of them as transformation power-ups along the lines of what you’d find in a Mario game, only you get to choose when to activate their powers. Pink Wisps can turn you into a Spike Ball that allows you to cling to walls, yellow Wisps turn you into a drill that can dig underground, and teal Wisps turn you into a laser that can bounce off prisms and travel at the speed of light. They’re unlocked as you progress through Sonic Colors, but you can always revisit old levels and replay them with Wisps that you unlocked later on to access new paths, which is something that we’ll circle back to.

There are a total of nine Wisps that you can unlock over the course of Sonic Colors: Ultimate – including a brand-new Ghost Wisp that wasn’t in the original game – and they primarily enhance the two things that are key to a great Sonic game: your speed (duh), and the multiple paths that allow you to find your own way through a level. A pink Wisp might give you the opportunity to completely bypass a slow platforming section by zipping up a wall, a Drill Wisp might lead you to a subterranean path that’s way faster than the one above ground, and a Laser Wisp can instantly shoot you across a section lined with enemies, taking them all out at the literal speed of light. These particular wisps do a great job of varying up the level design without ever slowing Sonic down.

Then there are Wisps more geared toward secret collecting, light-puzzle solving, and platforming. While these are certainly less exciting than the ones built around speed, they still make exploration and revisiting levels with new powers a lot of fun, as they can help you discover new paths that dramatically change the flow of a level, and even help you improve your time or score.

The new Ghost Wisp is probably the weakest of the bunch, as it’s really only used to mix up the locations of some hidden Red Rings compared to where they were in the original game. With it, you can float through walls by pulling yourself to an anchor point, and… that’s about it. Unlike the other Wisp powers, it’s never really used in any sort of clever or satisfying way.

The one downside to the Wisps is that, because they’re drip fed to you one at a time over the course of the whole game, the first time through the early levels of Sonic Colors isn’t nearly as fun as they are when you’re able to replay them with all the Wisps unlocked. This causes the first few hours to be kind of a drag because you’re often forced along paths that are slow and tedious.

That’s an issue that carries over from the original, but one that Sonic Colors: Ultimate introduces for the first time is related to its remixed soundtrack. The first three levels of any world play a newly remixed theme and the last three levels play the original versions. The bummer is that there’s no way to choose which version you want to hear, which sucks because I’ve found that most of the original themes are far superior to the overly produced remixes. The soundtrack is still great all around, don’t get me wrong, but it seems strange to have both versions and not give you the option of selecting which one you want to hear on a given level.

The other big gameplay addition is a Rival Rush mode that lets you race against Metal Sonic in what is essentially just a dressed-up time trial. It’s a fun way to challenge yourself to beat a level quickly, but it feels like it should be something you can do on every level instead of there just being one per world, a total of just six races all together.

Cosmetic items were also added in this remaster, giving you the ability to customize Sonic’s shoes, gloves, aura, and boost effect by spending a new currency that you can collect throughout each level. None of them are particularly noteworthy though – it’s just some straight recolors, simple visual effects, and tacky patterns. I found myself sticking with the classic look.

On the graphical side of things, Sonic Colors: Ultimate holds up reasonably well for a nearly 11-year-old Wii game. The one sour spot is the cutscenes, which were not redone and are super low-res on a modern screen. But the actual gameplay runs at a steady 60fps in 4K on the PlayStation 5, and there are some nice improvements made to the lighting and character models.

Most importantly, Sonic Colors: Ultimate benefits from having been a gorgeous game to begin with. Its levels are among the most imaginative the series has ever seen, from the Rainbow Road-esque Starlight Carnival that has Sonic speeding through space while an intergalactic war plays out in the background, to the dreamlike Sweet Mountain that’s made entirely of junk food. Every world is beaming with creativity and the unifying theme of it all being part of an amusement park is just icing on the cake.

Back 4 Blood is all about shooting, clubbing, and stabbing zombies in the face, but it’s also a story about a group of immune survivors that band together in an effort to clean up and rid the world of the Ridden menace. But who are these Cleaners? To find out, I talked with Simon MacKenzie, lead writer on Back 4 Blood, and Phil Robb, co-founder and creative director at Turtle Rock Studios.

Check out the slideshow below to get a proper introduction to each of the eight playable cleaners in Back 4 Blood.

That’s all we have on the playable cast of Back 4 Blood, but it certainly isn’t the end of our month long coverage of Back 4 Blood. Stay tuned for more IGN First coverage of Turtle Rock’s latest, and if you missed it, make sure to also check out our preview of the open beta which opens its doors once again later today at noon PT and runs until August 16.

Or if you’d prefer to see the game in action, check out 19 minutes of a full level playthrough with the developers of the game.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit